Suppose you are a Bangladeshi using social media. In that case, it is highly likely that you already know by now that a team from Bangladesh consisting of Sajid Khandaker and Sourodip Paul of BRAC University has become the champion of the Belgrade World Universities Debating Championship 2022.
They defeated renowned universities like Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, National University of Singapore, Ateneo de Manila University, and many more to become the best in the world and winning WUDC (popularly known as the world cup of debating or Worlds).
The hustle of debating
Debate learning is a gradual process. You don’t begin debating today and win the Worlds the next day. It takes years to develop as a debater capable of winning the Worlds. It takes a lot of effort. It has come to focus after Sourodip Paul and Sajid Asbat Khandaker won the worlds. But the entire Bangladeshi debating community has had a lot of such noticeable achievements in the past. When you grow as a debater, you also enrich the community you belong to and benefit from the collaborative development of the community.
Both Sajid and Sourodip started debating in their early life. Sajid started debating in school, representing Dhanmondi Tutorial, and Sourodip used to debate for Notre Dame College. Back in those days, they used to dominate the national debate competitions. We are talking about as early as 2014.
Later, they both eventually made it to different intakes of the BBA program at the Institute of Business Administration, University of Dhaka (IBA-DU). This duo together has competed in many major international tournaments since then.
Enroute to glory
In 2017, their team from IBA-DU broke third in the team tab of Cambodia United Asia Debating Championship (UADC), where Sourodip became the 5th best debater in Asia and Sajid became the best speaker in Asia. Later that year, Sajid, along with Rawnak Zaheen Wasi, became the champion of Asia in Krabi Asian British Parliamentary Debate (ABP), representing IBA-DU. That was the first ever Asian Championship for any Bangladeshi team.
Alongside UADC and ABP, there is the Australasian Intervarsity Debating Championship which happens to be the championship of Australia and Asia and one of the oldest debate championships to exist, which happens every year. These three are what we call regional majors. Every continent has its major tournament.
In 2018 Sajid and Sourodip broke into the open category of Australasians. This time, they became the second Open breaking team of Bandung UADC 2018 where another Bangladeshi team from Independent University Bangladesh consisting of Zobayer Ahmed, Aaqib Farhan Hossain, and Nabil Hossain became the champion.
More records
It was time for Bali Australasians 2019, and this time, Sourodip and Sajid did not just make it into the knockout rounds; they bowed out as open semi-finalists. This was the furthest any South Asian team had ever made till then in the competition.
In Yogyakarta ABP 2019, Sourodip and Sajid made it to the semi-final again after becoming the top-breaking team in the preliminary rounds. In Thailand WUDC 2019, they became the 11th Open Breaking Team worldwide and again bowed out of the Open Quarter Finals. However, that is the gradual progress towards becoming the best in the world.
After they graduated from IBA-DU, Sourodip continued his academics at the Australian National University (ANU). He became the overall best speaker of Australasians 2020 and the champion representing ANU.
Eventually, they both got admitted to BRAC University for their Master’s and became the finalists of Oxford IV 2021 as BRAC A. Later on, they became champions of Cambridge IV 2021. Both these are significant tournaments on the world stage.
Now there was just one tournament left to win for them -- WUDC.
All eyes on WUDC 2022
The competition was fierce, with 373 teams and 267 institutions competing worldwide to become the world's champion. Regardless, the Bangladeshi team of Sajid and Sourodip walked in as among the favourites in the competition. All their hard work before had led to achievements that created a pipeline of success for them, making them a favourite in this edition of Worlds.
In the preliminary stages, Sajid and Sourodip finished fifth in the Open Category after a total of nine rounds of debates. Leading up to the Open Finals, they competed against Ateneo de Manila University, National University of Singapore, and Princeton University for the world championship title. They won the finals, with all nine adjudicators giving the verdict in their favour.
"It feels unreal. We have only dreamed of this. I used to dream of this as an 11th grader watching debates on YouTube. I can't believe I get to be in the same league as the absolute legends," said Sourodip Paul.
What this really means
Former Chair of Bangladesh Debating Council (BDC) Fardeen Ameen said: “Since they were kids, Sajid and Sourodip have made innumerable sacrifices and given amazing effort towards their passion while balancing their academics and professional life. They are a true testament to what raw passion can achieve and the whole nation is proud of them.”
Now, the whole nation celebrates this achievement, for this has proven that despite all its barriers, Bangladesh can wreak havoc against any competition in the world.
In fact, at the start of his speech in the Open Finals, Sajid Khandaker remarked: “We are a small community trying really hard to do well in the global debating community, and I'm sure this is just the start of a wonderful journey for Bangladesh.”
“This is the first time in the 40+ year history of WUDC that anyone from an Asian institution has managed to win. This is an unthinkable achievement in a sport that often ends up favouring those coming from the Ivy League, Oxbridge, and the Group of Eight from Australia,” said Shudipto Ahmed from the University of Dhaka, one of the best debate judges in the world who was an adjudicator of the EFL (English as Foreign Language) finals of WUDC. Aliya Fairuz from BRAC University also judged the EFL finals this year.
Unlike many other parts of the world where the barrier of language, funding, institutional support, or prestige are not prevalent, they didn't enjoy these privileges. Yet, these two prodigious debaters from Bangladesh triumphed against all odds to bring glory to the nation!
Sourodip Paul added by saying, “Never give up on your dreams, kids, never.”
Now that this legendary duo has blown through prejudice and glass ceilings, It is up to the next generation of Bangladeshi debaters to carry this legacy forward.
Ahmad Tousif Jami is a Research Assistant at the Independent University Bangladesh. K M Najib Hayder is a senior at the University of Dhaka.
