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Communal riots of 1964

Published : Monday, 5 April, 2021 at 12:00 AM  Count : 1042

Communal riots of 1964

Communal riots of 1964

Even though I was no more student of Dhaka University in 1964, I used to keep regular contact with elder and younger leaders of the Chattra Shakti. Technically I continued to be its President although the major responsibilities of the office was shouldered by others such as classmates Rezaul Haque Sarker and juniors like Shahed Ali, Anisur Rahman, Mohiuddin Alamgir who later acquired a Ph.D and worked abroad and Anwar Ullah Chowdhury who later became Vice-Chancellor of the Dhaka University. During 1964 Shahed Ali was elected General Secretary of the S.M Hall Union from the Chattra Shakti in coalition with Chattra Union. My class friend Halim who was elected Vice President that year virtually 'abdicated' and stayed away from the union affairs. He later served as senior journalist in now defunct Dainik Bangla. Shahed Ali thus became virtually the Vice-President and General Secretary rolled into one. He got engaged in private sector business in Bangladesh and became a leader of the Gono Forum. He married reputed educationalist and writer Hosne Ara Shahed.

Other senior leaders who were not University students anymore like Zakiuddin Ahmed, Mosharraf Hossain and Faruque Mahmud used to advice and counsel us on the desirable stand of the Chattra Shakti in national, provincial and university politics. They usually advised us to follow our motto of keeping to the middle path and pursuing the golden mean. The anti regime stance of the party was common with the leftist East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU) and Bengali autonomists Students League. One could feel the intensifying pressures of polarization. The pro-regime rightist National Students Federation (NSF) still enjoyed full support of the government, especially of the East Pakistan Governor Abdul Monem Khan.

We also felt the force of the rising tide of Bengali political, economic and cultural self assertion. The Students League, Chattra League was an out and out advocate of the cause, while the Students Union gave it qualified support keeping its loyalty intact to leftist and socialist ideals. Chattra Shakti had no problem in sharing the move for obtaining equitable share of Bengalis in Pakistani polity as it was fully dedicated to the cause of parity between the two wings.  The major problem that the party faced was the stress and pull between those who strongly favoured a secular approach and others who clung to the ideas of modernized version of humanistic Islamic socialism. By 1965 the two parted their ways and the faction under Anisur Rahman declared its abandonment of any commitment to Islamic ideals in politics. In course of time even as the War of Liberation in 1971 approached, the Chattra Shakti divided into two and lost its organization and strength to become virtually extinct. As has been mentioned earlier the Chattra Shakti did not have any political party as its patron or guardian those of its members who joined national politics had to opt for parties of their own choice. Thus even before the War of Liberation Ataur Rahman Khan Kaiser and Mozaffar Hossain Poltu stalwarts of the Chattra Shakti in the early and mid sixties joined the Awami League. They became the party's prominent leaders in Bangladesh. On the other hand former Chattra Shakti leaders who did not prefer the Awami League such as class friend Rezaul Haque Sarker Rana of Rangpur joined the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) after its formation in 1979.

As mentioned earlier at the close of my student's career and start of my days as a teacher of the Dhaka University in October 1964, I ceased to be involved in any kind of active politics. Nevertheless, after serving as a University teacher from 1964 to 1967, as Civil Servant from 1967 to 1980 and as independent consultant and part-time journalist (1980-1990), I came to hold a political office that of a Cabinet Minister as a technocrat in 1990. Retired General H M Ershad was then the President and Head of the government. The party founded by President Ershad Jatiyo Party had a majority in the National Assembly in 1988-90. I was neither a member of the Jatiyo Party nor member of the parliament. Thus, my joining a political office came through a non political path because of a provision of the Constitution as amended by the 4th amendment. It allowed inclusion of a limited number of Ministers in the Cabinet who were 'technocrats' and not members of the parliament.

For us the tragic and saddening event in the first quarter of 1964 was the communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in India and Pakistan in January of the year. On the 27th of December 1963, the Holly relic, the hair of Prophet Muhammad (SM) went missing from the Hazratbal shrine in Srinagar in the part of Kashmir administered by India. Although the holy relic was reported to have been recovered on the 4th January. The incident triggered savage Hindu-Muslim communal riots in India, especially in Kolkata in West Bengal. Many Indian Muslims were killed and rendered homeless by criminal attacks of enraged miscreants. As a reaction communal riots in the then East Pakistan took place with intense severity. Anti Hindu sentiments were provoked particularly by a section of non-Bengali criminals and indulged by the reactionary elements of the government in power. The riots spread to various parts of the region including Khulna, Narayanganj and provincial capital Dhaka. The worst happened from the 3rd to 19th January, 1964. A large number of Hindus were killed. Many more were injured and thousands rendered homeless. The fury of the blood socked riots went on unabated until the 18th January when a curfew was imposed in Dhaka city. It had to be extended up-to the noon of 19th January. The government was forced to sit-up and act mainly because of the resistance of non-communal, liberal and humanist Muslim Bengali citizens.

The students of the Dhaka University especially those belonging to Chattra Union, Chattra League and Chattra Shakti united in their efforts to stem the tide of communal riots. They organized rallies, peace processions and nightly vigils armed with sticks and iron-rods to resist the miscreants. Kamal Siddiqui sketches a moving picture of these tragic riots and efforts of the students to stop the riots in his book 'In One Life', Dhaka, APPL, 2015, pp. 129-131.
The print media (audiovisual Media such as TV channels were yet to appear) especially the popular vernacular daily Ittefaq and the widely read English daily the then Pakistan Observer played a vital role in building-up a United Front against ugly communalism. Both of these liberal and non-communal newspapers had to suffer the wrath of the entrenched communal elements within the government.

Progressive and liberal leaders such as former Chief Minister Ataur Rahman Khan and the rising Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (later the founder leader of sovereign Bangladesh), Mahmud Ali and Editor of the Ittefaq Tofazzal Hossain Manik Miah and other political leaders issued a bold statement asking the people to rise against communalism. Justice Syed Mahbub Morshed a sitting Judge in the Dhaka High Court (later the Chief Justice) brought together the liberal leaders to form an anti communal riot committee. That committee with support and participation of the people of the region responded successfully to the call of the Ittefaq: "East Pakistan stand-up and resist". The clarion call inscribed in a six column headline. "Purbo Pakistan Rukhia Darao", moved the citizens including the youth to determinately resist the ugly tide of communalism in East Bengal. In consequence of their combined efforts the communal tensions and riots and fast came to an end by the middle of February 1964. We heaved a sigh of relief as peace and tranquility returned in a society which for eight centuries took pride in harmonious coexistences of Muslims, Hindus, Christians and Buddhists and others.
"Dr Mizanur Rahman Shelley,
founder Chairman of Centre for Development Research (CDRB), and former technocrat Cabinet Minister of Bangladesh, died on August 12, 2019. He contributed his writeups to the Daily Observer which
are being published regularly as "The Symphony of Our Times".









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