Assassination, Crime, Aug 15 and Bangladesh: Nature and Consequences
by History of Bangladesh, in its very inception, have become tumbled with crimes and conspiracy for power and revenge. Reconciliation or justice have long been absent, say it for today or yesterday. Tragedies and miseries are two sides of Bangladesh coin!
Assassination, Crime, Aug 15 and Bangladesh: nature and consequences
Collected by:
Md. Rezaul Karim, Assistant Professor, Southern University Bangladesh
A few weeks back some so-called fundamentalist Islamist parties called daylong Strikes in the capital Dhaka and staged violent demonstrations around the country to protest against the government’s newly announced women development policy. Since its inception through a bloody war of independence in 1971, Bangladesh has witnessed a resurgence of such obscurantist Islamist forces. It is to be emphasized that the war of liberation was for creating a secular, progressive and democratic country. The 1972 constitution listed four fundamental principles defining the very foundation as well as ideals of Bangladesh—democracy, secularism, socialism and nationalism. Although enshrined in the constitution even in the early years following independence, these principles were not fully practiced. Nevertheless, they guided the basic functioning of the state. How and why did we lose these fundamental principles? How the politics of Bangladesh turned ‘right’ and created a fertile ground for the emergence of obscurantist Islamist forces? Over time these obscurantist forces not only firmly established themselves but also gained enough strength even to pollute the philosophical premise of the party that led the war of independence. To better understand these changes, we must go back to the dark days of August 1975 and fully recognize and comprehend the enormity of the consequences of those events. It is also necessary to try to understand the historical context and the why and how of the sad tragic events of August 1975.
First, let us concentrate on what we have lost on August 15, 1975. The brutal assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman violently shattered the fundamental principles that underscored the liberation war. Perhaps the biggest casualty was the principle of secularism as a fundamental building block of the state. Secularism, respect to all religions and equal protection to practitioners of all religions, was fundamental to the emergence of a democratic pluralistic Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujib, in a unique way, personified the ideals of secularism. A Muslim at heart, he never hesitated to use some of the common Islamic phrases in his public speech, Sheikh Mujib forever showed respect to other religions and embraced people from all religions. This practice made it easier for him to connect to the Muslims of Bangladesh—an overwhelming majority—without alienating the people of other faiths. This practice also set him apart from other so-called secularists who were reluctant to use Islamic phrases like inshaAllah or assalamu alaikum because of a mistaken notion of what secularism really meant. None of these so-called secularists, it should be noted, could make any mark on the political landscape of Bangladesh.
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