My 'fight' with Benazir Bhutto!
CHRIST Church is the most aristocratic of all Oxford University colleges. Founded by King Henry VIII in 1532, it is the only Oxford college that is not called a "college." It houses the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford and as the House of Christ, cannot be a "college." In deference to Christ, it is nicknamed "The House."
Christ Church has produced thirteen British prime ministers, including Sir Alec Douglas-Home (1963-64), Anthony Eden (1955-57), and William Gladstone (1892-94), and eleven governors general and viceroys of India, including Richard Wellesley. Edward VII, king emperor of the United Kingdom and William Penn, the founder of the US colony Pennsylvania were also Christ Church students.
Philosopher John Locke, scientist Robert Hooke, historian Robert Blake, painter John Ruskin, and poet laureate W. H. Auden are Christ Church alumni. The college is the setting for parts of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, as well as Lewis Carroll's (a teacher at Christ Church, real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland set in the Christ Church Meadows. (Alice Liddle was the daughter of the dean or the head of Christ Church.) More recently, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series movies were filmed there. Albert Einstein was elected to a five year studentship at Christ Church in 1931.
Christ Church is a special place for the writer not only because he was a graduate student there in the early- to mid-1970s, but also because he got married there in 1975. Underneath the larger than life portrait of Henry VIII, the graduate students of Christ Church had the option of dining on a separate table. On certain days, graduate students could invite guests. The writer took the opportunity to invite in turn all Bangladeshi families residing at Oxford, as well as his relatives and friends.
One evening in the autumn of 1973, the writer invited a friend from another college to dine at Christ Church. Bangladesh was less than two years old then and my friend wanted to know the genesis of Bangladesh. We were oozing with patriotic fervour in those days and I explained to him with gusto what had happened: Sheikh Mujib had won 160 out of 162 seats in East Pakistan in Pakistan's election of December 1970, giving him an absolute majority in the 300-seat Pakistan parliament. Yet, Mr. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who had won only 81 seats in West Pakistan claimed to be Mujib's equal and threatened to "break the legs" of anyone coming to Dhaka to attend the session of the National Assembly. General Yahya Khan, the military dictator, who had earlier called Mujib the "future prime minister of Pakistan," conspired with Bhutto, and at the pretense of negotiating with Mujib, flew in army reinforcement from West Pakistan, and on the night of March 26, 1971 unleashed the might of the Pak army on unarmed civilians of East Pakistan, killing millions over nine months.
"That's exactly what the imperialists say!" blurted out the person sitting next to me. I did sense that the guest sitting next to me, wearing Shalwar Kameez, was hanging on to every word I was saying. I did not know who she was and certainly did not expect such rude interference. Being young and naïve I said something like: "Who is talking to you?" But talk we did. Quickly she went from confrontational to conciliatory. By this time I realised that she was Benazir Bhutto, who had enrolled at Oxford after graduating from Radcliffe. She empathised with the suffering of the Bangladeshis without being critical of her father. Out of his well known generosity, Mujib had decided not to try the imprisoned Pakistani soldiers. Benazir praised Mujib: "By releasing the Pakistani soldiers Sheikh Mujib proved that he is a statesman, not a rabble rouser." We parted amicably.
Benazir was the toast of the town. British boys flocked to her like bees to honey. But Benazir was a young woman of impeccable character. Sometimes her actions would raise eyebrows, though. I remember seeing a flyer publicising a speech by her. Underneath her name was the blurb: "Daughter of the Prime Minister of Pakistan." Such things are not done in England! Benazir sought to and eventually became the president of the prestigious debating society, Oxford Union, the first Asian woman to do so.
In early 1975, history Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper of Christ Church, nominated his buddy, Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a former student of Christ Church, for an honorary doctorate degree from Oxford University. This did not sit well with the Bangladeshi students. We decided to oppose it. We lobbied the dons (teachers) to vote against Mr. Bhutto, demonstrated in front of the Sheldonian Theatre with placards reading "Bhutto is a murderer." (The next day "The Oxford Mail" published a photograph of yours truly demonstrating, on its front page."). Benazir tried her best to lobby the Bangladeshi students. After waving and exchanging recognition signals as we passed each other on bicycles, Benazir would plead with us. But, to no avail. For the first time in the history of Oxford, a nominee for an honorary degree was voted down by the dons! We, Bangladeshi students, were ecstatic. Humiliated, the late Professor Trevor-Roper called Oxford's Bangladeshi students "spoiled, rich expatriates," which we certainly were not! A defiant Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto lamented haughtily: "It would have been easier if I had sat for it!"
Benazir took after her father. It would have been better if she had learned from his excesses. In her autobiography, "Daughter of the East," Benazir says that while at Radcliffe she never believed a word of the newspaper reports of atrocities committed by Pakistani troops on Bangladeshis. It was only after General Zia-ul Haq imprisoned her that she realised Pakistani soldiers could be so cruel! Yet, in her two stints as prime minister of Pakistan, she never came remotely close to apologising for the brutality of the Pakistani soldiers against the Bangladeshis.
Because Bangladeshis consider him primarily responsible for the atrocities perpetrated against them in 1971, it was hard to feel sorry for Mr. Bhutto when General Zia-ul Haq hanged him 1979. Even after her near death experience in Karachi last October, Benazir did not seem to realise that the extremists were after her life. I am truly sorry that the extremists succeed in assassinating Benazir last December.
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