By Rumi Ahmed 16 Nov 2024
This 96 year old; 19th century Maolana, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani, with his two years of Darul Ululm Deobandi education could understand what very few people got at that time. Maolana was a leader who was literally grounded to the soil of our rural landscape and lifelong who was a man of the rivers! He clearly saw the long term devastation Farakka barrage will cause to our land and water.
This feisty Maolana kept kicking against all injustices until the last year of his life and at age 96 he led a long march from Dhaka to Farakka protesting unilateral withdrawal of Ganges river and literally awarding death sentence to northern Padma region.
The Farakka long march took place on May 16, 1976 to protest the erection of Farakka barrage over the Ganges! Maolana Bhashani was 96. The Farakka long march was Maolana’s brain child. Despite being 96; he decided to lead from the front.
It was one of the most anticipated political event with near unanimous support from all quarters in Bangladsh.
Maolana himself joined the long march between Rajshahi and Kansat and even he refused to forgo it’s last miles stretch of foot procession. His frail nonagenarian body didn’t take the stress too well.
Maolana left us five months later. On November 17 1976.
And Farakka has done to Bangladesh what the Maolana warned all along. It turned our rivers into dry sand dunes, it is dramatically increasing salinity of our coastal sweet water belt. Even Hoogli port and west Bengal regions didn’t get the benefit for what the barrage project was conceived.
What the Maolana saw 50 years ago; the rest of the world is seeing now! Voices are rising among the environmentalists in India to break down Farakka barrage and restore normal Himalayan water flow through Ganges – Padma – Meghna – Ganges Delta to the Bay of Bengal.
Maolana has been intricately intertwined with the journey of Bangladesh since the very beginning of the journey. Probably he was the one who first started articulating ‘Bangladesh’ in most clear and disruptive terms.
When police shot and killed language protesters on February 21, 1952 the main Gayebana Janaza took place on February 22! Who led that prayer service and who did one of the most fiery nationalistic speech following that event? Maolana Bhashani!
Maolana Bhashani is one of the founding fathers’ of Bangladesh.
