Shahbagh: A country divided/A beacon of Hope?

Shahbagh: A country divided/A beacon of Hope?

By Anindya Dutta

This is not a piece to celebrate Shahbagh or bemoan it. This is not a piece that is going to delve in the pros and cons of the movement. This is a piece trying its best to articulate why, one and half months down the line of what started off as one of the most turbulent ties of our history, Shahbagh still exists, and why it may need to.

To me, it appears that people in South Asia, including yours truly, are highly opinioned and politics runs in our blood. We may have a thousand worries on our mind but at the end of a day, there is nothing we like better than to sit around and talk politics; be it at the local tea stall or our dining table and everyone from your help to grandparents has an opinion and more often than not, they believe that they will do a better job if put in charge.

The ‘Gonojagoron’ of Shahbagh is something which I think about a lot. It holds a place in my heart which is difficult to define. What started as a platform of protest and demand for hanging of war crimes under trails has developed into a complex organism and keeps changing. Its detractors say it is just a mouth piece for the government while its supporters strongly deny it and this discourse divides us right through the middle.

I  had first read about the ‘Gonojagoron’ the evening it started and frankly did not pay much attention to it. Then, after literally stumbling across the ‘Moncho’ in Chittagong, I attended the first ‘Mohashomabesh’ (grand rally) at Shahbagh, with a friend who shared my opinion on the matter. What we witnessed there can never put into words. It moved me to an extent I did not think possible and gave birth to an array of emotions.

I have gone to Shahbagh a number of times since and each time I went, I met with something totally unrecognizable from the previous time. And herein lies my point. As Shahbagh metamorphosed, it became more and more unrecognizable from what it started off as. 

I believe Shahbagh started off as a movement which can truly be defined as the first of its kind ‘for the people, of the people, by the people’. It was the mass awakening of a generation that has been sitting on the sidelines for too long. It was innocent and pure like a new born but with a clear purpose. But alas, nothing stays pure and innocent forever!

I am not insinuating that the movement became impure or polluted. We cannot deny the fact that it survived the initial seventeen days as a continuous sit-in protest and till today, in some form, is a celebration of the people's spirit. What I am saying is as the movement grew, it got incorporated into too many things: your pro or anti groups, the beneficial or harmful dimension, the political or apolitical association, and the other ‘odd’ characteristics that are attributed to it by some groups that have turned a lot of people apathetic or negative towards Shahbagh.

People like Ahmed Rajib Haider and Tanvir Mohammad Tawki have been brutally murdered supposedly for being linked in some form or the other to the movement there are hundreds if not thousands others whose lives have been changed forever by what this movement has forced its detractors to unleash.

But the movement still carries on.

I mentioned in the beginning that we are a highly opinioned nation on most issues including politics; however, we are also a nation which prefers to operate from the safety of our homes than actually doing something about it and this is where Shahbagh is important. It is important because it is a symbol of hope, a platform to get ourselves heard, it is a platform under which we communicate our emotions and have a hope that it might make a difference. In these trying times we all need a symbol, a platform under which we can come under and unite. And Shahbagh is just that. It is a platform from which we get our voices heard even though we might not be the ones shouting out the loudest.

These are interesting times in Bangladesh and in these times we need a symbol to rally around. A symbol which gives us hope and shows us the way. To lead us from these darkest of nights into a hopeful new dawn. This movement has been bestowed a great power to define the course of history but what must be kept in mind is that ‘with great power comes great responsibility.’

The ‘Gonojagoron’ Moncho has great potential to shape history for our country, but whether it is ready to bear the responsibility of doing so is a question that only our future can answer.