The Constitution of Bangladesh is essentially a constitution by revolution. In the preamble, it is affirmed that Bangladesh has been established through 'a historic struggle for national liberation'.
Thus, the word 'history' takes its place in the most aesthetic part of the Constitution i.e. the preamble. As such the 'history of the struggle for national liberation' bears great significance in understanding and interpreting the Constitution of Bangladesh.
Apart from that, the supremacy of the Constitution has been affirmed in the preamble 'as the embodiment of the will of people of Bangladesh'. It is, therefore, a clear indication that the very moment the Constitution fails to embody 'the will of the people of Bangladesh' its supremacy comes under question.
Hence, to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution we must understand the 'will of the people of Bangladesh' first and then respond to the same.
To have a proper understanding of 'the will of people of Bangladesh' undoubtedly we must go through the pre-constitutional history of Bangladesh.
It is also arguable that the pre-constitutional history is no less significant than the preamble of the Constitution of Bangladesh. This is because the preamble only provides a shadow guideline to interpret the Constitution, while the pre-constitutional history i.e. the history of 'the struggle for national liberation' provides a detailed guideline.
The fundamental principles of our Constitution as laid down in the preamble i.e. nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism did not take place in the preamble overnight rather those were the guiding force of the bloodshed struggle of Bangladesh towards freedom. The preamble itself is the outcome and reflection of the said glorious history of struggle.
The study of pre-constitutional history plays the most vital role in ascertaining the basic structure of our Constitution. Many argue that the original Constitution of 1972 provides the parameter to determine the basic structure. But interestingly the original Constitution of 1972 stands on the spirit of the historic struggle for national liberation.
In this regard, it is pertinent to mention that while adopting the Constitution the members of the constituent assembly cross-checked the draft constitution many times to ascertain that it does not contradict with the high ideals of our pre-constitutional history.
The pre-constitutional history of Bangladesh also serves as the 'test' to measure our success in upholding our Constitution. On the contrary, it also works as an indicator to determine the constitutional deviation and political demotion of our present generation.
Furthermore, it is worth remembering that in achieving independence, Bangladesh went through a long political journey in the valley of tyranny and discrimination. The historic struggle of the people of Bangladesh was essentially against all sorts of discrimination, exploitation, political suppression, abuse of process of law, derogation of rights of the people etcetera.
As such, it is the will of the people of Bangladesh that there should be no such evils in the Constitution. If any shadow of the said evils is found in the Constitution, the whole object of the 'historic struggle for national liberation' becomes meaningless. In such a situation the Constitution cannot be said to embody the will of the people of Bangladesh any longer.
Jubaer Ahmed is Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh
