By Dr Rahman Khan, Lecturer in History, Victoria University.

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).

Emergent Nationalism

It would be a mistake, however, to regard this inseparable link between Dacca University and Bangladesh only as a recent phenomenon or as due to the shared experience of last year's tragedy. One may see this link as a historical one, dating back to the inception of the Dacca University Act.

When founded it was being looked upon as a belated consolation given to East Bengal for the loss of its identity as a separate province (which included Assam) and with capital at Dacca. Viewed in this light the origin of Dacca University may be traced back to the partition of Bengal in 1905. The Partition had ended in 1911 as a result of British Governments decision to placate the majority Hindu opinion in India and West Bengal, but not until the seeds of the future partition of British India into India, Pakistan and Bangladesh had been sown.

In 1911 Britain was seen "moving into the heart of India" by sacrificing East Bengal's identity and Dacca's re-emergence as a provincial capital after a lapse of over two centuries. Founding of Dacca University and Carmichael Hall in Calcutta towards the close of the second decade of the century were seen as the first signs of a new policy of satisfying the majority community in Bengal, the Muslim.

By the twenties of this century the first results of the 1905 partition of Bengal became apparent in high school student population and to some extent in undergraduate population. The creation of a new province however had thrown up new job opportunities and the early beneficiaries had started sending their sons to school (the state has traditionally been the biggest employer all over the sub-continent).

New pressure began to build for more Muslim Halls in Dacca University and Fazlul Haq Muslims Hall was the answer of the pre-1947 days (Fazlul Haq, one of the brilliant students of Calcutta University, had been in the civil service for a time, but soon he gave it up to join politics).

The social legislations of the late twenties and early thirties had improved the lot of the Bengal peasant (80% Muslim) by giving him right to his land and by relieving him of the enormous debts in which he was born, in which he lived and with which he died. (Mainly the services rendered by Nawab Ali Choudhuri, A.K. Fazlul Huq and Khwaja Nazizm ud Dim). The Act of 1935 when it began implementation in 1937 opened a great future for the Bengali Muslims and the social revolution which began in 1905 now gathered tremendous momentum. But it failed to make any impact on Calcutta University itself. Only at Dacca did the new aspirations find fullest expression. The impact of the countryside made itself felt in Dacca University, on Sallimullah Hall much more than Islamia College, which was under Calcutta control. Dacca University alumni started crowding into public service.

Dacca University became an important centre of Pakistan movement, although most of the leadership was then based in Calcutta, then capital of the Province. (Shaikh Mujib was at Islamia College before 1947 and joined Dacca University as a law student after the partition.) Young teachers and students of Dacca University were all ardent Pakistanis, and in the 1946 General Elections in India which in a sense was a referendum on Pakistan so far as Indian Muslims were concerned - Pakistan received its solid support from Bengal, and in Muslim minority provinces, but not from Pakistan of today.

The vision of Pakistan for which Dacca University academics and Bangladeshis had prepared the country was to have two regions - in which both regions, were supposed to have, as Fazlul Haq's resolution no. 3 of 1940 had conceded, full powers in "defence, external affairs, communications, customs and such matters as may be neccessary" and the region in the east, 'Bangasam', was to compromise Bengal and Assam, which would have almost 50-50 Muslims and non-Muslim population. In the event Bangasam was reduced to 2/3rd of Bengal only and the most underdeveloped part at that. Pakistan also began developing its unitary character, at the cost of the eastern wing.

There was no time for debate in 1947. The immediate task was to shoulder the new responsibilities consequent upon the partition of the country, and these Dacca University sought to fulfill without sacrificing its original residential character, but by adding federal character on to it.

Between 1947 and now, Dacca University has fulfilled its responsibility to the best of its ability, assisted as time went on, by new institutions set on its model, and run by its College at Rajshahi, Chittagong and now at Sava.

While its direct educational responsibilities decreased with the growth of new universities it gradually assumed new role of national leadership.

Victims & Martyrs

By February 1948 Dacca University had [unclear: spear] headed the Movement for the rightful place of Bengali language in Pakistan. The movement led to agitation in which a number of students were killed in police firing on 21 February 1952. As soon as the news spread, all over the country the entire life in the country came to a halt. 21 February has ever since remained a day for solemn observance, and is now one of the 4 national days of Bangladesh. Shaheed Minar (Memorial to the martyrs) at Dacca University is a national monument (it has replicas everywhere).

Without blaming anyone the academics re-opened the issue and regional autonomy became a much discussed topic in the Dacca University campus by 1950, before some League members from Bangladesh began putting demand for it in November 1950 in the Constituent Assembly. This demand for regional autonomy in the future constitution of Pakistan formed one of the 21 points of the United Front in the provincial elections of 1954. By then the demand had gained such wide support that the United Front secured nearly 97per cent of the votes cast, and the Muslim League, which was born in 1906 at Dacca, finally met its end again at Dacca in 1954. Dacca University academics finally reformulated the same thing into six points which the Awami League carried over to the political platform and carried the day in the General Election of 1970.

Not without reason did Yahya Khan make Dacca University his first target of military assault in the midnight of 25 March 1971. Yahya killed more Dacca University academics than Awami League legislators.

If the academics gave the idea, the students carried the idea into execution. This explains his vengeance against the students as well. The flag under which the liberation forces fought the Pakistanis last year was hastily devised by a student in one of the Halls of Dacca University and was universally accepted as the national symbol. (Only the map part of the flag has now been omitted for the sake of convenience.)

It is doubtful if the country would have reacted in the manner it did if there were no attacks on Dacca University. (Previous to 25 March there were more killings in Chittagong and in Rangpur, but there was hardly any extra-ordinary reaction to that.) Yahya's severe steps in Dacca were merely precautionary to prevent any disagreeable situation arising out of attack on Dacca University.

If there is any doubt about the significance of the attack on Dacca University, one may perhaps refer to the first stamps issued by Bangladesh Government in June 1971, when the government itself was in exile. One of the stamps refers to the "Massacre at Dacca University on 25-26 March 1971", while others refer to the country, the declaration of independence, and to the grounds of legitimacy of the claim to independence, and to the new head of Bangladesh, Shaikh Mujibir Rahman.

That Mr Abu Sayed Choudhuri is now the first President of Bangladesh is not because he has been a senior Judge of the High Court, but because of his 2 year association with Dacca University as its Vice-Chancellor (he was educated at Calcutta and appointed Vice-Chancellor by Yahya Khan's government.) Vice-Chancellor Choudhuri had overshadowed his other self as Senior Judge of the High Court.

History has linked Dacca University with Bangladesh in an inseparable manner. As in the past Dacca University assisted by all the other universities which it has helped develop, will be required to guide the future destiny of Bangladesh, which in its present showing is not rosy. Their most urgent problem now is physical survival.

On March 3rd, the General Secretary of World University Service began a seven day visit to Bangladesh. During this time he was involved in discussions with Government officials, university administrators, and student leaders on the topic of Educational Rehabilitation. What follows is an edited version of his report which led to the formulation of the five-point plan for educational rehabilitation in Bangladesh. This plan is the basis of the current appeal.

The joy and enthusiasm following the independence of Bangladesh is now coupled with a sense of realism and solidarity so vital in facing the enormous problems confronting the new nation. The tragic consequences of the armed supression has left its mark on every family in Bangladesh. Apart from the 10 million who sought refuge in India, nearly twice that number were uprooted within Bangladesh.

The problems facing the Government of Bangladesh, especially those associated with rehabilitation are enormous, complex, and urgent. The Government has decided that the following rehabilitation schemes should be implemented immediately.

The return and welfare of refugees

The securing and distribution of food

The restoration of communication and transport.

The restoration of public health and engineering.

The rehabilitation of education.

In such programmes emphasis will be given to rural reconstruction where most of the damage occured.

Damage in the Educational Sector

Educational Institutes and the intelligentsia were the prime targets of the Pakistani army the Razakas and the Badar Bahini. Amongst intellectuals, teachers and lecturers were prime targets At Dacca University, for instance, 19 lecturers were shot. In rural areas, damage to life and property was considerably worse, but as yet no figures are available. If a village was suspected of assisting freedom fighters, or housing the parents of freedom fighters, it was totally or partially destroyed, and the residents harassed or killed. A typical example is the fate of the Shajahanpur Railway School on the outskirts of Dacca. This school of 26 teachers and 900 students was completely destroyed because it was suspected of being a hideout.

At Dacca University, in addition to the 19 lecturers killed, 27 other university employees were shot, and, as a consequence of a rampage through the Halls of Residence by the Pakistani army, 125 students were killed. These students were shot in cold blood, then carried by fellow students to the open ground in front of the Hall and buried in quickly dug graves. The students who carried their colleagues were in turn shot.

About 60% or 6,000 of the students who were at Dacca joined the freedom fighters, and many of these lost their lives in the fighting. When the University opened in February of this year about 65% of students had returned.

In addition to life and property, extensive damage and destruction was done to educational equipment and library books. At the Agricultural University at Mymersingh, for instance, a seven year research project in the poultry section which was bringing in a new breed of poultry was brought to nought by killing the poultry. At the same place all furniture, books and clothing were thrown into the courtyard and burned. Similarly, of two shipments of scientific and educational equipment recently ordered by Jahangirnager University one was destroyed, the other diverted to Karachi. Again all the slide-rules and instrument boxes at Dacca University were totally destroyed. That University is also reported as having lost 25,000 books.

As a consequence of the army crack-down, many students and teachers were forced to flee, leaving behind all their possessions. When they later returned they found their houses ransacked, and everything valuable destroyed. In several cases life long savings of the teachers were destroyed A similar fate befell the property of students left behind in Halls of Residence. Thus, these students who have now returned have little more than the clothes that they stand up in.

During the fighting a number of the students contracted diseases such as smallpox and scabies The necessary shots for cure and immunisation are not available locally. There is, therefore, great need to supply medicaments and medical supplies to stabilize the health of the student community.

Educational Rehabilitation Schemes

Of the many schemes which need implementing probably the most important is financial support to university students. It is estimated that at present only about 10% can take care of their expenses. The rest will require full or partial support. It is estimated that each student will require at least $NZ20 per month to cover his basic needs, and at least a further $50 for clothes, stationery and minimum personal requirements. For students at colleges and schools it is estimated that an ad hoc grant of $30 for each college student and $15 for each school pupil for personal requirements. At present the Government of Bangladesh is supporting college students and school pupils at $4 and $2 per month respectively. The magnitude of the problem can be judged from the fact that there were before the war 30,000 primary schools with 6 million pupils, 6,000 secondary schools with 1.35 million pupils, 300 colleges with 235,000 students and 6 universities with 20,000 students. So far W.U.S. has provided $10,000 (contributed by Australia's W.U.S.) to assist students. In anticipation of receiving money from other sources the Universities have approved money to provide immediate ad hoc grants for some students. Money will be channelled into student health services.

The second item is the re-equipment of schools and colleges with apparatus, teaching aids and library books. Many sets of multiple copies of books (up to 300) are required. The main problem in acquiring such objects is shortage of foreign exchange. It is possible that many books will be given directly. Already the U.K. committee of W.U.S. have sent $5,000 worth of physics laboratory equipment. UNESCO have also indicated that they would be pleased to assist is text book purchase.

It is also worth noting that the Bangladesh University students themselves have been keen to assist in the re-establishing of the colleges and primary schools.

We believe that these objectives are realistic, and the assistance is absolutely vital. We are assured of full co-operation of university authorities, Government administration and student leaders. It is now over to us to support this new country in its early days as it struggles for survival.

Agriculture University, Mymensingh. The material collected from the rooms in the Halls of Residence was heaped together and set on fire by the Pakistan Army. One such heap is shown.

Agriculture University. Mymensingh. Destruction of the Hall of Residence by Indian bombing.