I have a question for everyone(mainly the Bangladeshi's); how much do we know about the historical 71? How much? We might be informed about the death toll or casualties of the war. We might be informed about why we fought the war and some of us have heard about how, our fathers had fought it. But do we know any of the details, about the sectors in which the liberation war was divided into. About what had happened in the fateful night of 25th march and so on, the list continues. Couple of months ago, I surely didn’t. Being sat at home in the empty Birmingham during winter holidays had given me an opportunity, an opportunity to take my time out and read about Bangladesh. I was missing my homeland. Even being from Bangladesh, I always felt like I didn’t know enough about our history. I really didn’t.
I came across in my little research of a man called ‘Rumi’. His good name Shafi Imam Rumi, the eldest son of the ‘Martyr Mother’ Jahanara Imam. Rumi in my eyes is nothing less than a hero, nothing short from any of the revolutionaries that had walked the land of Bengal, be it Masterda Surya Sen or Kalpana Dutta that had fought against the British. Having recently read the book, ‘Ekkaturer Dinguli’(The days of 71) by Jahanara Imam, had me in tears. Rumi, a young boy of 20 studying engineering in the College (Now Buet), in the time when the country most needed him had gone to war. He was a bright young man, well versed in the works of Marx, Lenin, was updated in the current world affairs at that time and came 3rd in the whole of then Pakistan Board in his Intermediate examination. On the 2nd of May he left home and then crossed the border and took training in the Melaghar, Agartala under Sector-2. Sector-2 Was supervised by Then Major Khaled Mosharraf, another hero of mine. Rumi after training went to war and came to form ‘Crack Platoon’, a guerrilla group that operated in Dhaka. But sadly he was caught in 29th of August 1971 and never returned home.
Shouldn’t it be the case, where we would grow up listening to the stories of these heroes? Shouldn’t we have their iconic faces on our t-shirts, just like we have the face of ‘Che’. Why isn’t it the case where we would grow up watching movies and television shows depicting these heroes? Rumi, Major Khaled Mosharraf and all the other heroes that was lost in undocumented history. A nation and a culture generate patriotism among its citizens by setting examples. Where was our example when we grew up? The corrupt politician, the extremists, the military rule. I am not surprised at the generations who do not feel much for the land and would be happy to just go away to another country. Bangladesh is only 40 years old and I have been there for half of it. I feel for the goodwill of Bangladesh. More now that I have been away for so long.
-Nirjhor Barua
11/04/2011
