
If we didn’t have independence
Samiul Bashar Samin
Every Bangladeshi child is taught about our struggle in 1971 that lasted 9 months before we drove out the Pakistani occupation forces and sent them home to their moms crying. However, one does wonder at times about what our beloved country would look like if we were still under the tyrannical rule of our oppressors.
First things first, we wouldn’t have had that beautiful flag of ours. Can you even imagine our flag being anything but the iconic red and green? It’s absolutely nuts to even fathom a situation where we would not be free from shackles.
Without our struggle for freedom, we wouldn’t have Bangla as our first language. That would mean not being able to speak in Bangla freely in schools and government offices. We as Bengalis, take pride in our beautiful language and taking Urdu in as the state language would probably be a hassle of such enormous magnitude that one might even opt to stop talking altogether.
Is there really anything else that can even compare to Bangladesh’s National Anthem? The words and the cacophony of symphonies merge together to make one unforgettable anthem that has been passed on to us for generations and every word of the anthem bleeds patriotism into our hearts and makes us feel a chill in our bones as we remind ourselves of the bloodshed that was necessary for us to be able to be free.
And now comes the biggest aspect of all, without the struggle for independence we would still be oppressed and treated with deep-set prejudice.
This is a notion that is extremely foreign to our generation as we were born in a country that was already feed from oppression thanks to all the sacrifices that this country was forged on. But I can’t even think about not having atleast the same basic human rights that were refused to Bangladeshis for so long before our independence.
26th March is undoubtedly the most pivotal day in Bangladeshi history. That was the day we all decided to take a stand to oppression and through months of struggles and the sacrifice of 3 million people, we have earned peace and freedom and it would be extremely difficult to imagine our country in any other way.
