Wed 23 Jul 2008
On Monday, the 82nd birth anniversary of Tajuddin Ahmed came and went by without making much of a noise. Can we expect a grand celebration of his birth anniversary one day? Does he not deserve one? Is his memory fading away from our collective minds? Will our next generation remember him at all?
These are questions worth delving into, since laudable attempts are being made at the moment to recognise and restore the rightful place of great national leaders along with that of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the chief architect of Bangladesh.
In fact, the illustrious political career of Tajuddin and his contribution to the creation of Bangladesh will remain an inspiration for all freedom loving peoples of the world. But, unfortunately, the apathy and disrespect that has been shown to him since his assassination will go down as a nation’s collective story of shame. And we must correct ourselves at the first available opportunity.
With such thoughts clouding the mind, one tends to get pensive thinking about this man of substance — a lonely warrior, a true patriot, a Bengali by heart, an architect of Bangladesh. He was a thinker politician, a philosopher and a visionary. And at the same time he was capable of undertaking colossal responsibility and delivering the goods too. Who does not know how he shouldered the responsibility of steering the liberation war in 1971 on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and coming out victorious on December 16.
Tajuddin Ahmed’s association with Bangabandhu goes back to the fifties. He was the constant companion of Bangabandhu. The latter never took a decision without the approval of the former. In fact, Bangabandhu and Tajuddin were complementary to one another. They fought many a battle together to carry forward the ultimate agenda of obtaining the freedom of the Bengalees and creating a homeland for themselves.
Tajuddin Ahmed took the cue from Bangabandhu’s March 7th speech, and prepared himself for any eventuality. Accordingly, after the crackdown on March 25 he immediately started his ground works for launching the war of liberation against the occupation force. He knew that the period of talking was over. It was time to trade bullet for a bullet. The amazing story of his organising the liberation war with more enemies around than friends has taken a legendary proportion by now. And yet the new generations know so little about this freedom fighter.
A short take on Tajuddin Ahmed from a biography
“Tajuddin Ahmad (1925 — November 3, 1975) was a prominent leader of the Awami League. In 1971, he successfully headed the government at Mujibnagar and was instrumental in forming the first government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh on April 10, 1971.
Tajuddin Ahmad obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree with honours in Economics from Dhaka University in 1953. He also obtained a law degree. As a student he was moved by the inequalities in society and became an activist and a social reformer. Tajuddin Ahmad also became active in the Muslim League and the Pakistan movement, and later organised the student wing of the Awami Muslim League in 1949. At this point in life he associated himself with Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Tajuddin Ahmad became involved as an active organiser of protests and other activities during the Language Movement of 1952. He was arrested by the police and was imprisoned for several months. After his release, he was elected to the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly in 1954, but was arrested following the dismissal of the A. K. Fazlul Huq-led government.
He was arrested again, following the imposition of martial law by Ayub Khan in 1958. Tajuddin Ahmed got deeply involved in the pro-democracy movements led by the Awami League and other political parties in the then East Pakistan. It was in 1966 that he organised protests against the arrest of Bangabandhu on charges of sedition. He also took part in the round table conference in Rawalpindi, convened by Ayub Khan to resolve the crisis between the government and the opposition parties.
In 1970, Tajuddin Ahmed became a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan. But his greater role in our national history was yet to be played, and he did not have to wait long. It came in the month of March, 1971, following the arrest of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by the Pakistan army, when the worst genocide in world history began on the soil of Bengal. Ahmad organised a government-in-exile, popularly known as the Mujibnagar government, to win his nation’s freedom. Ahmad named the capital Mujibnagar, after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The oath-taking ceremony of the first government of Bangladesh took place on the soil of Bangladesh, in Meherpur, Kushtia, on April 17, 1971. As the first prime minister of Bangladesh he organised a guerrilla warfare with the active participation of Bengali civilians and armed forces.
During this period, Ahmad had to face vehement intra-party strife led by Khandokar Mushtaq Ahmad, who conspired to harm the national struggle for independence through a failed attempt to form a confederacy with Pakistan. Among Ahmad’s great diplomatic achievements were to win international support and recognition of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation by the government of India and Soviet Union. After the independence of Bangladesh, Tajuddin Ahmad returned to Dhaka on December 22, 1971. In the subsequent cabinet formed under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Ahmad was given charge of the ministries of finance and planning. He was also appointed member of the committee in charge of writing the Constitution of Bangladesh.
His assassination
When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman assumed the title of president and banned other political parties in 1975, Ahmad opposed the forming of one party system known as Baksal. When Bangabandhu was assassinated on August 15, 1975, Ahmad was kept under house arrest on the very same day. Later, on August 22, he was arrested with other political leaders by the regime of the new president Khondaker Mustaq Ahmed and imprisoned at the Dhaka Central Jail.
On November 3, in what became infamously known as the “Jail killings,” Ahmad along with Syed Nazrul Islam, A. H. M. Qamaruzzaman and Muhammad Mansur Ali were killed on the direct instruction of Khondakar Mushtaq Ahmed. And, thus, a great son of the soil was smote down, and we say in the words of Shakespeare: “Woe to the hand that shed this costly blood.”
July 23rd, 2008 at 2:19 am
A great man, indeed.
Everyone must watch the documentary on Tajuddin Ahmed to understand the man, his life.
July 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 am
Great leader with rare qualities, never wanted to be in the limelight, never compromised when it was a matter of principle. How can the new generation know about him? Even AWL does not discuss much about Tajuddin.
we always worship Mujib and Zia, I guess unless someone makes some blunders, his work cannot be not a subject of discussion.
Tanveer Mokammel’s documentary on Tajuddin Ahmed is a great piece of work. A must see for everyone.
July 24th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Late Tajuddin Ahmed begets my love and respect first, then Zia and then Mujib and if I have to give something at the very last it’s Sreemati Sheik Hasina.
As a nation we failed to pay the due tribute to this leader and I agree with the top 2 commenters Tajuddin was a very rare quality leader ever produced by our land. Perhaps, without the two leaders respect wer respect most we could have independent Bangladesh but without the dedicated smart leadership of Tajuddin the victory of liberation war would have been ‘DELHI DUR WASTHA’. Most likely still now today, we had to bleed our veins profusely for independence like that of Palestineans.
May Allah bestow late TA with eternal peace and also gift us with leaders like him.
Thanks.
July 27th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
May i take this opportunity to CONDEMN the #3 poster with reference to SHRIMATI Sheikh Hasina.
This is like campaign against Barak Obama in USA for accusation of Muslim.
We all know what the campaigner #3 is in his heart. And we know how the NATIONAL HERO Tajuddin met his end, and who was responsible.
This is insult to all Bangladeshi, both who is Hindu and who is not
July 28th, 2008 at 2:52 am
Thanks for highlighting this #4.
The Obama analogy is particularly apt. I wish at some point the Obama campaign would stand up and say, not just that “Obama isn’t a Muslim and let’s protest lies and insinuation”, but also, “but why the hell is it a problem if he was?”
The same hold true in Bitterboy’s disgusting little comment. So what if the leader of one of Bangladesh’s main parties and a potential future/former Prime Minister was Hindu? Is there something wrong with that? Why should Hindu be an insult?
A reminder that during the Liberation War, Tajuddin was the #1 target of the anti-Liberation forces on this front, frequently referred to as “Sree Tajuddin” in radio broadcasts, newspaper articles and speeches (including by several prominent people who are alive and kicking today).
July 30th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Mr/Ms #4 and #5,
If you get hurt by my addtng prefix Sreemati to Shiek Hasina, I do apologize. My using this prefix is of course, satirical but it has nothing to do with communal thing becuase I do claim I’m more secular than who are so called branded secularists. Someone has said before late Tajuddin Ahmad, my beloved leader hero was used to be prefixed Sree by many and especially Akaashbani Radio and Indian people when he was the executive head of exile Bangladesh government. Nothing’s wrong with that. Even 50-100 years before, I assume, our grand parents were used to be called as Sree/Sreemati as a form of respect and the old Dalil/documents also indicate that.
(…. deleted for the lack of relevance….)
Thanks.
July 30th, 2008 at 4:40 pm
#6 The issue is intent in usage, not the use itself, and I think you are well aware of that.
I cannot accept your apology just yet, as I don’t agree that your use was “satirical but it has nothing to do with communal thing” - I rejet that outright.
You are right in that, given in India “Sri” and “Srimati” are the standard titles for adult males and females in official usage, it’s very likely that Tajuddin would have been refered to as “Sri Tajuddin” on Akashvani and elsewhere. You are also right that “Sri” would have been used very commonly (and more importantly, voluntarily) by Bengali Muslims of a bygone era (why and how that is no longer the case is a whole discussion in itself). But that rsepectful usage wasn’t the usage I was referring to, and I think you are aware of that. “Sri Tajuddin” was the way he was referred to in a very negative intent by the Jamaat, its publications as well as those of the other anti-liberation pro-genocide forces in 1971, usually in sentences that called for his execution and the expulsion of Hindus. And that was in an environment and context where Hindus were one of the specific targets of a genocidal army and when the Muslim Bengalis were labeled as “half Hindus / adha malaun” to justify why they were also fair game for slaughter.
If you want to criticize Sheikh Hasina or anyone else because you disagree with her/their politics or ideology, that’s fine - go for it, that’s democracy. If you want to go into personal insults targeted directly at her - again, that’s a matter of where you draw the line in your personal impropriety.
But when you do it in a way that sends shivers down the spines of millions of people in Bangladesh because you remind them of their vulnerability to the human rights abuses they are subject to because of their religious identity, it is not ok. When we read testimony from released prisoners tortured by RAB or the Army as recently as this year who describe how they were taunted as Hindu (even when they were not) we see the implications of where this can go and how entrenched it is.
Do your heroes include “Srimati Khaleda Zia” and “Sri Ziaur Rahman”?
July 30th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Mr Udayan, why are you taking it all so seriously? I don’t think there is any problem here, it is all in good humour. In bangladesh we make jokes like this all the time, several times my friends called me “Oi, tui ki Hindu?” and so on, just like “tui ki syloti” - nothing is meant by it beyond friendly humour. BUt if you take it such a way, it becomes as if there is a much more serious problem than there really is. You really need to be on the ground and mix with bangladeshis and you will see there is no problem really.
August 3rd, 2008 at 12:46 pm
I waited and waited for someone to say the obvious, but I guess since I stopped being a regular, UV has once again become a much more bhodro place. So I guess it’s up to me to stir the s*** once again.
Hey Raihan,
“Tui ki Mussalman naki?”
Shuney bhalo laglo bhai? Hoyto beshi kharap laagey nai. Ekhon chinta koren apni aasen koyekjon Dutch, Danish ar Americander shaathey. Tara ekey onyeke ei kotha ta boltesey. Kemon lagbey apnar?
Bhobishotye, karo dhormo, jaati ba goshti niye kichu bolar aage nijekey oi situatione falabar cheshta korben. Dhonnobad.
Udayan,
You forgot to ask about Sri Delwar Hossain Saidee and Sri Nizami.