A great teaching of history ought to be religion should not be the basis of nationality, and no one should choose their national hero, especially if they are foreign invaders, on the basis of religion. These thoughts come to mind as Bangladeshis are getting ready to celebrate their glorious independence history in the on going month.
Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s greatest mistake was to divide India on the basis of religion and this has brought great sufferings for the Muslims of subcontinent. After establishing Pakistan, the same Jinnah advised few crores of Muslims who remained in India to become perfect Indian nationals. It was a great contradiction of his two-nation theory. If a great number of Muslims could become Indian after the Partition, why couldn’t they become Indian without a Partition? Their faith is Islam but their culture is Indian. On that basis, Indian Muslims could be strong part of the Indian nationhood and could influence the socio-political scenario of the subcontinent. Instead, they are now divided in two different countries, Pakistan and India. Still the Muslims in Pakistan are not united. There was hatred and discrimination between the two wings of Pakistan and in Pakistan also, Sunni Muslims are not prepared to accept Shia leadership and demanded that Shia and Ahmadiya communities should be categorised as non-Muslims. A renowned historian said his fear was that there would be a war between two parts of Pakistan and the conflict could be within and between the Muslim inhabitants. It would be a full-fledged war, not the previous Hindu-Muslim riots. Muslims would kill Muslims. The prophecy was absolutely fulfilled later on.
In Bangladesh, the target of Jamaat and other jihadist groups are not only the minorities but a vast number of Muslims. To save mankind from religious atrocities, even the Prophet of Islam, through his historic charter of Medina, declared that Christians, Jews, and Muslims all belong to the same Ummah. By uniting the people of Medina, irrespective of their religion, the Prophet (PBUH) thwarted the aggression from Mecca. In the new emergent Bangladesh, the founding father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, could foresee that his country and people cannot survive without a strong national identity and that identity would be Bengali nationalism, a socio-cultural and geographical identity, and not a religious one.
By killing Bangabandhu, and destroying his secular ideals, Bangladesh was facing the greatest danger from blood-thirsty fundamentalism. Religion was always used to exploit people’s mind and lead them towards disunity. It was very strange when Indian National Congress started Independence Movement against British Raj, they could not attract Indian Muslims to join that movement. Gandhi had to evolve new tactics to call all the Muslims to start a movement to revive the old Khilafat and it was called Khilafat Movement.
That time, Jinnah was a secularist leader and he warned Gandhi that this Khilafat movement, based on old medieval ideas, will not do any good to Indian Muslims. Rather, it will lead them to self-destruction. The irony of fate was, a few years after Jinnah started Pakistan movement himself, which was the consequence of the Khilafat movement and Pakistan was nothing but a demand for establishing a modern Khilafat. With the death of Jinnah and other modern Muslim League leaders, Pakistan started falling into medievalism in the wake of becoming a Sharia state. Now Pakistan is a failed state, devastated every day with drone attacks.
Bangladesh is very fortunate that they have very strong secular cultural roots from Charyapad to Tagore and Nazrul Islam. This is a great bulwark against the rise of fanaticism. Sheikh Mujib and other secular leaders are the products of this great secular cultural heritage and their political role saved Bangladesh from becoming a second Pakistan. In the right moment, Bengalis were united under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib and came out from the medieval feudal structure of Pakistani statehood and declared their independence.
We should have no doubt if Bangladesh was still a part of Pakistan, we would have to face similar devastation and daily American drone attack. Still our salvation lies in secular and democratic statehood and in the bond of secular nationalism. Some people think that in this age of globalisation, nationalism will be a meaningless concept, but the dismemberment of Soviet Union and the rise of small, national republics and the cry for separation from Britain in Scotland (though not yet materialised) are the strong proof that nationalism still plays a vital part in nation building and its progress.
Bangladesh is passing a stressful period created by the rise of religious extremism. After many defeats secularists are now preparing to unite and fight a viscous enemy of our national existence. We need modernity and advancement. Fundamentalism will drive the nation backwards. Hence, this is the right time we should overcome crisis of national identity and build up a democratic Bangladesh based on secularism, by defeating the fundamentalist demons in our social and political life.
