Reflections
For whom the bell tolls
There is a certain charm in the chime and resonance of a sounding bell. While the chime chills you with a soothing effect, the dings leave their continued and long-lasting resonance. Long-lasting, I said, not ever-lasting, did you notice? And that is because, however a sounding bell reverberates, you simply do not let yourself lost into it. In our practical lives, we are rather keen to make a meaning of all these bells around, be it in the schools or exam halls, in offices or households, of one from a Monday church or from a rickshaw at our back, simply because we know they carry actions associated with them. So, bells do call for some actions, huh? But how do you get to their calls? As we know, in a decent society, there are certain simple and universal ways of 'ringing the bell'. The affected people do not always draw others' attention by forcing strikes, vandalising cars and shops, or pushing a mob against the government. The concerned and the decent among them usually write, and on rare occasions, speak only, expecting attention to matters requiring attention. We are close to the point here. And I know you are all concerned citizens. Please tell me, how you prefer to express concerns? How about writing essays in various forms: newspaper eds and op-eds, critical analyses in journals and project papers, academic research, etc? Okay with those? If so, then how about a few of them composed within a decade's timeframe, on one big issue, and in one 'small' country? Hola, here we have Dristipat Writers' Collective with their latest, "Between Ashes and Hope". The fate of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and its indigenous people has been an issue of real concern in academia and in the development forum, not sure if that much in governance or even among citizens. Articles and publications like this recent one have always been 'good works' and 'big releases', but while we review a new one (this one is in a form of a well-laid anthology) let us expend a few words on their effects and follow ups. And I am in a mood to keep you on questioning today. Let me just make sure that you do 'care'. In August 2004, when in Mexico, our 'Chakma Raja' Devasish Roy (he was attending the 10th IASCP conference) noted that while the peace-treaty CHT saw its 'elites' favoured, 'a large section of inhabitants of the relatively remote areas, especially those with no formal titles to land, have continued to be largely ignored by development planners', you surely thanked him for speaking on behalf on the minnows. Because you cared, right? A decade back from now, in 2001 (five years after the Kalpana-abduction), when Manosh Chowdhury in 'The Diary of Kalpana' published by Hill Womens Federation pointed to the fact that 'we cannot recognize brave women, particularly of different ethnicity', you heard him, right? Oh, sure you did. That fairy-tale abduction had been a 'hot' topic after all. So, immediately after, when Meghna Guhathakurta also mentioned in her essay (Cultural Dynamics Journal) of what she had traced in Kalpana's daily notebook: "Despite the fact that women constitute half the population, they are not taken seriously in any movement for social change", you couldn't miss that; and you didn't, right? Am I musing of stories too old? And you want me to get back to the reality of present times (after all, ke hai, hridoy khure, bedona jagate bhalobashe, right)? Okay then, let's talk about 28 February 2010, when Shahidul Alam, our eminent photojournalist notes: "The need to protect a nation's borders cannot justify the forced eviction of people from their ancestral land". And, I know, you didn't miss this one either. Do you mind if I take you back just a little, to 6 December 2007? A Daily Star ed, and this time a man-with-a-sword-resorting-to-pen-at-last, Brigadier (retd) Shahedul Anam Khan avers: "Any review (of the peace treaty) can be justified only after concrete actions to implement all the provisions of the accord are seen to have been taken". You felt he was really being honest in saying so, didn't you? And if you cared three years before, you could care no less in 2010 when The Daily Star on March 18 published Air Commodore (retd) Ishfaq Ilahi Chowdhury. Another security-strategist keen about 'Righting a Historic Wrong', he declared: "We cannot allow the indigenous culture and civilization to be inundated by the onslaught of the majority Bengali culture, just like we do not want our Bengali culture to be swept away by the onslaught of Indian or English culture". Finally, one more snapshot. 2003. Prof Amena Mohsin in her essay (MIT Press) describes how she was confronted by a senior 'tribal' citizen in CHT who asked her: "Why do you Bengalis call us upa-jati (meaning 'sub-nation'), when we have a language, culture, religion and land of our own; we may be few in number but we are not sub of any group. We may be a small nation but not a sub-nation". And on that occasion, just like the rest of you, I was also greatly moved (beside the truth of the words, Prof. Mohsin has been my teacher in the dept. of IR at DU), and felt 'concerned'. So, there we were, caring so much about out people and their plight in the south-eastern part of our country, never forgetting the fact that it occupied some one-tenth of the country's land mass, and with the leaders holding in their hands a peace treaty full of promises, yet with nothing more than political rhetoric and an unfortunate 'Dhire Cholo' strategy. To me, this is precisely the reason which will force the readers of this latest Dristipat effort, with all its communicative essays (though none of them are 'fresh' new) and expressive photographs and a near-perfect black and white combination to feel betrayed and to some extent enraged over our own lack of actions and even lesser sincere desire to address the issues of CHT which have been worsening over a decade. But let the cynicism pass. The publication has been very well-timed, so to speak, especially when you remember the violent outbreak of hostilities in some areas of CHT this February. Also true is that it is gradually emerging in the national consciousness that a thirteen-year old peace accord has not been implemented, and the indigenous people are still at extreme risk of marginalisation. Also, amid the latest euphoria on the annulment of the 5th and 7th amendments to the constitution and a greater sense of 'national purity' (assuming that the media 'truly' represent what people feel), there are people who are sensible enough to comprehend the fallibility of a nation-state solution (be it Bengali or Bangladeshi) for the CHT. What do you think about the likely effect of such positive and collective efforts on society? In bundling this anthology, as Dristipat mentions, they want 'to see the Hills fully integrated into Bangladesh, while MJF, their partner organization, goes a step ahead in hoping that 'this project will help restart dialogue regarding the ongoing problems of Hill Tracts'. You might want to side with Naeem Mohaimen, the editor, who kept it rather simple, and in that way, achievable. He seeks to draw the line between 'the stories we grew up with' and 'the reality of the Jumma (pahari) people's resistance movement'. Surely that is where you will have to be appreciative of this scholastic effort reflecting sincere concerns by these courageous people from our society. It might also remind you of the 1 September Daily Star post-ed (thanks to Syed Badrul Ahsan) which notes: "No happiness can be greater for a society of decent men and women than an acknowledgement of past villainy and, through that acknowledgement, a wiping out of that villainy from our books, from our hearts, from the deepest recesses of our souls". Equally you will remember what Ishfaq Ilahi wrote in Daily Star on 18 March this year (the essay is included in this Dristipat collection): "A little generosity by the majority community would go a long way towards healing the wound that had been festering for three decades." Ah, there it hunts you back and forth. You do know, and you sure care, but it gets so difficult to rise to the call of duty. There is the rub, you see, time for your Hamlet being. Indeed, to be, or not to be, that is the million-dollar question! These days my eyes look for bells and watches, not sure why. A giant Mecca tower hangs a massive clock over the Ka'aba, the 'centre of the world'. In Sylhet, here in Bangladesh, the city authorities recently repaired and re-launched its historical clock on the banks of River Surma. A week before, I re-read Hemingway's 'For Whom the Bell Tolls'. And while I leave you today, I might leave you with one or two lines from the many beautiful articles from 'Between Ashes and Hope'. But as I said, it is difficult to count on the power of the pen these days. So, on second thought, I shall end with how Hemingway began his Spanish War novel (he quoted John Donne in his prologue): "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main...Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee".
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