History, from one who helped shape it

There and Back Again
A Diplomat's Tale
K.M. Shehabuddin
The University Press Limited

The war that was fought for Bangladesh on the diplomatic front was as intense as that on the fields of battle. While at home and in the refugee camps it was political mobilisation of a people toward the establishment of a free state that took centre stage, in the hamlets and villages it was a focused armed resistance to Pakistan that underpinned the goal. But all of that happened, in the true sense, after the emergence of the provisional Bangladesh government with Tajuddin Ahmed as prime minister. What has not been much remarked upon, in all this celebration of the contributions of individuals and groups to the rise of Bangladesh is the concerted movement on the part of Bengali diplomats, wherever they happened to be in 1971, in favour of the national struggle. K.M. Shehabuddin carries out a necessary responsibility in recording the story of the uphill struggle he and his colleagues, then in the Pakistan Foreign Service and yet mortified by what the state of Pakistan was doing to their fellow Bengalis, shaped and carried to a successful culmination.
There are of course the known episodes of how diplomacy came to be part of the larger struggle for political self-assertion. Think here of Hossain Ali's role, in Calcutta, in the making of the story. Ali made headlines with his rejection of Pakistan on 18 April 1971. And then there are the other tales that one needs to be reminded of, nearly four decades after the collapse of Pakistan in this country. Shehabuddin's work is an instance of how we as a people need reminders. And he is in an eminent position to assume that role, for he and his colleague Amjadul Huq, both of whom were positioned as diplomats in the Pakistan high commission in Delhi when Pakistan launched its genocide in its eastern province, were the first Bengali diplomats to publicly renounce their allegiance to Pakistan and align themselves with the Bangladesh cause. That was on 6 April 1971. It was risky business, given especially that there was at that point of time hardly any reassurance that Bengalis would survive Pakistan's military onslaught. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was in incarceration somewhere in West Pakistan; and his political associates were nowhere to be spotted. There was, in all this atmosphere of gloom, hardly any indication of any war being planned to push the Pakistanis out of the province. The Mujibnagar government was yet many uncertain days away.
Shehabuddin's act, as also that of Huq, was clearly emblematic of courage. The two men did not appear at all ruffled. No second thoughts came in the way of their belief that Bangladesh was on the way. This much became clear as they faced a battery of newsmen in Delhi following their decision to turn their backs on Pakistan. 'From now', said they in their statement, 'our allegiance is to Bangladesh, which derived its authority from the unambiguous mandate of the 75 million Bengali people.' A process of history was thus set in motion. In the weeks and months that followed, what Shehabuddin and Huq consciously chose to work for was a task that other Bengalis would emulate. But of course there were all the difficulties and irritants involved as well. Unlike these pioneers, there were quite a few who found themselves caught between a rock and a hard place as they pondered their future. And some Bengali diplomats there were who would not take a position until it was rather late in the day. That is where Shehabuddin's book turns out to be a substantive record of events. Humayun Rashid Chowdhury, as he notes, as head of chancery at the Pakistan mission in Delhi, would initially look upon any pro-Bangladesh sentiment with disfavour, even hostility. He would take a long time to ally himself with Bangladesh, and that too after the Mujibnagar authorities served him and a few others with an ultimatum. But if spontaneity in declaring allegiance to Bangladesh was being looked for, it was to be spotted easily. A.H. Mahmood Ali, Pakistan's vice consul in New York, opted to serve Bangladesh on 25 April. There was, in addition A.M.A. Muhith, economic counsellor at the Pakistan embassy in Washington, who defected on 30 June. There was too Mohiuddin Ahmed, in Shehabuddin's opinion a firebrand nationalist, whose desire to link up with the Bangladesh movement on 10 April was stayed largely by Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury on the ground that he could renounce Pakistan only after instructions were received, obviously from Mujibnagar. Mohiuddin Ahmed eventually made the move on 1 August, through an impassioned speech at a rally in London's Trafalgar Square. The author notes that Reaz Rahman, at the Delhi Pakistan mission and initially sympathetic to the Bangladesh cause, clearly had a change of mind following a call from his father-in-law Hamidul Huq Chowdhury. In November 1971, a time when Bangladesh's liberation appeared to have turned into a fait accompli, Rahman travelled from Delhi to Islamabad. There were others who would not leave Pakistan's Foreign Service until early 1972, despite being asked to do so. Some would remain hostile to Bangladesh, until compelled to leave Pakistan after December 1971.
The work goes beyond an enumeration of the diplomacy involved in the struggle for Bangladesh. It is a tour d'horizon for anyone curious about the history of Bangladesh's diplomacy during and after the war. And yet it is more than that. There are the incidents that he relates. In 1993, Shehabuddin is amused by newspaper reports back in Bangladesh (he was in Paris at the time) about the observance of the death anniversary of artist Novera Ahmed. Bengali intellectuals, he tells readers, remained 'blissfully unaware that she was still alive but living incognito and in oblivion in her beloved Paris.' Soon after Bangladesh's liberation, a ruling party lawmaker travels abroad and insists on being put up at Shehabuddin's residence on the plea that he cannot bear expenses that might be incurred in a hotel (and this despite the allowance he had on him). Within hours of his arrival, as the writer discovers to his amazement, the man wishes to enjoy certain pleasures through sight-seeing. He certainly does not complain about expenses this time, but he surely has put the diplomat's family through much inconvenience. Shehabuddin recalls his meeting with General Ziaur Rahman and Begum Khaleda Zia at his Paris residence in 1973. In his position as deputy chief of staff of the army, Zia was then a member of the Bangladesh Wages Commission and was touring Europe to familiarise himself with wage structures there. Zia felt clearly proud in relating to Shehabuddin that what he had done in 1971 was in the name of Bangabandhu. 'Both he and Begum Zia', writes the diplomat, 'held Bangabandhu in the highest esteem'.
There and Back Again is, in broad measure, the memoirs of a diplomat who has served his country with distinction. K.M. Shehabuddin notes the triumphs of Bangladesh's diplomacy as also the difficulties it has regularly been confronted with. As an individual who served all governments in the country until his retirement (his final call was as ambassador to Washington during the period of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League government), he remains a living record of some of the most intense and purposeful phases in Bengali nationalist politics. This is a book to be savoured, for it comes from a suave and distinguished citizen of this land. You cannot put it down without wanting to flip through the pages yet one more time.

Syed Badrul Ahsan is Editor, Current Affairs, The Daily Star.