Bangalis are a unique species of creatures known for their garrulousness. Many times our mouths blurt out meaningless utterances before our heads function, without realizing, consciously or unwittingly, the implications of what we say and what meaning they imply.
As a freedom fighter, I am deplorably troubled and pained, when I hear, quite often, people equate our War of Liberation with some kind of movement -- political, economic, or social. I have heard even from higher-ups calling for waging another War of Liberation, on this issue or the other.
What another War of Liberation?
I wonder if these people are suffering from historical amnesia or are blatantly ignorant of our history.
War of Liberation comes, if any, but only once in a nation’s life. It unquestionably was the proudest and most glorious moment of our nation, the testimony of the unprecedented sacrifices made by our generation, that no other generation before us could do. Nor could any future generation have such a momentous occasion to demonstrate their patriotism.
This land, our nation, has gained its independence at the cost of countless lives and unparalleled destruction of our infrastructure and economy, not to mention the long-suffering of our Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
I want to ask these clueless demagogues: Do they anticipate any movement or struggle that would call for such great sacrifices? Would there be another March 26 or another March 7 or the reappearance of another Mujib? These historic events of monumental proportions are never likely to be repeated or re-enacted throughout the existence of our nation.
I also become furious when some people refer to the most painful period of our nation - the Liberation War -- as “gondogol-er shomoy” making a mockery of the tumultuous days.
I have no intention to undermine the movements and struggles the nation had to undertake or endure to achieve certain goals involving democracy throughout our nation’s life and they certainly were in no way small in their significance or importance.
The tolls were high and they also cost us precious lives to the tune of several thousand. They are, in their own right, constitute several milestones, which will surely be imprinted in our history. But to equate them in parallel with our great War of Liberation is a gigantic fallacy.
On July 2, 1776, Thomas Jefferson declared the independence of the United States, severing its ties with the United Kingdom (ratified on July 4, 1776). The United States has undergone several ups and downs in its history including a severe economic depression in 1933-34. President Roosevelt, by the dint of his talented leadership, pulled the country out of the quagmire by pursuing an imaginative concept of economic policy called the “New Deal.”
But neither did he equate it with the Declaration of Independence by President Jefferson nor with the famous 1863 Gettysburg speech by President Abraham Lincoln. President Roosevelt’s epoch-making combat for economic recovery had shone in its light.
Equally, the storming of the Bastille palace on July 14, 1789, set the stage for a decade-long revolution, commonly known as the “French Revolution,” filtering through a series of incidents and the execution of Louis XIV, finally ushered in a new set of principles and philosophies for structuring a people’s republic. France has undergone several upheavals since then but I never read any attempt to equate those subsequent events with their July 14 Revolution, a day commemorated as the country’s National Day.
In our neighbouring India too, they never try to call upon their people, regardless of the nature of subsequent struggles or movements for social or political reforms, to stage another August 15 ( India’s Independence Day).
But in Bangladesh, it has become such a cheap and common slogan that anyone on any issue will invoke the repetition of another War of Liberation. In the process, they make our glorious Liberation War a kind of cheap drama that can be staged or re-enacted by a set of actors and actresses.
I, therefore, call upon the government to enact, if necessary, a constitutional amendment, to make it a punishable offense to equate our War of Liberation with any other events whatsoever its nature or purpose is. Our Supreme Court may also take it upon themselves suo moto, to issue a rule on the matter, making it forbidden to equalize the greatest struggle of the Bangali nation with any other events.
Ashraf ud Doula is a freedom fighter.
