August 28, 2017 is the 30th death anniversary of eminent philosopher and educationist Professor Sydur Rahaman. He was an uncompromising voice of secular thought. He was one of the vanguards who guided the way to freedom of thinking in hard communal Pakistani days. Devoting the golden period of life he struggled with his sharp pen to establish the secular and progressive ideas in this country as well as in former Indian subcontinent. Despite being born in an ordinary peasant family of Rasullahbad, an interior village of Brahmanbaria district, on 15th May 1909, he marked excellent position of merit in every sphere of his educational career. In 1931 and 1932 he passed BA (Hons) and MA with first class first position in philosophy from Dhaka University.
*** In Bangladesh, religious extremism and fundamentalism has emerged as
an immense danger for the nation. The serial bomb blast of 17 August in
2006 and other sabotages over the recent period have shown the cruel
face of religious extremism. At such time, we feel more the need of
people like Prof Sydur Rahaman who continued his struggle against the
dark forces. ***
In his vibrant professional life he served as a professor in Dhaka College, Eden College, Sylhet MC College, Chittagong College and Jagannath College. He was also professor of Philosophy Department, Dhaka University. As an educationist and social worker, he closely observed the Second World War, the Famine, the brutal communal riot of Kolkata, creation of Pakistan, 52's Language movement, and founding of independent Bangladesh following a great liberation war. These historical events strongly influenced his psychology and thinking, which finally had driven him towards secularism and socialism. However, he recited the holy Quran from his childhood and even did job as an Imam of a mosque in Dhaka for few days. Nevertheless he had been criticised as an 'atheist' and 'communist' by some critics for nurturing progressive ideas. At present 'secularism' has practically become a farcical phenomenon of our National Constitution and Islam is being declared as country's 'State Religion'. In the course of fifteenth amendment of country's constitution the ruling Grand Alliance has again thrown the ideal of 'Secularism' into political dustbin. The consisting political parties of ruling alliance irrespective of Rightist or Leftist jointly upheld the path that had been shown by military autocrat Lt Gen Zia and Erashad. Doesn't this compromise made by the government glorify the defeated Pakistani ideologies? This deviation never satisfies the 'Islami vote-Bank' and never pulls victory for ruling parties. Rather this will require more concession like enactment of 'Shariah Laws', establishment of Religious Courts, Blasphemy Act, creation of extreme religious political forces like Hefazote Islami and so on.
If Professor Sydur Rahaman alive today, he would again write and speak against this distortion of the spirit of our great Liberation War of 1971. As an activist for building secular Bangladesh he had been harassed by the Pakistani government. Even he was forced to resign from the chair of Principal of Jagannath College due to political differences with the despotic East Pakistan governor Monaem Khan.
In Bangladesh, religious extremism and fundamentalism has emerged as an immense danger for the nation. The serial bomb blast of 17 August in 2006 and other sabotages over the recent period have shown the cruel face of religious extremism. At such time, we feel more the need of people like Prof Sydur Rahaman who continued his struggle against the dark forces. Professor Sydur Rahaman was a prominent scholar from Muslim community who explained religions with their secular and humanitarian facades. His writings always included the concept of modern science and logic. His famous book 'An Introduction of Islamic Philosophy' is widely known to the academic society of philosophy. Being thoroughly a modern man, he felt pain for the backwardness of our society and especially for the Muslim community. He wrote, "In many cases Muslims have not changed their 'outdated values'. They are not familiar with modern science and the inherent query of philosophy, have not raise their question sleeping in deep-heart. Therefore, they remain blind, irrational and reactionary. In many countries of the world they are under spell of superstitions, poverty, idleness, anti-development and undemocratic conditions. For this reason they often create themselves a hopeless nation." He also wrote in this regard, "We should not pull our society 1000 years back." Without few exceptions, his remarks had been justified. In addition, when religious extremism is attacking at the existence of our civilization in renewed way, his writings could be more relevant to combat this danger. Professor Sydur Rahaman was in constant touch with many of our national leaders. They are Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy, Mowlana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Comrade Moni Singh and Professor Muzaffar Ahmed. They all esteemed him for his intelligence. On his 30th death anniversary, we deeply feel his absence, especially at this point of time. We believe his memory will be our brawny inspiration.
Hasan Tarique Chowdhury, is Secretary, International Association of Democratic Lawyers and Lawyer at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, and can be reached at [email protected]
