The mission of the University of Dhaka is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
by Anwar A. Khan
Dhaka University or DU is the oldest university in Bangladesh. It stepped into a century on 1 July, 2020.
When I recall my Dhaka University days after about 45 years, a deep hankering engrosses me - like a few words of a sweet song of Hemanta Mukherji, “Muche jaoa dingulo amai pichu phire dake…(the blotting out days call in me to recapture the past and indulge in memories)!
As a college student, I along with my friends actively fought against the barbarian Pakistan’s army and their equally tyke local mango-twigs, especially Jamaat-e-Islami, the mass-murderers in 1971 to establish Bangladesh at the clarion call of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the Founding Father of Bangladesh ((though I have always been apolitical till today; nor do I have any connection with any socio-cultural or human rights organisations as yet. And I shall not do so unto my death).
Coming back from the war field, I devoted to my studies and after passing my H.S.C. Examination (Humanities Group) in 1972, I got admitted into B.A. (Hons.) class with English Literature and Economic as Subsidiary subjects leading to M.A. in Contemporary History with Dhaka University during the period of 1972-76. I was a resident student of Sergeant Zohurul Haque Hall (SZHH) and lived there till my completion of M.A. degree.
Bangladesh was then gravely the 1971 war battered country. Let me look back. Our DU days were turbulent times all the while.
In 1974, 7 murders fell out at Mohsin Hall TV room of DU when I was a student of 2nd year B.A. (Hons.) class. From SZHH, I along with some of my class-mates and friends saw that ghastly scene there in the wee hour on that day after the beastly incident bechanced. It still reminds me or us about the unspeakable horrors and brutalities of 1971.
AL's student affiliation – Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL) had then intra-party battles. The killers belonged to one faction led by BCL’s Secretary General Shafiul Alam Pradhan. They were heavily armed anddangerous.Pradhan was arrested as the prime accused of thatgrave murder incident and he was finally sentenced to jail lawfully for a life term. But the-thenself-proclaimed President of Bangladesh and vitiated military ruler Gen Ziaur Rahman pardoned Pradhan at his own volition and in a deliberately unhurried mannerreleased him from the jail.
We had to always remain into a state of intense fear or desperation during those reckless days, because oftentimes, gun shots befell in different DU Halls by a certain quarter of armed gangsters of so-called students. The university was closed-down sine dieofttimes. We had to leave the Halls within a very short notice period.
Bangabandhu Mujib, Bangladseh’s Founding Father and the country’s first President, would visit the University of Dhaka on 15 August 1975 from where he was once expelled for a life time in an illegal manner by the Pakistan’s depraved rulers. In August 1975, I was a senior student of Dhaka University and stayed at Sergeant Zohurul Haque Hall. Although I have always been apolitical, I felt very excited along with so many friends of mine on his profoundly honoured would-be visitable.
On the day before that grand visit, the University of Dhaka was adornedfetchingly. The whole area adjacent to it took a festal look. To me, it seemed that youth was like spring, an over-praised season greatly pleasing or entertaining if it happened to be a favoured one, but in practice it didn’t happen as a general rule, for biting vile winds of northern area of Dhaka military cantonment of Metropolitan City of Dhaka than genial breezes.
At the very pre-dawn hour on that day, my room-mate and close friend Abdus Sobhan Khan Arif burst into terrified voice and woke me up from sleeping and gave the horrendous and heart-breaking news about Bangabandu’s brutal murder. He almost dragged me out to a room nearby to ours where a one-band Radio was tuned on and with our frightening heart; we got a line about the voice marked by deep ill will; deliberately harmful of Major Dalim was sounding out, “Sheikh Mujib is killed. The army has captured power. The martial law is imposed on throughout the country…” We were tremendously shocked, appalled and at the same time, we were very rancorous to have heard of this cowardly and horrific act.
Before 5.00 O-clock in the morning on 16 August 1975, suddenly SZH Hall where we resided was heavily stormed by a large Lancer Unit of Bangladesh Army mostly wearing black attires equipped with heavy guns. A large group of Lancer forces cordoned-off the entire area of our Hall taking positions in its different locations; some lying on the nearby play-ground and some standing in different strategic places with guns pointed blank towards us.
A group of soldiers went inside the Hall and pounded in our rooms. They angrily shouted to come out from our rooms in hands-up position. They forced us to vacate all rooms and then we were made stood up in hands-up position nearby the Hall’s play-ground; lined us up; and then they used vulgar words against us mostly in Urdu and English languages. For a moment, we called back that they were the Urdu-speaking Pakistan’s people who we defeated during our great Liberation War in 1971 to establish Bangladesh.
They imperiled us in a very harsh language, “We shall take you all to an unknown location; and we are not sure whether someone of you may come back to this dormitory or not.” Two of our friends were mercilessly beaten by them to create an unwanted panic among us and those two friends of us got wounded and they were then bleeding. We were then feeling affrighted. Suddenly we found a senior most and brilliant scholar teacher Prof Dr. Khosh Mohammed, Chairman of DU’s Mathematics Department and our Hall’s Provost was escorted by some rogue junior army officers at hands-up position and forced him to pass walking in front of us to the Hall’s TV Room. Provost Sir was thrown into a state of intense fear or desperation because his face then looked very depressed and dispirited.
Some students were forced foregather at the TV Room along with our Provost Sir. On the podium of this room, a few army officers climbed up and used plebeian and unwashed language against everybody present there and in a vehement outcry, they hollered, “All students, deposit to us in no time whatever arms and ammunitions you have in your possession. Otherwise no one will be spared.” A pall of gloom descended upon the TV Room.
Prof Dr. Khosh Mohammed paused momentarily and said in a very cool voice, “I know for sure; my students do not have any arms and ammunitions in their possession.” The unpleasant army persons then angrily shouted to obey their orders. Provost Sir requested them to give his students for a time up to 10.00 O-clock on 17 August 1975 and he said, “If my students have any arms and ammunitions in their self-possession, they will keep them at this TV Room within that time-frame.” They then reluctantly agreed to this proposal and then these poseur military-men pulled-out their troops exasperatedly from the SZH Hall and left the place foul-mouthed along with their army convoys. They didn’t turn up again. This was the solitary Hall only of DU that these savage wildcats rampaged during that time.
But one thing is very striking and unforgettable that we found so many outstanding scholar teachers with high morality, disciplined, captivating in delivering lectures in the class-rooms of almost all Departments, in many seminars… at DU campus.
But educational institutions are nowhere in the world meant for busines purpose like private trading houses as it has now been happening in Bangladesh! Eminent journalist, celebrated columnist and an alumnus of Dhaka University - Syed Badrul Ahsan (SBA or our Badrul bhai) showed clearly the outline, profile or boundary of a university like DU, once upon a time canonised as an Oxford of the East, in his well-written column at The Asian Age on 5 July 2020.
The Bangladesh flag is a symbol of what Bangladesh’s people treasure; and it represents the values we cherish beyond measure. Our flag flies high for freedom, bravery, and the courage to fight, and sacrifice of one’s life for a just cause. The Bangladesh flag is an icon representing the Bangladesh’s way. Our hearts swell with emotion when we see it ripple and sway.
We should honour our freedom fighters, our millions killed intentionally and with premeditation. Remember the sacrifices they made in duty towards Bangladesh. The Greek philosopher Thucydides once said, “The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” And we followed this spirit in 1971 to attain Bangladesh.
This also holds true to the cause of deep love and patriotism of our people for creating our motherland. In writing this piece, I bear the year 1971 clearly in my mind with distinct mental discernment. My heart aches and tears well up in my eyes. During our Independence War of 1971, being a college student, I witnessed many barbaric incidents committed by the Pakistan’s Army, Jamaat-e-Islami, its student wing Islami Chhatra Sangha (ICS), and their death squads Al-Badr and Al-Shams (auxiliary forces of the barbarous Pakistan’s Army).
I chose to stay at SZHH, because it was the light-house of all glorious struggles and movements to establish an independent and sovereign homeland for us i.e. Bangladesh.
However, we propose a novel approach to reputation development at higher education institutions like DU. Global reputation development at higher education institutions is largely driven by research excellence, is predominantly measured by research output, and is predominantly reflected in hierarchical university rankings. The ranking becomes equated with brand equity.
We argue that the current approach to reputation development in higher education institutions is modernist and linear. This is strangely out-of-kilter with the complexities of a transforming society in flux, the demands of a diversity of stakeholders, and the drive towards trans-disciplinarily, laterality, reflexivity and relevance in science and arts.
Good research clearly remains an important ingredient of a university's brand value. However, a case can be made for brand relevance, co-created in collaboration with stakeholders, as an alternative and non-linear way of differentiation.
This approach is appropriate in light of challenges in strategic science globally as well as trends and shifts in the emerging paradigm of strategic communication. In applying strategic communication principles to current trends and issues in strategic science and the communication thereof, an alternative model for strategic reputation building at higher education institutions is developed.
The approach is structured is clearly characterised or delimited: to consider key challenges and trends emerging in strategic research that affect the relationship between science and society, including the communication of science to society; to compare these trends with key trends and shifts in the emerging paradigm of strategic communication, and to reflect on how challenges in science communication can be addressed by strategic communication; to consider the implications of strategic communication for strategic branding and brand relevance, from a multi-stakeholder perspective; to examine research excellence as a global reputation builder at research-intensive higher education institutions; to build a case for changing the discourse from 'brand excellence' to 'brand relevance'; and to propose an alternative model for reputation building at higher education institutions like DU, and for building a purposeful higher education brand.
Of course, decades of neglect will not be remedied in a year. There are competing demands for government funds, such as, in areas from transport infrastructure to health. But there must be a strong political will to improve universities year on year, and make education a long-term priority, not as private trading houses.
The Dhaka University played a significant role in the Bengali Language Movement, when Bengalis joined together to fight against Urdu being the official language in the-then East Pakistan. Dhaka University was the main place where the movement started with the students joining together and protesting against the Pakistan government. Later countless students were massacred in where the Shaheed Minar stands today. After the incident, Bengali was restored as official language.
The 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh against Pakistan continues shaping the mindset of Bangladesh’s people until present day. This bloodstained historical event has constructed Bangladesh’s sense of nationalism and has forged our contemporary Constitution in 1972. The Bangladesh, we see today is essentially the fruit of the liberation war of 1971.
In order to understand ongoing Bangladesh’s politics and the socio-economic sphere, it is required to analyse the history of Pakistan’s colonialism and the events surrounding the 1971 liberation war that turned Bangladesh into an independent and sovereign State. And DU teachers and students played majorly in shaping the construct of Bengali nationalism and the concept of an independent and sovereign state – Bangladesh!
Since the very formation of Pakistan, the Western part by choice branded the Eastern as inferior, because it intentionally considered the Muslims in the Eastern Wing subordinate due to their social and cultural affiliation with the Hindu population, which were powerful, rich and dominating in East-Pakistan before the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.
The desire for an independent Bangladesh (literally meaning "land of the Bengali people") effloresced in March 1971. Previously, free and fair elections were held in December 1970 in which the Awami League had won a majority of seats in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan under a new system of proportional representation under the dynamic and able leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Fearing a political takeover by East Pakistan, President Yahya Khan of West Pakistan postponed the convening of the new Assembly in March 1971 to allow time for West Pakistan’s military forces to occupy East Pakistan’s territory. After hundreds of the-then East Pakistan protesters were killed in army firing and Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested, but immediate before that, Bengali nationalist supreme leader Bangabandhu Mujib declared our new nation-state of Bangladesh independent on March 26, 1971.
Professor Dr. Fakrul Alam wrote, “DU history and its part in Bangladeshi national identity formation.” He further added, “Dhaka University started playing a decisive role in Bangladeshi national identity formation almost as soon as the Islamic state of Pakistan was born. If the role the university had played in the evolution of the Bangladeshi identity before the partition of India was indirect, it now became the centre of the movement that would lead to the creation of the country born out of the ashes of East Pakistan in 1971.”
The mission of the University of Dhaka is to contribute to society through the pursuit of education, learning and research at the highest international levels of excellence.
The distinctive spirit of a culture or an era of “Dhaka University in the Bengali ethos” is cardinal for us and we want to see DU to that weightage.
The ethos that Badrul bhai has recorded in his column is that DU is always the power-house for all movements leading to the bloody war of the Bengalis in 1971 against the rapscallion military rulers of Pakistan to establish Bangladesh in 1971 as an independent and sovereign state.
Bangladesh is the only country in the world that was created on the basis of language and ethnicity and DU played a very significant role for it.
An alumna of the University of Dhaka in the years of 1972-76, I now feel dispirited to have seen or to see in such a sorry state of it that one can’t ideate! Moreover, I am feeling discouraged and downhearted!! Most of the teachers keeping their jobs with DU intact and taking salary and other benefits from it, they teach in private universities at very lucrative emoluments! Morality has gone down to the lowest ebb! This saddens me like anything!!
Let us hope the government has a vision for Bangladesh’s education – a vision that will give a youthful, vibrant Bangladesh, the universities it deserves!
Even during DU days, Dhaka University was aptly extolled as the Oxford of the East. Still, DU is my love, despite it has lost its past charm and magical spell.
I want to conclude with the salient words of Badrul bhai, “As it enters its hundredth year, Dhaka University must catch up with the times.”I hope Dhaka University, despite all its flaws, will change the outlook of its pupils and pull back its glorious image in full.
The End
The writer is an independent political observer based in Dhaka, Bangladesh who writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs.
Post a Comment