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NIMMI
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==Sources==
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Aan: Mehboob Khan wanted
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to film the movie in Technicolor and he was wondering how to accomplish the feat. There were no
+
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proper cameras and the processing had to be done in London, which meant an enormous expense and
+
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it seemed like an impossibility. Yousuf Sahab had a series of meetings with the brilliant Faredoon A.
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Irani and he convinced the ace cameraman that with his kind of expertise he could shoot the entire film
+
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in 16 mm and have it blown up to 35 mm. Faredoon Irani accepted the challenge.
+
  
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When Aan went to the Technicolor lab in London the chief technician in the lab expressed a keen-
+
[https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, We won the war, but was Bangladesh really liberated in 1971?, ''The Times of India'' Aug 6, 2024]
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ness to meet Faredoon Irani to congratulate him for the skill with which he had filmed the movie using
+
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an obsolete camera. When it was blown to 35 mm nobody could find out that it was filmed on 16 mm.
+
  
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Aan was a worldwide success. At the London premiere British actors and directors were so impressed
 
−
by Yousuf Sahab that they were inviting him to settle down in the UK and work in English films.
 
  
−
The premiere of Aan in Ceylon was one of the biggest in terms of the massive crowds that lined the
+
''' “Bottomless basket,” US national security adviser Henry Kissinger called Bangladesh soon after it was formed [in 1971]. Five decades on, Bangladesh has turned that around, but as the [2024] turmoil has shown, democracy weakened ''' ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
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streets from the airport to the hotel where we were put up. They were all Dilip Kumar fans. Such was
+
−
the mass hysteria that the crowds broke all cordons at the airport and breached security at the hotel to
+
−
see him. In Aan Yousuf Sahab played a poor villager who was deft with the
+
−
sword and was an expert at fencing.  
+
  
−
I remember the London distributor of the film (titled Savage Prin-
+
−
cess), [the legendary filmmaker] Sir Alexander Korda, asking Yousuf Sahab how he performed the fencing scenes so perfectly.
+
  
−
He was so impressed that he came to India soon after and Mehboob Sahab invited him to sound the
 
−
clapper board for the first shot of Amar.
 
  
−
NIMMI recalls: His break-up with Madhubala was imminent by the time we completed the shooting of Amar. I think ''' he came to know about Premnath and Madhubala being more than just friendly co-stars. '''
+
   
  
−
WAHEEDA REHMAN
 
−
Aadmi [released in 1968]Even though the director was Bhim Singh it was Dilip Sahab who was at the helm.It was a mystery to me why Dilip Sahab did not give his name as director in the film credits when all
 
−
the hard work behind the camera was being done by him, motivating both the technicians and artistes
 
−
to give their best.
 
  
 +
  
−
When I was working
+
==1905- 1971: three partitions==
−
in Satyajit Ray’s Abhijan [1962], Mr Ray asked me if I could speak to Dilip Sahab about a film he
+
−
had in mind, an idea he believed was perfect for Dilip Sahab. I spoke to Dilip Sahab but he did not
+
−
give any reply. He just looked thoughtful. So I told Mr Ray to speak to him. I gathered later that Dilip Sahab did not agree to do the film because it required him to appear bare bodied.
+
  
−
HARISH SALVE
+
India and Pakistan were partitioned once, in 1947. But Bangladesh was partitioned thrice — 1905, 1947 and 1971. The contentious theory of the origins of Bangladesh is that it goes back to 1905, when the British Viceroy of India Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal. Indian nationalists and the intellectuals of Bengal vehemently opposed it. The seeds of Bengali nationalism had been sown. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
  
−
His troubles began when the Income Tax Department decided to assess him on allegations of having
+
== The Pakistan movement and East Bengal==
−
earned black money – something for which Bollywood was, in public perception, notorious. The as-
+
−
sessment would not only result in a large demand for escaped tax, but also penalties equal to the es-
+
−
caped income, and possible prosecution for evasion of tax.
+
  
−
A raid conducted upon [A. R. Kardar,] the disgruntled producer[and director]
+
When the two-nation theory was floated, the name for the new homeland for Muslims, Pakistan, was suggested by a young Britain-educated lawyer Choudhary Rahmat Ali in 1933. P for Punjab, A for Afghan province (now KhyberPakhtunkhwa), K for Kashmir, I for Indus, S for Sindh, and ʻstanʼ for Balochistan. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
of a movie called Dil Diya Dard Liya [1966] (clearly stage managed by him) supposedly yielded evidence
+
−
by way of secret accounts maintained by him in which there was an entry against DK of a sum of Rs
+
−
10 lakh. There was no corroborative evidence to show that anything was paid by him or received by
+
−
Dilip Sahab; nor indeed was there any material to suggest that the producer had a sum of Rs 10 lakh
+
−
(a king’s ransom at that time) to pay in cash. Yet an allegation was made that Dilip Sahab possessed
+
−
concealed income; penalties were imposed and there was a threat of a potential prosecution.
+
  
−
The assessment was made. He wisely pursued legal remedies, and there was some respite when an
+
East Bengal found no mention. It angered the revolutionaries of Bengal. In 1940, fiery Bengal politician AK Fazlul Huq proposed the Lahore Resolution on behalf of the All India Muslim League — it called for independent states of Muslims in India — and nationalists began imagining an independent East Bengal. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
appeal against this perverse assessment was allowed.
+
  
−
The year 1974 saw a spate of preventive detentions of those alleged to have committed economic
+
== The 1960s==
−
offences (however tenuous the allegations) and personal liberties became a hostage to a shrill cam-
+
−
paign to trample underfoot the rights of those alleged to be economic offenders in the march towards socialism.
+
  
−
My first case
+
By the 1960s, it had turned into a movement. Bangabandhu (friend of Bangladesh) Mujib, incarcerated on and off, was sent off to jail again in 1968 in the infamous ʻAgartala Conspiracyʼ case. Anger spilled onto the streets and spread to the rest of Pakistan, with violent student protests against Pakistanʼs military junta in 1969. The anti-government agitation ousted the decade-long military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
was Income Tax Officer vs Dilip Kumar alias Yousuf Khan, to be heard by the tribunal on a day-to-day
+
−
basis in June 1975.
+
−
The hearing was set for the second week of June 1975.The hearing began and the department’s representative – a senior and experienced officer – tried
+
−
tirelessly to put across the department’s case to the tribunal – only to increasing chagrin of the mem-
+
−
bers whose tentative comments were carping to the point of being cynical as to what this case was all about.
+
  
−
And then all hell broke loose.
+
==1970: a landslide victory unpalatable to Pakistan ==
  
−
On 25 June the infamous Emergency was declared.
+
Mujib won a landslide victory in the first ever general elections in December 1970. He was poised to be the head of the government of Pakistan. Three months later, opposition leaders from the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) pledged allegiance to Mujibʼs Six-Point Political Agenda, which sought regional autonomy for the provinces in Pakistan. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
  
−
My father had to seek a short adjournment as (being a Congress MP) he had to fly to Delhi for a day
+
Between Mujib winning and this agenda being accepted by political leaders, General Khadim Hussain Raja, commander of the Eastern Command, planned Operation Blitz. It would mean suspension of all political activities and a return to military rule. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
or two.
+
  
−
My youthful anger at the injustice heaped upon this iconic Indian, increased exponentially at what I
+
The armed forces of Pakistan would be allowed to move against “defiant political leaders” and take them into “protective custody”. But Lieutenant General Yaqub Khan, who was chief of general staff of the Eastern Command, and Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, who was governor of East Pakistan, scuttled the plan. Not for long, though. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
considered dishonest suspension of democracy under the power of numbers and rhetoric – a view I
+
−
still maintain.
+
−
It was in this surcharged atmosphere that the hearing went on for about three weeks.
+
  
−
Realizing the potential of his client’s skills in vocal mesmerization, my father obviously decided to
+
The frustrated General Yahya Khan, president of Pakistan, ousted both Khan and Ahsan. Later, General Raja was also shown the door. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
unleash him upon the unsuspecting members of the tribunal at some time (although he did not, as a
+
−
foxy interlocutor, disclose his intentions to us).
+
  
−
The opportunity presented itself in a moment when the tribunal members asked my father about
+
== Mukti Bahini==
−
how a movie was produced. My father asked for leave to ask his client to explain the process – this
+
−
brought the roof down on the department’s case!
+
  
−
What chance did those poor mortals – of an age when they possibly swooned over Suhaana Safar
+
''' Why the Mukti Bahini was formed) '''
−
in their youth – have against the scene that had just unfolded.
+
  
−
By the end of that day, the fate of the case was sealed even if the arguments carried on. Dilip Sahab
+
Weeks before the genocidal campaign of March 25, 1971, codenamed Operation Searchlight, most officers and soldiers of the East Bengal Regiment and border guards East Pakistan Rifles revolted. The rebel officers and soldiers along with hundreds of border guard troops and policemen crossed into India, with fire cover from the Indian Border Security Force shielding them. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
spoke for over 40 minutes explaining not just how movies are made but how he had been pilloried.
+
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This was followed by a two-minute silence – almost as though to mourn the death of the department’s
+
−
case.
+
  
−
I joined the bar in 1980 – and the first case I appeared in the Supreme Court was the petition for
+
The rebel officers held a crucial meeting on April 12 at Teliapara in Sylhet — the Mukti Bahini (Bangladesh Liberation Force) was formed under the command of Colonel (later General) MAG Osmany. The Mukti Bahini decided it would go the guerrilla way, on the lines of what Vietnam rebels did, instead of conventional war. Thousands of students, youths and farmers, including women, joined the Mukti Bahini. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
−
leave to appeal by the Income Tax Department against the tribunal judgment in favour of Dilip Sahab.
+
  
−
To my immense joy, it lasted for all of two minutes before the judges threw it out!
+
==1971: The triumph ==
 +
 
 +
No liberation war in the world was as decisive as that of Bangladesh. The barefoot, half-naked soldiers of the Mukti Bahini had faced off with the Islamic militia of Pakistan and emerged victorious. A triumphant Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the East Pakistan Awami League who led the resistance for an independent East Bengal, was released from prison in January 1972. When he took over the reins of the country, he had a huge task ahead of him. Corruption was raging, a famine was sweeping the nation and the ravages of over a decade of struggle had rent the people apart. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
==1975==
 +
 
 +
He got to work but his compatriots betrayed him. He was assassinated in a military putsch on 15 August 1975 – when India was celebrating its Independence Day. Fifty years on, the secular ethos he died defending is under threat. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
== Sheikh Hasina==
 +
 
 +
[Mujib’s] daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who took over in 2009 after the country had seen three decades of autocratic regimes. The economy took off. She opened up the country to foreign investment from India, Japan, South Korea, the US, Turkey and European countries. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
Soon, Bangladesh became the second-largest exporter of readymade garments. Pharmaceutical products are its other big export, to more than 70 countries, and frozen fish and food to Europe, North America, the Middle East and Australasia. Bangladesh made big strides in meeting Sustainable Development Goals. Hasina has been elected Prime Minister thrice, holding office for 12 years. Her decision to take in more than a million Rohingya refugees who had fled Myanmar was appreciated globally. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
But the human rights record at home has been controversial. Sectarian violence against Hindus in mid-October of 2021 cast a shadow on the secular credentials of the country. Rights groups claim no perpetrator of sectarian violence against religious minorities, desecration of temples, arson and plunder faced criminal proceedings. Before the 2018 general elections, the authorities ignored human rights groups, civil society and journalistsʼ bodies to enact the Digital Security Act, which was believed to throttle freedom of expression. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
In three years since then, 1,516 cases have been filed under the law against 142 journalists, 35 teachers, 194 politicians and 67 students. None against Islamic evangelists who peddle hate speech online against womenʼs empowerment and elective democracy, and want a theocratic state. Nor against those uploading videos on YouTube demanding that the countryʼs flag be changed to a crescent and the national anthem be scrapped because a Hindu poet (Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore) wrote it. “It is a retreat from the commitments of 1971,” said acclaimed social scientist Prof Rehman Sobhan. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
The authorities are yet to complete a non-controversial registration of liberation war veterans. Successive regimes failed to prepare a genuine list of veterans. Letʼs not discuss the total number of genocide victims — researchers claim the number could be higher than 3 million. Tens of thousands of infants and elderly people died of cholera and diarrhoeal disease in refugee camps. Bangladesh has had seven governments since Mujibʼs. Not one took up the issues of 1971 seriously. Political historian Mohiuddin Ahmad quoted a Liberation War poster: “Banglar Hindu, Banglar Christian, Banglar Buddhist, Banglar Musalman, Amra shobai Bangalee (Bengali Hindus, Christians, Buddists, Muslims — we are all Bengalis).”([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
He added, “If I knew Islamism would triumph over secularism, pluralism and tolerance, I would not have joined Mukti Bahini to liberate the country.”([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
August 5, 2024 marked the end of Sheikh Hasina's reign as she finally bowed to the same people's power that had once brought her to the office of Bangladesh prime minister. ([https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/we-won-the-war-but-was-bangladesh-liberated/articleshow/88149587.cms    Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024])
 +
 
 +
 
 +
''' The writer is an independent journalist and columnist based in Bangladesh '''
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Pages with broken file links|TESTTESTTESTTEST
 +
TEST]]
 +
 
 +
[[Category:Pages with broken file links|TESTTESTTESTTESTTEST
 +
TEST]]

Latest revision as of 20:42, 8 August 2024

Contents

[edit] Sources

Samad, Saleem, We won the war, but was Bangladesh really liberated in 1971?, The Times of India Aug 6, 2024


“Bottomless basket,” US national security adviser Henry Kissinger called Bangladesh soon after it was formed [in 1971]. Five decades on, Bangladesh has turned that around, but as the [2024] turmoil has shown, democracy weakened (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)





[edit] 1905- 1971: three partitions

India and Pakistan were partitioned once, in 1947. But Bangladesh was partitioned thrice — 1905, 1947 and 1971. The contentious theory of the origins of Bangladesh is that it goes back to 1905, when the British Viceroy of India Lord Curzon partitioned Bengal. Indian nationalists and the intellectuals of Bengal vehemently opposed it. The seeds of Bengali nationalism had been sown. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] The Pakistan movement and East Bengal

When the two-nation theory was floated, the name for the new homeland for Muslims, Pakistan, was suggested by a young Britain-educated lawyer Choudhary Rahmat Ali in 1933. P for Punjab, A for Afghan province (now KhyberPakhtunkhwa), K for Kashmir, I for Indus, S for Sindh, and ʻstanʼ for Balochistan. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

East Bengal found no mention. It angered the revolutionaries of Bengal. In 1940, fiery Bengal politician AK Fazlul Huq proposed the Lahore Resolution on behalf of the All India Muslim League — it called for independent states of Muslims in India — and nationalists began imagining an independent East Bengal. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] The 1960s

By the 1960s, it had turned into a movement. Bangabandhu (friend of Bangladesh) Mujib, incarcerated on and off, was sent off to jail again in 1968 in the infamous ʻAgartala Conspiracyʼ case. Anger spilled onto the streets and spread to the rest of Pakistan, with violent student protests against Pakistanʼs military junta in 1969. The anti-government agitation ousted the decade-long military dictatorship of General Ayub Khan. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] 1970: a landslide victory unpalatable to Pakistan

Mujib won a landslide victory in the first ever general elections in December 1970. He was poised to be the head of the government of Pakistan. Three months later, opposition leaders from the provinces of Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan and the North West Frontier Province (now Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) pledged allegiance to Mujibʼs Six-Point Political Agenda, which sought regional autonomy for the provinces in Pakistan. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

Between Mujib winning and this agenda being accepted by political leaders, General Khadim Hussain Raja, commander of the Eastern Command, planned Operation Blitz. It would mean suspension of all political activities and a return to military rule. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

The armed forces of Pakistan would be allowed to move against “defiant political leaders” and take them into “protective custody”. But Lieutenant General Yaqub Khan, who was chief of general staff of the Eastern Command, and Admiral Syed Mohammad Ahsan, who was governor of East Pakistan, scuttled the plan. Not for long, though. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

The frustrated General Yahya Khan, president of Pakistan, ousted both Khan and Ahsan. Later, General Raja was also shown the door. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] Mukti Bahini

Why the Mukti Bahini was formed)

Weeks before the genocidal campaign of March 25, 1971, codenamed Operation Searchlight, most officers and soldiers of the East Bengal Regiment and border guards East Pakistan Rifles revolted. The rebel officers and soldiers along with hundreds of border guard troops and policemen crossed into India, with fire cover from the Indian Border Security Force shielding them. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

The rebel officers held a crucial meeting on April 12 at Teliapara in Sylhet — the Mukti Bahini (Bangladesh Liberation Force) was formed under the command of Colonel (later General) MAG Osmany. The Mukti Bahini decided it would go the guerrilla way, on the lines of what Vietnam rebels did, instead of conventional war. Thousands of students, youths and farmers, including women, joined the Mukti Bahini. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] 1971: The triumph

No liberation war in the world was as decisive as that of Bangladesh. The barefoot, half-naked soldiers of the Mukti Bahini had faced off with the Islamic militia of Pakistan and emerged victorious. A triumphant Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the East Pakistan Awami League who led the resistance for an independent East Bengal, was released from prison in January 1972. When he took over the reins of the country, he had a huge task ahead of him. Corruption was raging, a famine was sweeping the nation and the ravages of over a decade of struggle had rent the people apart. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] 1975

He got to work but his compatriots betrayed him. He was assassinated in a military putsch on 15 August 1975 – when India was celebrating its Independence Day. Fifty years on, the secular ethos he died defending is under threat. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

[edit] Sheikh Hasina

[Mujib’s] daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who took over in 2009 after the country had seen three decades of autocratic regimes. The economy took off. She opened up the country to foreign investment from India, Japan, South Korea, the US, Turkey and European countries. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

Soon, Bangladesh became the second-largest exporter of readymade garments. Pharmaceutical products are its other big export, to more than 70 countries, and frozen fish and food to Europe, North America, the Middle East and Australasia. Bangladesh made big strides in meeting Sustainable Development Goals. Hasina has been elected Prime Minister thrice, holding office for 12 years. Her decision to take in more than a million Rohingya refugees who had fled Myanmar was appreciated globally. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

But the human rights record at home has been controversial. Sectarian violence against Hindus in mid-October of 2021 cast a shadow on the secular credentials of the country. Rights groups claim no perpetrator of sectarian violence against religious minorities, desecration of temples, arson and plunder faced criminal proceedings. Before the 2018 general elections, the authorities ignored human rights groups, civil society and journalistsʼ bodies to enact the Digital Security Act, which was believed to throttle freedom of expression. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

In three years since then, 1,516 cases have been filed under the law against 142 journalists, 35 teachers, 194 politicians and 67 students. None against Islamic evangelists who peddle hate speech online against womenʼs empowerment and elective democracy, and want a theocratic state. Nor against those uploading videos on YouTube demanding that the countryʼs flag be changed to a crescent and the national anthem be scrapped because a Hindu poet (Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore) wrote it. “It is a retreat from the commitments of 1971,” said acclaimed social scientist Prof Rehman Sobhan. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

The authorities are yet to complete a non-controversial registration of liberation war veterans. Successive regimes failed to prepare a genuine list of veterans. Letʼs not discuss the total number of genocide victims — researchers claim the number could be higher than 3 million. Tens of thousands of infants and elderly people died of cholera and diarrhoeal disease in refugee camps. Bangladesh has had seven governments since Mujibʼs. Not one took up the issues of 1971 seriously. Political historian Mohiuddin Ahmad quoted a Liberation War poster: “Banglar Hindu, Banglar Christian, Banglar Buddhist, Banglar Musalman, Amra shobai Bangalee (Bengali Hindus, Christians, Buddists, Muslims — we are all Bengalis).”(Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

He added, “If I knew Islamism would triumph over secularism, pluralism and tolerance, I would not have joined Mukti Bahini to liberate the country.”(Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)

August 5, 2024 marked the end of Sheikh Hasina's reign as she finally bowed to the same people's power that had once brought her to the office of Bangladesh prime minister. (Samad, Saleem, ‘‘The Times of India’’ 2024)


The writer is an independent journalist and columnist based in Bangladesh

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