BANGLADESH
A small country lies in the shore of the Ganges delta,
carries endless tradition and rich cultures from time immemorial. Its endless natural bounty
and wealth attracted conquestedors around the world: the Persians, the Terks, the Mughols,
the Huns, the Tatars as well as the English, the Portuguese, the Dutch and the French
colonialists.
In this scope, we will provide a brief history of our people, the emergence of Bengali literature, the political history of Bangla culture from as impertial standpoint as possible. A brief history of our people History of the Bengali People: The Bengalis people were scattered across the Ganges delta for thousands of years. The country was divided into fedual provinces: Ghouro, Bongho, Samathat and many other small territories. Originally known as the dravidians, they knew how to raise grain and hunt. The situation chnaged when the Aryans conquered the Indian sub-continent and establised their superior socio-economical infrastructure. The Bangalee poeple inherited a rich cultures based on traditional Indian values and cultures: work, religious life, respecting elders and live an organizewd life. Hindusim, a primitive religious and life-structure was establised in most of the Indian cutures in about C.2500 B.C. Later, Buddhism was spread by prince Sidhartha Gouthama in the Ganges valley. Although Buddhism was principally a reform of Hinduism, it differs significantly too. Other major religious reform include the the Jains, the Sikhs and short-lived Din-e-Elahi by Emporor Akhbar. So, most of the Muslims are either converted from either Hinduism or Buddhuism, inherting a rich local culture and borrowing Islamic life-sytle as well. Even today, we face the classic dilemma of clash between religion and culture we inherited. When the Persians and the Terks
started to arrieve in Indian sub-continent, they came not
only to conquer but also to spread Islam in this region.
Unlike the Englsih later, almost all of the conquerors
made India their home, married local women and started a
superoior life out there.
As a result, the dark dravidians
started to change their complexion mixing with the Aryans
at the beginning, then with the Perians, Terks and the
Mongols. Although later the English created an
Anglo-Indian generation in India, English conquerors never
took India as their own country.
Emergence of Bangali Language and Literature: Although Bengali literarture and language was already there, but most of the poems
were written in ancient method and there were no organized style of prose except
for those used in court proceedings, etc.
Pandit Ishwar Chandra "Viddya Shagar"(1820-1891) is the father of Bengali prose. His enormous
effort toward reforming Bangla culture gave way a to new prose style.
He was one of the earliest reformer of modernizing Hinduism banning "Satidaho"(the newly
widow follows her dead husband in the funeral pyre where she was burned alive with her
dead hsuband), many other superstitions. He worked closely with many of the pioneers of the
Bengali Reneissance started by the great teacher, Henry DeRejio. His memorable works include "Betal
Poncho Bingsothi", Shokuntola", "Vranti Bilash", etc.
Michael Modhusudan Datta(1824-1873) was the first to bring Bengali poetry to a newer
level. He wrote scores of unforgetable sonnets and an epic "Meghnadh Bodh" which
elliviated Bengali literature to a newest level. He was the first true modern poet
in Bengli.
Bankim Chandra Chattarjee(1838-1894) made it possible to write modern novel in Bengali.
His memorable works includes "Durgesh Nandini", "Kopal Kundola", "Ananda Mot",
"Bish Brikkah", etc.
Sir Rabindranath Tagore(1864-1939) brought Bengali language and literature
to the world stage winning Nobel Prize for Literature in 1911 for his "Song Offerings".
He was not only a poet, but alos a novelist, short-story writer, singer, song writer,
playwright, educationalist, and social reformer. He estsablised a university near
Calcutta for worldwide friendship and cultural advancement called Santi Niketan. He
is the only poet in the world whose peom has been adapted as national anthem for 2 different countries:
India and Bangladesh.
Only other poet who was as diversely talented as Tagore was poet Kazi Nazrul
Islam(1899-1976), the nation poet of Bangladesh. He is known as the Rebel Poet and
had enormous influence on changing the course of Bengali poetry. His close friend
and roommate Comrade Mujaffar Ahmed established the Indian Communist Party although
Manabendranath Ray (a close aide to Lenin and later became a radical humanist changing
his political view) established one in exile before.
The advancement of Bengali novel owes a great deal to novelist Sharat Chandra
Chattarjee(1876-1938), whose writing became a part of our culture and influenced next
generation successful writers like the 3 Banarjees (Bivuti Bushan, Manik, Tara Sankar),
and many others.
The modern Bengali poetry was carried to a newest level by the poets of the 30s:
Buddadev Bose, Zibnandha Das, Sudhindranath Datt, Amio Chakrabartee, and others.
Modern successful poets include Al Mahmood, Shamsur Rahman, Nirmalendu Gune, Sanka
Ghose, and many others.
And not Calcutta, Dhaka is the center of Bangla Cuture nowadays.
The Political History of Bangla Culture: We decided to exclude the long history going back thousands of years. We will start
where the Moghuls left and the Englsih picked off. Although Bangla delta fall first
in the hands of English, the English eventually took over the whole Indian sub-continent.
Instead of going over details history, we will just touch the basics of the modern
history since our main goal is to provide contemporary history rather than a complete
one which will take time and space.
The British moved the capital of Indian empire from Delhi to Calcutta, since they
were based on Calcutta and they used to own this village(now one of the biggest city in
the world). The intellectual development of Indian sub-continent was Calcutta-based
since the beginning. All of the major movement against the British were initiated
here including the Sipoy Mutiny of 1857 (the only liberation war waged against the
British).
Earlist of this century, millitant guirilla movement started in Bangladesh in a
protest against dividing Bangla into seperate territories which lasted until the early
thirties. The heores include Kudi Ram, Profulla Chakee, "Master-da" Surja Sen, Priti Lota, and
many others.
Many of the successful leaders of India came from Bangla, including "Desh Bandhu"
Chitta Ranjan Datta, "Netaji" Suvash Chandera Bose, Hussain Shahid Shohrewardhi,
"Sher-e-Bangla" Abul Kasem Fazlul Haque among many others.
The British divided India into India and Pakistan based on religious majority,
opening a Pandora's Box for generations to come. The eastern part of Bangla presidency
known as East Bengal became a part of newly formed Pakistan consisting of Muslim-
majority provinces situated in the north-eastern part of the Indian sub-continent.
Panjab, Kashmir and Bangla was divided based on religious preferences waging the largest
migration in human history. Kasmir and Panjab is still a headache for both India and
Pakistan and East Bengal later became a third independent country known as Bangladesh.
The two major leaders during the 24-years of Pakistani rule in Bangladesh (then
known as East Pakistan) were: Mewlana Vhasani and "Bongha Bandhu" Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman. Muslim League, political party founded earlier in this century and
originator of so-called Pakistan concept could not keep the promises it gave before
the independent. A new political party, Awami League, was formed by the progressive part of the
Muslim League in 1948 headed by Hussain Shahid Shohrawardi. "Sher-e-Bangla" Fazlul
Haque was already out of Muslim League before the independence and had his own party
called Krishak Praja Party.
When in 1952, the Pakistani rulers declared that Urdhu will be the only national
language of Pakistan, Bengalees were outraged with protest. In a gleam morning of
21st February of 1952, protesters broke the carfew in Dhaka University and police opened fire killing
Salaam, Rafiq, Jabbar, Barkat and many others. Although Bengali was later recognized
as one of the national language of Pakistan, that was the beginning of the end.
The ideological differences in the revolutionary camp worldwide (specially,
Mao and Stalin's fight to control and lead a new world) took a toil here too. Mewlana
Vhasani, walked off the Awami League Conference in Kagmari in 1954 to form a new
political party called NAP(National Awami Party). Vhasani's long-time secretary
Sheikh Mujib choosed to stay with more liberal Shohrawardhi and the rest was history.
Due to a closer tie between China and Pakistan(both common enemy to India based on
their demand that india owes them a vast amount of land--Kasmir for Paksitan and
Arunachal for China), Vhasani was advised by Chairman Mao not to "disturb" General
Ayub, Pakistan's military ruler. Awami League hosted most of the popular uprisings
in those days: 1962, 1966, and 1969 making Sheikh Mujib the main leader of East
Pakistan.
When General Ayub resigned after a mass protest in 1969, his successor general
Yahya declared nation election. In the general election of 1970, Awami League
gained the majority seats in parliament. The polarization was clear in that
election: Awami League, based mainly on in East Pakistan, did not have any seat in
West pakista and Muslim League, based on West pakistan have all seats there and
nothing here. The Pakistani military headed by General Yahya, political leaders
headed by Mr. Bhutto (later hanged to death by another general in 1976), and
technocrats(mostly Panjabi) was very reluctant to let the Bangalees rule the country.
Riots and protests broke out everywhere in the country with the police and
para-militia killing many unarmed protesters. The negotiations were fruitless,
and in March 7 of 1971, Sheikh Mujib declared his ultimatum in Rescourse Field(now
Shohrawardi Uddan) and asked the people to get ready for a bloody liberation
war forthcoming.
Past midnight 25th March, 1971, learning that Pakistan army attacked
the Police Headquarter in Rajar Bagh, Dhaka, Sheikh Mujib declared independence of
Bangladesh, few minutes before his arrest. He spent rest of nine months in Pakistani
prison.
In absence of Sheikh Mujib, his folowers took over and formed the government
under Syed nazrul Islam as President, Taz Uddin Ahmed as Prime Minister, General
Oushmani as the Chief-of-Liberation-Forces. The government operated in exile from
Calcutta and the Indian support under Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi helped
the new goverment to get international attention and support it needed.
Pakistani military, with their local collaborators, mostly Muslim League supporters
and fundamentalist Jamat-i-islami cadars, waged the biggest genoside in human history,
only in smaller-scale than Hitler's Concentration Camp. They burned cities, towns,
villages, killed people indiscriminately, tortured anybody deemed Awami League
supporter, specially minority Hindhus. 3 MILLION people were killed along
with hundreds and thousands of rapes.
in december 6, 1971, India declared war against Pakistan in the western front and
recognized Bangladesh as a new nation. For thousands of years of our history, this is
the first time, Bengali poeple has a new country and collectively recognized as
a nation.
Seeing an imminent defeat, Pakistni army and their collaborators systematically
started killing the intellectuals. Among many of the victims include prominent
writers, poets, journalist, university professors, doctors and so on: Shahidullah
Kaysar, Jahir Rayhan, Jhotirmay GuhoTakurta, Dr. G.C. Dev, Munir Chowdhury and many
others. Thank god, they did not have enough time before surrendering to the
Combined forces of Bangladesh and India in December 16, 1971 which is the National Victory
Day.
The new country was headed by Sheikh Mujib and the reconstruction effort started
in full scale. Corruption was wide-spread and the radical part of the freedom
fights started to move away from the Sheikh Mujib.
Shekh Mujib and his entire family and most of the close relatives were killed
in a military coup in August 15, 1975. Two of his daughters, Hasina and Rehana
survived the messacre since they were in Germany.
In the dark hours of November 4th of 1975, 4 national leaders were
killed inside Dhaka Central Jail: first president Syed Narul Islam, first Prime Minister
Taj Uddin Ahmed, first Finace Minister Kamrujjaman and Captain Mansoor Ali.
There were coups and counter-coups in the meantime: many of the prominent heroes
of the freedom fighters were killed at that time including General Khaled Musarraf
and major Hayder.
In a counter coup waged by JSD leader Colonel Taher brought General Zia in power in
7th November 1975, killing General Khaled Musarraf and many others. Zia took control and
quickly hanged Colonel Taher in a court martial who once saved his life and brought
him to power. Zia largely stabilized the country and gained international recognition
which include China and many middle-east country who did not take break-down of
their ally, Pakistan, very well.
Zia's time was one of the most bloddiest too. He faced 29 military coups against
him where all of the failed coup members faced summary execution in the firing
squad including the whole Bengal Cavilary and Lancers. In 1981, Zia was killed
in a coup in Chittagaong. His successor Justice Sattar ruled briefly before
he was overthrown by General Ershad in a military coup in 1982.
Ershad ruled with iron fist with his army in the streets for a while before
easing down and promising for new election due to mass uprising among the public and
university campuses. One of the biggest and deadliest mass uprising in 1987, General Ershad
was forced to drop military rule and give general election.
The new polarization of our politics started with the emergence of two women
in politics: Sheikh Hasina, the daughter of slain founder of the country Sheikh Mujib and
Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of General Zia.
Ershad ruled with iron fist but was forced to resign in a mass uprising in 1990.
Cheif Justice Shahab Uddin Ahmed took over the interim government until a newly-
elected government took over. General Ershad went to jail facing, among many
other charges, crime against the nation and violation of the constitution.
Begum Zia won the majority seats to form a goverment and unanymously, the new
parliament decided to chhanged to a parliamentary-stayle government from
presidentail rule as it was before the military took over in 1975.
Unfortunately, there were widespread corruption again as before and some top-level
ruling leaders were found to harness known-terrorists in their shelter. Begum
Zia was forced to resign and a new interim goverment took over under Justice Habibur
Rahamn. Sheikh Hasina, daughter of Sheikh Mujib, won the next election to become
the prime minister and Begum Zia is the leader of the opposition in parliament.
Justice Shahab Uddin Ahmed is the president of the country, who is only ceremonial
head and country is ruled by the parliament.
This was a very brief synopsis of our modern history. We are going toward changes
and our leaders are learning to stand each other and change things in a democratic
way.
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