There are memories, and then there are memories. Some memories die almost as soon as they had attained that status. Others are eternal, etched on one’s memory lane for as long as they live, and reflected upon by succeeding generations through the vehicle of the sands of time. Bangladesh, both before as part of the British colonialism, and then overlordship as part of Pakistan, reached the pinnacle of its pain with the genocide committed on its intellectuals on the eve of its emergence as a free nation-state in its own right. This day in infamy that will probably live on forever in historical annals is commemorated particularly on 14 December.
In broad terms, this observed on that particular day to remember the substantial number of Bangladeshi intellectuals from diverse groups who were killed by the occupying Pakistan army and its local collaborators, both at the outset of the Bangladesh Liberation War on 25th March 1971 and 14 December of that same year. And, during the armed conflict that was going on and defeat of the Pakistan army was becoming inevitable at the hands of the Indian army in collaboration with the Bangladesh Freedom Fighters, these collaborators took recourse to killing their fellow citizens whom venturing to be free, a desire that their erstwhile province had made amply clear.
And the Pakistani collaborators took recourse to the perverse method of killing off the Bengali intellectuals, irrespective of their religion, and just for the perverse desire of ‘ridding’ the new nation-state (the Pakistan army had by then figured out that their defeat was inevitable and got around the corner) of some of its most precious and absolutely requisite human capital.
And so they went on a killing spree that would, in all likelihood, have made Nazi Germany’s Gestapo commanders like Heinrich Mueller, Hermann Goering, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhard Heydrich, et. al nod in approval and satisfaction. Bangladesh’s prospective intellectuals went or were forced to do so, in a dying spree at their hands. The equation was simple: no intellectuals, no prosperous Bangladesh (although other professionals contribute significantly to their society’s prosperity and well-being). All the significant professionals were included in the killing spree (any profession was critical to the forthcoming construction / reconstruction of the new country was considered fair game): professors, writers, educationists, politicians, journalists, lawyers, writers, political thinkers, and many others who would potentially, as well as with acumen, helped the nascent old civilisation, on its feet and prepare for the challenges that were sure to burden the new country.
The new country, through their patriotic enthusiasm, would have eased the myriad problems that gripped the new country. And, most significantly, it did not need time in getting its act together in order that was to add to the negative effects spawned by the Pakistan army and their Al-Badr, Al-Shams et. al collaborators. If you cannot beat them, then join them and, as in this case, it is imperative to finish off whoever they wished to.
One does not need an active imagination to figure out the amount of physical and psychological pain that the victims’ relatives and loved ones felt on their gruesome discovery in the killing years from 1971 to the present day of 2025. Fifty-four years have passed and many of the protagonists of those fateful days of 1971 are no longer with us. Those intellectuals who were spared, or managed by some miracle to have escaped the killing machine, are following the inevitability of retention time no longer in the world of the living.
The al-Badr and al-Shams swelled and failed are themselves gone to the Great Beyond. But what has not disappeared are the painful memories/stories of the victims of the fag end of Bangladesh’s Liberation War, and the fruit of their sacrifice, the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
The writer is an MALD (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy) and PhD (Boston University)
