Leaders and publics: Stories in the time of transition

Indian Economic and Social History Review

Volumn 37, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 448-477

  Samaddar, Ranabir ^a  

^a South Asia Forum for Human Rights   (Nepal)

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EID: 23044522550     PISSN: 00194646     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. Jurgen Habermas (Thomas Burger and Frederick Lawrence, trs), The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere - An Inquiry into Category of Bourgeois Society, Cambridge, 1992, p. 250.
2. The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere - An Inquiry into Category of Bourgeois Society, Ibid., Chs 3, 6.
3. Habermas' preface to idem, The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere.
4. In Shamsuzzaman Khan's biography of Maulana Maniruzzaman Islamabadi: Shamsuzzaman Khan, Maniruzzaman Islamabadi, 1875-1950, Dhaka, 1983, pp. 18-19.
5. For an interesting account of this collaborative period see Muhammad Badiuzzaman's work on Shiraji: see Badiuzzaman, 'Ismail Hossain Shiraji - Jiban O Sahitya', Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Bengali, University of Dhaka, 1983, pp. 41-65.
6. Annexure to Shamsuzzaman Khan, Maniruzzaman Islamabadi, pp. 46-75.
7. Anisuzzaman, ed., Muslim Bangler Samayikpatra, 1831-1930 (hereafter Samayikpatra), Dhaka, 1969, 'Introduction'.
8. 'Sahitya-chinta', in Maniruzzaman Islamabadi, ed., Maulana Maniruzzaman Islamabadi Rachanabali (hereafter Kachanabali), Vol. 1, Dhaka, 1993, p. 339.
9. See 'Nimnashikhsa O Shikshasanskar', pp. 295-301;
10. 'Sahitya-chinta - Abhibhasan', pp. 326-47, and address to the conference of the ulema in Chittagong in 1930,
11. 'Abhyarthana Samitir Sabhapati Maulana Muhammad Maniruzzaman Islamabadir Abhibhasan', pp. 348-66 in
12. Maniruzzaman Islamabadi, Rachanabali.
13. Anwar Pasha, 'Maulana Maniruzzaman Islamabadi', Elan, Vol. 1, Dhaka, February 1971;
14. Abdul Qadir, Muslim Bangla Samayikpatra, Dhaka, 1966;
15. and Sayaid Mustafa Jamal, ed., Maulana Islamabadi, Chittagong, 1980.
16. Muhammad Jehangir, Mohammad Akram Khan, 1868-1968, Dhaka, 1987;
17. Abu Zafar, ed., Maulana Akram Khan, Dhaka, 1987;
18. Muhammad Abdullah, Muslim Jagarane Kayekjan Kabi-Sahityik, Dhaka, 1980, pp. 384-423.
19. 'Atmasamman O Atmanirbharata', al-Islam, Vol. 5(8), 1328 BS, reprinted in Anisuzzaman, Samayikpatra. All page references to periodicals in this section come from Samayikpatra.
20. al-Islam, 4(11-12), 1325 BS,
21. in Anisuzzaman, Samayikpatra, p. 171.
22. Anisuzzaman, Samayikpatra, pp. 214-18.
23. Muhammad Akram Khan, 'Samasya O Samadhan', Mohammadi, Vol. 1(7), 1335 BS.
24. Muhammad Akram Khan, Idem, 'Atmanibedan', Masik Mohammedi, Vol. 1(1), 1334 BS,
25. in Anisuzzaman, ed., Samayikpatra, p. 504.
26. Anisuzzaman, Idem, 'Abdur Rasul', Barshik Mohammadi, Calcutta, 1335 BS,
27. in Anisuzzaman, Samayikpatra, p. 162.
28. Bande Ali Mia, Jibaner Dinguli, Dhaka, 1966, p. 13.
29. A.T.M. Atiqur Rehman, Bangler Rajnitite Maulana Mohammad Akram Khan, Dhaka, 1966, p. 14.
30. Akram Khan's Mostafa Charit has been discussed by Muhammad Abdullah in the context of the history of biographies of the Prophet written in India by Sir Saiyad Ahmed (Khutbat-i-Ahmedia), Shibli Numani and Saiyad Suleiman Nadvi (Siratunnabi), and Ghulam Mustafa (Visvanabi) in Muhammad Abdullah, Muslim Jagarane Kayekjan Kabi-Sahityik, pp. 413-16.
31. Muhammad Akram Khan, Mostafa Charit, reprint of 3rd edition of 1938, Dhaka, 1997; also his short essay, 'Back to Quran' and the long essay 'Islamer Rajyashasan Bidhan', reprinted in Abu Zafar, ed., Maulana Akram Khan, Dhaka, 1987, pp. 418-553.
32. There are several accounts on this phase of Awami politics, though none of these looks at this period as a chapter in a continuing dynamics of leadership. For a detailed account one may see Oli Ahad, Jatiyo Rajniti, 1945-75, Dhaka, 1982; Atiur Rehman and Lenin Azad, Bhasa Andolan - Pariprekshit O Bichar, Vol. 1, Dhaka, 1990 (this is part of a five-volume series by the same name published by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and University Press Limited, Dhaka); Badruddin Umar, Purba Bangler Bhasa Andolan O Tatkalin Rajniti, Vols 1 & 2, Dhaka, 1979 & 1982; Abdul Haq, Bhasa Andolaner Adiparba, Dhaka, 1974; Abu Al-Sayaid, Awami Leaguer Itihas, 1949-1971, Dhaka, 1993.
33. Taj-ul-Islam Hashmi narrates the contemporary events in great detail in Pakistan - A Peasant Utopia, Dhaka, 1994; but unfortunately he does not discuss the political essence of utopia in Bengali Muslim thought.
34. For this, Abul Mansur Ahmad's description of his family memory and his childhood is crucial for any scholar of Muslim Bengali activism. See his autobiography, Atmakatha, Dhaka, 1978.
35. One has to note that the language demand was often raised as the 'natural right' of a Bengali; the fight against the government was 'natural' for a populace which had fought for the 'natural' right of a homeland, i.e., Pakistan; and that the demand against the zamindars was a 'natural' one of the peasants.
36. I have reconstructed the entire episode from Sirajuddin Ahmed, Shere-e-Bangla, Barisal, 1993, pp. 187-219.
37. Ibid., pp. 200-19; his statements can also be found in the collection of his speeches and statements in S.M. Azizul Haq Shahjahan, Shatabdir Kanthaswar - Abul Kashem Fazlul Haq, Dhaka, 1387 BS; also B.D. Habibullah, Shere-e-Bangla, Dhaka, 1369 BS. For the entire period, one has to consult the extremely valuable memoir of Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, Atit Diner Smriti, first serialised in Dainik Pakistan in 1966 and then published in Muhammad Mahfuzullah, ed., Abul Kalam Shamsuddin Rachanabali, Vol. 2, Dhaka, 1994, pp. 209-541.
38. For the full text of the speech, Sirajuddin Ahmed, Shere-e-Bangla, pp. 159-67.
39. Cited in Habibullah, Shere-e-Bangla, p. 75.
40. There are several accounts of a general picture of the growth of public organisations in this period: Bashir al Helal, Bhasha Andolaner Itihas, Dhaka, 1958;
41. Muhammad Hannan, Bangladesher Chatra Andolaner Itihas, 1830-1952, Vol. 1, Dhaka, 1984;
42. Umar, Purba Bangler Bhasha Andolan O Tatkalin Rajniti;
43. Badruddin Umar, Bhasha Andolan Prasanga - Katipay Dalil, Vols 1 & 2, Dhaka, 1984 & 1985;
44. Gnan Chakraborty, Dhaka Jelar Communist Partir Atitjug, Dhaka, 1972; and finally the five-volume series of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and University Press Limited, mentioned earlier, Bhasha Andolan - Pariprekshit O Bichar (see footnote 22).
45. On the significance of charters or dafa as the mode of public politics of Bangladesh, I have not come across any analytical writing save an unpublished M.Phil dissertation by Selina Khatun, 'Bangladesher Rajnitite Dafar Bhumika', South and South-East Asian Studies Department, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1996. However, any detailed account of that period mentions these charters.
46. His early life is always mentioned by his biographers in the context of the family heritage. See the reminiscent writings in the Ittefaq, compiled by Saiyad Shamsul Alam Huda, ed., Shaheed Suhrawardy - Ekti Karmamukhar Jiban, Dhaka, 1963; also the more detailed accounts: A.S.M. Abdur Rob, Shaheed Suhrawardy, Dhaka, 1964; Qazi Abu Muhammad Abdullah, Shaheed Suhrawardy, Dhaka, 1970; and Mahmud Nurul Huda, Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy - Kache Theke Dekha, Dhaka, 1993.
47. Saiyad Shamsul Alam Huda, Shaheed Suhrawardy - Ekti Karmamukhar Jiban, p. 1; the original Bengali word used by the author for lonely was ekak, which may mean also singular.
48. This is noted with empathy by Oli Ahad, Jatiyo Rajniti, pp. 89-90; Abdur Rob notes in a new light the role of Suhrawardy in post-partition Calcutta in his Shaheed Suhrawardy, pp. 66-75; also Nurul Huda, Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy, pp. 62-64.
49. The speech is published as Annexure 1 to Nurul Huda, Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy, p. 127.
50. Ibid., pp. 127-45.
51. Suhrawardy referred to the fact in his speech, cited in ibid., p. 133.
52. Mohammad H.R. Talukdar, ed., Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy with a Brief Account of His Life and Work (hereafter Memoirs), Dhaka, 1987, pp. 214-15.
53. Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy with a Brief Account of His Life and Work Ibid., p. 82.
54. Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy with a Brief Account of His Life and Work Ibid., p. 114.
55. Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy with a Brief Account of His Life and Work Ibid., pp. 114-18.
56. Memoirs of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy with a Brief Account of His Life and Work Ibid., pp. 207-8.
57. It is well known that his open pro-American views, including those on military alliance led to the split in the Awami League. But what has been ignored is the fact that these views had roots in the kind of pan-Pakistan 'nationalism' that Suhrawardy espoused. His concerns were not evidently the same as those of say Maulana Bhasani or the leaders of the Left in the Awami League, such as Tajuddin Ahmed or Muhammad Toaha. For the text of Suhrawardy's speech on foreign policy on 22 February 1957, see Qazi Abu Muhammad Abdullah, Shaheed Suhrawardy, pp. 67-128.
58. On this see Louise Marlow, Hierarchy and Egalitarianism in Islamic Thought, Cambridge, 1997, Chs 4 & 6.
59. The year 1969 now occupies a major place in the genealogical history of radical extremism in Bangladesh and in any account that tries to come to terms with this genealogy Maulana Bhasani has a position of privilege. On 1969, the most authoritative work till date is by Lenin Azad, Unasattarer Gana-abhyuthyan - Rashtra. Samaj O Rajniti, Dhaka, 1997.
60. For a helpful discussion, see Sidney Tarrow, 'The People's Two Rhythms: Charles Tilly and the Study of Contentious Polities', Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 38(3), July 1996, pp. 589-600.
61. Khondakar Abdur Rahim, Shatabdir Jananeta Maulana Bhasani (hereafter Shatabdir Jananeta), 4 Vols, Tangail, 1992-93.
62. Shatabdir Jananeta Maulana Bhasani Ibid., Vol. 3, pp. 62-87.
63. The implication of this argument is that we have to go beyond the stereotype, according to which 'political Islam' primarily denotes fundamentalism, and that too of the jamat variety. Even when a distinction is made between 'political Islam' and fundamentalism, the analysis is not carried further. For example Joel Beinin and Joe Stork, speaking of political Islam in the context of modernity and the historical specificity of the Middle East, define it as follows: We term the movements examined in this volume 'political Islam' because we regard their core concerns as temporal and political. They use the Qur'an, the hadiths, and other canonical religious texts to justify their stances and actions. And they do so in all sincerity. But . . . today's Islamist thinkers and activists are creatively deploying selected elements of the Islamic tradition, combined with ideas, techniques, institutions, and commodities of the present and recent past, to cope with specifically modern predicaments: political, social, economic and cultural issues that emerged in the Middle East as a result of the expansion of the world capitalist market, the colonization of the important areas of the region by England and France, the formation of new territorial nation-states, the rise and decline of secular nationalist movements, the frustrations and failures of economic development, the reformation of gender relations, and the hybridization of culture and identity in the course of the wide range of contacts and interactions among Europeans and their cultures and the people's of the Middle East. See Joel Beinin and Joe Stork, eds, Political Islam - Essays from Middle East Report, London, 1997, pp. 3-4. In such a definition, the specificity of the Middle Eastern situation is acknowledged, but it looks almost a secular tool of power, and thus hardly distinguishable from other tools. My argument relating to Bhasani concerns the specificity of Islam as an embodiment of morals that gives rise not just to any politics, but to the 'politics of Islam', that is to say 'political Islam'.
64. Abdur Rahim, Shatabdir Jananeta, Vol. 2, pp. 289-90.
65. Ibid., Vol. 1, pp. 136-40.
66. Ibid., Vol. 1, pp. 248-60.
67. On this period, see the reminiscences in Hassan Abdul Qaium, ed., Majlum Jananeta Maulana Bhasani, Dhaka, 1988, particularly those by Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, 'Maulana Bhasani O Assamer Line-pratha'; Muhammad Azraf, 'Bhasani Ek Ananya Byaktitwa'; and Muhammad Waliullah, 'Bichitra Bhasani', pp. 15-45. See also Saiyad Abdul Maksud, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Dhaka, 1996, Chs 1 & 2.
68. Abdur Rahim, Shatabdir Jananeta, Vol. 2, p. 88.
69. Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 251; on the Sirajganj conference see also Abul Mansur Ahmed, Amur Dekha Rajnitir Panchas Bachar, Dhaka, 1968, pp. 243-45.
70. Ibid., Vol. 2, pp. 155-59, 170-72.
71. Ibid., Vol. 3, p. 6.
72. Haji Muhammad Danesh, 'Maulana Bhasanir Rajnaitik Jiban' in Shahriyar Kabir, ed., Maulana Bhasani - Rajnaitik Jiban O Sangram, Dhaka, 1978, pp. 123-38;
73. also in the same volume the essay on Bhasani's peasant politics by Saiyad Zafar, 'Krishak Sanghatan O Maulana Bhasani', pp. 87-98;
74. Abdur Rahim, Shatabdir Jananeta, Vol. 3, pp. 33-35.
75. Abdur Rahim, Shatabdir Jananeta, Vol. 3, p. 87; the noted cultural chronicler of Bangladesh, Sirajul Islam Chaudhuri, commenting on the 'social role' of Maulana Bhasani, has noted that 'emotion has its own language and the Maulana knew it'.
76. See Sirajul Islam Chaudhuri, 'Maulana Bhasanir Samajik Bhumika' in Arefm Badal, ed., Maulana Bhasani, Dhaka, 1987, p. 30;
77. also in the same volume Mashiur Rehman describes the Maulana as 'our heritage' in 'Maulana Amader Aitijhya', pp. 9-27.
78. Abdur Rahim, Shatabdir Jananeta, Vol. 4, p. 259.
79. Chroniclers have noted his sense of dismay and loss when the Left in Bangladesh deserted him: Muhammad Toaha, the noted Left leader with whom he had got close when they were together in jail in 1952 severed connections in 1968-69; Alauddin Ahmed, the main organiser of the lal tupi assembly in Shahpur left in 1969; and the most well-known peasant organiser of Bangladesh and the secretary of Krishak Samiti, Abdul Haq, resigned from his post in 1970. See Saiyad Zafar, 'Krishak Sanghatan O Maulana Bhasani' in Shahriyar Kabir, ed., Maulana Bhasani - Rajnaitik Jiban O Sangram, pp. 96-97.
80. Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani's manifesto, 'Amar Parikalpanaye Islami Viswavidyalaya', first published in the dailies in Dhaka in June 1970, later republished in Saiyad Irfanun Bari, ed., Maulana Bhasanir Islami Viswavidyalaya, Tangail, 1976, pp. 1-11. Bhasani wrote in that manifesto (p. 3), 'Islamic education is not what passes as the madrasa education today'.
81. Firoz Al-Mujahid notes his 'sammelaner rajniti' (congregational politics) in Maulana Bhasanir Jiban O Darshan, Dhaka, 1982, p. 34; Qader Siddiqui has noted the importance of personal ties in Bhasani's political and moral activism in his Bhasanike Jemon Dekhechi, Dhaka, 1988.
82. Lenin Azad, Unashattarer Gana-abhyuthyan, Ch. 8, pp. 632-59.
83. Azad painstakingly reconstructs the various events and locates the trends, correctly pointing to the role of the students as a group and of Bhasani as an individual leader in the conflict and in its exacerbation; however, in his 'sociology of mass upsurge', the politics of the congealing attrition is absent His chronology does not indicate the possibility of 1969 quickly giving way to 1970, then 1971, and finally to 1975, when all the suppressed dimensions of opposition politics of the preceding 20 years came out so grotesquely. For a detailed account of Bhasani's role in 1969, the best is Abdul Maksud, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Ch. 7, pp. 313-54.
84. The Left of course realised the unique value of the company of a nationalist legend after the legend's death, as the opinions of various Left leaders today testify. See in this connection the opinion of two well-known Left leaders, Abdul Matin and Hyder Akbar Khan Rono, cited by Abdul Maksud, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, pp. 633-34.
85. In this connection, the speeches and short testaments of Bhasani after 1970 are instructive. For example, 'Amar Parikalpanaye Islami Viswavidyalaya' (1970),
86. 'Keno Islami Viswavidyalaya' (1971),
87. 'Islami Viswavidyalayer Rup O Kathamo' (1974),
88. 'Palanbad - Ki O Keno' (1973),
89. 'Rabubiyater Bhumika' (1974), and his last speech to the conference of the Khuda-i-Khidmatgar in Santosh in 1976 three days before he died on 17 November.
90. These are included as an appendix in Abdul Maksud, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, pp. 647-714.
91. In this connection an insightful essay by Amr G.E. Sabet, 'Welayat al-Faqih - An Islamic Theory of Elite hegemony or Assabiyyat al-Khawass', The Iranian Journal of International Affairs, Vol. 7(4), 1995, pp. 409-48, where Sabet links the two phenomena of leadership and mobilisation in discussing theories of leadership in Islamic thinking.