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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 14. 28 June 1972

[Introduction]

"The foundation of every state is the education of its youth" — Diogenes(412-323BC)

Dacca University and Bangladesh have remained inseparable in the thinking of people in a somewhat peculiar way. No parallel could be found of similar development in India, Pakistan, Britain or in New Zealand. No one in Bangladesh can think of the country separately from Dacca University, as no one can conceive of Dacca University without some reference to Bangladesh. For instance, Mr. Nurud Din Ahmad, an alumnus of Dacca University, ex-member of the Pakistan Police wrote to me sometime ago in his usual unemotional language:

"As you may be aware, as a result of nine months of inhuman atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army this beautiful country suffered collossal loss, so vast that no country in the history of mankind has been called upon to face such gigantic problems relating to rehabilitation of suffering humanity and reconstructing the totally shattered economy.

This University also suffered terrible losses ... it will be difficult for the University to fill up the vacancies caused by the shaheed (martyred) teachers."

Mr Nurud Din Ahmad places the University's problems in the context of those of the country, necessarily makes understatement somewhat, of the losses suffered by the University.

Dr Muzaffer Ahmed Choudhuri, Vice-Chancellor on the other hand, points out the baffling problems which he as head of the Institution is called upon to shoulder.

"The University of Dacca is confronted with a vast variety of problems of unexampled complexity. I shall give you some instances:
(a)19 of my colleagues, 1 medical officer and 26 other employees of the University were killed. We are called upon to look after their families. We shall do it, come whatever may.
(b)Nearly 60per cent of the students of this University joined the liberation struggle. A good number of them were killed in the process. The hated Pakistan Army in most cases killed their parents and other relatives. Their houses and properties were burnt down. In essence most of them have been rendered destitute. They have nothing to fall back upon. The main problems with them are:
(i)The question of feeding; and
(ii)The question of supplying them with books.
(c)Then there is the question of repairing the damage done to the various buildings of the University.

All these would cost us around R40 million (1 NZ$ would make 8.506 Taka i.e. Bangladesh rupee).

Looking after the families of the deceased members of the University staff is not a usual practice anywhere, but for Dacca University this is not new. In the past the burden used to be shared jointly by the University and by members of the staff, and they were never called upon to look after 46 families all at the same time. Normally there used to be one case in so many years. Looking after meant, providing for education of dependents, maintenance for the family until the children became earners of bread themselves and were thought fit to take care of the widow, who used to be provided with a permanent shelter. The responsibility has now extended by-yond all proportions to include, for the first time in history, a large section of the population, particularly those students who lost their father or guardian to them and provide for their maintenance and education. (The social Security of the traditional rural society has been rudely shaken during the last four decades, and no institutional 'social security' has yet taken its place in Bangladesh. It is also true that even now, as last year, the villages offered shelter in grave emergency and helped cities to be deserted very quickly, thus minimising loss of life and converting every village home into a centre of resistance to the common enemy. It was possible because almost everybody had a rural base in addition to his city life but this link is also fast disappearing.)

Although medical service and medicines were always free at the state run hospitals and clinics - Dacca University has, from its inception, half a century ago, always maintained a special medical service for students and for staff and their families, which has been totally free, except for the teachers and other higher paid staff who were required to pay only the cost price of the medicine. (Unlike New Zealand, Bangladesh has no national health service; not yet).