Resistance in Jasim Uddin Mandal’s Jiboner Relgari
Jasim Uddin Mandal is a shining star in the revolutionary political arena of this part of the world. October 2nd marks the first year of his death. Jiboner Relgari (1992) is his autobiography as he related to Abul Kalam Azad. NasirUz Zaman reviews the book
‘Whatever gains have been achieved, including independence and national
liberation, did not arise by themselves. They were the results of struggle and sacrifice,
and it behooves us, the inheritors of any and every benefit of those
sacrifices, never to forget. A people without memory are in danger of losing
their soul.’
— Ngugi wa Thiong'o
JASIM Uddin Mandal always spoke for working-class people, took part in
their struggle for survival, fought for their rights from his youth till
death. During the British rule, he started participating in
the labour movement and continued till his last
breath. Jiboner
Relgari is
the history and experiences of his activities, struggles
and movements. In Mandal’s words, ‘in my memory, there is nothing but
struggles, movements and dark days of prisons including the images of
repression and brutality of British and Pakistani rule’. Not protesting against
the exploiting class was never an option for him, neither was he shy to protest
at the ruling class. To Mandal, this is the greatest achievement and pride of
his life.
While sharing the role and support of his wife Mariam, he said that
during the independence war, Bihari people set his calaghor (shanty hut)
on fire for his involvement in politics which had a deep impact on Mandal but
Mariam consoled him saying that he should not lose hope adding that property
can be regained after independence. She always protected and maintained the
financially-insolvent family alone while Mandal was in jail or underground for
political purpose. She donated her ornaments and also sold her share of
father’s property for Mandal’s party. She had to face derogatory comments from
her father’s side for involving in Mandal’s nonconformist life but never had
antipathy rather encouraged him to continue his political activities. Even she
did not hesitate to refuse her father’s proposal to be married off again while
Mandal was in jail for years after years. West Bengal writer-poet Golam Kuddus
wrote a novel on her titled Mariam.
Mandal fought for his political ideology in his entire life even
disowned his son for involvement in smuggling. He could not accept his son's
moral declination. Reaching the last stage of life, he did not even think to
move back a bit from his ideology and participated in processions and meetings
in his last days to give electrifying speeches against unjust and oppression.
Just a couple of days before his last breath he said to one of his comrades, ‘we
have to continue our fight’.
The brutal reality is that like many revolutionary activists, Mandal is
a relatively unknown figure, however, his life and struggle immensely behoves
us. We, the inheritors of the benefits of his sacrifices, should never forget
him as well as his struggle and sacrifice. In Ngugi’s words, ‘a people without
memory are in danger of losing their soul’ and we cannot lose our soul
forgetting Mandal.
According to his autobiography, Mandal was born in circa 1924, but
according to Bangladesh Communist Party documentations he was born in 1920, at
Kalidaspur village of Kushtia. While living in Kolkata, processions of leftist
parties fascinated him when he was an adolescent which led him to join the
leftist politics. In 1940 he joined the rail as a stoker at TK 15 monthly
salary.
Besides his job, he also joined the Communist Party of India in the same
year. He stood against communal riots over the partition of India in 1946 and saved
thousands of lives. In 1949 he led Khud Birodhi movement as one of the
leaders for which he had to lose his job and spend five years in jail.
Imprisonment could not repress him rather he stood against brutality and
injustice to the prisoners in jail. Authority forced prisoners to work in ghanighar
(manual oil grinder room) for ghanitana (manual oil grinding) but he
rejected the order and destroyed ghanis (manual oil grinders). He also
protested against low-quality foods that were supplied for the prisoners.
Mandal also placed a demand for family allowance for political prisoners’ family
while he was in Rajshahi Central Jail for which authority started monthly TK
150 family allowance.
In 1962 during the regime of Ayub Khan’s dictatorship, he was held in
prison for two years for his political activities. Mandal and his family
members took part in Bangladesh's liberation war in 1971. In his entire life,
he became comrades of thousands of great minds like Sukanta Bhattacharya, Puran
Chand Joshi, Khoka Roy, Ila Mitra, Muzaffar Ahmed, Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani
and many more.
Ayub Khan’s dictatorial period is recorded in this autobiography which
makes the book very much contemporary. Mandal points out some dictatorial
activities of Ayub Khan. In Mandal’s words, ‘repression and torture on East
Pakistani people continued by depriving workers from their rights to form trade
unions, imposing censorship on the newspapers, spreading communalism by the
name of Islam, continuing brutal attack on Bengali language and culture’. He
also points out that Ayub took every possible initiative to win the election,
like, introducing Basic Democracy.
After the election, he immediately supplied thousands of booklets for
publicity of the nobilities of Basic Democracy but this could not remove his
doubt. If the ‘stupid’ Bengalis failed to understand the greatness, so he
inaugurated radio shows in every evening to analyse the benefits of that Basic
Democracy. Point is that, Ayub Khan’s dictatorial period ended but is the dictatorial period here truly ended yet? To get the answer one can examine the
activities of present government such as the complexification of registrations
of new political parties, initiating Digital Security Act, showing indifferent
attitude towards different minorities and attacks on them, destroying the the credibility of the election system, advertising the government’s development
propaganda which has reached an epidemic form.
Politically charged revolutionary veteran communist
activist and leader, comrade Jasim Uddin Mandal continued his fight along with
working-class mass people against the system which was and is always against
working-class for radical changes of the system and structure. Contemporary
practices suggest that political power hub is urban-based, but Mandal, the
one, always advised left leaders to spread party activities at village level
and he did so. As a Marxist working-class activist and leader, he could
understand the language of working-class people and could successfully simplify
the Marxist ideas for them in his electrifying speeches. Throughout his whole
life, he said, ‘we have to break this existing system of exploitation to ensure
freedom of working-class and there is no alternative. The only hope is
communism and there will be communism’.
Nasir Uz Zaman is a
member of the New Age Youth team
Published: Oct 14, 2018 (New Age Youth)
Links:
http://www.newagebd.net/article/53086/resistance-in-jasimuddin-mandals-jiboner-relgari
http://epaper.newagebd.net/14-10-2018/24
