Receiving the Bangladesh freedom honour: some emotions and reflections

Published : 25 March 2012, 04:12 PM
Updated : 25 March 2012, 04:12 PM

In 1971, I had the privilege and responsibility of administering OXFAM's relief programme for up to 600,000 of the ten million refugees who had fled from Bangladesh to India and were staying in many of the over 900 refugee camps in the border areas of India and Bangladesh. OXFAM support went to refugee camps in Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Balurghat, West Dinajpur, Bongaon and Barasat.

Since 1972, my life has been intertwined with that of Bangladesh and I am still working here, and so it is with a great mixture of emotions that I will receive the Bangladesh Freedom Honour – 'Swadhinata Sammanona' – on March 27th 2012, at a ceremony presided over by the president and prime minister of Bangladesh. While receiving this honour, I dedicate it to many colleagues who worked with me in 1971, many of whom have passed away in the intervening years.

OXFAM is also a recipient of the 'Bangladesh Freedom Honour'. OXFAM's programme was an unique one in as much as that in the early days of the relief work, when other agencies were flying in many foreign nationals to assist in the work, the OXFAM officials on the ground, including me, advised that our programme was likely to be more effective if we worked with Indian organisations and individuals. At the very beginning of the crisis, we worked closely with Mother Teresa, another awardee, who for some days would phone me every day with a 'shopping list' of items required by the Missionaries of Charity sisters.

By June 1971, OXFAM's relief work in the camps was being run by medical doctors and students of the Calcutta medical colleges and the many Gandhian volunteers from Gujarat and Orissa who had been organised by Narayan Desai, who is also, very rightly, another awardee. The success of our programme led the Bombay medical colleges to join us and medical personnel also came from the Cuttack and Ludhiana Medical Colleges. And so, my award and OXFAM's are accepted on behalf of hundreds of these – mostly young – people who worked in very difficult conditions in the refugee camps on a rotation basis.

There are particular people to whom I also dedicate this honour: The late Raymond Cournoyer, then of OXFAM-UK, who believed in our unique programme; Alan Leather, then OXFAM's Assistant Field Director, who made the first forays into the border areas; the late Vikas Bhai of the Varanasi based Sarva Seva Sangh; Manabendra Mandal of the Gandhi Peace Foundation, Calcutta and Narayan Desai's daughter, Sanghamaitra Desai who, in 1971, was a medical student at the Nilratan Sircar Medical College, Calcutta, and who persuaded the Calcutta University authorities to recognize that the work of the medical students should be regarded as the practical part of their MBBS course. A number of my 35 office and field staff at that time had earlier been students of St Placid's School in Chittagong when Raymond Cournoyer had been its Principal. They worked tirelessly. Some are more well-known than others.

Uday Sankar Das, for many years one of the BBC Bangla voices and Dr Om Prakash, a Chittagong-based eminent cardiologist, are two such persons. Another person who should be mentioned is the late Olaf Hodne, a Norwegian pastor, who in 1971 was running the Cooch Behar Refugee Service and in 1972 followed the refugees  back to Bangladesh and set up Rangpur Dinajpur Refugee Service (RDRS).

These are a few thoughts and memories. I expect I will have many more after receiving the Bangladesh Freedom Honour on March 27th.

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Julian Francis who, since the War of Liberation, has had a long association with Bangladesh working in many poverty alleviation projects, is currently working as Partnerships Director at the DFID and AUSAid supported 'Chars Livelihoods Programme', RDA, Bogra.