‘One leader one country/Bangabandhu Bangladesh’ slogan root of fascism: Salimullah Khan

Eminent writer and educationist Professor Salimullah Khan remarked that fascism evolved in Bangladesh through the slogan "One Leader, One Country — Bangabandhu’s Bangladesh."

He made this remark on Saturday (April 26), at the publication ceremony of the book “Interviews with Fifteen Coordinators”, based on interviews with fifteen private university student coordinators of the July mass uprising, held at the head office of University Press Limited (UPL).

Observing that there should be more books on the July movement, the professor said it is important to understand why people are saying that the spirit of July is being lost even before a year has passed since the July movement.

Salimullah Khan said that after the Second World War, it was thought that fascism had disappeared from the world. Fascism was known by different names — in Italy as fascism, in Germany as Nazism, and even in India the method followed by the RSS is just another form of fascism.

He said, "In 1971, the Liberation War was against foreign forces, but this time the movement was against domestic forces. The main principles of the Liberation War — equality, human dignity, and social justice — were once again voiced in the anti-discrimination movement of July."

Salimullah Khan said, "Many teachers stood in support of the July movement, but even more teachers opposed it."

Apart from Salimullah Khan, Bangla Academy Director General Professor Mohammad Azam, Jahangirnagar University Associate Professor Rezwana Karim Snigdha, editors of “Interviews with Fifteen Coordinators” Shibly Azad and Farhan Hasan Borno also addressed the event.

In his speech, Mohammad Azam said that attention must be paid so that private and public universities are not divided into binaries. On July 14, female students of Dhaka University came out of their halls and marched with plates and bowls, and on July 15, they were attacked by the Chhatra League and their goons. The emergence of women in the movement formed one of the main foundations of July. The book “Interviews with Fifteen Coordinators” highlights how the significant contributions of private universities on July 18 and afterwards were excluded.”

At the beginning of the event, in her welcome speech, UPL Managing Director Mahrukh Mohiuddin said that although the path of political awareness may be obstructed, ultimately citizens cannot be suppressed regarding their rights. The movement of 2024 is a major example of that. The book “Interviews with Fifteen Coordinators” will undoubtedly serve as a lesson in history.

The book’s editor, Shibli Azad, said, “We have edited this book out of a sense of responsibility toward the bloodshed of the students. The accumulated anger of the past 15 years led to the uprising of 2024.”

The events of July-August are not only among the most significant events in the history of independent Bangladesh but also an extraordinary addition to the global history of mass uprisings. This collection of interviews is an effort to explore how the movement rose against the fascist government and all its state machinery, and how a desperate resistance emerged. In the book, readers will find answers to many such questions directly from the mouths of fifteen coordinators of the Anti-Discrimination United Private Universities movement.