Srabon and a successful winter resistance

Afsan Chowdhury
Published : 1 Jan 2017, 07:54 AM
Updated : 1 Jan 2017, 07:54 AM

A successful resistance was led by a section of Dhaka's cultural and media activists against Bangla Academy's decision to ban publishing house Srabon from the Ekushey Boi mela for two years. It was intended to punish Srabon for protesting the ban, arrest and such actions against those who had published a book considered hurtful to religious the sentiments. The DG of Bangla Academy took a lot of flak both for criticizing Srabon's protests and the manner in which the decision to ban was made.

The DG's position appeared weak, ill advised and authoritarian. As a result, the authorities came out looking lame and caught on the wrong foot. The DG's vigorous defense of his action was on Facebook of more juvenile variety. Worse, his spelling was even worse. In just a matter of two days he became a national laughing stock which was acutely embarrassing for the Culture Ministry and the order was withdrawn subject to certain conditions. The silliness of the meritocrats trying to be policemen was again on display and the image of the government was dented.

But there were several other factors that emerged displaying the nature of social forces at work. One is that there is a limit to the dependence one can have on the bureaucracy in managing an entire society. This is particularly so where resistance to authorities plays such a critical role in constructing its middle class culture and history. While the spook agencies and the amlas must be feeding the government at the top with tales of how powerful religious militancy is, no research proves their power, the way the appeasement policies have been taken.

Since Bangladesh is extremely centralized, whatever happens in Dhaka becomes national. This was best seen during the Shahbagh days when a cluster became a manager of history albeit for a few days. The BNP had tried the same with Hefazat but the religious crowd was dispersed by the police in a single night, though Shahbagh could never be. In the end, the government had to own the movement. This was public opinion at work and Srabon, like Shahbagh, albeit at a very small level, became a cause. Hefazat may be influential in Narayanganj like the Osman family or in the villages but they don't matter in Dhaka.

The authorities may also have been led to believe that those not part of the AL must be BNP-JI activists so it would be an easy problem to handle and bullying was enough. Most of the people who opposed the Srabon ban are long term opponents of the BNP and certainly Jamaat and other Islamic militants. The group includes the victims of the Jongis, such as the publishers killed by Jongis, Avijit and many other liberal and leftists intellectuals, which is why they were protesting in the first place. Many in fact even see the actions of the Bangla Academy as appeasement of the Jongis and desertion of the cause of traditional Bengali culture. The Srabon created an opportunity to register both long and immediate action protests. If anything, it is this hardcore pro-1971 group which the amlas never took into account and now have caused this embarrassment to the political government.

Srabon was not supported by the publishers' community much but media and cultural activists. With the media supporting the issue the authorities were put on the back foot and had to give in or risk more protests, more unseemly statements and more goofing up by the Academy authorities. Some pro-government media members did try to take position through defending the Academy decisions but the public furore was such that their voice was stilled.

So Srabon moved from being a publisher to become a cause and media workers became part of it. It is here that a longer term resistance has built up as these media workers represent the low privileged middle class who are not direct beneficiaries of the ruling class hence free to protest. Since media outlets/owners need to remain popular to gain social capital, they need to invest in stories that are popular and supported by media workers. Srabon's cause was popular and the media picked it up, not to mention social media which mounted a campaign that made the ban look very deplorable. Thus, in this winter battle, protests won, a face-saving way was found and the ban lifted.

Although the ruling class has ignored the middle class interest to appease the upper class, the configurations have created situations where the power relations have not worked out as expected. It seems the middle are not strong but stronger than expected and despite difficulties able to exert themselves in certain spaces. They have been priced out of politics but the media have become a new political space where the very kind of topics to be avoided is surfacing again and again making many issues into causes. And this process has now become systematic. The Srabon ban and its resistance displayed the strength of public opinion at work.