The Gorky of 1970

Published : 12 Nov 2014, 03:32 PM
Updated : 12 Nov 2014, 03:32 PM

November 12, 1970, the night the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded, and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern times, hit the coast of Bangladesh, and more than 500,000 people perished. Yet it took days for the central government of Pakistan to mount serious relief operations. President Yahya Khan stopped in Dhaka on his way back from China and only cared to fly over the affected areas. It was like a rewound movie of President George Bush's fly-over of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Just as the residents of New Orleans, the people of Bangladesh were dismayed and angered by central government's slow relief operations and much apathy towards the gigantic needs of the victims. Only one helicopter had been made available for relief work in East Pakistan by November 18. The suffering of the cyclone victims and the indifference of West Pakistani rulers to the plight of Bengali victims once again showed that East Pakistanis were being treated as second-class citizens of Pakistan.

Moulana Bhashani was grievously ill, receiving treatment at a nursing home in Dhaka when the cyclone hit. Doctors did not have much hope of his recovery and thought that he was clinically dead. But miraculously he woke up the next day, November 13. He became furious after reading about the devastation and the indifference of the central government. He wanted to visit the affected areas right away.

Ignoring the advice of his physicians, the Moulana rushed to Manpura, the worst affected part of Bhola. The 80-year-old leader of the down-trodden reached there after an arduous journey by train, motor launch, country boat, and sometimes on foot. He comforted the bereaved and railed against central government's hard-heartedness and indifference. He was seen weeping like a child many times during the tour.

After returning to Dhaka, Moulana Bhashani held a press conference on November 22 to inform the people, both at home and abroad, about the colossal scale of the tragedy. He made emotional appeals to people all around the world to help the afflicted people and condemned the central government for not having "cared to visit the hapless citizens of the East."

The next day, November 23, Bhashani described graphically the extent of devastation caused by the natural calamity at a public rally in Paltan Maidan attended by an estimated 50,000 people: how one million – 1.2 million human beings had been killed by the cyclone, how their homesteads and livestock had been washed away, how nearly 400,000 mutilated bodies of men, women and children, along with hundreds of mutilated livestock, were still lying under the open sky and, how the survivors were struggling for their lives without food and shelter.

To Bhashani the past events and central government's indifference to cyclone victims by way of suppressing the news and distancing itself from the miseries of the Bengalis at the time of their greatest misfortune were a clear prove that Pakistan had by then become 'anachronistic and pointless'. Therefore, as he warned at the famous Kagmari conference 13 years ago in 1957, Bhashani finally bade good-bye, "Assalamu'alaikum" to West Pakistan and declared "Independent East Pakistan".

He ended his speech by saying "Swadhin Purbo Pakistan Zindabad" (Long live independent East Pakistan).

In a week's time, we will be commemorating the 38th death anniversary of Moulana Bhashani, the great leader of the toiling masses, who prepared the ground for Bangladesh's independence. Ironically, Moulana Bhashani was criticised by a section of the press, including the Daily Ittefaq which he founded, for his pronouncement of independence.

Three days after the Moulana's declaration, Bongabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman also voiced his anger in a press conference at Dhaka's Hotel Shahbag on November 26. He declared that the government's failure to help cyclone victims represented a failure of Pakistan more than of the regime of Yahya Khan.

However, when asked about the Moulana's declaration of independence and whether he too would consider secession, he replied, "Not yet" and said, "I have demanded regional autonomy, not independence." Nevertheless, Bongabandhu also added, "East Pakistan must achieve self-rule by ballot if possible, and by bullet, if necessary."

Thus, it would be fair to say that those who lost their lives and livelihoods on that terrible night had in fact galvanised the people of Bangladesh in their resolve for an independent homeland where they will not be neglected by the ruling class. Let us remember them also solemnly as unsung heroes of our nation.