Don't know much about history

The presentation, which we reprinted in The Daily Star on Monday, has led to a number of follow up pieces by commentators and columnists and has ignited discussion and debate anywhere people read newspapers in the country, and not a moment to soon.

In and of itself, this is a good sign. It is good to see that the country is not yet so jaded with disillusionment nor so indifferent to questions of right and wrong that we have entirely buried our memory of the execution together with the body of one of the true heroes of the liberation war.

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Lifschultz told me that he was hoping to soon bring out a new edition of his first-rate book on the November 7 uprising and its antecedents and aftermath, The Unfinished Revolution, and I can think of no publication that I would more like to see for sale in the local market.

That this seminal work of modern Bangladeshi history has been out of print for many years, both in the original and in Bangla translation, let alone become a set text in colleges and universities, tells us everything we need to know about our national commitment to truly understanding and facing up to our history. It's a damn shame.

But even before Lifschultz came to give his speech, the execution of Taher and the extinguishing of his revolutionary movement (that had been swept under the carpet and politely ignored for far too long) had been on my mind.

I recently appeared on a new television show called Agamir Kontho that will begin airing on Banglavision at the end of next month. It is a weekly talk show intended to give voice to the younger generation, where issues are discussed by a panel of young professionals, academics, etc with questions and comments from a studio audience of university students.

The subject under discussion when I appeared was whether today's youth know enough about the history of Bangladesh, and what was interesting to note was that while the students, who were impressively articulate and intelligent, could confidently reel off the significance of dates such as 1905 and 1911 and 1947, it was clear that they had only the vaguest of knowledge and even less understanding of the events of 1975.

To say that the truth about this most tumultuous of years in the history of independent Bangladesh has been and continues to be officially suppressed would be to understate rather considerably the sophistication and extent of the propagandizing and revisionism that has gone into the effort.

Not only is there a whitewash in official text-books, but on each November 7 the whitewash is given another sickeningly hypocritical and, one can only assume, consciously deceitful coating.

The day is commemorated by full-page government ads in all the newspapers and the ostentatious laying of wreaths and giving of speeches lauding Taher's heroism in coming to the rescue of his old friend Gen Ziaur Rahman.

But what is left conspicuously unspoken is the fact that soon thereafter this self-same old friend of Taher's turned into his executioner and ruthlessly and comprehensively liquidated his revolutionary movement.

Similarly, that hundreds if not thousands of others were executed in this liquidation and in the suppression of countless other abortive coups during the seventies is something very few Bangladeshis, specially those who were not born then, know anything about at all.

Ask school-children or even university students today about the post-1975 killings. They don't know.

Then ask them about the liberation war. They will tell you frankly that the history has been so thoroughly muddied and politicized that they no longer even know what is true and what is not, who to believe and who not to.

The reason for the revisionist historiography and propaganda that passes for history today is simple: from the days of the war itself, the Awami League has tried to wrap itself in the flag of the liberation war and claim sole ownership of the mantle of liberation.

Rather than cede this ground or to point out that the AL does not own the liberation war and that others also played their part, the revisionists have chosen to instead construct their own revisionist history of the war, its genesis, and its aftermath, to paint the AL and Bangabandhu in the worst possible light.

Part of this revisionist historiography is the denigration of the image of Bangabandhu and the careful burnishing of the image of President Zia in an attempt to elevate him to co-equal if not pre-eminent status in the nation's iconography.

The converse of the fact that few know the full story of the coups and counter-coups of 1975 and their bloody aftermath is that every child knows about the famine and atrocities, though little else, and with no context, of the AL years immediately after liberation.

It is important to question this process of myth-making and propagandizing because it helps us understand the forces that control the nation's historical narrative and it helps us understand where the balance of power truly lies in this country.

It has always seemed to me that Bangladesh gives the lie to the stereotype that there are no secrets in the subcontinent. There is so much of our history that remains shrouded in mystery including the real forces behind the assassinations of both Bangabandhu and President Zia.

Understanding this is again important because it keeps us on notice that there are still shadowy forces behind the scenes and that there is still much that we do not know about who calls the shots and how the country is run.

But there is also another, deeper issue. Some might say, let bygones be bygones, the past is the past, and it is long overdue for the country to forget its ancient enmities and divisions and move forward as one.

Perhaps. But we cannot be a country whose entire identity and sense of nationhood is based on untruth. Until we come to terms with our past and until we bring into the light of day the truth about our history, we will never be able to create a true national identity, and we will continue to be a nation divided, going nowhere fast.

Zafar Sobhan is Assistant Editor, The Daily Star.