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Like in the last three decades, the curtain falls on the month-long book fair in the capital tomorrow, the last day of February. The fair dedicated to the 1952 Bangla Language Movement martyrs began as a week-long fair on the premises of Bangla Academy in early 1970s. It was preceded by a one-day event on this day in 1972 --- the first ever book fair in Bangladesh, organised by Chittaranjan Saha, the owner of the publication house 'Muktodhara'. He is now considered the pioneer of book fairs in Bangladesh. The name under which Chitta Saha set up his makeshift book stall was 'Muktadhara'. In fact, it was a display of assorted books loosely scattered on a crude mat on grass on the Academy premises. The fair started after the conclusion of the first Ekushey programme in free Bangladesh that year under the Academy's banyan tree.
The day of Ekushey February used to witness the commemoration of the Language Movement Day since 1953. The book fair's duration increased to 15 days after it remained limited to a week for a few years. Later, it was extended to a month-long event, with the participation of almost all the small and large creative book publishers of the country. It was jointly organised by Bangla Academy and the country's association of publishers. The fair was officially called Amor Ekushey Grontho Mela. In time, the fair emerged as the largest literary-cultural event of the country. Until just four years back, the mammoth fair was organised on the compound of the Bangla Academy. Given the fast and continued rise in the publishers and book lovers, the fair organising authorities found it wise to shift the event to a large segment of the nearby Suhrawardy Udyan. It was a great decision. In the last years of the fair at Bangla Academy, lots of untoward incidents of jostling, near-stampede and young women's harassment became common occurrences.
Ever since the largest segment of the book fair was shifted to the Udyan, it has worn a rejuvenated character. On the spacious fair ground, the book lovers found the long-awaited atmosphere to which they can feel akin. Books are the only tangible objects having the unearthly air of inner recreation and delight. Most importantly, books involve creativity --- considered the toughest yet the purest of the exercises the human mind is capable of. The Suhrawardy Udyan has offered the readers the perfect outlet through which they can make trips to the ethereal world which remains off-limits to them for scores of mundane reasons. With nearly 500 stalls and pavilions displaying and selling freshly published Bangla books, the month-long fair has emerged as a majestic occasion for celebrating literary creativity. However, the present fairs at the Bangla Academy ground have not been made to lose their lustre of the past, with the fair still remaining alive with many book-related events. The old fairground still takes pride, reasonably at that, in organising discussions and speeches on books, readings, cultural performances etc until the fair's last day. A number of non-conventional stalls putting on display different types of publications, this year the focus being on Bangabandhu Shaikh Mujibur Rahman, have added to the whole fair's vibrancy.
In fact, the Ekushey Gronthomela this year is quite different due to its coinciding with a great national event, the birth centenary of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The fair this year concludes just on the eve of the commencement of the year-long celebration of the centenary, called 'Mujib Borsho' ('Year of Mujib'). The ceremonial countdown is on, to end on March 17 --- the great leader's day of birth. Given this fact, the big publication houses this year has concentrated on publishing books on the different aspects of the political career of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 'Amaar Dekha Naya Chin' ('The New China as I Saw It') written by the Father of the Nation has been adjudged a best-selling book at this year's book fair. The book has been published by Bangla Academy along with 99 others on Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib.
Since the middle part of the 1990s, the book fair has been a broad platform for both senior and younger writers to appear before the readers with their new books. However, most of the older-generation writers have disappeared from the literary scene; many have stopped writing altogether. It is the generations, a little younger, who are poised to be filling the local book world. The rising number of newly emerged and budding authors proves to be an interesting aspect of the fair every year. The year 2020 was also no exception. Book campaigns with the help of certain quarters of the media have been seen creeping into the fair. Most of the behind-the-scenes people remain oblivious to the fact that the month of February in Bangladesh centres round a solemn event: protecting the thousand-year-old Bangla language and culture. In modern times, its seeds are traced to the urge of the Bengalees, especially those living in East Bengal, to assert their distinctive identity and keep it free of the diktats of the alien rulers. Through various twists of socio-political developments, the people's demand that Bangla be a state language of Pakistan culminated in the dream of an independent Bangladesh. As has been seen in many events in the past, history follows its own course. It's irreversible. Perhaps in accordance with this universal rule, some watershed events occurred one after another in the erstwhile East Pakistan. The Bangla Language Movement prompted a series of other related events to follow one another.
The recognition of Bangla as one of the two state languages of Pakistan was followed by an unprecedented unity among the 'secular and nationalistic' political parties. It resulted in the formation of the 'United Front' alliance which won the 1954 provincial election. The following euphoria was short-lived. The West Pakistan-based state rulers imposed a Martial Law in 1958. The eventful 1960s set in to witness students' movements of 1962, Sheikh Mujib's declaration of 6-point demands in 1966, the mass upsurge of 1969 and the landslide electoral victory of Awami League under the mesmeric leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. But the Bengalees had yet to traverse their long and arduous journey. With the West Pakistan-based clique's dilly-dally on transferring power to East Pakistan's Bengalee leaders of Awami League, a deadlock ensued. It was followed by events that happened in quick succession. It began with the deadlock in talks over power transfer to the Bengalees, the West Pakistani leaders' evasive and cunning techniques, and finally, the Awami League's withdrawal from the roundtable and the historic 7th March speech of Sheikh Mujib calling upon the people to join the struggle for independent Bangladesh. In the midst of a non-cooperation movement in March, the Pakistan occupation army let loose a brutal genocide on the unarmed Bengalees on March 25. It was immediately followed by Sheikh Mujib's declaration of Bangladesh's independence. A 9-month-long all-out Liberation War began that ended with the birth of Bangladesh. Bangla became the state language of the new sovereign country.
Against these tumultuous happenings, lots of people would like to define the annual Book Fair held in Dhaka an outcome of the socio-political and cultural struggles of the students and masses of East Bengal. Political undertones keep the Ekushey Book Fair apart from other such events. Unlike the fairs held in Frankfurt, London, Hong Kong, Tehran and Kolkata, the four-decade-long Ekushey Book Fair is unique in many ways. The feature that distinguishes it spectacularly is its ability to draw pure readers throughout a full month. Moreover, it has long become an auspicious occasion to publish books by both senior and younger writers. Had there been no shedding of blood in the Bangla Language Movement, the nation may have been deprived of many gifted poets, novelists, prose writers and academics. Maturity of intellect and creative taste would also have eluded the ever-emerging readers.