Feature
Dr Binoy Barman
Past is a treasure trove of events so it may fall victim to any historical felony. The red letter days may be stolen from the golden archives of a nation's life and blackened with bloody concoction of sheer ignominy. Robbing population of their glorious past, they are pushed to become paupers, devoid of self-respect and self-confidence. When the past is shaken, the future also weakens. No light can pass from the past to the present so that gloom permeates everywhere to frighten existence as an individual as well as a community. Plundering the past is a trick to befool people, taking away their power to comprehend themselves. The masterminds of past-plundering are the worst of all intellectual criminals. They are the deadliest enemies of humanity.
The past may be plundered in various ways. An easy way of doing this is to erase historical records. Towards that end, the plunderers may resort to any gross or delicate means; they may do it openly or secretly, overnight or over a long period of time. They redefine history in their own interest. Sometimes this redefinition is made to avoid humiliation in public eye and receive honour in a new ambience. The history redefiners are those people who have notorious track record and hence try to overcome their image crisis. They give wrong information to people through their speeches and writings relentlessly. They attempt to tarnish history to brighten their own tainted appearance. In the process, thieves become saints, traitors become patriots and killers become saviours.
The wrongdoers present history in texts in a distorted way. The texts contain pack of lies so that children will learn erroneous history and forget their true past. They create controversy with the known facts and try to tilt history to particular political camping. They make all-out effort to write history books hiding history, many in number, and over considerable span of time. With subsidised price, the publications are made available to the reading public to wash their brain with slant ideas. They distort history to such an extent only tantamount to rape. Such type of audacity comes from their belief that after an elongated period of propaganda, lies will be transformed into truths. But it is not to come true and therefore the history manipulators can never be successful in their mission. Past is indelible and unalterable. Once an event has taken place in some way, it is fixed for ever. There is no way to change or reshape it. Writing history in a contrived fashion is only a futile attempt to defeat the truth.
History knows well who had what roles in the long struggle for independence of Bangladesh. Human mind may have feeble memory but history hardly forgets anything. Those who now create controversy with the declaration of independence and undermine the role of Bangabandhu are wilful sinners. Those who say there is no Rajakar now in Bangladesh and that people's fight for independence was a civil war or a battle between India and Pakistan vehemently insult our freedom fighters and mock the sovereignty of the nation. With this, they, in true sense of the word, commit an offence of treason. Though unpunished now, they cannot escape the long hand of law for ever. However cunning or powerful the opponents of independence may be, they cannot erase all the records of their crimes, as the records are not simply imprinted in papers here and there but in the minds of millions who bore the brunt of atrocities committed by the criminals. The flame of freedom flows from generation to generation defying any conspiracy to suppress it.
It is a matter of great regret that we do not care to learn from history, the greatest teacher of all. The world has witnessed what happened to Hitler and Mussolini -- how they are now hated by people. All know what came as a consequence of Nazi killing in Germany and Bosnian genocide in former Yugoslavia. History took its own course and criminals were punished in the International Criminal Court. Here many leaders who formed 'Peace Committee' and 'Al Badr/Al Shams Bahini' to help West Pakistan and kill Bangladeshi people during our liberation war are now well established. They continuously tell lies to save their face and skin. But they may have to face the music once the victims raise their voice for justice going to local or international law courts. Time may not always favour the heinous crimes and criminals.
There is no reason in feeling complacent about the ability to distort history. Plunder of the past is in fact a blazing blunder. The lesson of history is that good always triumphs over evil. Past may be dented for a short while, but the truth is ultimately revealed and the perpetrators are thrown into historical dustbin. History saves its own sanctity. Lost wealth is recovered at last. Can the plunderers understand that? Herodotus, father of history, please give your knowledge to the imbecile souls!
(The writer is an Assistant Professor, English, Bangladesh University. He may be reached at: binoy_barman@yahoo.com)
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