Liberation War Victory Of People’s Will
Our glorious Liberation War of 1971 was a people’s war as people from all walks of life, peasants to carpenters to potters to labourers to students to teachers to doctors to engineers and all other professionals and people from all caste, creed and religion, whole-heartedly participated in this war for the attainment of Bangladesh. But some tried to call it a civil war to cover up their grave misdeeds. December is the month of our victory. Three million people perished in the nine months of war. After all the bloodshed and sacrifice, the criminal forces were defeated and Bangladesh emerged victorious. We became an independent country on December 16, 1971. We celebrate December 16 as our Victory Day every year with pomp and grandeur. We find our supreme joy on this great day. This year we celebrate 50 years of our victory.
People have participated in the liberation war in different forms. Here I am presenting examples of multiple forms of participants. The description is long. The village people help the artists of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra and the officers and employees employed behind them. The boatmen in the river helped the guerrilla freedom fighters who would pass from one place to another in disguise day or night. The muezzin of the village gave courage to the families of the freedom fighters in their own village or would temporarily hide a freedom fighter in the mosque as a worshiper. The priest of the village temple who helped a stranger disguised himself as a freedom fighter. The middle-class housewife in the village or town whom the guerrilla freedom fighters called Khalamma or Aunty or Apa and the housewife who cooked the freedom fighters at home in the middle of the night and fed them rice. The journalists risked their lives to collect news of the war and send it to Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra or to foreign news agencies. The school teacher taught during the day, but went to the freedom fighters at night to exchange information. Employees of Chittagong port used to tell the freedom fighters what was coming against the interests of Bangladesh by ships. The officials of Pakistan Foreign Service renounced allegiance to Pakistan and started serving for Bangladesh. The eminent citizens or lawyers or professors or judges or physicians who were engaged in their respective professions maintained an atmosphere of patience, courage and enthusiasm in the minds of the people around them. The women or students who have served the freedom fighters inside the country without thinking of their own safety or have served in the freedom fighters’ camps on Indian soil. Those naughty teenagers, who used to work as spies in the name of grazing cattle in the field or in the name of cutting grass or in the name of marketing the invading forces. Thus people of different classes, professions and positions, women or men took part in the liberation war. Their number is innumerable. However, there are some people who are not very many, who did not support the liberation war or actively opposed it.
Millions or crores of Bengalis directly or indirectly participated in the war of liberation. From the beginning to the end of November, it was the freedom fighters who kept the Pakistani aggressors and their allies busy. The freedom fighters were trained on Indian soil. It is true that the freedom fighters fought and collected weapons from the Pakistanis, but the war was not fought with such weapons alone. The government of India provided clothing, arms, vehicles, etc. to the freedom fighters, especially in various sectors and forces. We are grateful to India for that cooperation. However, some of India’s own important strategic interests were certainly involved. It is generally accepted that in order to liberate Bangladesh from the control of Pakistani forces, India started participating in the war directly. If India had not participated in the war directly, how long the war of liberation would have lasted, what would have been its advantages and disadvantages?
We witnessed mass demonstrations, strikes, boycotts, etc. just before the “Operation Searchlight” carried out by the Pakistani military. The heroic armed upsurge of the Bengali people against the Pakistani military regime had been going on well before, leading to our independence. Our glorious Liberation War showed the determination of the Bengali people to be master in their own land, an independent and sovereign secular country. We need to deepen our understanding of the situation in the country.
We must understand the origin and history of the struggle of the Bengali people. We must also encourage working class participation as well as rally other forces. We should learn from both positive and negative past experiences, the works of our forefathers who took the lead, mobilized the mass people for creation of Bangladesh. We declare that our country belongs to all who live in it, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other religions, and that no one can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people. Therefore, we the people of Bangladesh, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and other religions, together as countrymen adopt this Freedom Charter.
(Dr. Forqan is former Deputy Director General of Bangladesh Ansar VDP, also Editor and Publisher ‘The Monthly
Bisswayan’).
