Akhtar Hameed Khan was born in undivided India in 1914. He served in the Indian Civil Service, worked as principal of Comilla Victoria College, and was founder director of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development (widely known as BARD) in Comilla. He died in the US on October 9, 1999.
In his early life, Mr Khan admired German philosopher Nietzsche, aspiring for a superman who goes beyond conventional good and evil, self-restraint, humanity, compassion. But Khan’s temperament was not compatible with this unrestrained, ruthless philosophy.
Khan was then influenced by Muslim nationalists like Allama Iqbal, Syed Jamal Dddin Afghani, and Allama Mashriqi -- who held militant views of Islam to revive its glory, without taking into consideration the circumstances in Muslim countries.
Mr Khan, a well-read person, acquired knowledge on various disciplines and devoted his knowledge towards social change for the emancipation of common people. His innovative ideas were cradled by his integrity and moral values.
Akhtar Hameed Khan started his career as a member of the Indian Imperial Service, but he did not pursue his assigned job. Bureaucracy was inherited as a rigid and controlling job prescribed by colonial rulers. Akhtar Hameed Khan attempted to push a paradigm shift in thinking, attitudes, and practice by being the catalyst and engaging the bureaucracy in development initiatives.
He was shocked when he saw the miseries of the people at the time of the famine during the war (1939-1945). He could not be indifferent to the plight of the common people caused by the British rule and the war. Nor could he shut his eyes to the evils of the system, which caused the sufferings of millions. Realising the futility of his fake “supermanship,” he resigned from the Imperial Service.
Because of his past linkages in the Indian Civil Service, Akhtar Hameed Khan was soon able to find a job in Comilla Victoria College as principal. He came from Karachi like many others -- empty-handed. He remained at Victoria College until 1958 with a break in 1954-55, when he was on deputation as director, Village Agriculture Industrial Development (VAID) program.
In the 1960s, when food shortage was acute in the country, which could be tackled only through modernising agriculture with the help of a structurally-sound rural development program, Khan started his journey. It journey started with multi-dimensional efforts focusing on three critical areas of development: Administrative infrastructure, physical infrastructure, and socio-economic infrastructure.
BARD, under the leadership of its director, Akhtar Hameed Khan, launched a model with four components: Thana Training and Development Centre (TTDC), Rural Works Program (RWP), Thana Irrigation Program (TIP), and the Co-operative Project, popularly known as Comilla Approach.
With the implementation of the project in Comilla Kotwali Thana, the benefits spread throughout the country. The traditional system of production began transforming to modernisation. Production and income for the peasant community showed an upward trend. Farm and off-farm economic activities released the rural economies from its stagnation. Health and family planning programs, adult education, and women development helped in bolstering the capacity building of the community.
Akhtar Hameed Khan, a man who thrived on militant philosophy in his early days, shifted his thinking over time and arrived at the philosophy of quietism, both for personal peace and community development, while in his role as founder director of BARD. Although not born in Bangladesh, he had intense feelings for the people of Bangladesh.
His persistence in serving the ordinary people overcame all these obstacles. He subsequently resigned from the elite Civil Service when he realised that he could not obey the orders of the government which he regarded as detrimental to, and against, the interest of the people for whom he was there to serve.
