The life still inspiring art

Subir Das
Published : 21 Feb 2020, 11:07 AM
Updated : 21 Feb 2020, 11:07 AM

If you have visited the Dhaka Art Summit, you couldn't miss out on the exhibition titled 'Lighting the Fire of Freedom: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman'.

It offered a whirlwind tour of the life of a leader whose black-framed spectacles and black coat still evoke a man without fear.

His voice is recognised by the United Nations as the Memory of the World. His leadership endowed the nation with the red and green flag fluttering in the air of free and sovereign land. His life still stirs up the imaginative world of an artist.

The exhibition soothingly blended a spectrum of creative expressions starting from paintings to photographs to visuals.

All these forms of expressions bound the story with one thread, the life of the father of the nation through which also came out the stories of a nation that struggled for and attained freedom from two colonial rulers in 24 years.

In the dimly lit nearly circular room, the beholders had reflective moments since the vignettes of Mujib (during his teenage), his prime (as observed in a photograph getting in touch with Indian non-violent-movement-icon Mahatma Gandhi), and the Liberation War of Bangladesh (for which he is called the Father of the Nation) came alive through artworks.

The first item that a visitor caught the glimpse of during his or her clockwise tour of the exhibition was an animation symbolising the nostalgia about Bangabandhu through fireflies.

These little fiery creatures finally blaze into the sun implying that the courage and spirit Mujib gathers through all the movements finally exploded into the leadership that resisted one of the worst genocides mankind has ever witnessed.

Then the visitor observes Bangabandhu joining the peace committee with the slogan 'Want Peace, Not War' alongside Chinese Leader Mao Zedong in 1957.

With no significant detail missed out on, the historical journey moves on to the Agartala Sedition Case pressed against Bangabandhu in 1968.

It spells out how the regime of Pakistan left no stone unturned to silence the voice of this one man whose words and deeds fired up a nation to demand its cherished freedom.

The exhibition even featured the exclusive news reports on the cyclone in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) dubbed as one of the world's deadliest natural disasters, back in 1970.

Owing to the apathy of the General Yahya Khan-led military regime of Pakistan, the disaster killed 500,000 people and devastated many offshore islands of Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, a province before the 1971 Liberation War.

The smoldering rage of people of East Pakistan was slowly advancing towards an outburst in 1970 when the party of Awami League was denied the right to form the government despite securing a landslide victory in the national election.

All the events boiled down to the Mar 7 speech of Bangabandhu (the fiery speech which is listed as one of the best of all times) in 1971 calling upon the nation to continue its struggle towards independence.

On Mar 23, 1971, all roads led to the Dhanmondi-32 residence of Bangabandhu where people from all across the country converged on. Welcoming all the people, he hoisted the flag of Bangladesh.

The climactic point was reached in the night of Mar 25, 1971, when gunshots rattled through the city of Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, and innocent, unarmed, sleeping people died in the historical genocide launched by Pakistan on the soil of Bangladesh.

Bangabandhu landed in the jail of Pakistan but before that, he urged his countrymen to fight for the independence, to rid the soil of the occupation army raining bullets on civilians.

An innocent rickshaw puller, clad in traditional T-shirt and lungi, who had no clue to what befell the city lay lifeless, blood-stained on the rickshaw he used to pull to earn a mere living. This heart-wrenching story came alive through a painting in the exhibition.

The creative form of storytelling also reflected on the global icons like Bob Dylan, George Harrison, and Allen Ginsberg who composed songs or wrote poems to stir the the conscience of the world to pay attention to the genocide orchestrated by Pakistan in Bangladesh.

Photographs displayed that the mass exodus of people who were frantically looking for an escape from the mass killing. Youths who hardly knew how to continue an armed struggle jumped into the fight. It was a befitting reply against the occupation army who raped women and killed civilians indiscriminately.

Finally, the sun of freedom rose from ashes on December 16, 1971, owing to the blood, shed by 3 million martyrs. The Pakistani occupation force, led by Lieutenant-General A A K Niazi, Martial Law Administrator of East Pakistan, surrendered to Bangladesh, thus recognising the victory and independence of Bangladesh.

A wave of bliss swept through the country when Bangabandhu was released from the jail of Pakistan on Jan 8 of 1972.

The entire journey was neatly showcased through creative expressions at Dhaka Art Summit that continued till February 15 this year in the National Art Gallery.

Dhaka Art Summit, one of the biggest art festivals of South Asia, has been casting its spell on art enthusiasts and history aficionados since 2012. This year they featured a special arrangement on the Father of the Nation on the occasion of his birth centenary.

Radwan Mujib Siddiq, a grandson of Bangabandhu and a trustee of CRI, made a visit to the art exhibition, diving deep into the aesthetics of the unique form of storytelling.