Sense of justice unites the two Bengals

KOLKATA: The spirit of protest and the will to fight for justice united the two Bengals despite their political and geographical division, according to Kamal Hossain, former foreign minister of Bangladesh.
People on either side of the Bengal border were held together by a common thread of ideals and courage that was ingrained in the Bengali psyche, said Hossain, who delivered the Sarat Chandra Bose Memorial lecture at Netaji Bhavan on Thursday.An eminent lawyer who played an active role in Bangladesh’s freedom struggle, Hossain is the only surviving member of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s cabinet.
“I am often told that we are living in times when politics has lost the values and the ideals by which we were driven. Attributes that were the guiding force of the Indian freedom struggle as well. But I have indeed seen those ideals at work during Bangladesh’s muktijuddha. The world may change but Bengal won’t as long as the ideals of Netaji, Sheikh Mujib and Sarat Chandra Bose survive,” said Hossain.
Narrating the course of events leading to the creation of Bangladesh, Hossain recalled how people of the erstwhile East Pakistan never accepted the discrimination that they were subjected to. “While we were generating revenue for the country, the rulers deprived us of our due. Development never took place in the eastern wing of the country. Then there was the crackdown on Bengali language that brought the entire Bengali population together and explode in protest. It was a ploy that boomeranged and eventually alienated Bengalis from the Urdu-speaking people,” said Hossain.
The world, he added, continued to demand change. “Bengalis, in particular, have this constant urge to press for freedom and justice in changed circumstances. We don’t follow text books and don’t care much for history. We follow our impulses and chart our own course,” observed Hossain.
Reflecting on the tumultuous 1968-1971 period, Hossain said that the world had been doubtful about the consequence of the movement in East Pakistan.
Political goals could only be achieved by motivating and mobilising people to bring about change, he said. “I firmly believe that it continues to be the guiding principle of politics. This has governed the freedom struggles of both India and Bangladesh.
And it will remain relevant in the years to come,” Hossain concluded.