It was perhaps not a season of revolutionary ferment around the globe. But it was a time when politics around the world was in a state of dynamism. Leadership in a good number of instances was aimed at a redefinition of the nature of statecraft, with new individuals running the show.
It was May 1981, a point in time in Bangladesh’s history that would in broad measure turn out to be a point of light. The darkness engendered by dictatorship, indeed by a calculated move to denigrate politics through a rejection of authentic history, needed to be struck hard. The voice of the people was required to be heard, through the mantle of leadership being assumed by one who could ignite new hope among the toiling, huddled masses.
Resting on Brazen Untruth
Bangabandhu and the four leaders of the Mujibnagar government had been dead for close to six years. And that was not the only shame the nation had been subjected to. The assassins of 1975 strutted around without embarrassment, without the law hauling them to justice. And, yes, the darkness suited the regime and its sycophants. Its grip on power rested on brazen untruth, on the manifest evil it epitomised.
In the close to six years between August 1975 and May 1981, the state of Bangladesh was in free fall. Elements virulently opposed to secular politics ran the show in a bizarre combination of civil-military efforts to thwart the return of sanity in the country. And where politics was the issue – and the reference is to secular democratic politics – the historically consequential Awami League lay riven in factions. Zohra Tajuddin, Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, Abdur Razzak and others each tried holding their factions together, tried recreating the vibrant entity that the Awami League had been prior to the dangers and repression it was subjected to.
Political Revisionism
Change needed to be made, for political revisionism to be sent packing. Strong and unifying leadership had become an imperative. Symbolism could turn the tide. In a move that was to prove monumental in the context of the country’s political traditions, an embattled Awami League turned to Bangabandhu’s young daughter Sheikh Hasina to redirect the country to its moorings as they had been set during the War of Liberation. It was a step that would resonate with the party rank-and-file but more so with citizens across the length and breadth of the country. If a national unifying factor had become an insistent urge, it was Sheikh Hasina who would be that factor.
If Bangladesh had to be freed of the scourge of authoritarian rule and anti-history, it would be Sheikh Hasina who would lead the movement to cleanse the country of such impediments to the rule of law and to the concept of Bengali nationalism as ingrained in the history of Bengali cultural and political history over the decades. The young Sheikh Hasina, for years unable to return home from exile, would finally come home. It was a rainy afternoon on 17 May 1981 that the elder daughter of the Father of the Nation flew back home to a tumultuous national welcome.
It was an emotional coming back. Much had been Sheikh Hasina’s grief, as also that of her younger sibling. Their trauma was unlike any other, for in a few villainous moments in August 1975 their entire family had been put to sudden death. The trauma then assumed monstrous proportions, with the men who seized power — civilians as well as soldiers — shutting the door to justice, to a prosecution of the killers and their political patrons. Home was no more home for Hasina and Rehana. Every effort went into ensuring that they did not make their way back to Bangladesh. They were suddenly alone.
The decision to invite Sheikh Hasina to take charge of an embattled Awami League eventually put paid to any effort to keep her away from the country any longer. On 17 May, it was a near re-creation of history. Bangabandhu had returned home to take charge of a battered country in 1972; and in 1981 it was his daughter who would re-inject the nation with the electrifying energy that would reinvent the country. On 17 May 1981, the journey to a renaissance got underway. A new struggle for an assertive, democratic Bangladesh was launched when Sheikh Hasina set foot in Dhaka.
It was a landmark moment. In India, Indira Gandhi was in her second year in office following her triumphal return to power. Post-Mao China struggled to find a way to political stability, while in the Soviet Union an increasingly ailing Leonid Brezhnev gave every sign of the approaching end. A harsh dictatorship kept Pakistan in its hard grip, even as Ronald Reagan and Ziaul Haq together sought to beat back the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. In France, a remarkable development had taken place through the election of the socialist Francois Mitterrand to the Elysee.
For Bangladesh’s people, for Sheikh Hasina and for secular nationalist politics, 17 May marked the inauguration of a new and decisive phase of history, indeed a new order, in the country. It was the return of the native. It would be a bonding between leader and people that would in time firmly shape up as a renewal of the idea of Bangladesh as Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had envisaged it.
On 17 May 1981, Bangladesh basked in the glow of lamps lit across its landscape of villages, towns, streams, rivers and hills. Light would penetrate the darkness, putting villainy and evil to flight.
About the Author
Syed Badrul Ahsan is the Chief Editorial Adviser of The Confluence; a journalist and author. He previously served as the Press Minister at the High Commission of Bangladesh, London and authored a biography on the Founder of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman entitled From Rebel to Founding Father: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
2 comments
A piece of history came alive ! Well written.
On May 17 in 1981 after 4 pm, Sheikh Hasina returned to the country after a long exile.
Sheikh Hasina demonstrated her exceptional leadership abilities while successfully navigating the intricate political environment of the 1980s and 1990s. Her dedication to democracy was shown in her steadfast resistance against the dictatorial regimes of Gen Ershad…
In 1996, her determination resulted in the Awami League achieving a significant victory in the parliament elections, leading to her becoming the Prime Minister of Bangladesh for the first time.
Her return is a turning point which had a rejuvenating effect on the AL, reinstated democratic government, and propelled Bangladesh onto an unparalleled trajectory of prosperity and development. Her leadership consistently motivates and directs the nation towards a more promising and affluent future. Joytu Sheikh Hasina. (I recall, as an onlooker, I rushed to Kurmitola Airport from our Motijheel office and greeted for her welcome back to home along with thousands of people with sky-rocketing Joy Bangla and Joy Bangabandhu slogans).
–Anwar A. Khan