বাংলাদেশের স্বাধীনতা যুদ্ধ দলিলপত্র (দ্বাদশ খণ্ড)/১৭২
| শিরোনাম | সূত্র | তারিখ |
|---|---|---|
| বাংলাদেশ- টাইম এণ্ড লজিক রানিং আউট এ্যাকশন কমিটি বাংলাদেশের পুস্তিকা | পুস্তিকা | সেপ্টেম্বর, ১৯৭১ |
“BANGLADESH”
Time and Logic Running Out
Whenever Pakistan is in trouble, the first reaction of the world almost invariably is of India being the villain of the piece. This disability derived from her massive population and her open society, India has to live with when therefore the world press was slow to react over the reality of Bangladesh since the evening of March 25, this year, despite the alarms raised universally through the Indian press. there was nothing to be wondered at. Barring the Middle East, indeed virtually the Entire Muslim world, the world is veering round almost universally to the “genocide” that has taken place in Bangladesh through the Army Junta of Yahya Khan and what continues still unabated. The U. N. delegation, despite the delicate position of the World body, has tacitly recognized that there is something terribly wrong that has taken place in Bangladesh and the situation continues to be critical. This view is reflected in even more outspoken terms by Parliamentary Delegations which have come from U. K., Canada and elsewhere and still more so by the world Band Team.
The situation today is that India has on her hands nearly seven million refugees from Bangladesh who belong there by right, Who cannot be rehabilitated in India and Who Cannot go back in the foreseeable future. The refugee influx continues despite the monsoon and the blatant claims of normalcy having been restored in Bangladesh, by the Army junta which is in iron grip of the state. Guerilla activities by the Mukti Fouj Continue and are bound to grow. Bangladesh provisional Government based on the Awami League which secured a majority in the National Assembly and a virtual monopoly in the state legislature, Continues sending its emissaries to the wide world pressing their claims far ‘Power to the people’ and the reality of the atrocities unleashed by the Army of Yahya khan. Mainland China, Continues supplying major assistance, both Military and economic, to the Army Junta. The reasons are not far, to seck, Mao-se- Tung regime, for logic of its own, has nothing but contempt for the middle class bourgeoisie. In the continuance of the Bangladesh imbroglio they see the eventual elimination of the middle class leadership which they consider reactionary from the point of view of the people’s revolution which most overtake the world as a whole. They recognize that Bangladesh is already “gone” so far as Pakistan is concerned; the extremists will sooner or late take over and their is no question in Chinese mind as to their eventual linking with Mao's thoughts and Mao hegemony in the world.
What is strange however is that the lessons the American Government had learnt till now in Mainland China, in Korea, Vietnam and in the Latin American continent have been totally lost on them. Elementary prudence would have dictated same sense of wisdom on the part of the American Government. They should have realised that it is they who were responsible for the birth of Mao-se-Tung as the Chinese leader and the take over of that Sub-continent by his extremist Party. They should have learnt that the pillage and Concubinage by Chiang-Ki-Shek and his gang supported by American arms and money provided that nucleus seeds for the harvest that followed and the same feature repeated in every other Country where American surplus arms and produce found and easy engineered outlet aggravating the gulf between the few and the many. Despite initial denials it has now come to light, and the American Government is brazen enough to declare in the open, that American supply of arms has continued and will continue despite the dismay of India and the ridicule of the wide world to the pranks of this runway administration. USSR is on the fence. But one cannot quite predict how she will act. The Middle Eastern countries, whether Iran, Turkey or others continue supplying massive arms to the Army Junta of West Pakistan. They are utterly indifferent to the fact that West Pakistan is using all these to suppress the natural urges of a predominant Muslim population in Bangladesh which holds the major populations of the erstwhile country known as Pakistan. The conclusion seems irrefutable that all these actions are being dictated by arbitrary powers to foster and perpetuate arbitrary authority based on the Army and the monopoly capitalists in Pakistan.
It will be appropriate here to analyze how and why all this should have happened in a part of the erstwhile United India when the other part-the India Union with nearly four times the population of Pakistan -can forge ahead with the struggles for a democratic way of life for her future. The British colonial power took over the reigns of India in the late 18th century from a decayed, fragmented Mughal Empire. The British Bolstered up the Hindus at the virtue of the Muslima. A new spurt of life and a renaissance followed amongst the Hindus by virtue of the preferential treatment meted out by the ruling power. The Ilindu revolt began towards the end of the 19th century. The Imperial policy changed to convert Hindus and Muslims who had begum to live as common citizens of a common land during Akbar’s regime, as rivals to each other. Gandhiji managed to weld all the communities of India under one banner for national crusade against colonial domination. After a scrics of engineered communal flare ups in the country Jinnah was put up as the ideal instrument for dividing the Hindus and Muslims in the infamous theory of Hindus and Muslims being two nations. Left to themselves the political differences would have been resolved in time. But The leaders at the helm of the movement had already been tired out. They also had some taste of power. The Colonial British power had been weakened beyond any hope of recovery after World war The opportunity was seized by the leaders to secure Independence from the British power which was only too eager to get out from what they fore saw would soon follow if they did not. To the consternation of Jinnah India was divided into Pakistan and India. Union despite the helpless cries against it by the Mahatma. The Mahatma paid the price for his acquiescence over this monstrosity. The country saw the giant two-way exodus-an up rooted humanity Muslims towards Pakistan and non-Muslims towards India.
The twenty four years of the existence of Pakistan have had many a lesson to offer to which we could turn a blind eye only to our peril as a nation. The departing British power who partitioned India with the covert objectives of action the umpire between who warring brothers as they did during the late part of British rule, has already Suffered a rude jolt.
The Vacuum created by the British was filled up readily by the American Pakistan and the USSR in India. It must be admitted that Pakistan came into existence because the elite and the neo-elite amongst the Muslims succeeded in marshalling the Muslim masses behind the demand for an Independent Pakistan based on their Poverty and and underdevelopment, by passed as they were, by the modernizing influence which the British injected into this sub-continent Inspite of themselves. No wonder, the elite and the neo-elite having had little share in the national struggle for independence of India, got busy appropriating the major share of the fruit of independence for themselves and their kin. At the critical moment, after the death of jinnah and liaqat Ali the Army came in as the new custodian of power in Pakistan supported by the capitalist business putting the so-called representatives of people in cold-storage. The deprived political representatives dominantly from West Pakistan found new avenues for self-expression in the exploitation of the major share of the loaves and fishes of office whether to the Army or the administration and the butter and cream which flowed from the produce of the agriculturally rich territory to the business interests. Even a blind person could see that religion can not be a binding mortar for a nation today or how else can we explain the continuing wars between Christian nations in Europe and Muslim nations in the Middle East?
Bangladesh is a case apart because it has a people who are totally different whether in ethnology, language, tradition, culture or ecology from those that inhabit West Pakistan separated by a thousand miles from East Pakistan. The music and literature loving people of Bangladesh raised their banner of revolt for power to mould their own destiny according to their will. Meanwhile demands for self rule rather than Army rule also began to find expression in a chorus in West Pakistan it self. Yahya khan agreed to constitution making in favor of ‘power to the people’. His advisers were obviously out of touch totally with what was going on in the mind of the people whether in West Pakistan or in erstwhile East Pakistan. Totally contrary to the calculation of the ruling group, the elections threw up the Awami League headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the unquestioned major party in Pakistan as a whole and with a virtual monopoly in the State legislature. The Sheikh acted the true Ganhian and made co-existence with India the neighbor as the background of his six-point programme on which he won the Army or in Industries and Commerce which ruled over the people of Pakistan from West Punjab. Yahya Khan acted the tool of destiny in the inevitable dismemberment of the unnatural state of Pakistan.
The world as it stands today has three major powers- the U. S., USSR and Mainland China. These three powers do not want a fourth power to raise its head in the world. The smaller powers, whether in Europe or elsewhere would dread the prospect of a fourth power equally. The only way India could be prevented from occupying the position which belongs to her by right based on her massive population, her wealth above and below the earth she occupies; is to have a powerful Pakistan checkmating this potential colossus. The shock of the world, whether of the big brothers or the middle or miner ones over the impending disintegration of Pakistan heralded by Yahya Khan and his associates should be seen on this perspective as also the continuance of support through Military and economic aid by big powers and middle powers and the mute Character of their reaction to happenings in Bangladesh.
The world had been waiting for Yahya Khan’s expected broadcast on political settlement with the people he had lately been talking of. India was waiting with bated breath, for apart from the unbearable burden thrust on her by nearly seven million refugees and What further still threatens round the corner, Pakistan with which we agreed to part under compulsion of history, going up in flames is sure to involve the sub-continent as a whole in the conflagration. The world is replec with example, of political upheavals being phenomena which are indivisible. The long awaited declaration of Yahya Khan is now out of the bag. The Army junta bolstered up by the big powers seems determined like Duryodhan of the Mahabharaata days of old, not giving an inch of ground even if it means annihilation of West Pakistan herself. The llam therefore must spread, Nature is working its inexorable logic out. By now our emissaries, both official and non- official, have completed a survey of the world. We Must now be convinced that the world is a sleep and even those who are awake are unwilling to be disturbed unduly and would acquiesce in the statuesque or fair accompli. Whatever the case may be, India cannot wait any longer for others to pull the chestnut out of the fire for us. Being direct neighbors we are directly involved. We cannot afford out get ourselves swallowed by the flame which is spreading if we wish to survive as a nation. Even our honest wishes to the people of Pakistan to coexist in peace with us demand some action from us as the direct neighbors today and common citizens of same country Yesterday.
The British power avowedly divided India to let the people of the Subcontinent co-exist at peace. Our acquiescence even though under duress was based on the assumption that the people of Pakistan would mould their life according to the will of their people. The past twenty four years of Pakistan history culminated in the anti-climax since 25th of March this year, has confirmed beyond dispute that it is not Bangladesh with a population of 75 million which is sceeding from West Pakistan with a people of 65 million. The majority does not and can not secede. It is the majority which is seceding. What is worse, an Army Junta backed by monopoly capital with an engineered backing of a minority is suppressing the win of a majority. Communist powers are ready to come to the rescue of their brothers in difficulty in whatever part of the globe they mat the. Cuba for example. Democracy has on chance for survival unless people in a Democracy can assert themselves collectively and on free volition to come to the rescue of their brothers where freedom has been threatened. America could provide on justification for going into the First or the Second World War, to cite by way of an example, but for this basic consideration which prompted their action. Even if we have on other nation in the World coming to our side we are massive enough as a people and have a oral obligation to come to the aid of the major population in Pakistan Who have declared their independence by having a provisional Government, no matter where that Government is located and what the extent of the territory under its present control may be. The first pre-requisite therefore is the recognition of the rights of power to the people in Bangladesh and as logical corollary the recognition of the provisional Bangladesh and as logical corollary the recognition of the provisional Bangladesh Government and facilitate this Government securing such assistance from India or from elsewhere as can enable the 75 million people of Bangladesh to overpower the tyranny that has been unleashed on them.
If India can act on this moral plan there is no reason to suspect that the world as a whale will be dead to what basically right for survival of the human race in decency and freedom. Others are bound to join us. Even if no one joins and if for instance Pakistan declares war on India it is an obligation of this massive population of 550 million to face it with all that it may involve. The world by now will know, the war was not of our seeking. Therefore the patience we have shown till now and will know, the pains we have from to awaken the world will not have gone in vain. Looking at it purely from the Indian angle the opportunity is a rare one in history to vindicate the will of the people, grid up the lions, cut across the fissiparous pulls within us, which dissipate our major energies today and prevent us from growing to be a nations that belongs to us by right and is we are to carn the wherewithal for Survival in history. It is blood, sweat and tears alone, since the very dawn of history that that has provided the mortal for the build up of a nation. The games in which we have dissipated ourselves over recent years has been a journey in the reverse direction with investment of national energies almost all of which has ended in smoke. When shall we learn to be a manly people to reflect manliness in our Government and our community. The Nation has to be awakened to the reality of the jungle world we live in and the implications of our nationhood. This is not a task which will be undertaken by Government or by political parties structured and arrayed as they are today. The people must assert in every nook and corner of the Country. Those who have had satiety with the play of partisan politics or who have seen enough of its pranks must wake up and assert till the echoes of their voice grow into a thunder to convince the powers that be, of the will of the people and their impatience with our present sugarcoated patience with ourselves.
SUPPORT
ACTION COMMITTEE ‘BANGLADESH’
Please pass the Resolution in the facing page and send a copy to the prime Minister of India and another to the Action Committee ‘Bangladesh’ Lajpat Bhavan, New Delhi-24
RESOLUTION
This meeting of the…………………………………………………………………………………………hereby
Places on record its deep sympathy and support for the people of Bangladesh in their hour of trial and agony;
Condemns unequivocally the inhuman atrocities and genocide perpetrated by the military regime on the unarmed men, women and children of Bangladesh resulting in the exodus of millions Bangalces to India indicting an unprecedented burden political, economic and social- on this conutry;
Deplores the suppression of democratic urges of the people of Bangladesh and their duly elected representatives by the Army Junta of West Pakistan in utter violation of the U. N. Charter and the Human Rights Declaration;
Appeals to the Government of India to recognize the provisional Government of Bangladesh formed in accordance with the verdict of the people, and extend to it all possible more and material aid so that favorable conditions are created for the return of the refugees to Bangladesh;
Appeals to all fellow citizen in the country to promote national awareness and solidarity in the present crisis and sustain communal peace and harmony in the spirit of our secular traditions despite any provocation;
Appeals to he people of the world to extend their sympathy and support to the people of Bangladesh and call upon the people of such countries, as may still be supplying arms to West Pakistan, to prevent their Government from adding fuel to the fire of Pakistani aggression; and
Pledges all Support and cooperation to the Government of India in pursuance of the objectives outlined above.