The publication of Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Volume-1: 1948-1950) some years ago added a new chapter to history in Bangladesh and by extension in the rest of the sub-continent. Politics always having been in a parlous state in our part of the world, beginning with the rise of British colonialism in the 18th century and proceeding all the way to these present times, it is important that history be preserved in absolutely objective fashion for students, researchers, scholars, and indeed for the generations to come.
In recent years, it has been the nation's good fortune to come across a spate of writings on and by Bangabandhu (that latter bit manifested through his unfinished memoirs and diaries) which can only have deepened our understanding of the events and incidents that went into the making of Bangladesh.
In similar manner, research has also gone into bringing before Bangladesh's people the contributions of the nation's wartime Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad. Published works on Tajuddin Ahmad have largely been the result of strenuous efforts made by his children and included among such works have been the several volumes of his diaries. There is too the insightful Muldhara '71 by Maidul Hasan.
Obviously, the discovery and publication of new information, as observed in Secret Documents -- one will wait for other volumes on Bangabandhu to see the light of day -- are substantive additions to our understanding of the long, tortuous story that has gone into the making of our political heritage. While such publications are indelible testaments to a past which has contributed to the making of our present, they are also a call for more intensive research into the lives of the illustrious men who transformed politics in our part of the world.
And, of course, there are some very clear reasons why research must be relentless. One of them has to do with the fact that, during his nine-month imprisonment in Pakistan during Bangladesh's War of Liberation in 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman reportedly kept a regular diary. This revelation was made by his former Pakistani jailor Raja Anar Khan in the course of an interview on a Pakistani television channel some years ago. The diary has not been traced since Bangabandhu was freed from solitary confinement in December 1971 and placed under house arrest in a rest house outside Rawalpindi.
The Bangladesh government will be undertaking a justified step if it approaches the Pakistan authorities for assistance in tracing the diary, which quite likely was impounded by prison officials before Bangabandhu was freed to return to Bangladesh. The diary will be a reflection of Bangabandhu's thoughts in those dark moments in our national history. Additionally, at the diplomatic level, Bangladesh should be approaching Pakistan for copies of the proceedings of the secret trial of the Father of the Nation before a military tribunal in Mianwali in 1971.
The Pakistan authorities never released those files and efforts expended by this writer to come by them have not borne fruit. Now that we are beginning to have fresh insights into the activities of intelligence bodies vis-à-vis their tailing of the future founder of Bangladesh, it makes sense to inquire from Islamabad about an availability of documents related to Bangabandhu's trial on charges, filed by the Yahya Khan junta, of waging war against Pakistan in 1971.
History, in the overall sense, is a matter of scholarly research, which is why it becomes important to launch a hunt for the diary which Tajuddin Ahmad wrote in the final few months of his life in Dhaka Central Jail. There are reasons to think that the diary came into the possession of those who seized power in early November 1975.
It may well be that the diary was spirited away immediately after Tajuddin and his colleagues were brutally cut down in the early hours of November 3. Those who are in possession of the diary today can be traced; and the government will be doing the nation a huge service if Tajuddin Ahmad's last diary is retrieved and published in the larger interest of the country.
There are other steps that can be taken towards making more document-based publications available to students and scholars of history. In all our pre-occupation with highlighting significant facets of history, we have quite neglected the struggles and the travails of such illustrious political figures as Syed Nazrul Islam, M Mansoor Ali, and AHM Quamruzzaman.
The time is now here for researchers to be commissioned by the government to undertake purposeful studies of the contributions of these three political giants to the evolution of history in Bangladesh. Did they keep diaries or notes? We need to inquire into such questions. Meanwhile, we are in need of proper biographies of these men whose leadership of the country in 1971 was pivotal for us.
In the era of Field Marshal Ayub Khan -- and we speak of the 1960s -- AHM Quamruzzaman and Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury represented the Awami League in the Pakistan National Assembly. Their statements in the House need to be collected and collated into volumes as part of an expansive history project for the country. Similarly, Bangabandhu's statement at the Round Table Conference in Rawalpindi in February and March 1969 can be added to the national research project on Bangladesh's political evolution.
A rich source to be tapped for insights into the details of the RTC in 1969 as also the abortive negotiations involving the Awami League, the Yahya Khan junta, and the Pakistan People's Party in March 1971 is certainly Dr Kamal Hossain, the last surviving member of Bangabandhu's brilliant team in a crucial phase of national history. Kamal Hossain's recollections will certainly add a fascinating volume to the national history project.
There are too individuals such as the economists Rehman Sobhan and Anisur Rahman, whose role in the formulation of the Six Points remains an integral part of history. A good researcher will make his way to their doors to supplement his findings on history.
For an explanation of the circumstances which led to the formation of the Mujibnagar government in April 1971, Barrister Amir-ul Islam is a rich mine of information, for he was present at the creation. We -- citizens as well as the state -- owe it to the future to place on record his account of that seminal event in Bengali history.
And, of course, the proceedings of the Agartala Conspiracy case, besides being published in Bengali, have appeared in four volumes in English (courtesy Mowla Brothers) for Bangladesh's political heritage to be shown for the wealth it holds for history buffs in the country and beyond. That is good news.
History is forever an opening of new doors, a letting in of fresh new air into the room. History, from that perspective, is the degree and quality in which it is preserved in published form. And, yes, studies of history are always dispassionate. Any deviation from this principle mars the whole purpose of research.
Let this process be taken further ahead in Bangladesh.
Syed Badrul Ahsan is a journalist and biographer.
