Debate is one thing. Disinformation is quite another. Let us have an open, honest, nuanced conversation about the Liberation War, but let us always be guided by the truth.
In the past decade, a number of books have appeared on Bangladesh’s Liberation War. This essay covers three volumes focusing on the war from within the lens of conflict studies and great game manuevering -- by Gary J Bass, Srinath Raghavan, and Salil Tripathi.
Our Liberation War was basically about human rights and dignity. It was a call to refuse to be oppressed, to fight on behalf of the right of self-government, and to struggle in support of the values that unite us as a people: freedom, justice and equality. We must take pride in this history on Victory Day, as it represents not only a past victory but also a promise for the future.
If 1971 is to remain meaningful, it cannot be owned. It must be debated, carried with care, and opened to complexity. Otherwise, the Liberation War risks becoming either a party banner or a demolition tool. In both cases, the injury is the same: a past turned into a weapon rather than a shared ground on which a plural future might be negotiated.
On this day, Bangladesh did not yet know what it would become. It only knew what it had endured. The newspapers recorded surrender, denial, diplomacy, return, and rebirth. The people carried something else entirely -- a heavy, wordless knowledge of survival. That knowledge, more than any headline, is what remains.
On this December 14 we should neither forgive nor forget the atrocities that were committed against the Bangladeshi people, not just on that day in 1971 but throughout the nine months of the Liberation War. Some sins are unforgivable, and December 14, 1971 is one of them.
The King’s Party and the Queen’s party just perpetuate the cycle of dysfunction and corruption, while the people yearn for change. Into this vacuum step the Islamists. But the only change they can deliver will be to further divide us.
1971 is not only the history of a time; it is the foundation of our national identity, which must constantly be re-read, understood, and preserved. Re-reading the Liberation War of 1971 in the context of the current times and its challenges is the need of the hour.
An interim government, by definition, should not be working to any ideological agenda. But the Yunus regime appears to be doing precisely that.
1971 built a nation from nothing. 2024 has given us a chance to repair it. Independence is absolute; democratic reform is fragile.
