The 1972 constitution and our national unity

Even if we call the 1972 constitution a fruit of our national unity it gets better flavour, no doubt. Thanks for that. The great liberation war breaking all the class barriers in the society created great opportunity for a great national unity, but unfortunately country’s political luck was never great.

The concept I had in bringing the topic out on board was to highlight the fact that the 1972 constitution has been changed over the years in a manner that the Great National Unity and the Secular standard, we are talking about, in my view, no more exist.

We have even changed the Preamble of the constitution by which Secularism, one of the four fundamental principles of the constitution was omitted.

It was the first paragraph of the Preamble of the 1972 constitution: We, the people of Bangladesh, having proclaimed our Independence on the 26th day of March 1971 and through [a historic struggle for national liberation], established the independent, sovereign People’s Republic Bangladesh. Later the words “a historic war for national independence” were substituted.

‘Pleading that the high ideals of Nationalism, Socialism, Democracy and Secularism, which inspired our heroic people to dedicate themselves to, and our brave martyrs to sacrifice their lives in the historic struggle for national liberation, shall be the fundamental principles of our constitution’ – This was the second paragraph of the Preamble in [original] 1972 constitution.

The substituted second paragraph which is the present paragraph doesn’t have ‘secularism’, and instead ‘absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah’ was later incorporated.

Part II of the constitution which states the fundamental principles of state policy was changed as well. A new clause 1A in Article 8 was inserted which reads – ‘absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah shall be the basis of all actions’.

Articles 9 and 10 were substituted for the former articles 9 and 10.

Article 12 – ‘Secularism and freedom of religion’ as fundamental principles of state policy, in the 1972 constitution, was also omitted from the constitution. But was not replaced by a new article.Now we don’t have any Article 12 in our constitution. We have 11 and 13.

Article 12 of the constitution of 1972 contained provisions which strictly prohibited political party based on religion and banned the use of religion for materisalising any political interest. Unfortunately, these provisions were omitted from the constitution during the post 1975 period and the religion based politics started in the country.

Article 12 of the constitution stated that the principle of secularism shall be realized by the elimination of: Communalism in all forms; the granting by the state of political status in favour of any religion; the abuse of religion for political purposes; and any discrimination against, or persecution of persons practicing a particular religion.

Article 38, paragraph 2 of the 1972 constitution was also deleted, which stated: No person shall have the right to form or be a member or otherwise take part in the activities of, any communal or other association or union, which in the name or on the basis of any religion has for its object, or pursues a political purpose.

Further, we have inserted a new Article 2A, which reads – ‘the state religion of the Republic is Islam, but other religions may be practised in peace and harmony in the Republic’.

From language movement to the great liberation war, even in earlier movements against British colonial rule, Bengali people struggled as one nation, irrespective of their race, cast, sex and religion. Many of our people sacrificed their lives for the mother land and mother tongue. There were Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and others.

The word secularism is more or less confusing to most of the people of Bangladesh. In fact, is there any universal notion of secularism? Now the question is whether the western notion of secularism is applicable to our country or not.

No doubt Bangladesh was born out of the fundamental principles of democracy, socialism, Bengali nationalism and secularism.

In defining secularism we must consider Bangladesh as a pluralist society in both religious and cultural aspects. So, implementing secularism in Bangladesh is relatively an easier task compared with other Muslim countries. Most of Bangladeshi, we keep liberal outlook and traditionally believe in the principle of peaceful coexistence with other religious communities.

While defining secularism in 1972 constitution, Bangabandhu had crystal clear conception of secularism of the land. To him secularism was not to discard religion. Rather he was eager to promote all religions and bring religious harmony in the country.

There have been extensive militant networks operating world wide for years, and they kept growing under the government’s nose. Not surprisingly Bangladesh is no exception.
It is now also clear that there are some foreign investments that patronise militant activities round the globe. Testimonies of some arrested militants suggest that they are well-equipped and well-funded to carry out so-called ‘revolution’ in Bangladesh.
I pray to all that you keep your eyes open.

It is important to note here that one of our sector commanders in our great liberation war 1971 was Mr. C.R. Dutta. He said: ‘We didn’t fight for liberation in 1971 for making Islam state religion. The spirit of war of liberation was to establish a nation free from communalism.’

Now, my question - under the pesent constitution what class of Citizen Mr. Dutta is? It is really matter of sadness. Is it not the repeat of pre-liberation treatment to us by Pakistani junta, when we could not have our mother-tongue as of our right, when we were not allowed to take higher posts and positions in the then administration and so on? Are we not treating our own people differently? Are we secular liberal Bangladeshi? Are we not discriminating? If our constitution fails to guarantee the true equal Rights of our people, that constitution can not be called a fruit of our national UNITY. That fruit is bound to be a rotten fruit, not a ripen fruit.