Why March 25th should be the 'International Genocide Day'
Bangladesh-----how did the map come to be? What about the name itself? It’s a pretty long history, but not that old. There are many countries in the world who had to be emancipated from their oppressors, many nations and races suffered for a long time and were treated inhumanly, but no nation had ever encountered such brutality as Bangladesh did in 1971 and even beyond.
The way Hitler attempted to wipe out the Jews and re-establish a nation with pure German blood, Pakistan also sketched a plan to annihilate Bangladesh and its’ population from the face of the world. Of course, they have tried everything to dominate this nation, undermine their abilities, ignore them as human beings, and crush them into little pieces. This process started soon after the British left the then, India and divided it into two halves, namely India and Pakistan, and gradually it moved towards the extreme while 1952 was the major turning point as they declared Urdu to be the one and only language of Pakistan and killed people protesting such degrading decision.
From then on, the repression kept taking different turns with intolerable vulgarity. The tension came to its’ peak when General Yahya Khan refused to allow Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan despite of his party winning 167 seats out of 300 and they continued to alienate East Pakistan, now Bangladesh and its’ people from everything and denied all rights. As a continuation of this hatred and discrimination, on March 25th of 1971 their vulture like claws came out, and in one single night without any notice, without any prior sign like a bunch of cowards they attacked the innocent Bengali people with heavy weapons in the middle of the night while they were deep in sleep. Surely, the Pakistani Govt. was tempted, and as Mark Twain had stated, “There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice”, they chose night over day, attacking than discussing, acting than thinking without having the minimum decency.
Who knows, maybe a mother was feeding her baby at that moment, a sick man or woman was crying for help, next morning was the greatest day of one’s life, someone was having a sweet dream! They snatched away everything within a flash. In his book, Why We Can’t Wait Martin Luther King, Jr. asserts, “Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence. He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another’s flesh” (143). Did the Pakistani exhibit any conscience? Didn’t they eat the flesh of human beings as Dr. King Jr. had mentioned? Should the Pakistanis be still considered as human beings, then?
Obviously, they were threatened by the Declaration of independence by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Racecourse on March 7th. Their evil brain did not see any other way to hold onto the power, but they were totally reluctant to leave it. So, with their aggression they wanted to stop the independence movement of the nation by killing a mass number of people on the 25th March. And, March 26th came following one of the most heinous act of the human civilization as a necessary tool to once more announce and spread out the words of the Independence Day.
We all know this history; yet, we force ourselves to deny it or portray it differently. I, personally have not encountered any other nation that is divided to decide upon its’ revolution, emancipation like we have been, especially after 40 years of the birth of a nation. We are still fighting over establishing our roles on this historic event while the anti-Bangladeshi force is growing rapidly being very active. Though our Constitution states religious impartiality, we, still live in a country where religious based politics has been practiced in a full swing. We got our identity at the cost of 3 million fresh lives regardless of gender, religion, age, profession or any other basis, but we allow those collaborators of Pakistan to have our national flag on their high-cost imported cars while many of our freedom fighters have been forced to spread their empty hands in the broad day light on the street just to survive day to day.
Bangabandhu had spent most of his life in jail transported from here to there with a constant threat of being killed at any moment. Yet, many of us don’t hesitate to say and teach our next generation that “he was having fun in India in the 1971”, or “he actually did not want Bangladesh to be free”, and many other nonsense stories. There is no nation in the world who debates on their father of the nation except us. It is not a rare case either in Bangladesh that people think they have options to choose the father of the nation and this honor can go to many people as they allow to be as if it is no difference than doing our weekly grocery, or choosing one menu over the other in a restaurant. What a childish act! What a shame! Or, is it cowardice as Confucius has mentioned “To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice”?
Pakistan had exceeded all records of brutality by killing 3 million people only in 9 months, not to mention the number on March 25th alone when roughly at least 50,000 people were murdered only in Dhaka. Even Hitler, one of the worst dictators would have been ashamed to learn this huge figure in such a short period of time. In those nine months period the Pakistani force and their Bangladeshi collaborators engulfed the days of Bangladeshies with horror. There are many fictions, non fictions, biographies and auto biographies written and taught in schools of different parts of the world that projects the historical truth of different nations. The Diary of Anne Frank itself has been translated into almost every language in the world, and we enter into the horrendous situation created by the Nazis through her description. In contrast, we are still living in the era of distortion, our young generation are in a great dilemma.
This is the time to act now. Majority of the world population are still unaware of what had happened to Bangladesh in 1971, how did the Pakistani Government turn March 25th the darkest night of human civilization. As this ruthless event supersedes all preceding atrocity performed against any nation, it deserves to be called the “International Genocide Day” to make the world aware of this monstrousness and at the same time to show our earnest respect to those martyrs. We need to raise our voice and demonstrate our pro advocacy to freedom and justice.
· · · Share
Why March 25th should be the 'International Genocide Day'
by Naznin Seamon (নাজনীন সীমন) on Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 1:45am ·
Bangladesh-----how did the map come to be? What about the name itself? It’s a pretty long history, but not that old. There are many countries in the world who had to be emancipated from their oppressors, many nations and races suffered for a long time and were treated inhumanly, but no nation had ever encountered such brutality as Bangladesh did in 1971 and even beyond.
The way Hitler attempted to wipe out the Jews and re-establish a nation with pure German blood, Pakistan also sketched a plan to annihilate Bangladesh and its’ population from the face of the world. Of course, they have tried everything to dominate this nation, undermine their abilities, ignore them as human beings, and crush them into little pieces. This process started soon after the British left the then, India and divided it into two halves, namely India and Pakistan, and gradually it moved towards the extreme while 1952 was the major turning point as they declared Urdu to be the one and only language of Pakistan and killed people protesting such degrading decision.
From then on, the repression kept taking different turns with intolerable vulgarity. The tension came to its’ peak when General Yahya Khan refused to allow Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan despite of his party winning 167 seats out of 300 and they continued to alienate East Pakistan, now Bangladesh and its’ people from everything and denied all rights. As a continuation of this hatred and discrimination, on March 25th of 1971 their vulture like claws came out, and in one single night without any notice, without any prior sign like a bunch of cowards they attacked the innocent Bengali people with heavy weapons in the middle of the night while they were deep in sleep. Surely, the Pakistani Govt. was tempted, and as Mark Twain had stated, “There are several good protections against temptation, but the surest is cowardice”, they chose night over day, attacking than discussing, acting than thinking without having the minimum decency.
Who knows, maybe a mother was feeding her baby at that moment, a sick man or woman was crying for help, next morning was the greatest day of one’s life, someone was having a sweet dream! They snatched away everything within a flash. In his book, Why We Can’t Wait Martin Luther King, Jr. asserts, “Man was born into barbarism when killing his fellow man was a normal condition of existence. He became endowed with a conscience. And he has now reached the day when violence toward another human being must become as abhorrent as eating another’s flesh” (143). Did the Pakistani exhibit any conscience? Didn’t they eat the flesh of human beings as Dr. King Jr. had mentioned? Should the Pakistanis be still considered as human beings, then?
Obviously, they were threatened by the Declaration of independence by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman at the Racecourse on March 7th. Their evil brain did not see any other way to hold onto the power, but they were totally reluctant to leave it. So, with their aggression they wanted to stop the independence movement of the nation by killing a mass number of people on the 25th March. And, March 26th came following one of the most heinous act of the human civilization as a necessary tool to once more announce and spread out the words of the Independence Day.
We all know this history; yet, we force ourselves to deny it or portray it differently. I, personally have not encountered any other nation that is divided to decide upon its’ revolution, emancipation like we have been, especially after 40 years of the birth of a nation. We are still fighting over establishing our roles on this historic event while the anti-Bangladeshi force is growing rapidly being very active. Though our Constitution states religious impartiality, we, still live in a country where religious based politics has been practiced in a full swing. We got our identity at the cost of 3 million fresh lives regardless of gender, religion, age, profession or any other basis, but we allow those collaborators of Pakistan to have our national flag on their high-cost imported cars while many of our freedom fighters have been forced to spread their empty hands in the broad day light on the street just to survive day to day.
Bangabandhu had spent most of his life in jail transported from here to there with a constant threat of being killed at any moment. Yet, many of us don’t hesitate to say and teach our next generation that “he was having fun in India in the 1971”, or “he actually did not want Bangladesh to be free”, and many other nonsense stories. There is no nation in the world who debates on their father of the nation except us. It is not a rare case either in Bangladesh that people think they have options to choose the father of the nation and this honor can go to many people as they allow to be as if it is no difference than doing our weekly grocery, or choosing one menu over the other in a restaurant. What a childish act! What a shame! Or, is it cowardice as Confucius has mentioned “To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice”?
Pakistan had exceeded all records of brutality by killing 3 million people only in 9 months, not to mention the number on March 25th alone when roughly at least 50,000 people were murdered only in Dhaka. Even Hitler, one of the worst dictators would have been ashamed to learn this huge figure in such a short period of time. In those nine months period the Pakistani force and their Bangladeshi collaborators engulfed the days of Bangladeshies with horror. There are many fictions, non fictions, biographies and auto biographies written and taught in schools of different parts of the world that projects the historical truth of different nations. The Diary of Anne Frank itself has been translated into almost every language in the world, and we enter into the horrendous situation created by the Nazis through her description. In contrast, we are still living in the era of distortion, our young generation are in a great dilemma.
This is the time to act now. Majority of the world population are still unaware of what had happened to Bangladesh in 1971, how did the Pakistani Government turn March 25th the darkest night of human civilization. As this ruthless event supersedes all preceding atrocity performed against any nation, it deserves to be called the “International Genocide Day” to make the world aware of this monstrousness and at the same time to show our earnest respect to those martyrs. We need to raise our voice and demonstrate our pro advocacy to freedom and justice.
Naznin Seamon "সত্যের শিখা নিভু নিভু করে জ্বলে"; কিন্তু আর কতোদিন, ৪০ বছর তো কাটলো? আমি এসবের সমাধান দেখে যেতে চাই।
Motashim Al Razi The seed of this clash was sowed when the question arose whether there would be a feudal state or democratic state. Obviously, Bangladesh by blood she is on the side of democracy and socialism. On the other hand Pakistan was on the side of medieval feudal life, life of darkness.
নীল কন্ঠ
এদেশের সবচে বড় সমস্যা এর জনগন। স্পষ্টতঃ দুটো ভাগে ভিভক্ত। এক ভাগ ইতিহাস ধরে আছে আর অন্যভাগ অন্ধের মত মিথ্যে গল্প সাজিয়ে তাদের আখের গোছানোর ধান্দায়---একবার ভেবেও দেখেনা যে জাতীয় মূল ইস্যু গুলোতে সবাই সহমত হতে পারলে দেশটা কত দ্রুত এগিয়ে যেতে
পারে। পাকিস্তানের ভুত, দেশের পরাজিত শক্তি যদ্দিন নিশ্চিহ্ন না হবে---ততদিন যত কথাই বলা হোক কিছুতে কিছু হবার নয়। এই গ্রুপ আজ একটা সেতু বানাবে অন্য গ্রুপ ক্ষমতাএ এসে সেই সেতু ভেঙ্গে ফেলবে। বড় সমস্যা ইতিহাসের সবচে বড় খল নায়ক কে বানানো হয়েছে নায়ক।--এই সব থেকে বেড়িয়ে আসতে হবে--সঠিক ইতিহাস নতুন প্রজন্মের কাছে তুলে ধরতে হবে---ধর্মীও রাজনীতি পরিপূর্ণ ভাবে নিষিদ্ধ ঘোষণা করতে হবে---এবার সেই সুযোগ চমৎকার ভাবেই ছিল--কিন্তু প্রগতিশীল আওয়ামিলীগ সেই পথে হাঁটেনি কেন? তাদের ভোট কমে যাবার ভয়? ক্ষমতার গদিই যদি হয় রাজনৈতীক দল্গুলোর কেবলমাত্র গন্তব্য তাহলে আর আমরা হৈচৈ করে কি লাভ--ভোট তো আমরাই এদের দেই--মাঝে মাঝে মনে হয় যার যা ইচ্ছে --করুক। চোখ কান বন্ধ করে থাকি!!! সত্যি আর ভাল লাগেনা।
Asraful Forhad Chowdhury if i am not wrong i am the junior one hear to comment :: we are not hopeless
Mahbub Shawkot Sob dhandabaj............ Boro dui party ache ninda aar galmondo korar protijiogitay....... Ekjon MAHATIR MOHAMMOD er dorkar....... Chalun sobai mile ekjon MAHATIR er sondhan kori............ @ Nazmin Semons & Others.
Asraful Forhad Chowdhury @MAHBUB :: you are not right at all ,yes we need a good leader . but "Sob dhandabaj."" not right man
Shafiul Islam “...To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice”?.... Salute Seamon for your farsighted article.
নীল কন্ঠ Yes we can but we need to be united first.Thanks Shafiul for your encouraging words. Nothing is impossible. Thanks Seamon for this time worthy article and I believe it will help our younger generation to learn more about our true history.
Tozam Hussain notun ek apod jutese suvas chondro bos er vasti. isi er tk khe se nesha nakore matal hoe gese. gonohotta somporke se vul bokse. sochetonmohol obosso tar mithachar bondho korese. hoyto kokhono kono pakisthani militari officer take adorkore thakteo pare.osomvob ki.
Why March 25th should be the 'International Genocide Day'
নাজনীন সীমন
::
নিউ ইয়র্ক
c২০১১ মার্চ ২৬
c২০১১ মার্চ ২৬
No comments:
Post a Comment