by AFSAN CHOWDHURY
This is an amazing book because although it is the tale of the most successful Bengali politician of all times, it is one of the simplest stories told. The lack of pretension and straightforwardness of the narrative is humbling. It is not the ‘great leader’ who is speaking in this book but the ‘ordinary person’ who is offering his version of history, both personal and political. One is thankful that he wrote it long before history itself crowded him so overwhelmingly after independence. In that narrow space that he occupied after 1971 this book couldn’t have been written. At so many levels the book introduces the man as never done before, turning the public persona into a real human being. This Mujib is an unknown Bangladeshi who through this book becomes someone we would know very well.
Sheikh Muib begins his narrative talking about his family and its origins which contextualizes his socio-economic position. He writes how this family of mid-level aristocracy once flourished but over time lost its wealth due to many reasons including rivalries and competition. It is quite interesting to hear about the clan leaders and their fights with the British which he recalls with great pride. In fact his description of family ties is fascinating; quite simply because of its spread and entwinement. Clearly, Sheikh Mujib saw himself as a product of his clan and given his background this obviously influenced his world view as well. That’s how Bengali Muslim families were constructed at that time. It is a very different world in which Sheikh Hasina says she has only seven family members. He had many many more.
His marriage was a typical product of such a culture. Renu was a close relative as well and when he was 13 he was married off to secure the property which Renu’s grandfather was bequeathing her. She was only three years old then. He writes, “…I had to marry her because of my father’s command. The marriage ceremony was confined to an official registration. All I could gather from the event was that I had been married off. I was not able to comprehend the implications of the act.” It was also a family affair and Renu was raised in the Sheikh family along with his siblings after her grandfather’s death when she was only seven years old.
This part of the book is fascinating because it mentions traditional family life and structures very elaborately and such descriptions are not easily found. It also helps people understand the impulses and emotions that made the man and the society from which Mujib emerged.
A bout of illnesses held his education back when in school and soon he was four years behind in his studies. A young boy/man of energy and enthusiasm, he spent much time in the field and as he writes frankly, built a gang of his own. “I was a very obstinate boy. I had my own gang of boys. I would mercilessly punish anyone who offended me. I would fight a lot. If any member of my band was ever insulted we would pounce on the offender.”
He is not apologetic about this part of the past though his father saw this poorly. It also shows that he considered loyalty to his ‘gang’ without question. This trait of course can be detected in his later life and in our dominating political culture, unquestioning loyalty has run deep. But if he was a gang leader, it was not just about taking it out on the other boys, it was a part of his own cultural construction in defending his people and community.
Much of the early narrative is occupied by the conflict he experienced with the Hindu community and this book shows how deep this was, away from the pious sentimentality of historians pushing the case of an imagined communal harmony in Bengal. This was a reality that influenced Bengal politics and Sheikh Mujib both. Being a ‘muscleman” — mastaan(?) — meant he also could go and rescue a young Muslim boy from a Hindu home where he was being held forcibly. This animosity element is weaved deep into the narrative stretching to the last days of the British Raj. It is a vivid example of the mindset that produced the Bengal Muslim League and led it to power in undivided Bengal.
Critical to his political life is Sheikh Mujib’s association with Suhrawardy, the leader of Bengal both before and after the partition of Bengal. Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy was the man who had the greatest claim to be his mentor and leader. When Suhrawardy came to Gopalganj he was introduced to the young activist. Mujib said that there was no Muslim League in the area. “A few days later I got a letter from him thanking me and asking me to meet him if I ever went to Calcutta.” The historic connection was made.
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(Thanks to Robin Khundkar)