Towards Metamorphosis

TOWARDS METAMORPHOSIS The 1940’s were the time of turmoil, the times of Titans, the times when principles determined politics, ideals fashioned ambitions and the passion for freedom and the spirit of sacrifice designed careers. Those were the days of unostentatious and silent services to people. These among other thoughts come stampeding, all clamoring for attention, each causing an emotional tug. People now trace the roots of problems and the sources of divisions. While there are flashes of by gone glory scattered all over, there are also polite but candid appraisals of skewed priorities. Elitism and status quo, privilege and power remained entities and a set of brown rulers replaced the whites. As disparities grew, so did alienation. And the only response the new rulers could think of was savage repression of popular mobilization. The liberal leaders are still presuming the people to recollect their struggles, think of present problems, and their potentials, enshrined to inspire them towards continuing their fight for a better life, a life of dignity and self respect, a life free of oppression and exploitation, injustice and penury. By virtue of its having the majority people are being ruled by the most ignorant and unenlightened people known as politicians. Liberals have certainly very good intellectual and moral reasons for allowing peoples sense of disgust to develop into pure hatred of the illegitimate political system. It is precisely such a feeling and revulsion are being experienced as one gets state of the situations in the country- people with all their slums, the perpetual sight of children seeking alms to support their younger brother and sisters or their parents broken physically or mentally by the extreme poverty they have had to endure and the pathetic look in the faces of millions. Any sensible person, in this situation, knows that any political whimsical action will destroy even what is left of the economy and social institutions, but the major opposition party throws one after the other programs without caring for people’s welfare. Here lies the necessity of active liberal sensitive political and social leader, whose idealism and deep concern for the people do not lead them to abandon their practical commonsense but

instead drive them to find feasible solutions-preach and propagate those to form public opinions and place them before the ruling party to resolve effectively the problems of extreme poverty and serious deprivation. There is movement but no anarchy, agitation but no mob action, mobilization but not destruction. Neither religious rituals nor ideology can take human beings much closer to a visionary state of perfection. Religious commandments of Islam, the ideology of liberalism and Banglee nationalism if visualized with adequate realism can take humanity forward to peace, prosperity and progress. Anything more perfect is just ill conceived plain romanticism, reflecting, in fact, a frailty of intellect, which is the only attribute of oppressors and their oppressive social, political and economic system. The irony is that these very people are ruling the world and the vast majority of human beings are just passive onlooker. It is high time a group of human beings to get up from the slumber and stand erect. Life in death is much better than death in life- so says the wise. The grandeur of vision and its greatness of historical development of humanity enabled the liberals to see further than others. Oriental politicians of the past were not any of those numerous specialist intellectuals, who know only about their particular little Domain, all being darkness beyond. They were of universal mind and were true to themselves and the human beings as a whole. They ventured into the dangerous terrain of the chain of creation, sought meaning and purpose of humanity and came out with high integrity and intensity, which all great men possess. They moved to the darkness of the dark places and yet come out spotless. They knew the western and the Aryan invaders had no social roots in south Asian sub-continent and that they could not have established themselves against the wishes of the people who were prepared by the experience to resist them. Politics to them were a method for understanding the people and the society the process and then working to transform it.

Present day politicians themselves have no work ethic and none inculcated in the workers and that results in the collapsing of the party. The main problem is that the most important social class is politically influential class and they are rich and reactionaries and parochial and as such they stand in the way of progress and national unity. Society is undergoing a process of intellectual and moral disintegration. Managing diversities is unthinkable. Absence of a vision is the absence of a political design to keep the country together and gain economic prosperity and social progress. People require solutions to the problems of their daily life and that is what the state is there for. A peoples state is necessary to which mass people could relate and towards which they can have a sense of belonging. It should have been concern of the leaders to formulate a vision for national regeneration and discuss with a group of intellectuals taken form all beliefs, opinion and inclinations, on a common plat from for democracy, social reforms and economic development compatible with the requirements of ecology and of course for political purification. People are tired of present political system and have a great desire to see the start of an intellectual transformation to precede social and political transformation of a fundamental nature. The intelligentsias are in natural and direct contract with common people and the state of their thinking could almost be taken as a rough barometer of the public mind at any given moment. Considering the thoughts and feelings of the people there appears a group of so called intellectuals who to live a life of affluence collaborate with the whims of the ruling elites and also with the foreign hegemonic forces and do their best to transform the national identity as to that of foreign culture that encourages animalism to develop in human beings. This great problem cannot be ignored or bypassed. The vision has to be able to tackle two problems: (i) how to transform the people of this region to liberal culture of peaceful co-existence of the people of different culture and faith and (ii) how to reduce the social strata. Mass people think it not at all difficult. Leaders and intellectuals have to reverse one of the most progressive features of present culture. Revival of old spirit of truth seeking and truth speaking in social and religious life but that requires a man of very high moral

stature- i.e. he has to be a perfect human being. On the question of resolution of conflicts and displacing social gaps, the general impression is that there is too much of wishful thinking and slogan mongering and too little of hard, realistic facing of facts. The change demands a total break out from the existing intellectual framework prevailing in the society and that is very much essential. Retaining old framework in the thinking will push people back into the present situation. Change means surrendering the two hundred years old British tailored intellectual framework and culture civilization, which in reality means to be human and civil. To be human and civil one has to be religious, not in its ritual sense, but a broader and universal conception of democracy, human rights irrespective of sex, race, creed and religion. There is a tendency in the western-educated people to blindly criticize religion and to ignore it. People rather get to understand it better and more deeply so that people of all religions could be aided to arrive at some kind of universal ground of unity within religion itself. As it has been told earlier, there has to be an intellectual revaluation before a social revaluation takes place in the field of action. The real actors in the society should enlarge their understanding by acquiring a perspective thorough knowledge, grasp the process of history-not just facts of history, but how empires have collapsed, how religions advanced and how massive change in the human society have taken place. They have to reflect on major national issues, work an basic issues, on the clarification of basic concept, always seek to reach at the root of problems, speak on the implications of the collapse of best ideals for peoples quest, reflect on what the real human aspirations should be and what is real development and how to make those development sustainable, how to keep environment and ecology free from pollution; make a deep study of human civilizations and their evolution and destruction and its perennial concerns and current problems. Believing individuals and not building institution will not bring any good, but a very serious moral decline will follow. The final, shrunken, hapless figures of the oppressed and exploited people may evoke deep tender feelings, but without powerful personality and masterful intellect these people could not be salvaged.

To combined theory and practice in political, economic and social affairs with a purposeful coherence and an extraordinary competence and the analysis of the process of nation making is the main concern of present day activities. It seems that nobody is particularly conscious in locating the imperative for the rise of nation state and the essentials of the materials and non-material ingredients of Bangladeshi nationalism. There is no effect to a conspicuous analytical perception of events, personalities, concepts, processes and distinctive characteristics of societies. Present day real actors must realize the innumerable subtleties and nuances that was devised for murderous exploitation of the millions by a few. The nationhood have a very direct relationship with exploitation and oppression as well as repression which, in turn have significant impact on ideas and values as well as on social and political systems like democracy, land use, industrialization, social space, self sufficiency as conceived by leaders of the struggle. But it is a wonder, how the planning process in Bangladesh’s development works; have over the years reduced to certain routine rituals. The cumulative impact of particularisms and tensions and the decline of the moral fiber of the policy had prompted selfishness, dishonesty, personal advancement, political and social manipulation and corruption in public life on an extensive scale causing perceptive erosion of ideology and idealism. Poverty becomes the specific differentiator of development and its collective symbol. Stagnation of developments, absence of virile public debates on national issues, the dehumanizing concentration of wealth and the growth of apparently irresistible arrogance of the real-actors are some of the characteristics of Bangladeshi nationalism. Nowhere is seen any aspect of imaginative perception, that offered growth, sensible ties at any stage and a qualitative enrichment of conscious. Heredity alone does not shape one’s consciousness in a deterministic way, self-image has its role in formulating values. Commitment to self respect is the quality of head and heart which prevents a person from bending and bowing and self respect is interlinked with one’s dedication to work as a sacred obligation instead of instinct for survival and unending inclination for power and wealth. The elementary lessons on social realities, poverty

and its ruthlessness, the essentials of human fraternity can only be learnt if there is a world of curiosities, of asking questions and an effort of understanding nature with a single minded purpose and devotion with the yearning to remain youthfully vigilant. The relevant social and political changes, resistance erupting all over with firm nexus with national consciousness, the emergence of novel political strategy and peaceful method of protest transforms people’s movements into mass upsurge. The extension of the base of the movement is underlined by the rise of professional people along with the peasants and workers as a conspicuous social force. The tire of nationalism gradually but surely engulfs the peoples thought process. The complexity of living is meaningful only in terms of a moral obligation towards responsibilities, a modicum of detachment and sincere involvement with life itself. Along with it is needed a relational comprehension of the processes of change in life and history and the zeal and devotion of a reformer with enormous range of interest and formidable depth of analysis. The story of men and events become meaningful only in the context of social progress operating in the framework of certain historical, ethnic and geographical specificities. It involves charges. Since the process of thinking and reasoning are essential for human development millions of people live and die in a state of intellectual inertia. Creative minority suffered through the ages under the tyranny of authorities punishing, what they termed, dangerous thoughts; proscribing any move that they think as deviation and enforcing conformity to their ideas. But the final show down could not be stopped or contained. The path of human progress is littered with the bodies of the freedom fighters and of the fallen god’s towards its natural end, i.e. realization of humanity, based on rationality, justice, equality, liberty and progress. Human nature matures in the process of complex interaction between consciousness, conscience, society and nature. The ascent of human beings from primitive copying of animalism to the wonderful creativity most forcefully affirms the primacy of love over hatred, justice over injustices, liberty over tyranny and above all intellectual

and physical action over surrendering to uncertainty or fate. The interaction between the major explosions of human knowledge and consciousness intensified the tensions between processes of continuity and change. The most significant expressions of the interaction is the assertion of certain primary identities. The management of human consciousness was the principal task of social engineering and its purpose was to steer the process of change in such a way as to invest the imperative of the post, present and future with an orderly and creative development. In terms of practical experience of life, it meant the attainment of a satisfactory equilibrium between security social stability and production of wealth and when the equilibrium was disturbed, it denoted the decline of the society, the nation and the age. In history time and again certain mindsets become so opaque and oblivious of the imperatives of change that they release, consciously or unconsciously, forces that lead to convulsions and immoderate social and political transformations. Thus if continuity is underwritten in social politics at the expense of the demands of change, tension is inevitable and when change is given primacy in defiance of continuity, tensions become impending. Statesmanship consists in managing the tension in order to contain explosive flashpoints and at the sane time continue with social progress towards humanity. All societies everywhere in the world have been presented by historical developments and opportunities to resolve this tension. But the task is carried out according to the specificities of historical and social realities. Insensitiveness to human travails is the curse of heartless consumerism and statesmen economists and intellectuals are urged to ponder over the eerie prospect of the nation plunging into violence and anarchy unless the passions encapsulated in the words such as humanity, trusteeship, sacrifice and companionship is internalized as inseparable parts of national inheritance. Tragedies in human history have been the direct result of mindsets, dogmatic belief and disinclination to analysis and face harsh realities. Describing a rational evolution of a nation in a country of glorious diversities one must not seek to overwhelm these diversities by rigid political and cultural uniformity. In the structuring of modern

Bangladesh what is required is not passive acceptance of social and cultural diversities of national life but to respect them as essential parts of a richly embroidered piece of textile offering an enormous field of human creativity. Vigilance is the essence of human development; otherwise there would be that threat of stagnation. Status quo is the clear signal of stagnation especially when the scope for human aspirations and knowledge are fundamental for rational social change. The democratic process is the only rational path of progress and it must create conditions for introspection in the field of health, education, culture, and economic and social developments. And in the process the concepts of justice, quality, liberty and fraternity cannot be overlooked. Bangladesh with all its poverty, ill health, illiteracy cannot afford to muddle through the development process. Illiberal ideal based on irrational archaic realities should not hinder the efforts of nation building which in a historical sense, an undoing process. The democratic process of Bangladesh must be sustained by two eternal institutions of ‘political morality’ and ‘the satisfaction of being heard’. The democratic society can never be a fundamentalist society it must eschew irrational emotions as the ephemeral cementing agency of various groups faiths and cultures unless those attend against natural law and human nature. It cannot be based an physical force to be overthrown by a superior force. It cannot be sustained by the arbitrary imposition of the injunctions of majority on the minorities having different thoughts for the realization of the ideal of humanity as the end of all natural laws. Polity and society can only be sustained by continued applications of pluralistic social, cultural and private requirements. Renaissance, Enlightenment and Juristic Humanitarian Universalism can only be accelerated by the ‘law governing state’ and ‘the law-abiding citizen’. Respecting each human identity i.e., individualism and yet transcending it i.e. Universalism is the sum total concept of pluralism. Fundamentalism is imposition of one’s view upon the other. It is invasion of others’ space. When modern ‘Liberals’ distorts the privilege of freedom of speech and extends into slander, they too become fundamentalists. When they convert right to expression into right to abuse they too

are fundamentalists. When lie and malice are used to caricature prophets and religion of honored and thousands millions of people, then there too is a form of fundamentalism. The malevolence of abuse is violence against both civilization and humanity. Mindset and social structures do not change fast enough to internalize the knowledge for creating a good society. There is very little anxiety in the contemporary world to feed the hunger of the heart and famine of the brain; that a meaningful society was not feasible by ravaging the earth and destroying the bio-sphere; that mankind has entered upon a new concept of time and space which is balanced between variability and uncertainity, that fundamentalism of rituals gains adherence only in the measure that reason retreats in unscrupulous politics. The decolonization and the fall of socialism meant the end of an artificial world order but it is not yet replaced by another more natural order that had been experienced in the past in Asian subcontinent; that multiculturalism, pluralism and new ethos of co-existence together constitute the condition for the climate of equality and a common quest, that is the spirit of a multicultural and multipolar world; that the constant interactions between the economic elements causing change and the various elements of the superstructure of human society amid all the host of accidents cannot be underestimated, that societies change because human beings change, that often economic change are not matched by corresponding changes in social process, that as a result, tensions, inefficiencies and hesitations are but natural by products of human endeavors. All the basic values are being eroded. There is an insidious attempt to control thought, the history text books are being suppressed and rewritten; intolerance is being spread, science and scientists with reason and scientific temper are all in retreat; every kind of obscurantism and obscene is being encouraged; mythological playmates, revival is gaining ground misusing the conflict betweens righteousness and evil and the ultimate victory of truth and love. In the name of culture, which the self appointed protagonist never succeeded in defining, leave aside the urge for propagating, are only drilling and dragooning of

young minds. The malice which afflicts our daily life has its root in collective national failure to face the challenges of transformation. Truth has to be realized through a life long creative involvement and intellectual restlessness and devotion to scientific analysis of human beings, society, nation and institutions and examine the explosions in human consciousness and relativity of human achievements with surgical ruthlessness. Concentrating on the main problems confronting the contemporary state system calls for a definitive and determined effort to clean up the grossly distorted agrarian relations in the country without which self reliant and independent capitalism would not grow and without which the conditions for self sufficiency would remain an idle dream. One cannot overlook that the imperatives of the idea of social equality should be closely associated with a concerted frontal assault on the antiquated social structure without which one cannot release the social energy quartered and contained within the cellular structure of our social spacing system. Bangladesh could no longer be left with the soft options of its economic, social, cultural, industrial, agricultural and political leaders. Is a fast moving world with cybernetics and space science and with nuclear energy and information technology, intellectuals scientists, technocrats and bureaucrats has to be called upon to face the hard realities confronting the independent survival of a great Bangali civilization and Bangladeshi nation. Those nation-building leaders must be bold enough to opt for effective steps based on rationality, conviction, a total perspective and an integrated concept of progress transcending petty attractions of temporary gains. Fragmented perceptions would release contracted vision, contradictory politics and wrapped versions. With the pattern of property relations unchanged, the poor would become poorer, with limited growth and purchasing power and modernization confined to a small section of population. The entire pattern of the country is fast moving away from independent growth and self-reliance. In such a situation, stagnation, debasement of morals and astronomical growth of corruption is inevitable. The dominant political culture

has failed to grasp the development processes of the past that generated a logic of its own that could only be comprehended by humanity, morality, love, care and justice and certainly integrity. Now is a call for the renewal of national pledge for salvation by upholding the time tested national values that people have known to have existed in pre British occupation. The conference room where political discussion and deliberations take place has to be an overflowing literary circle where all the real actorspoliticians, diplomats, administrators, journalists, advocates, littérateurs, academics, social activists, artists, university students, industrialists and leading men and women from other professions steep in a sense of participation that help everybody grasp the essentials, distinguish them from non-essentials, analysis and place them in the context of development. There has to be a conviction that no cause can triumph unless there are faithful agents to carry it through. After all, the future will grow out of the historically evolving present day reality and not by imposing upon the reality a design made out of a dream world of desires, fantasis and false invocations. It is a life long quest to fashion a viable comprehensive view of the interrelationship between politics, economics, social structures, scientific outlook, cultural patterns and value system. Without such an endeavour it is certain that there will be no future of which a nation can be proud of. Clay may have a tendency to be moulded, but it requires a potter’s hand to give it shape and from. To quote from C.P. Snow. “Each of us is solitary, born and die alone, all right, that is fate against which we cannot strugglebut there is plenty in our condition which is not our fate, against which we are less than human unless we do struggle. Most of our fellow human beings are underfed, and die before their time. In the crudest term that is social condition. There is a moral trap, which comes through the insight into man’s loneliness, it tempts one to sit back complacent in ones unique tragedy and let others go without meals. If we are not members of one another, if we have no sympathy at this elementary level then we have no human concern at all and any pretence of a higher kind of sympathy is a mockery.” Natural sciences, stages of human history, various social formations, the distribution of

surplus, the obligation of scientists and intelligentsia to the society, the question of war and peace of global negotiations or to transfer of technology and capital, uses of space science and technology, social planning, ecology habitat and public health and education, the prospect of New National Economic order and the nature of fascism today, the process of decolonization, the showing of and exercise military might and intimidation by super powers on the weaker nations and killing of their innocent men, women and children by aerial bombing or by blockading their supply routes and starving to death hundreds and thousands of men, women and children’s and using military might to occupy their national recourses, evil means of organized global tyranny, the degeneration of vision of humanity, political, economic and cultural aggression in the name of globalization, shunning off the vision of globalism should be discussed threadbare. There are ideas as a solvent of establishment, idea to debunk, idea to corrode faith in irrational perceptions and traditions, ideas that sought to evolve a rational line of action, ideas to see through the emotional delusions about colonial revolutions, ideas to comprehend the laws of motion of unstable and mobile societies and ideas of human society capable of subordinating selfishness, greed and predatory instincts to the urgent need of enlarging altruism as the dominant ethos of human life. Voice should be raised that is clear and resonant, perception acute and intellect sharp and inquisitive. There should be an extra ordinary mélange of experience, erudition and attitudes in a man of enlightenment, humanist and rational, whose words would be provocative but humane. The long story of humanity can be considered from many points of view. It is a story of the advance and growth of human beings and the spirit of human beings, a story full of agony and tragedy. It is a story of the masses of men and women in ferment and in continuous movement. In course of movement, people shed off their fear and indecision, learnt of unity, equality and brotherhood, and of raising those who had been suppressed, and of the dignity of labour

and of the supremacy of things of the spirit and of truth in relation to all their activities. In a democratic society adaptation to environment is inevitable. But as the adaptation process gains pace care should be taken as not to imperial basic ideals and objectives. Sometimes, it becomes necessary to compromise yet success lies in the ability of the leaders to mould and move the enormous mass of human beings according to the necessities of the movement. In regard to the basic points one has to be inflexible and firm as a rock and inspire the people to rise above themselves. The world today is torn with hatred and violence and fear and passion and the shadow of being wiped out of the earth hangs heavily on everyone. Compelled by circumstances people are apt to sink back even to a lower level than previously. People of Bangladesh leave witnessed all these with extreme horror. After long three decades, progress in terms of standards set by the Titans is not in sight. Corruption reigns at all levels, especially among those who lead the people. Criminalization of polity has lately acquired such frightening proportions that it does not evoke the kind of revulsion it used to sometimes back. The sprit of tolerance has been by and large discarded by the nation or so it seems-exemplified as it is by the recent spate of violence against opposition. As there is a slack in efforts of people oriented intellectuals and patriotic civil society, the lackeys of foreign hegemonic forces is leaving no stone unturned to depict Bangladesh to the world community as a land of barbarians, which they themselves are. The rulers also are looking in wrong direction creating huge gaps to let fortune slip away. Social hatred is a reflection of backwardness. Huge gaps in the spacing of social status reinforced these concealed gaps that provides a measure of failure to advance the cause of breading the vision. An intimate grasp of Bangladesh’s socioeconomic condition and the frontline advances in social thinking and contemporary global developments, commonsense urges for a fast social reconstruction. A population of one hundred and thirty million is a great strength if they can only stand united and boldly face problems. As a as the politicians are concerned, it would be well to note that most of them has not come unto peoples expectations. The out took mutuality of the bureaucrats in most cases do not depict patriotic Bangladeshi or benevolent character. A national policy cannot be

executed until the permanent services become national in outlook and mentality. Regards for human development need to examine two contradictions world views, the first view hold that social justice can only be ensured through redistribution. But there is no guarantee that, though this redistribution improves the lot of the worse off, will encourage the people who are being provided with means will take active part in economic development activities and also generate in him to raise the standard of his living. The micro-credit of the nongovernment organization to the amount of billions of local currency poured to the have nots resulted in poverty inflation, even causing the clients to sell their belonging to repay the credit they have borrowed with a view to make them self sufficient. Though these foreign funded organizations are unscrupulous business developers and are prone to flay the poor people and are working as per movements of the finger of their foreign donors to change the political and cultural heritage and tradition towards all the evil practices and killing their natural instant to oppose exploitation, yet the poor people themselves are not less accountable as they give on too soon to the trap laid by these unscrupulous money hunter and the political backing that they buy and care not to do what to do i.e. work to change the political pattern as they crave for the immediate benefit. Thus only redistribution cannot ensure social justice unless the motivation for greater benefit by lesser sacrifice can be aroused in the heart of the people. The other view is that economic growth is the remedy of national ailments and that economic growth can only be achieved through private sector. Economic growth to be beneficial and to be developmental need a lot more things to take care of such as political culture, social spacing, moral outlook etc. Benefits to society if not considered important or of priority people will rarely have the opportunities to take advantage of increasing economic activity causing the worse off to actually regress. Politic is about people. It is not abstractions like equality or growth. It is about

empowering people to unveil their potential supported by government measures to provide all possible means to use peoples potential for ensuring a better life for the people. Private sector economic growth is not desirable when it ensures growth of a few who own the means. The role that private sector plays in national development needs to be assessed and be given recognition, but care should be taken those government policies and management of support and the system designed to provide that support leads the worst off in the society on the way of development. Instead of submitting to the dictates of the powerful vested interests of the developed countries and the multilateral agencies, planning of programs must be indigenous. Unless the foundation is laid to-day there can be no overall development tomorrow. A self respecting country led by a pro-people government should be proud of its strength and accomplishment. It is time that experiment are carefully reviewed to get the real picture of development. Designing model of modernizing the economy, removing shackles that are impinging on growth and thus rousing the nation with the vista of a strong economy that could harness the nations ‘wealth’, tap its human resources and ensure social well being of its people is the call of the day. All out sincere work is necessary for forging a broad based and fighting unity among the democratic humanist forces which is the only way to build a real alternative to the political and economic hegemony of the new class, a hegemony which is being whole heartedly practised and is assuming an autocratic dimension. Intensifying this endeavor and thus paving the way for the rise of a liberal democratic popular front against the forces of disaster and ruthless offensive, is the most befitting way to prove the growing political cooperation and united struggle of the liberal forces. All the men and women who inhabit Bangladesh are not cast in the same mould. People live by different norms and find their fulfillment in different ways. People differ in their instincts, their ideas and their mental abilities. Society must find a way for the successful development of each of its members and not force all to tread the same

path. But every action of every man and women must be guided by a common understanding that all are human beings and nurse the same desire to live in peace for prosperity and progress. Creating any obstacle in the fulfillment of that desire is inhuman and will beget inhuman treatment in return to the disliking of all the parties. Love, care and justice should be given a chance to settle in this human society particularly in South Asia where all the ideas of liberalism reigned for thousands of years. It is right time to move towards a metamorphosis.