Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque :
“Bhasani was born in 1880 at village Dhanpara of Sirajganj district. His father was Haji Sharafat Ali Khan. Apart from a few years of education at the local school and madrasa, he did not receive much formal education. He began his career as a primary school teacher at Kagmari in Tangail and then worked in a madrasa at village Kala (Haluaghat) in Mymensingh district. In 1919, Bhasani joined the non-cooperation movement and khilafat movement to mark the launching of his long and colourful political career. He went to Santosh in Tangail to take up the leadership of the oppressed peasants during the Great Depression period. From Tangail he moved to Ghagmara in Assam in the late 1930s to defend the interests of Bangali settlers there. He made his debut as a leader at Bhasan Char on the Brahmaputra where he constructed an embankment with the cooperation of the Bangali settlers, thereby saving the peasants from the scourge of annual inundation. Relieved of the recurring floods the local people fondly started to call him Bhasani Saheb, an epithet by which the Maulana has been known from then on. The Assam government made a law restricting Bangali settlement beyond a certain geographical line, an arbitrary settlement which severely affected the interests of the Bangali colonisers. Protected by this restrictive law the locals had launched a movement to oust the Bangali settlers across the so-called line. In 1937 Bhasani joined the Muslim League and became president of Assam unit of the party. On the ‘line’ issue, hostile relations developed between the Maulana and the Assam Chief Minister, Sir Muhammad Sa’dullah. At partition, Maulana Bhasani was in Goalpara district (Assam) organising the farmers against the line system. He was arrested by the government of Assam, and released towards the end of 1947 on condition that he would leave Assam for good”(Enamul Haq B’pedia)
Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani was a leader who used to organize movements for the rights of the downtrodden masses mostly rural peasants. He was renowned for selflessness always expressing solidarity with the exploited masses. . His marathon political carrier spanned the British India, Pakistan and Bangladesh periods. In fact he worked for the peasants as ruling regimes sucked their bold like a beast. He was a leader always protesting against misgovernance afflicting the ordinary masses. Truly he a crownless king taking place in our psyche as Janodaradi( Sympathetic to the oppressed). His gaining increasing popularity among peasants helped him to establish the East Pakistan Peasant Association. He was a leftist of course with quixotic attachment to truly Islamic values and practices. He was called ‘The Red Maulana’.
“Long before he joined the Khalifate movement Bhashani had been a crusader for peasant rights in Tangail against the oppressive landlords. Following a peasant uprising against the King of Santosh in which Bhashani played the leading role, he was expelled by the British from the Mymensing district which included Tangail. Uprooted but undiscouraged, Bhashani continued to organize peasant movements in northern Bengal.”
Bhashani worked for the masses of the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Unswerving in his belief in God and human dignity, Bhashani crusaded, at times singlehandedly, against the vested interests in Assam, Bengal, and later Bangladesh in favor of the deprived-landless peasants, workers, and hapless migrants Bhashani succeeded in institutionalizing political dissent and making opposition politics viable and respected.
Ideologically, Bhashani was a Marxist and Islamist, at the same time both admiring the People’s Republic of China and regretting that the Chinese lacked faith in God. Enigmatic, uncompromising, and candid, Bhashani was a charismatic leader who could motivate ordinary people to join his movement for social and economic justice.
The Maulana was associated with National Awami Party(NAP). ‘The split among the left-wing camp into pro-Moscow and pro-Peking factions eventually led to the breakup of NAP into two separate parties; the pro-Moscow faction being led by Muzaffar Ahmed. The pro-peking faction was led by Moulana himself.
He played a very critical role in the 1969 movement which eventually led to the downfall of the Ayub regime and the release of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other co-accused in the Agartala conspiracy case against the state . At times he played a crtical role in liberation war taking refuge in India. After 1970 election he uttered words of complete secession in favour of independent Bangladesh
“In 1974 Bhasani founded Hukumat-e-Rabbania order and declared a zihad or holy war against the Awami League government and Indo-Soviet overlordship. In April 1974, a 6-party united front was formed under the Maulana’s leadership. It served an ultimatum on the government to annul the Indo-Bangladesh border agreement, and stop all repressive actions against the opposition. On June 30 the Maulana was arrested and interned at Santosh in Tangail. He considered the Farakka agreement detrimental to the interest of Bangladesh. On 16 May 1976 he led a long march from Rajshahi towards India’s Farakka Barrage to protest against plans to deprive Bangladesh of its rightful share of the Ganges waters. On 2 October 1976 he formed a new organisation, Khodai Khidmatgar, and continued to work for his Islamic University at Santosh. He also set up a technical education college, a school for girls and a children’s centre at Santosh, Nazrul Islam College at Panchbibi and Maulana Mohammad Ali College at Kagmari. He had earlier set up 30 educational institutions in Assam.”(Enamul Haq)
The Maulana breathed his last in 17 November 1976 leaving behind numerous compatriot and thousands of supporters. He may be termed as the voice of the oppressor. Frankly speaking He was in the forefront of organizing and mobilizing Muslim subalterns, mainly the Muslim peasant in disadvantaged locus and urban poor.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Public Administration, Chittagong University.)
