Shame: A Novel

by Taslima Nasrin

  "You read only the heartening news," said Maya, sitting crosslegged on the bed. She pulled the paper from Suranjan and said, "What about the rest of the news? Ten thousand families homeless at Bhola. Seven hundred houses burned in Chittagong. The temple at Kishoreganj ransacked. Section 144 at Pirozepur. Seven hundred houses at Meersarai of Seetakunda set on fire."

  "I don't want to hear bad news today. I'm in a jovial mood."

  "Why, has your heart cheered up at the news of Parvin Apa's decision to divorce her husband? She came yesterday. She is beaten up by her husband every night."

  "Why now? Didn't she find the expected boundless peace by marrying a Muslim? No, dear, not because of Parvin. Now my mind has found its berth somewhere else. Not a Muslim girl this time. No pleas to convert in a tearchoked voice."

  Maya laughed aloud. It had been a long time since she laughed.

  Suranjan suddenly turned grave and asked, "How is Baba's condition now? Won't he recover quickly?"

  "He's much better now. His speech has become much clearer. With my support, he can go to the toilet now, and can also eat soft food. Oh, yes, listen, Belal Bhai came last evening to look for you. He advised you not to venture out of the house, which he thought would be risky."

  "Oh."

  Suranjan sprang up. Maya asked, "What's the matter? Looks like you're going out."

  "Am I the sort of a chap to sit idly at home?"

  "You don't know how worried Ma is when you go out. Dada, please don't go. I also feel so scared."

  "The money will have to be returned to Pulak Do you have some money? After all, you're an earning girl. Why don't you give me something from your fund for my cigarettes?"

  "No, I won't give you anything to buy cigarettes. I don't want you to die so soon."

  Maya raised her voice in protest, yet she finally came out with a hundred-taka note. In her childhood, schoolmates used to pester her with cries of "Hindu, Hindu Tulshi leaf, Hindus only eat beef." Coming back home a snivelling wretch, Maya had asked Suranjan, "Am I supposed to be a Hindu? Now tell me, Dada, am I really a Hindu?"

  "Yes," Suranjan had affirmed.

  "Then I won't be a Hindu. If I'm one, they harass me constantly."

  After listening to her complaint, Sudhamay had said, "Who says you are a Hindu? You are a human being. There's nothing on earth which is greater than that."

  Suranjan from his heart felt his reverence for Sud hamay. He had never seen a greater idealist, a greater per sonality with such a rational, intelligent and conscientious approach. To him Sudhamay was the epitome of godliness. How many persons with his broadness of mind and tolerance could be found in this world?

  In 1964, Sudhamay coined the slogan: East Pakistan, put down your foot to resist. The riots of that time were stopped in their track. Sheikh Mujibur himself intervened to stop the violence. The Ayub Khan government took the initiative in fomenting the riots in its bid to turn the tide of the movement against it. The government brought criminal cases against student and political leaders. Sudhamay was the accused in a case. He didn't like to muse on the past. Still, memories loomed before him with all their starkness. What had he gained by devoting himself to the country's cause? The country had been slipping into the hands of the fundamentalists since 1975. The people were listless still, even after realizing everything. Was the present generation so unaware? The blood that had been spilled on the streets to demand Bengali as the state language, the blood of the mass uprisings of 1969, the blood of three million people in the liberation war of 1971wasn't the same blood flowing in their veins now? Where was that heat of excitement that had hurled Sudhamay into the movements of those days? Where were those spirited youths? Why were they so cold? Was fundamentalism striking its roots in the secular country of Bangladesh? Weren't they aware of the approach of unimaginably hard times? Sudhamay sought to muster all his strength to get up from bed. But he couldn't. His face turned dark in anguish and unexpressed wrath.

  "The Enemy Property Act" of the Ayub Khan regime was reintroduced under a new name by the Law Minister of the Awami League, which he rechristened as the Acquired Properties Act. The properties left by the Hindus who had left the country were called enemy properties. Were Sudhamay's maternal and paternal uncles enemies of the country? They had huge mansions in Dhaka and properties in Sonargaon, Narasingdi, Kishoregunj, Faridpur and so on. Those houses had now been converted into colleges, veterinary hospitals, family planning offices, income tax offices, registration offices, and the like. When he was a boy, Sudhamay used to come to the house of his Uncle Anil. At that huge estate on Ramkrishna Road, ten horses were kept. His uncle would let him ride them. Sudhamay now lived in a dark, damp house at Tikatuli while the government had taken possession of that enormous house of his uncle. Had the renamed law, that is, the Acquired Property Act, been designed to favor the closest living heirs, the distress of those who had chosen to stay would have been alleviated. Sudhamay had suggested this change in the legislation to many political bigwigs. But no one had paid any heed to him. He felt weary in his present immobile, inactive state. He found no reason to go on living. He could see that his death wouldn't be of concern to anyone. Rather, Kiranmayee would be relieved of keeping a virtual vigil through the night and nursing him.

  During the 1965 Indo-Pakistan War, the Enemy Property Act was enforced because of the communal malice of the colonial Pakistani ruling clique. Sudhamay was indeed surprised when the same legislation was allowed to remain effective through trickery even after Bangladesh's independence. Was it not a matter of shame for a free country, for the Bengali people? This act deprived about twenty million people of their fundamental human, democratic and civil rights in a single stroke. Through this legislation, which contravened all the principles of equal rights, social and political, these twenty million people were being irrevocably evicted from their hearths and homes, to their supreme misfortune. Hence, the Hindus could hardly be blamed for their feeling of insecurity. This was followed by the planting of the seeds of communal discord. The constitution of Bangladesh, despite assurances of equal security and rights for all citizens, was being distorted by this act, which showed extreme disrespect for national independence and sovereignty by violating the basic tenets of the administrative structure.

  It was rather paradoxical that the constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh stated in its following clauses and subclauses:

  26. (1). The laws contrary to the rules and regulations laid down in this part should be treated as null and void as this becomes effective.

  26. (2). The state will not frame any legislation which violates any principle mentioned in this part and any such act, if passed earlier, shall be treated as null and void depending upon the extent of its contravention.

  27. All the citizens will be equally treated in the eyes of the law and entitled to seek legal protection.

  28. (1). The state will show no discrimination to any citizen on the grounds of religion, community, caste, sex or place of birth.

  31. It shall be an inalienable right of every citizen to seek legal protection as well as treatment according to the provisions of law. Even the persons living in Bangladesh temporarily will not be deprived of this right. Without the sanction of the law, no measure can be taken against any person that can lead to the loss of his or her life, freedom, physical existence, reputation or property.

  Clause 112 clearly stated: "All authorities, executive and judicial, in the Republic shall act in aid of the Supreme Court."

  The sections of the Defense of Pakistan Act, 1965, read thus:

  a. any state, or sovereign of a state at war with or engaged in military operation against Pakistan, or

  b. any individual resident in enemy territory, or

  c. any body of persons constituted or incorporated in enemy territory, or in or under the laws of a state at war with, or engaged in military operation against, Pakistan, or

  d. any other person or body of persons declared by the central government to be an e
nemy, or

  e. any body of persons (whether incorporated or not) carrying on business in any place, if and so long as the body is controlled by a person who under this rule is an enemy, or

  f. in respect of any business carried on in enemy territory and individual or a body of persons (whether incorporated or not) carrying on that business.

  Clause 169. 1. stated: enemy subject means:

  a. any individual who possesses the nationality of a state at war with, or engaged in military operation against, Pakistan, or having possessed such nationality at any time has lost . . . without acquiring another nationality, or

  b. any body of persons constituted or incorporated in or under the laws of such state.

  169. 4. Enemy property means: any property for the time being belonging to or held or managed on behalf of an enemy as defined in Rule 161, an enemy subject or an enemy firm, but does not include the property which is evacuee property under the Pakistan (administration of evacuee property) Act, 1957 (xii of 1957).

  Moreover, it was stated:

  Where an individual enemy subject dies in Pakistan, any property, which, individually before his death belonged to or was held by him, or was managed on his behalf, may notwithstanding his death continue to be regarded as enemy property for the purpose of Rule 182.

  The communal riots in the partition year of 1947 made millions in East Bengal flee to India. The then Pakistan government enforced East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Property) Act VIII of 1949, the East Bengal Evacuees (Restoration of Possession) Act XXIII of 1951, East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Immovable Property) Act XXIV of 1951.

  The East Bengal Evacuees (Administration of Immovable Property) Act XXIV of 1951 stated:

  The evacuee committees constituted under this Act shall not take charge of any evacuee property.

  1. if the sole owner or all the co-sharer owners of the property object to the management of such property by the committee on the grounds that he or they has or have made other arrangements for the management and utilization of the property and if the committee is satisfied that the arrangement so made [is] proper and adequate, or

  2. if an objection is filed and allowed under this section.

  This act further stated:

  the property shall be vested on the application of the evacuees and it shall be vested with the right to dispose of property as he likes.

  In 1957, the Pakistan government, after amending this act further, enforced Pakistan (Administration of Evacuee Property) Act XII of 1957. This act stated:

  properties of any person who is resident in any place in the territories now comprising India or in any area occupied by India and is unable to occupy, supervise or manage in person his property in Pakistan or is being occupied, supervised or managed by a person.

  Even this act hadn't caused that much inconvenience to the Hindus as did the subsequent East Pakistan Disturbed Persons and Rehabilitation Ordinance, 1964.

  The Pakistan government declared an emergency because of the Indo-Pak war of 1965. It enforced on September 6, 1965, Defense of Pakistan Rules, 1965, in accordance with Defense of Pakistan Ordinance No. XXIII.

  In Section 182 of Defense of Pakistan Rules, 1965, it was stated:

  with a view to preventing the payment of money to an enemy firm, and to provide for the administration and disposal by way of transfer or otherwise of enemy property and matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, the Central Government may appoint a custodian of enemy property in Pakistan and one or more Deputy Custodians or Assistant Custodians of enemy property for such local areas as may be prescribed and may, by order, vest or provide for and regulate the vesting in the prescribed custodian such enemy properties as may be prescribed.

  On the basis of this draconian section all such properties covered by the Pakistan Defense Act and Rules were vested with the government.

  Instead of a promise to give full guarantee to enemy property owners' rights and interests in the event of their being imprisoned or the imposition of restrictions on their movements during the wartime situation and difficulties in supervising or managing these properties, the Pakistan central government, as a temporary measure, imposed Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order, 1965, and later, Enemy Property (Land and Building) Administration and Disposal Order, 1966, to bring under their purview the vesting of the power to realize money and compensation for these properties and keeping their separate accounts along with the charge of their supervision and management with an official.

  Even after the end of the Indo-Pak War, the government, in its bid to keep the earlier act operational, imposed Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) Ordinance No. 1 of 1969. Although India was a friendly power in the country's liberation war and no warlike conditions existed between the two countries, the Presidential Order No. 29 / 1972, which renamed the earlier act as Bangladesh Vesting of Property and Assets Order, vested all the enemy properties said to be of a permanent nature, hitherto lying in charge of the custodian of the Pakistan government, with the Bangladesh government. In reality, the Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) Ordinance was kept in force in blatant violation of the assurance to maintain the people's human dignity, social rights and uniform status for all. Just as in the Pakistani regime, the power of supervision and management of enemy properties were left with the government even after the emergence of a free Bangladesh in a grossly unfair manner. Ignoring popular demand for the restoration of lawful rights, the Enemy Property (Continuance of Emergency Provision) Repeal Act XLV of 1974 was imposed. It was indeed a new subterfuge in the name of cancellation of earlier legislation to retain all the powers vested with the Pakistani government over the properties of those who were not permanent residents of Bangladesh or whoever "has ceased to be a permanent resident," so that the supervision and management of such properties could be done through a government-appointed committee of administrators. This committee took charge of all such properties in the context of either its own initiative or the request of a nonresident or a government directive. This new legislation indeed expanded the scope of its Pakistani predecessor by including even those properties not previously brought under the official jurisdiction in the pre-independence era. But even before this act could become effective, Ordinance No. XCHI was promulgated in 1976. This order said:

  Those properties which were vested under the Act shall be administered, controlled, managed and disposed of by transfer or otherwise by the government on such officer or authority as Government may direct.

  Hardly had a year had passed when a circular was issued on May 23, 1976, which said:

  ten kathas of vacant nonagricultural land shall be given long-term lease to a person deserving to get it, realizing full market value as premium and proper rent, that nonagricultural lands situated in business centers shall be settled in open auction with the highest bidder.

  In other words, fifteen to twenty million people in Bangladesh who owned nonagricultural land would have their land auctioned off, and the government, for its part, would enjoy the benefits of long-term taxes from it. Section 37 of this circular empowered the local petty revenue officers to track down all such landed properties and reward the people who could supply information about their location. Section 38 further gave entitlement of such rewards to different officials engaged in this work like Additional District Magistrate (Revenue), all Subdivisional Officers, Circle Officers (Revenue) and all the personnel of the Land and Land Revenue Department. Lured by this reward, these people, in the name of tracing the vested properties, had evicted the Hindus from their homesteads or portions of properties held by them.

  After 1966, the East Pakistan government conducted a land survey. This showed that many people had left the country after the partition of 1947 and the riots of 1950 and 1954, leaving the responsibility of maintaining their properties to other members of their households. Ponds, gardens, family cremation grounds, religious centers and temples as well as both agricultural
and nonagricultural lands had been listed as enemy property. Even properties of the Hindus who hadn't left the country were brought under the purview of this order. However, the properties of the Muslims who had left likewise for other countries were spared. No survey was conducted to locate their properties. According to law, the property of the absentee member of a Hindu joint family went to the possession of the eldest surviving members of the family. Yet, even such properties were taken over by the government.

  Sudhamay thought about Niaz Hussain, Fajlul Alam, Anwar Ahmed and others like them he had seen depart for London or the United States. Their distant relatives were living in their village homes. Some of them had left their houses in the charge of caretakers, some had let them out and were collecting rents from other people without any hindrance. It was rather strange that their properties were never treated as enemy properties. Sudhamay wanted to get up. He was perspiring. He found no one in his room, neither Maya nor Kiranmayee. Where had they gone, he wondered.

  Suranjan, walking down a road in the old part of Dhaka, found that even after moving around this city many times over, he couldn't erase the memory of Mymensingh. He was born in that town where, although it was much smaller, he had spent his childhood and youth. As he dipped his feet in Dhaka's Buriganga river, his mind traveled back to the Brahmaputra river. Only a man determined to deny his birth could become oblivious of the soil where he was born and the river that flowed alongside it. Gautam, along with his family, was leaving the country forever. They did not consider themselves safe and secure in this country. Suranjan's maternal uncle came from Cal cutta about five years ago. Visiting Brahmanbaria, which had been his land, he wept like a child. Kiranmayee had asked him, "Would you like to go to Calcutta with your uncle?" Suranjan spurned the proposal.