FROM PAGE 16

present, saying children today face more brutal violence, including rape and murder.

Prof Serajul said women had made progress in education and work, but insecurity still shaped their public life. Women were visible in schools, colleges, and workplaces, even in villages, but harassment, social pressure, and fear continued to restrict them, he said.

He said the rising use of burqa among female students should not be seen only as fashion but also as a sign of self-protection. “This development is a capitalist development.”

Prof Serajul criticised the historical role of elections in the subcontinent, saying they had repeatedly been used to contain revolutionary possibilities.

Referring to 1946, 1954, 1970, and the post-Ershad period, he said mass aspirations had often been diverted through electoral arrangements. “In our history, elections have played a counter-revolutionary role.”

On the student-led mass uprising, Prof Serajul said the political opening that followed was again taken over by bourgeois forces.

He said electoral politics had earlier been shaped by BNP-Awami League competition, but Jamaat-e-Islami has now emerged alongside BNP with Awami League out of the field. He labelled both parties as right-wing.

He said leftist forces had failed to seize openings created by the mass uprisings, as they moved towards electoral politics and failed to form united fronts.

Prof Serajul said Pakistan’s attempt to impose Urdu as the only state language showed how the state tried to create a single national identity. Bangladesh, too, made a mistake after independence by imposing a singular Bangalee identity that denied the existence of smaller ethnic communities, he said.

Bangladesh should have become a democratic state, not a one-nation state, he added.

Turning to education, Prof Serajul questioned why Bangladesh still has three streams despite the language movement. He said the divisions among Bangla medium, English medium, and madrasa education reflected class divisions. He said teachers needed dignity, proper conditions, and equal opportunity.

Prof Serajul criticised NGO-led microcredit activities, saying modern NGOs promoted the “religion of capitalism” by trapping poor people in debt and installments.

Globally, he said capitalism had concentrated wealth in the hands of a tiny minority while the overwhelming majority remained deprived.

He said small reforms would not be enough. “The real movement is the movement to establish social ownership against private ownership. There lies liberation,” he added.

Cultural activist ASM Kamal Uddin presided over the programme, while academic Azfar Hussain conducted it. A documentary on Prof Serajul’s life, directed by Jubair Shawn, was screened.