Foreign scholar predicts Bangabandhu to be 'superman of eternal time'
Shahnawaz, whose studies on Bangladesh’s Father of the Nation clearly turned him to be his great admirer, prompted him to describe Bangabandhu as “the essence of epic poetry and he is history”
An Indian academic who pursues studies on politics and international relations has predicted the future to call Bangladesh's founder Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman "superman of eternal time".
"The future will call him the superman of eternal time. And he will live in luminosity reminiscent of a bright star, in historic legends," wrote Dr Shahnawaz Mantoo of India's University of Kashmir as Bangladesh observes its founder's birth centenary.
Shahnawaz, a young professor of political studies, said "Bangladesh was not built in a day" and "for centuries it existed as an idea and an ideal in the unfulfilled dream of the ancient heroes of Bengal who carried it to their graves".
"Bangabandhu, who inherited this legacy, reared and nourished the dream into a strong and abiding passion and gave the passion a shape, that is, the map of Bangladesh, which was engraved on his heart," said the scholar.
Shahnawaz, whose studies on Bangladesh's Father of the Nation clearly turned him to be his great admirer, prompted him to describe Bangabandhu as "the essence of epic poetry and he is history".
"(And) this history goes back a thousand years and that is why contemporary history has recognized him as the greatest Bengali of the past thousand years," he said while foreseeing the future to call him the "superman of eternal time".
"He shows the path to the Bengali nation and his dreams are the basis of the existence of a nation," wrote Shahnawaz in a long article, pointing out as well that human being is fallible and can commit mistakes "as was the case with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman".
The young academic in his analysis tried to cross-section the persona and character of Bangabandhu and wrote "although simple at heart, Sheikh Mujib was a man of cool nerves and of great strength of mind" that developed his charismatic leadership to lead tens of millions of people to move on to the road to progress.
Shahnawaz, who secured his PhD for his studies on Bangladesh-India relations several years ago, wrote that despite having the same dark complexion, "Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was taller" than average Bengalis who used to speak in a vibrant voice.
But like many academics and analysts, Shahnawaz also wondered "what special power gave him the magnetic qualities of drawing a mass of seventy-five million people to him".
"He was not educated abroad nor was he born with a silver spoon in his mouth. Yet he was as dear to the educated Bangladeshi compatriots as to the illiterate and half-educated masses . . . He inspired the intelligentsia and the working classes alike."
Shahnawaz noted that Bangabandhu did not "climb to leadership overnight" and rather his ascendance was a "slow and steady process" while he began as a humble worker at the bottom rung and "arduously climbed to the position of a national leader and rose to the very pinnacle as the Father of the Nation".
The scholar referred to a dozen of references and books by distinguished foreigners including highly respected statesmen, academics and journalists in his paper on Bangabandhu.
"(Bangabandhu's character was) a mingling of gentle and stern qualities, (which) had an uncanny magical attraction," he said referring to his extensive studies on the Bangladesh founder.
Shahnawaz found Bangabandhu "as simple as a child yet unbending in courage; as strong as steel when necessary. Coupled with this was his incomparable strength of mind and steadfast devotion to his own ideals".
"He was a nationalist in character, a democrat in behaviour, a socialist in belief and a secularist by conviction. He was not a mere individual but in fact an institution, a movement, a revolution and an upsurge," he commented.
But, Shahnawaz remarked, at a crucial juncture, Bangabandhu's life was cut short by an anti-liberation reactionary force on 15 August 1975 and the killing of its Father of the Nation "ended a most glorious chapter in the history of Bangladesh".
"But they (killers) could not end the great leader's finest legacy-the rejuvenated Bengali nation . . . he shows the path to the Bengali nation and his dreams are the basis of the existence of a nation," he observed.
