Badruddin Umar: an unwavering voice of the masses

A legendary voice of the masses for over six decades – Badruddin Umar is no more. The 93-year-old veteran political activist, revered writer, patriotic researcher, and celebrated public intellectual who never compromised on the question of his ideals during his over 70-years’ career, finally bid adieu to this earthly abode on September 7, leaving behind a vacuum that is unlikely to be filled up in the foreseeable future. 

Born on December 20 in 1931 at Bardhaman district of West Bengal during the British era, he migrated to Dhaka in 1950 along with his father – the renowned Muslim League leader Abul Hashim – and other family-members. After obtaining bachelor’s and master’s degrees in philosophy from the Dhaka University in 1953 and 1955 respectively, he went on to graduate from the Oxford University in 1961 with a degree in PPE (philosophy, politics, and economics). He initially served as a part-time teacher of Dhaka University’s psychology department in 1954, joined Chittagong College as a teacher of philosophy in 1956, and then joined the philosophy department of Rajshahi University as a Lecturer in 1957 followed by a stint in the political science department. He also founded the sociology department of Rajshahi University in 1964. However, he resigned from his university job in December 1968 in protest against the authoritarian rule of the then government, and became fully engaged as a leftist political activist, public intellectual, and research-oriented writer with the goal of promoting the cause of oppressed peasants and workers of Bangladesh. 

Umar joined the provincial Communist Party in 1969, edited its weekly mouthpiece ‘Ganashakti’ during 1970-71, and became a central committee member of the party in 1975. He also became the president of Bangladesh Krishak Federation (peasants’ federation) and Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir (writers’ platform) – both linked to the communist party in 1981; later, he acted as the central coordinator of Democratic Revolutionary Alliance (Ganotantrik Biplobi Jote) since 1987. He had been discharging the responsibility of chairperson of the newly floated ‘Jatiya Mukti Council’ (National Liberation Council) since 2003, and also edited the journal ‘Sanskriti’ (Culture) for over three decades.  

Umar had challenged the ideological basis of Pakistan early in his career during the late 1960s, when he wrote three sensational books one after another that firmly established him in the literary cum intellectual domain of the country. The books were: ‘Sampradayikata’ (Communalism, 1966), ‘Sanskritir Sankat’ (The Crisis of Culture, 1967), and ‘Sanskritik Sampradayikata’ (Cultural Communalism, 1969). This coincided with the abandonment of his teaching career in favour of working for realizing the rights of peasants, workers, and the common people. He sought to dedicate his life for the emancipation of the working-class both as a political activist and writer by adhering to the Marxist ideology in order to build an egalitarian society. 

His ideological tilt towards communism matured while he was in Oxford, and it was further reinforced during his teaching days at the Rajshahi University. Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident of 1964 in Vietnam in the backdrop of US aggression there, Umar assembled 80 teachers of Rajshahi University and issued a statement protesting the imperialist attack. He even rejected an invitation to visit the USA for three months under the ‘Leadership Exchange Program’, and did not accept the Pakistani government’s offer to pursue PhD at the SOAS, London. He displayed this rigid and uncompromising attitude on the question of ideals throughout his life and career. 

Umar also refused to accept numerous awards, positions, and prizes linked to the country’s establishment, including the Adamji Literary Award, the Bangla Academy Award for Literature (1972), Itihash Parishad Puroshkar for history-writing (1974), the Philips Literary Award, the Ekushey Padak, and lastly the country’s highest civilian award – the Independence Award this year.  One of his exceptional qualities was that he never attached any importance to awards, eulogies, and positions. He felt that a writer is supposed to write purely for his own enjoyment, and prizes were unwelcome as they had a corrupting influence on the writer’s output, thereby making him pay a price. 

 Umar has probably been the lone prominent intellectual in Bangladesh who never accepted any benefits or favours from those in power. He chose the common people instead of the rulers as protagonists in all his endeavours. He termed the autocrats as ‘autocrats’, and none of them could purchase him during his long and eventful career. All his efforts were geared towards creating a just and harmonious society. He sacrificed a stable and comfortable teaching profession in order to participate in the relentless struggle for social transformation through organizing the masses. He wrote in his memoir, “I was deeply concerned about the pains, misery, exploitations and poverty of my people, and made an effort to explain such a situation. My studies have enabled me to sharpen my capacity for comprehending those issues. The poor masses can be liberated only through organized efforts.” This outlook has acted as his philosophical mooring throughout his life. 

The main feature of his discourses has been a unique capacity to analyse issues without displaying emotion. Although most of the Indian narratives had blamed the Muslim League and Jinnah as responsible for the partitioning of India, Umar had argued that the ‘Hindu Mela’ of Kolkata had originally acted as the proponent of ‘two-nation theory’, which was subsequently picked up by the Hindu Mahasabha and the Congress Party. He noted in one of his essays on the subject that the ‘two-nation theory’ patronised by Gandhi, Nehru and Patel was aggressive, while that of Jinnah was defensive. Besides, he lamented that if ‘Bangabhanga’ (partition of Bengal) was not rescinded in 1911, then the middle-class Muslims of East Bengal could have become stronger, more educated, stable, and more developed. These issues were touched by his books ‘Bangabhanga O Samprodayik Rajniti’ (Partition of Bengal and Communal Politics, 1983) and ‘Bharatiya Jatiya Andolan’ (Indian National Movement, 1984), 

When conflict arose on the question of self-identify of the Bangali Muslims in the backdrop of Islamisation effort in Pakistan, Umar’s books on culture and communalism asserted that the debate surrounding Bangali and Muslim identities was a fake one; it was merely a ploy for using religion as a political tool. His three-volume book on the history of the language movement ‘Purbo Banglar Bhasha Andolan O Tatkalin Rajniti’ (Language Movement of East Bengal and the then Politics, 1970, 1976, 1981) was a classic. Here, he attempted to present a counter-narrative of history by reproducing the stories and experiences of the common people, peasants and workers. Professor Abdur Razzaq had commented that this book alone was sufficient to make Umar an immortal in Bangla literature. The 120 books that Umar wrote on multifarious themes linked to society and politics demonstrated his intellectual depth and extraordinary power of analysing and synthesising diverse subjects. He also wrote numerous books in English that included ‘Politics and Society in East Pakistan and Bangladesh’ (1973), ‘Imperialism and the General Crisis of the Bourgeoisie in Bangladesh’ (1986), ‘Emergence of Bangladesh: Class Struggle in East Pakistan’ (1947-1958), and ‘Emergence of Bangladesh: Rise of Bengali Nationalism’ (1958-71); the last two books were also published from Pakistan (later from India as well) in 2004 and 2006 respectively. 

Despite being a recognised communist, he was a vehement critic of the communist movement in both India and Bangladesh. He felt that the communist parties in both these countries had downgraded themselves to the level of associate organizations of mainstream political parties instead of fighting the domination of bourgeois clans. The Communist Party’s drawing of parallels between the Pakistan Army and the Awami League activists through the phrase ‘fight between two dogs’ in 1971 was considered by Umar as counter-productive. He felt that the Communist Party became detached from the people because of its lack of understanding about the depth of people’s hostility towards military rule. When the countrymen were enraged by the genocide committed by Pakistani army, the Communist Party was busy with their agenda of ‘class-struggle’ and deference to the dictates of foreign bosses; Umar termed this as ‘folly’ and ‘ignorance’. He even remarked that none of the parties in Bangladesh had the right to call themselves ‘communist’. His debates with Ashoke Rudra on the ‘Permanent Settlement’ (Chirasthayi Bandobaste Bangladesher Krishak, 1972) and with Amartya Sen on ‘famine and free media’ are also well-known. 

Umar had all along opposed the initiatives for curbing the rights of ethnic and linguistic minorities. He was one of the few public intellectuals of the country who was outspoken about the plight of the Urdu-speaking community in various camps of Bangladesh. He was also a lifelong fighter for upholding fundamental rights of the masses and opposing autocratic tendencies of the state. Following the country’s independence, the then government deployed Jatiya Rakshi Bahini for detaining, torturing and killing its opponents. Umar and the poet Sikandar Abu Zafar then constituted the ‘Fundamental Rights Protection and Legal Aid Committee’ at a meeting in Jatiya Press Club on March 3, 1974 in order to fight state-sponsored repression. Then during the 1974 famine, he formed the ‘Famine Resistance Committee’ along with some other associates for extending help to the vulnerable population. By reviewing Bangladesh’s history of past 150 years, he could grasp how the mass upsurges and people’s revolutions were hijacked by the institutional middlemen for advancing their own cause. 

Umar never went back to university campuses after leaving Rajshahi University, as he felt that the universities had become factories for producing clerks and political activists; even the offspring of peasants and workers turned against their roots after graduating from the universities to become opportunistic politicians, bureaucrats, and intellectuals. He also opposed party-politics by teachers on the campuses. Umar profusely wrote about five decades of the country’s history starting from the middle of the 20th century, which covered the language movement, the peasants’ movement, the mass upsurge of 1969, and the liberation war. He was vocal even during the mass upsurge of July-August 2024 despite his advanced age, and even issued a statement in support of the movement in late-July by denouncing the Hasina-regime and asking it to resign. 

During an interview with ‘Bonik Barta’ in July 2024 he claimed that it was in Bangladesh alone in this subcontinent that mass uprisings had repeatedly occurred. We first saw this in 1952. The second instance was during 1969. The third example was 1971, and the fourth was the urban-centric mass uprising against Ershad in 1990. Terming the people’s movement in July 2024 as a mass uprising, Umar had claimed in that interview that it would be difficult for the Hasina-regime to survive in such a situation. This uprising was unparalleled in the history of Bangladesh, as it had spread to both urban and rural areas across the country, he opined. 

The people pursuing communism and revolution in Bangladesh got divided into numerous parties after the country’s independence by opting for diverse theories and formulas. The principal consideration for staging any revolution was usually the attributes of local production system. The course of action had to be one for a feudal system, another for a semi-feudal cum semi-capitalist system, and yet another for a capitalist one. But some local parties even floated the theory that towns should be captured after laying siege to the villages, just as Mao Zedong had done. Some others claimed that revolution would not happen here unless guerrilla warfare was organized, similar to Latin American countries. But only Umar held the view after analysing the mass movements in this country over a long time that the nature of revolution in Bangladesh had to be ‘mass-uprising’. He even wrote a book on the subject titled ‘Janaganer Hatey Kshamata: Nirbachan Na Obbhutthan’ (Power in People’s Hands: Election or Upsurge), which was published in 1996. His claim has been repeatedly proved over the course of Bangladesh’s history. 

If one went through the books written by Badruddin Umar, then the myths of individualistic and partisan narratives of history would break down, and one would find spaces for the struggles of peasants and the working class. These works would remain as shining examples of fact-based accounts presented objectively and impartially without any fear, favour, or hesitation. Umar had expressed his sadness during a recent interview that the long-awaited social and political transformation which he expected during his lifetime had not materialised. Besides, his works, especially on communalism and the language movement, probably did not get the attention it deserved. 

His clear, unwavering and principled stand against deception, hypocrisy, illogic, and ignorance had apparently generated many enemies. But he was relentless in his criticism of those in power – whether it was the Awami League, the Jatiya Party, or the BNP. His supporters, however, far outnumbered his detractors including those in the intellectual domain. The renowned writer Ahmad Safa considered himself lucky, as he was born in the ‘Age of Badruddin Umar’. The voice of Umar may have gone silent, but his writings, his recipes for social transformation, and visions and insights on the trajectories of our history will continue to show us the path, and inspire us in our fight for justice and equality. We shall not bid you adieu Comrade Umar; you shall remain with us forever in this land drenched with the sweat and blood of the peasants and workers. 

Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed is a retired additional secretary and former editor of Bangladesh Quarterly. hahmed1960@gmail.com