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The spirit of independence and the younger generation

Md. Anwarul Kabir
ON special days like Independence or Victory days, repeated lamentations on erosion of the spirit of independence since the post-Mujib era have become a cliche. To the new generations, especially to many members of the post-liberation generation, this simplistic notion has no special appeal at all Rather, to them, the spirit of liberation signifies some nostalgic slogans of some members of the older generation.
This is, no doubt, due to the utmost failure of our older generation, who bore the torch of some patriotic ideologies with a view to guiding and rationalising the popular demand for independence. Perhaps, they were so overwhelmed with their success in the war of independence that they were little concerned about transmitting those patriotic ideologies to the newer generations, who are
at the helm in different sections of the society of Bangladesh.
Understandably, due to this weakness of the patriotic forces of the older generation, the reactionary and defeated forces of 1971 could quite easily succeed in manipulating the mindset of the younger generation by fabricating and twisting our history in a shrewd manner The defeated forces knew that if the new generations, who have not witnessed the war of independence, could be kept in the dark concerning the history of our liberation, they would, one day, be successful.
This speculation of the evil forces is true to that extent that even in independent Bangladesh infamous, identified collaborators and credibly alleged war criminals could become ministers. Not only this, but one of them has even said ’there was no war criminal in 1971," yet the government seems wish to take no action in this regard.
As a nation, we must be ashamed of the fact that, only a few years after independence, we have deviated from the very objectives of our war of liberation, which could have been the driving forces for the overall development of the country. The valiant freedom fighters in 1971 sacrificed their lives not only for achieving a mere nation state, rather, they also dreamt of complete emancipation of the people of their Sonar Bangla.
The Bangladesh we are witnessing today is not in keeping with the ambition of the freedom loving people of that time. In fact, their ambition reflected the spirit of independence, which is depicted in the 1972 constitution as four firm columns -- nationalism, democracy, socialism and secularism. The unfortunate distortion of these four columns has rotted the nation as a whole, which is why we arc facing a severe crisis in the socio-political fabric of the country.
Abandoning the "two nation
theory" in 1971, the people of this land embraced Bengali nationalism and secularism as basic mantras for salvation. The irony is that, being a valiant freedom fighter, Ziaur Rahman totally failed to foresee the implication of the reinvention of the two-nation theory in the guise of "Bangladeshi nationalism." It was the first hit on the spirit of the independence and destroyed the first column of the constitution.
It was Zia who divided the nation into pro-liberation and anti-liberation groups by legalising communal politics in Bangladesh for his own political interest. So, instead of secularism, a few years after our independence, we again stepped into the realm of communalism in our socio-political realm.
Many have claimed that it was none but Bangabandhu who killed democracy and established authoritarian rule by introducing Baksal in 1975. On the surface, this seems to be true. But this becomes half-true if we objectively analyse the rationale behind introduction of Baksal. In fact, it could be argued that democracy loving Bangabandhu was bound to embrace authoritarian rule in accordance with the
demand of the time. The very objective of Baksal was to establish socialism in the country. Besides, Baksal was formed in a democratic way through proper discussion in the parliament, and many of the people of the country at that time, including leading intellectuals, journalists and other professional groups, welcomed it. However, right now, no conclusive remark on Baksal is possible as it died in its infantile stage with the brutal killing of the father of the nation.
Socialism has been depicted as one of the vital driving forces of our war of liberation. Because, at that time, socialism was considered as the most powerful ideology for total economic emancipation. Though, at present, in the global context, socialism has no appeal for many but, in the context of our country, it symbolises the economic emancipation of the people. However, we have also distorted this spirit by importing consumer driven and black money oriented economy on our country.
The post-1975 era failed to put the country on right democratic footings. In fact, from 1975 to 1990, the country was running under cither direct or quasi-
military regimes. It has been historically proven that no military regime (either direct or indirect) in the world works for promoting true democracy. However, post-1990 could have been a golden era for practising true democracy in die country’. But due to rising impact of communalism and terrorism, corruption-ridden leadership, and intolerance between two major political parties, the country failed to avail that opportunity.
The change in 1/11 has raised hope among the people of the country. Recent comments by the army chief General M U Ahmed as well as the head of the interim government, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, on the issues of the liberation war and war collaborators have prompted some to think that the country is now moving in the right direction.
We must instil the spirit of the liberation war into the mindset of the new generations. Then, maybe in the near future, new leadership infused with the spirit of the war will be created to lead the country in a positive way.
Md Anwarul Kabir is an educationist, working at the Computer Science Department of AIUB and is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star