Anti Ayub Movement and Students

BENGALI NATIONALISM AND ANTI-AYUB MOVEMENT:A STUDY OF THE ROLE OF STUDENTSArticle Published in Pakistan Vision.Volume 7, No. 2 December 2006

Punjab University, Lahore

Mahboob Hussain

Lecturer Department of History,

University of the Punjab Lahore

Bengali Nationalism and Anti-Ayub Movement:A Study of the Role of Students*Mahboob Hussain

This article is about the role of students in the downfall of Ayub regime. It aims at the rediscovery of the actual picture of the political happenings during the declining years of President Ayub Khan. The central idea of the article is that the students were mainly instrumental in the fall of the regime. They were on the forefront of the movement for the revival of the democracy in the country and they provided the much needed energy by the anti-Ayub forces at that time. It will particularly highlight the role of students in East Pakistan and how it affected the growing Bengali nationalist sentiments there.

The movement against Ayub Khans regime was a unique phenomenon in Pakistans political history. Ayub Khans economic policies helped the industrial development of East Pakistan, but the lot of the common man did not improve. Poverty, ignorance and other similar problems remained unresolved. This led to the alienation of students and all of the politically relevant strata of Bengali society. 1 In the 1960s, economic disparities between East and West Pakistan increased, and the idea that Pakistan consisted of two economies and two polities arose among East Pakistan intellectuals, who formed an expansive, influential circle for the interaction of the two visions of independence. The combination of Bengali cultural nationalism, triggered by the Language Movement, with a 1960s critique of Pakistan's political economy composed a virtual "two-nation theory" inside Pakistan.2 The 1965 war between India and Pakistan dramatized East Pakistan's military vulnerability compared to West Pakistan. The Bengalis felt that due to their under-representation in the civil service and in the central cabinets, they played only a small share in the national political main stream.3 In order to address disparities between East and West Pakistan, Awami League president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman announced a six-point programme in 1966, it was virtually the blueprint for Bengali right to live4 and demanded that East and West Pakistan form a federated state.

In 1967, the Agaratala Conspiracy Case was a nerve test of the Ayub Regime in East Pakistan. Mujib would have been politically dead if the case could be proved, but instead he earned martyrs status and the trial only reinforced his power and credibility.5 This case played the same role for Bengali nationalism as did Jinnahs publicity campaign against the Congress rule in the Muslim minority provinces from 1937-1939.6 Ayub Khan's government responded by implicating Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 34 others in an alleged conspiracy to make East Pakistan independent through an armed uprising. As a result of the Agartala Conspiracy Case, Sheikh Mujib spent almost three years in jail, from May 8, 1966 to January 22, 1969. In this situation Mujib rose as a popular mass leader.7 During this time, a mass popular movement arose against the Agartala Conspiracy Case and the Ayub Khan regime. The students were bringing out huge processions in Dhaka, demanding the release of Mujib and the withdrawal of the conspiracy case against him.8 In 1968, politicians and students from the left published a Programme for Independent Republic of Purba Bangla, and raised the slogan, "Establish Independent Republic of Purba Bangla".9 Jailing the constitutional leadership had opened up political space for public demands for sovereignty, which added new force to federal demands.

The month of December 1968 and January 1969 were marked with strikes and a new popular movement led by student organizations which combined calls for federalism with passionate assertions of Bengali nationalism. On January 4, 1969 the new Sarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram Parishad (All Parties Student Resistance Council, or SCSP) was formed. This Council came together under a common set of demands and an agreed collective leadership. They announced an 11-point charter for self-government in East Pakistan, and evoked freedom with such slogans as "Awake, Awake Bengalis, Awake", "Brave Bengalis, take up arms and make Bangladesh independent", "Your Desh, My Desh, Bangla Desh, Bangla Desh". Cries of "Joy Bangla" appeared in public instead of "Pakistan Zindabad" and Jai Hind etc.10

The most crucial, and obviously the most glorious phase of student politics was the period from 1968 to 1969. Under the political setting of the early 1960s, most of the political parties got fragmented into various factions and with them the student parties were also segmented. The sub-division and fragmentation of student organizations made their public image highly dubious. Mass Upsurge, started with the student unrest of 1968 against the autocratic rule of Ayub Khan. That time three leading students organizations, the EPSL (aligned with the AL) and the East Pakistan Students Union (EPSU) Matia and Menon Group forged a united front known as the Students Action Committee (SAC) with Tufail Ahmad, the flamboyant Vice President of the Dhaka University Central Students Union (DUCSU) as Chairman. As in West Pakistan, every political party had its parallel students organization. Therefore the EPSU aligned with the NAP, the AL was supported to the EPSU, the NSF was supported by the PML and JI was aligned with Islami Jamiat Tulba.11

The student organizations started anti-government movement and the movement soon engulfed the whole of the then East Pakistan. The peasants, artisans, workers joined the movement. The people had tolerated Ayubian regime for ten years. Political suppression and alienation of people led to the unpopularity of Ayub regime. In this situation, students started an organized campaign against the government. The call was for the parliamentary form of government, direct election, the end of emergency, the release of political prisoners and the freedom of expression. During the movement, law and order completely broke down. Government property was damaged and burnt. The basic Democrats and the Convention Muslim League MNAs and MPAs and Ministres, who symbolized Ayubs instruments of power and suppression, were attacked. Curfew was violated, and anti Ayub slogans were raised.12 The lava had been boiling underground since long and the inferno erupted with an unprecedented force. A force which rocked the very foundations of the country.13Due to continuous exaction of undue demands, the labour class of the industrial belts and low and medium income groups soon turned the movement into a struggle for economic emancipation. The racial repression and the deprivation of the Bengalis within the framework of Pakistan and, to the contrary, starting from the Language Movement the feeling of separate identity together with struggle for autonomy had direct influence on the mass upsurge of 1969. Indeed, this mass upsurge was the greatest mass awakening ever since the creation of Pakistan. That time the opposition parties were organizationally weak and divided they enjoyed supreme authority within the movement.14

The student agitation turned into a vigorous movement when Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani openly preached violence and started a movement ghero and jalao. He also raised a cry of independence.15 He asked his followers to besiege Governors House and formulated and declared his future programmes. As a part of joint programmes the National Awami Party (NAP) of Maulana Bhasani, East Pakistan Workers' Federation of and East Pakistan Peasants' Association led by Abdul Huq arranged a public meeting at Paltan Maidan to observe the Repression Resistance Day on 6 December 1968. After the meeting was over, a huge procession 'gheraoed' the Governor's House. The Maulana declared a hartal the next day, following the clash between the people and the police. On the call of the main opposition parties namely two factions of NAP (Bhasani and Muzaffar), Awami League, People's Party, Nezam-i-Islam, Jama't-i-Islam etc a hartal was observed throughout East Pakistan on 8 December.16 Repression Resistance Day was very successfully observed throughout the province on 10 December at the call of Awami League (pro-six point). On the 14th the gherao programme was declared by the NAP (Bhasani). Accordingly, the programme was launched with the gherao of the bungalow of the DC of Pabna on the 29 December 1968.17

On the 4 January 1969, leaders of the East Pakistan Students Union (Menon Group), East Pakistan Students League, East Pakistan Students' Union (Matia Gr.)18 and a section of National Students Federation (they were all the part of SAC) declared their 11-point Programme. The 11 Points included the Six Points of Awami League as declared by Sh. Mujib ur Rahman, including provincial autonomy, the demands centering round students' own demands as well as the demands relating to the problems of the workers. As a matter of fact, the Eleven Point programme was a compromise solution of all the demands of secular and leftist Parties in East Pakistan.19 This is also reality that student leaders took through the Eleven-Point programme was timely and appropriate.20 The Eleven Point programme of the students was, by and large, a combination of the demands of the opposition parties in East Pakistan. On the basis of these points the important opposition parties could be united on a minimum point of agreement to continue with the movement against Ayub regime.21Student leadership developed the idea of making Bangladesh an independent country on the basis of Bangali nationalism. In its nationalist sense, the term Bangladesh was coined by the Parishad leadership. They also coined the nationalist slogan, Jai Bangla and all the associated nationalist slogans and symbols. In such an emotionally charged atmosphere, one even heard such slogans as Jai Hind, Akhaand Bharat, Bande Materam raised during the procession and public meetings 22 Meanwhile the demand for Sheikh Mujib's release and withdrawal of the Agartala Conspiracy Case began to get the utmost priority. Together with the Dhaka University Central Students' Union (DUCSU) the student leaders of SAC holding different positions throughout East Bengal played a very important role in the 1969 mass upsurge. That time administration collapsed completely and the SAC became the virtual ruler of the province. 23Immediately after the 11-point programme had been launched on 8 January 1969 eight political parties, including Awami League and NAP (Muzaffar) formed an alliance known as the Democratic Action Committee (DAC). The DAC brought together the CML, NI, JUI, AL, NDF, AL (Six Points), and NAP (pro- Moscow). They demanded Federal form of government, election on the basis of universal adult franchise, immediate withdrawal of emergency and release of all political detainees including Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Khan Abdul Wali Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.24 They took the decision to strengthen the movement that was already set in motion by the students, to achieve their goal. But some rightist parties in the DAC refused to support the 11-point programme of the SAC.25 In spite of that the movement gradually got momentum and the spirit of 11 points reached every nook and corner of the province. Even a portion of the pro-government student front NSF (a dummy organization was set up by the government, this organization had nothing to do with the NSF working in the West Pakistan) came forward with their 22-point programme and began openly to oppose the government.26 To voice the protest against government repression the students arranged a meeting at the Dhaka University and resolved to bring out a procession. In the procession police opened fire and Asad uz zaman, a leader of the Students Union (Menon), was killed on 17 January, 1969. He was a M.A final year student of the Department of History, Dhaka University. His death changed the nature of the student-mass movement and SAC totally took over the movement in East Pakistan and it turned into a mass-upsurge against the Ayub regime and its repressive measures.27 At Asad's death, the Central Action Committee announced three days of mourning throughout East Pakistan. Besides, the Committee undertook programmes of hartal Very soon the movement took the shape of a national upsurge as a consequence of the killing of a student of the highest seat of learning in the country. The situation of Dhaka went beyond control of the police when Matiur, a student of class IX, died of police firing on 24 January and Rustam was stabbed to death as well. A Dhaka magazine wrote: from strike to brickbatting to barricades, from barricades to a general uprising that is the development which happened since the peaceful beginning of the Demands Day on January 17. The successive phases of this development followed one another rather quickly and with amazing spontaneity .29 The anti Ayub movement reached a new pitch of violence, first in the East Pakistan and then in sympathy in the West Pakistan as well. In the agitation and clashes with the public, more then one hundred people were killed in the Eastern wing alone.30

According to a data report the following months, casualties escalated: December 1968, 11 death and 1530 arrests; January 1969, 57 deaths, 4710 arrests, and 1424 injured in street clashes; February 1969, 57 deaths, 100 arrests, and 412 injured; March 1969, 90 deaths, 356 arrests, and 490 injured.31Indiscriminate firing of the army and the EPR( East Pakistan Rifles) caused death to a woman while sucking her baby. The incidence caused widespread repercussions in the socio-political arena. Sergeant Zahrul Huq, an under-trial prisoner in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, died of bullet injury in the Dhaka Cantonment on 15 February 1969.32 His funeral procession triggered off a riot in which two houses of ministers and the state Guest House where the Chief Judge of the Agartala Tribunal, Justice S.A Rahman, was staying were set on fire. Justice Rahman fortunately escaped, but the army was called out again and a curfew was imposed in response. SAC called for a strike.33 The death of Zahr ul Huq immediate effect on East Pakistan mass. According to Tariq Ali:

Whatever are the facts about his death, the killing of Zahoor had explosive effects on the people of Dacca. Students clashed with police and Maulana Bhashani called a funeral meeting on Sunday, Feb. 16, 1969. It was at this meeting that the eighty-six years old peasant leader ended his oration. With the call Bangla jage agan jaloo. No sooner had Maulana said these words that smoke was seen rising from the center of the city. It was a pure coincidence, but the dramatic effect heightened the already tensed atmosphere, in the city people showed their capacity to retaliate. Headquarter of Convention Muslim League was bunt, house of the ministers and supporters of Ayub Khan were also burnt to ashes and the administration finaly resorted to curfew which too could not pacify the passions and was defined by the students, labourers and peasants.34On 18 February 1969 Dr Mohammad Shamsuzzoha, Proctor of the Rajshahi University, while trying to restrain students leaving the campus, which they had been forbidden to do by the government, was bayoneted by soldiers and died beside the gates of the university. He was a person of considerable academic distinction and very popular and his death was a great blow to hopes of restoring civic calm. The news spread like wild fire throughout the country. Thousands of people thronged the Dhaka streets and highways ignoring curfew. 35The twenty-first February of 1969 imbued the people with a new spirit of opposing dictatorship. This year a large number of people came out on the occasion of the Shaheed Day. Since 21 February 1952, the day has been observed every year to commemorate the martyrs of the Language Movement.36 In a seminar arranged at the Teacher Student Center (TSC) and presided over by Professor Abdul Hye, it was resolved that the movement for language-based nationality would continue. Amidst strong popular demand Ayub Khan had to give way and declare that he would not contest the next Presidential Election. The same day Sheikh Mujib and the others accused in the Agartala Conspiracy Case and 34 political detainees including Moni Sing, Nagen Sarkar and Rabi Neogi were released.37Earlier the students were bringing out huge processions in Dhaka, demanding the release of Mujib and the withdrawal of the conspiracy case against him 38In this struggle for democracy and endeavour to get rid of tyranny the toiling masses of the rural areas did not stop at merely chanting slogans against oppressive government but also raised their voice against the oppressing class or its representatives such as the corruption and arrogance of the bureaucracy, the concentration of national wealth in the twenty-one families. The situation took such a dimension that in many cases peasants, with the assistance of students or at least hoping that they would get their support, killed cattle lifters, burnt them or set their houses on fire, crippled the thieves and robbers and sometimes even killed them.39 In several places the students with the assistance of peasants put on trial the local tax-collectors, the subordinate police and their officers, circle officers and moved them around market places garlanding them with shoes. Students exacted from them the amount they had taken as bribes, sometimes they were fined.40 Students forced chairmen and members of union councils to resign, removed brothels and wiped out liqueur shops. In the urban areas, corrupt officials were bodily manhandled, their record books ransacked and sometimes even set on fire. Low-income groups and mid-level employees chanted for their long cherished but unfulfilled demands and joined the processions in the highways. Thousands of workers used the gherao movement as the fruitful means of achieving their demands.41

In East Pakistan, the situation had worsened after the Round Table Conference. The Students Action Committee had dominated the anti-Ayub movement from the beginning. Early in March 1969, SACs demanded for the resignation of forty thousand Basic Democrats, followed by Bhashanis call for the forcible take-over of mills and factories, and his threat to burn the polling booths if election were held, created anarchic condition.42 Now even the moderates were forced to make radical statements to save themselves, for instance, in March 1969, one East Pakistani Con Muslim Leagues MNA requested permission from Ayub Khan for making a statement to the effect that there should be two states of East Pakistan and West Pakistan on the basis of the Lahore Resolution of 1940. He wanted to do this in order to save himself and his property.43

The whole East Pakistan was now in a turmoil that the regular law enforcing agencies could not control without the cooperation of all the major political parties and students. Ayub Khan made a last effort to restore peace by appointing new governors in both East and West Pakistan. Yusuf Haroon replaced General Musa, and Dr. N.M Huda took over charge from Menem Khan.44 But the situation still out of control, in this situation the regime decided that the army was the only organ capable of restoring peace, when Ayub Khan finally realized that his initiatives had failed to arrest the deteriorating political situation, he handed over the rein of government to General Yahya Khan.Notes and References:

1. http/www.albd.org/aldoc/50years_12htm see also, Rounaq Jahan, Pakistan, Failure in National Integration (New York:Columbia University Press, 1972),pp.85-86.

2. Ibid.

3. Safdar Mahmood, Pakistan Divided (Lahore: Jang Publishers, 1993),36.

4. Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Emergence of Bangladesh and Role of Awami League (Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1982), p.100.

5. Lawrence Ziring, The Ayub Khan Era (Syracuse, University press, 1971), p.91.

6. G.W Choudhury, The Last Days of United Pakistan (London: 1974), p.26.

7. Siddeque Salik, Witness to Surrender (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1979), p.5.

8. Altaf Gauhar, Ayub Khan Pakistans First Military Ruler, (Lahore: Sang- e-Meel Publications, 1993).p.435.9. http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/R_0007.htm

10. Muhammad Abbas Ali, The Salvation of East Pakistan (Sialkot: 1971), p.29.

11. Bhuiyan, Emergence of Bangladesh, p.111.

12. Mahmood, Pakistan Divided, p.48.

13. Muhammad Abbas Ali,p.27.

14. Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, p.111.

15. Safdar Mahmood, Pakistan Divided, p.48.

16. The Pakistan Observer , Dhaka ,December 9, 1968.

17. Ibid.

18. The EPSU was divided into Menon (Pro-Chinese) and Motia (Pro-Moscow) factions in December 1968.19. Anwar Dil, Bengali Language Movement (Lahore: Ferozsons, 2000) p.215.

20. Rafique Afzal, Political Parties in Pakistan 1958-1969 vol.ii, (Islamabad:National Institute of Historical and Cultural Research,2000), p.27821. See the pamphlet, Launch United Movement on the basis of 11 point programme distributed by SAC.

22. Mohammad Abbas Ali, p.37.

23. Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, p.118.

24. Rafique Afzal, p.280

25. http//www.banglapedia.search.com.bd.26. Ibid.

27. The Pakistan Observer, 21 January 1969. Also see, Rafique Afzal, Political Parties in Pakistan, vol-ii,p.281

28. Ibid., p.282

29. Holiday, January 28, 1969.

30. UN official estimate given by the newspapers.

31. Tariq Ali, Can Pakistan Survive? (London:Penguin Books, 1983),p.81.Also see Hasan Zaheer, The Separation of East Pakistan (Dhaka: University Press,1994),p.101.

32. Herbert Feldman, From Crisis to Crisis: Pakistan 1962-1969, (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2001) p.269.

33. Dawn, Karachi February 18,1969.

34. Tariq Ali, Pakistan: Military Rule or Peoples power (New York: Morrow and Compony, 1970), pp.206-7.

35. M.Rafique Afzal, p.286. Also se Herbert Feldman, From Crisis to Crisis p.269.

36. UNESCO adopting a resolution on 17 November 1999 proclaiming 21 February as International Mother Language Day.

37. Herbert Feldman, From Crisis to Crisis p.280.

38. Altaf Gauhar, Ayub Khan: Pakistans First Military Ruler, (Lahore: Sang-e-Meel Publishers, 1993), p.435.

39. www.benglapedia. Search.com.bd.

40. Ibid.

41. M.Rafique Afzal, p.294.

42. Ibid.p.295.

43. S.M. Zafar, Through the Crisis (Lahore: Book Centre 1970), p.176.

44. M.Rafique Afzal, p.297.