The post-71 generation

I have noticed that many of the pieces that writers of this generation produce every December 16 have a similar tone to them. The pieces are almost all ritualistic disquisitions on where we have come to as a nation since 1971, and there is an almost uniform sense of disappointment running through them.

The authors begin with an inspiring depiction of the heroics and sacrifices and glories of the liberation war and how they had such high hopes for the future of the country, but this quickly gives way to the disillusionment of the present, as they look around and realise that their hopes and dreams remain unfulfilled, and that the country has fallen far short of the promise of that day when everything seemed possible.

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Reading these pieces every year, I am reminded that for those of the 71 generation, the last thirty-three years have been difficult ones, and that they do feel a profound sadness for their unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and that this is why they cannot help but look back on December 16 with sorrow as well as pride.

The differences between the 71 generation and the post-71 generation are never more apparent to me then when I read those pieces. I am reminded of the concluding lines to King Lear:

The weight of this sad time we must obey;
Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
The oldest hath borne most: we that are young
Shall never see so much, nor live so long.

I have noticed that writing from the perspective of what I would call the post-71 generation, my outlook and understanding differs a little from that of those who experienced first-hand the blood-soaked birth of Bangladesh and its tumultuous aftermath, and this makes me wonder about further implications of the differences between the generations.

I think for the 71 generation, December 16 has become a time to look back at the troubled history of our country and count our losses and missed opportunities.

This is, of course, understandable. The Bangladesh we live in today is not the Bangladesh anyone hoped for.

I can still remember glancing through a letter that my father's close friend Prof. Mosharraf Hossain gave me to take to my father when he was recovering from heart surgery some years ago and being struck by the poignancy of his words.

Even today, sometimes his words come back to me as I think of the 71 generation and all that they have seen and experienced: "Remember how we used to dream of raising a brave new world in this hapless land of ours?"

Even those who have done well personally in the years since independence--and there is no shortage of success stories--must be saddened by the state of the country as a whole.

So, I do understand the mixed emotions that the 71 generation feels on this day.

But I think that it is a little different for the post-71 generation.

I think as a generation we don't have that sense of crushing disillusionment. Things might not be all that we would want them to be, but frankly I can't really remember a time when things were all that much better than they are now -- and I can certainly remember times when things were worse.

Don't get me wrong.

There is much to bemoan about the state of the nation and those who read my column will know that bemoan them I regularly do.

In many ways, things are looking as grim for us today as they have been for a long time. The democratic consensus seems to be breaking down and we have reached a new low in terms of corruption and politicisation.

This year we have had floods and terrorist attacks and mass imprisonments and rigged polls to contend with, and the politics of the country appears to be heading in the direction of confrontation as we enter the new year.

But to my mind there is one reason to be hopeful -- and that is that a generational shift is slowly taking place from the 71 generation to the post-71 generation in the corridors of power and at the commanding heights of the economy.

It's the most ironic of paradoxes. The very generation that brought us our greatest moment and that we will always look to with pride is the same generation that has been unable to vanquish its own demons and establish a stable and sustainable polity in post-independence Bangladesh.

The sixties and seventies -- which were the crucible in which their identities were forged -- were rough and brutal times in this country.

As bad as things might be now, and for all the stories we have been told on long winter nights, the post-71 generation really can't begin to comprehend how things were in those blood-soaked and terror-filled days.

The differences we see today among the warring factions in the nation stem from those days -- and that's why they are so intractable. That's why among the 71 generation there can be no compromise. There can never be forgiveness and reconciliation. There has been too much blood shed and too much hardship suffered.

The story of the 71 generation is a story of broken dreams and betrayals.

The post-71 generation lives in more prosaic times. We are more pragmatic and less emotional. More realistic and less ideological.

Our feuds are not blood feuds, and our history is not one of ancient enmity and bitterness.

Our differences are not matters of life and death. We are not committed to forever re-fighting the same old battles over and over again.

No doubt this is something of an over-simplification. I have not gone into the fundamental reasons for the differences that split the Bangladeshi polity and the rights and the wrongs of the matter. That is a subject for another day.

I am merely pointing out that, due to the long bloody history behind the animosities between the warring factions, the 71 generation has never been able to resolve its differences, but that the post-71 generation might be able to.

To be sure, there is the other side of the coin when it comes to the post-71 generation.

Not having experienced the struggle for independence first-hand, we do not have that same sense of ownership and patriotism with respect to the country that the 71 generation does.

The flip-side of our pragmatism and realism is that idealism and a sense of social responsibility are in short supply. As a generation we are irredeemably materialistic and self-seeking. This is the tenor of the times in which we live -- and it is not a change for the better.

Many would look at the new generation of politicians and the growing nexus between crime and affairs of state, and scoff at the notion that redemption can possibly lie in the hands of a generation such as this.

Many would argue that, unmoored from the crucial formative experience of the liberation struggle that inspired a generation to devote their lives to building up the nation, the country will head into even greater turmoil in the years ahead, and that the passing of the torch from the hands of the 71 generation signals the beginning of the end.

They might not be wrong either. It would be another over-simplification to suggest that power passing to the post-71 generation will necessarily usher in an era of civility and cooperation. But what I am suggesting is that with the historical differences less prominent and the historical inequities less raw a compromise will at least be thinkable.

I retain the hope that the enduring legacy of the generational shift that is taking place in Bangladesh is that the ghosts of 1971 and its aftermath can finally be laid to rest, and that we can as a nation finally move out of the twilight and into the bright sunshine of a new day.

Zafar Sobhan is an Assistant Editor of The Daily Star.