Introducing BRAIN and its mission
The July Uprising of 2024 culminating in the fall of the decade-long authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina is but the final act of a long and bloody struggle for democracy and civic rights in Bangladesh. The Awami regime’s longevity despite nationwide political and civic opposition is a bitter reminder that democracy has never taken firm roots in Bangladeshi soil more than half a century after the Independence War that was fought in 1971 for the democratic and civil rights of the people. Powerful enemies of democracy in Bangladesh have been active not just within the country but internationally as well.
In 2023 there was another great confrontation of pro and anti-democracy forces within and outside Bangladesh over the scheduled election to be held in early 2024. Early in 2023, a group of longtime, Bangladeshi political activists around-the-world decided to form a network organization to defend democracy and liberty in Bangladesh against foreign and domestic enemies of plurality. Named Bangladesh Research Analysis & Information Network (BRAIN), the organization helped prepare reports and articles that systematically chronicled the repressive authoritarianism of the Awami regime and articulated the democratic aspiration of the people of Bangladesh. However, until July 2024, the network organization existed only virtually and conducted its activities online.
During the July Uprising, the network’s working members decided that it was time for an organization to be physically present and become formally institutionalized so that it could help protect democracy in Bangladesh, which seems tantalizingly close after fifteen years of authoritarian rule. Therefore, BRAIN formally appeared in Dhaka in August 2024 with an office and a growing roster of members.
The main aims of the organization are as follows.
- Promote and defend liberal democracy in Bangladesh against all its foreign and domestic enemies. Our main commitment is to secure basic political, economic and human rights for all citizens of Bangladesh.
- Archiving, cataloging videos, images, text and analysis of the July Uprising so that we can produce articles, videos, social media contents to install the spirit of July Uprising in the nation and help write the history of the uprising.
- Archiving, and cataloging all the crimes of the Awami regime in the past sixteen years, including financial, criminal, human rights, foreign policy etc and producing reports that can serve as reference materials for academic, political and social activism purposes.
- Research and publish on our history, especially focusing on 1970-1981 period, so that popular false myths can be debunked and an objective perspective is presented to the nation.
- Archive the terrible suppering of opposition activists in the last 15 years, and produce video and text content of testimonials of as many opposition activists so their personal history is chronicled and kept for posterity.
- Produce current economic, human rights, development, environment, and foreign policy reports that can serve as policy guidance to people in power.
- Gather and coordinate the connections of the many Probashi and domestic activist networks that have been forged in the July uprising and use these networks to defend and project the interest of Bangladesh in the global arena.
We want to work both as an organization and as a network of individual and organized activists, researchers, and media personalities. We therefore invite any diligent researcher, activist who is interested in any of the above-mentioned aims, to come to us and explore how they can work with us.
These are the projects we are working on right now in addition to the ongoing archiving work.
- We have established a studio cum seminar room in our office where we will hold discussions, debates, and lectures pertaining to our aims every week. The studio is globally connected through internet so discussants, audiences can participate in our programs from all over the world.
- We have engaged a team of young activists-university students in Dhaka to collect testimonies and records of the shaheeds and wounded heroes of July Uprising. From one 100+ collected testimonies, we will select about ten of them to make a film documentary in 2025.
- We are arranging a national poetry competition that will be broadcast on a TV channel and also published in the next book fair.
- We are digitally preserving the numerous and fascinating roadside graffiti that has gone up all over Dhaka and throughout the country.
- On 21st September we had our first seminar in nearby Bishyo Shahityo Kendra and the Topic was – The Road to July Revolution. Dr Zahed ur Rahman, Rumeen Farhana, several opposition political activist and Sayied Abdullah were speakers and discussants.
6. On 12th October we held a memorial gathering at the Dhaka Shaheed Minar to honor the late Pias Karim who died very untimely ten years ago on the same day. The speakers at the gathering included Professor Asif Nazrul, Zahed ur Rahman, Sayatha Sakhawat and several others.
7. We are publishing a book on July Uprising from different perspectives and projects which is going to come out in the February book fair 2025.