Emergence of Bengali nationhood

The rise of nation states or the idea of nationalism is not as old as we think. The idea of nationalism emerged roughly about 500 years back. What was there before then? Of course, the feudal social system was the way of the world before the modern nationalistic society came into being. People were tied to land where rulers were feudal lords who mainly ruled over the masses.

The notion of nationalism began to emerge after the middle ages. In the 15th century feudal system began to fall apart. Through a civil war between 1642 and 1648 the quarrel between the king and parliament came to a head in England. A son of a farmer Oliver Cromwell led the people who were in favor of the parliamentary system. As the movement was led by Oliver Cromwell everyone now calls it the Cromwell Revolution. Actually the Cromwell Revolution was a revolution that brought capitalist class to power. In other words we call it a modern capitalist country. The revolution came to an end in 1648. So the seventeenth century can be considered as the beginning of modern capitalist society.

But American modern capitalism didn’t emerge the way it happened in Britain. America didn’t have to fight against its feudal system rather it had to wage its struggle against the British colonial rule. Whatever the way was its capitalism and the idea of nationhood emerged through its independence movement led by George Washington. In 1776 it could announce itself as a modern state free from the yoke of colonial rule though the war continued for few more years.

While Britain appeared as a modern state through a civil war French revolution broke out between the supporters of royalists and peasants and poor people until it ended in 1789. It was French Revolution that basically reshaped the entire world with the slogan of equality, fraternity and liberty. The foundation of this notion was laid by a number of philosophers like Rousseau and Voltaire.

Capitalism in Russia came during the First World War though just nine months later the power went into the hands of the working class. Lenin, the leader of the working class, seized the power through a socialist revolution. At least three dozen African and Asian colonized countries became independent in between 1945 and 1960 from their European colonizers to establish their identities as independent nationhood. In Latin America it happened much earlier. Most of the Latin American nations except Spanish colonies Cuba and Puerto Rico gained independence in between 1808 and 1826.

I have cited the examples of only a few countries that rose to become modern states. The word ‘modern state’ is associated with capitalism or in more political term they can be called ‘modern bourgeoisie states’. For better understanding we should call them modern capitalist states. In whatever forms and ways they became modern capitalist states do not matter at all. What matters is that they all are called independent states.

Somewhere such modern states came into being through civil war such as Britain, somewhere it came through a class conflict such as French, somewhere it emerged through struggles between colonial power and colonized people such as America and in some other countries the capitalism wasn’t established at all as there was a direct leap from feudal state to that of a socialist state. Such state emerged through ‘People’s Democratic Revolution’ such as China where the struggle was twofold – Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong had to fight against both feudal lords and colonial power like America and Japan. He had to overleap a phase of social system.

In our country such modern state emerged much later period. It was as recent as 1971 when capitalism as a system became decadent and moribund. Again the feature of colonialism here was quite unique. When East Pakistan was colonized by West Pakistan soon after 1947 after Britain left India leaving behind a divisive land drawn by Radcliffe based on religions East Pakistan became colonized within a single state. It is unique in that no other colonized countries around the globe have had to face such formation of colonization.

In terms of geographical boundary it is also unique in that East Pakistan was located 1, 000 square kilometer away from West Pakistan and there was a part of India in between what made it more unique. May be no other countries in the world can be found where there is a third country jutted in between the two territorial boundaries of one single country.

These two reasons – the unique nature of colonization and the country based upon religious majority – made it difficult for people to fathom out what exactly they would have to do. People came to their senses that a country cannot be formed only on the basis of religion and it cannot be the foundation of nationalism.

The feeling of belonging to a ‘nation state’ made up of people of one race, language, culture, heritage and centering which an urge to live together within a single geographical boundary with a domestic ruler not a foreign one is called nationalism. This sense of nationalism was hurt soon after Pakistan was formed as a state. People, especially the intellectuals of this part of Pakistan i.e. East Pakistan, took no time to came to understand that under the camouflage of ‘Pakistan Muslim Nationalism’ East Pakistan in fact became a colony of West Pakistan. And the ruler of West Pakistan too took no time to begin its assault which came first on Language.

Even as early as 29 July 1947 Dr Muhammad Shahidullah (1885-1965), the linguist and doyen of Bengali language and literature, said: “If Urdu or Hindi instead of Bengali is used in our law courts and universities that would be tantamount to political slavery.” It became clear when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then governor general of Pakistan, came to Dhaka in March 1948. While addressing a gathering of students on March 24 Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared that Urdu and Urdu alone would the state language of Pakistan resulting in an impromptu protest from the student community leading to the historic February 21 general strike.

Gradually the language movement fuelled the fire of nationalism in the minds of Bengali people. Small pockets of resistance began to develop here and there. A committee was formed to lead the movement. By the time various political parties with different ideologies emerged. But on one point they had no disagreement – the national pride.

As the movement continued with its natural ups and downs repression by the Pakistan rulers got intensified. The more the repression intensified the more people got united to face the colonial regime. Then came the different stages of movement through which leaderships also began to appear. Maulana Bhashani came on to the stage with his unwavering and resolute determination to lead the movement but he failed to do so. There are reasons that demand explanation. As I am not writing on who could do what I am not discussing it here in this piece of my writing. I would like to leave it for another write-up.

In absence of resolute voice of Maulana Bhashani, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman emerged as the lone leader of Bengali people as he gave the voice to the voiceless when the country was very close to direct confrontation with West Pakistan. After that the history towards the making of a nation is well known. After a nine-month relentless, brave and courageous resistance put up by Bengali nation the colonial ruler had to concede defeat in 1971.

The saddest part of the Independence War was that the country was liberated at a critical juncture of the capitalist world system. The modern capitalist state of Bangladesh was formed at a time when the capitalism as a system was moving towards its own demise. Its labor pain can be heard everywhere urging for a radical change.

The writer is a journalist. He can be contacted at [email protected]