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Distorted and doctored history of Liberation War unacceptable

BanglaBhoot

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If truth be told it was the Indians who first distorted our history and these distortions were supplemented after independence by the Awami League. Most of what we consider history is in fact just Indian propaganda and there has been no real attempt (not even by the BNP) to give a more accurate assessment and appraisal of the historical record. Read more about these issues in The India Doctrine –

https://www.academia.edu/5690262/The_India_Doctrine_1947-2007_

Distorted and doctored history of Liberation War unacceptable

EDITORIAL

HOLIDAY – March 28, 2014

Freedom is the most glorious, cherished and treasured possession of our nation-state for which hundreds of thousands of people made their supreme sacrifice. The nation celebrated with due honour the other day the 44th Independence Day. “Martyrdom is much better than slavery; regard the sword as greater than the badge of a servant” — so said our National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam over eighty-five years ago. Where there is unity there is always victory, and the 75 million Bangladeshis collectively fought the enemy until the ignominious defeat and surrender of the Pakistani forces. The Holiday offers its heartfelt salute and respects to the immortal souls of the Liberation War martyrs who, so to speak, mutely whisper into the ears of Bangladeshis: “…Tell them of us and say; for their tomorrow, we gave our today.”

Today we feel it our duty to outline the nation’s history for those young people who are under 48 years of age now, and may be confused by interminable Goebbelsian baseless propaganda. True, the war was fought under the leadership of Awami League (AL)— although innumerable freedom fighters did not belong to the AL or its student wing Chhatra League — but the AL has, so to speak, hijacked and monopolised the entire credit, blatantly distorting the actual history. For instance the issue of the declaration of Independence by Major Zia over the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra at Kalurghat in Chittagong which was heard by millions and written about it by very important commanders in their books. What is more, President Zia restored multi-party democracy including rebirth of the AL which had been banned after the one-party BKSAL rule by Mujib in 1975. The Holiday reported how in the first term of Sheikh Hasina, the book on heroic exploits of the BDR during the war was destroyed and a doctored, concocted edition was published.
The seed of the people’s aspiration for autonomy and the right to self-determination was sown soon after the 1947 Partition when the firebrand progressive leader Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, the former chief of the Assam Muslim League, organised the masses to go up against the undemocratic rule of the central government of Pakistan that resulted in the formation of the Awami Muslim League, later renamed Awami League (AL) to open doors for all religious persuasions, on 23 june 1949. Meanwhile, the AL’s founder president Moulana Bhashani was at the forefront of the 1952 Language Movement and all other democratic agitations and campaigns. His AL formed alliance with Sher-e-Bangla’s party to form Jukta Front (Joint Front) which won landslide victory in parliament polls held under the Muslim League Chief Minister Nurul Amin who himself lost his Legislative Assembly seat.

At the Kagmari Conference in February 1957 a rift over a non-aligned anti-imperialist foreign policy was championed by the AL chief Moulana Bhashani; but a rift ensued between him and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shaheed Suhrawardy who gave direct support to the SEATO and CENTO imperialist military pacts. By dint of his wisdom as an astute statesman, the Moulana floated the National Awami Party (NAP) with leftists. His euphemistic utterance “Walaikum Salam to Pakistan” (indicating to break away) generated sensation.

In 1968 the Pakistan government during the Ayub regime filed Agartala Conspiracy Case against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, some in-service army personnel and senior bureaucrats who were prosecuted for being involved in a conspiracy to secede East Pakistan from Pakistan with the help of the Indian government. Given the bleak prospects of the case, Mujib sent a message to the Moulana through journalist Ataus Samad to save him.
Supported and launched in person by Moulana Bhashani, the All-party Students Action Committee organised mass movement and demanded immediate withdrawal of the case and release of all prisoners including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Subsequently, the Ayub regime was forced to withdraw the case on 22 February 1969, and Sheikh Mujib and other detainees were unconditionally released. Indeed, Mujib had suffered jail terms for many years.
At least three months ahead of Sheikh Mujib’s 7th March historic Dhaka Racecourse speech in 1971, the Moulana declared in unequivocal and unmistakable terms the declaration of independence in late November 1970. After the beginning of the war in 1971 Moulana Bhasani took refuge in India, but he had to spend the entire period of the war in virtual confinement in Delhi. One of his first demands after return to Dhaka (22 January 1972) was to withdraw Indian troops from the soil of Bangladesh. He was the only one who conscientised the people about Indian hegemony.

Democracy is moribund in Bangladesh. Sheikh Hasina’s voter-less farcical polls was virtually the final nail in the coffin of Democracy. At such a crucial juncture the main opposition BNP with a massive support base has been crippled and incapacitated by the Hasina govt. which has continued to harass its central leaders by imprisoning them on such flimsy, absurd and ludicrous cases in which street urchins are arrested. Massacre and extrajudicial killings by politicised police, RAB and other disciplined forces as well as enforced disappearances resemble Nazi fascist rule.

Affronting the supreme sacrifice of millions the nation-state has been rendered into a virtual vassal, satellite state by the ruling clique devoid of national pride. But historical forces have always pronounced that traitors’ machinations always backfire.

Holiday
 
and the 75 million Bangladeshis collectively fought the enemy
on a more technical note this a serious travesty of the 1971 crisis

on a philosophical note the "enemy" here probably was ourselves. 'we' probably waged war on ourselves and by not recognizing it we are still continuing to do so - sorry i can't see how pride comes into this
 
Just in case we forget..India Doctrine surfaces again !
 
on a more technical note this a serious travesty of the 1971 crisis

on a philosophical note the "enemy" here probably was ourselves. 'we' probably waged war on ourselves and by not recognizing it we are still continuing to do so - sorry i can't see how pride comes into this

I think not to be labelled a rajakar the editors of the HOLIDAY had to put this stuff in just to appear balanced and objective .... That is a shame.
 
At least the article gives credit to Ziaur Rahman and Maulana Bhasani for their contributions to history.
 
Feels like nationalists tend to feed a doctored version of history in the hope of 'consolidating' the nation in question or, perhaps more understably, to hide the wrongs committed by 'us', as opposed to 'them', and fail to understand or simply ignore the truth that a false version of history inevitably draws false conclusions and the nation fed on this fiction fail to take the right historical lessons that are essential for it to take right decisions at critical times.
 
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