North South University

Course Code: His103

JONOJUDDHER GONOJODDHA (জনযুদ্ধের গণযোদ্ধা)

1971 is the year when Bengalis had to fight for their Independence. After a long struggle and
a destructive war of Nine months, Bengalis won their crown, which is Independence. Those
were the bloody months where the world witnessed massacres that can't be described with
words. The book I am working on is Jonojuddher Gonojoddha, which is written by Major
Kamrul Hasan Bhuiyan. It's an excellent work of his which was mentioned in many writers'
work, and many people take it as a document of our liberation war. The writer of this book
marvelously portrays our liberation war through 11 short stories. Each of the stories defines
our struggle, our desperation, our bravery, our courage. Throughout the story, I feel the writer
wanted to tell us about who were the real fighters of our war.

The main theme of this book is it's about the ordinary people who fought the war besides our
army, military, and navy. Major Kamrul Islam Bhuiyan desperately tried to tell in this book
that how an average farmer, a pick-pocketer, a driver, a doctor, a carpenter, a shoe-shiner, a
lone woman, a mother, a wife fought in this savage battle. He quotes, "What is commonly
said about the role of the common people in speaking or writing about the War of
Independence is that the students, peasants, people, professionals, regardless of class, jumped
into the war of liberation. Then the character of the discussion becomes increasingly limited
to a few political leaders, some military personalities, some intellectuals, and a few more
elected individuals. That one line or sometimes a paragraph was allocated for seven and a
half crore people." That one line isn't enough for these ferocious people who secured victory
for our country; that is what he tried to tell in this book. He repeatedly mentioned in these
short stories about the lives of people who achieve this great victory over nine months. He
argued, Historians always forget about these ordinary people who were the real heroes of the
war. Every story represents different times in a battle. Although every story is beautifully
portrayed and worth reading I want to mention four stories that stuck in my head. These four
stories will shortly give an overview of this book.

Sahosher Thikana (সাহসের ঠিকানা): The protagonist of this story is a man named Taiyob Ali.
Like any other common person in this book, he is a food seller, just ambitious to win the war.
He was taking training in Melaghar, Sector 2 headquarter. He always wanted an LMG, but
captain Hayder didn't give him because LMG was a close-quarter battle gun, and it was rare
at that time. Hayder said to Taiyob to prove himself first. After a few days, Taiyob Ali
brought a dead body of a Pakistani army captain tied with his towel and that man's gun,
badges, belt, hat, and again for LMG to captain Hayder. Taiyob Ali was a brave man, and he
proved it in another training. He asked for a 3-inch mortar from captain Hayder again;
Hayder didn't give him and asked him how to fire an Energa-94 grenade launcher. He replied
with a perfect answer even though he did not know Calculus or the Theory of small arms fire,
a high trajectory weapon. Major Khaled Mosharof mentioned in his book that a food seller
was his guerilla commander, and that man was Taiyob Ali. This kind of man fought in the
war, and for them, we are enjoying Independence, but sadly nobody remembers them.

Dhusor Pandulipi(ধূসর পান্ডূ লিপি): This short story brings out how a smuggler named Tajul
takes part in the war and help 2nd east Bengal regiment. In this story, the fighting took place
in Mukundopur, Bamutia Sub-sector. Their job was to take over Pakistani militia in
Mukundopur, but the camp was heavily protected with soldiers, Rajakars, land mines, and
other things. Here comes Tajul, the hero of this story. He is a smuggler; regardless of his
occupation, he took part in the war and help Muktibahini. He was native, and every road,
every gully was in his grasps. Every night platoon commander Syed and others went with
Tajul to surveillance the Pakistani camp. Tajul had no fear in his mind and led from the front
in the night without any care of landmine. When the final moment came, Tajul didn't go back.
He and others were successful in taking over Mukundopur. Without his guidance,
Muktibahini would have never succeeded. But in the end, again, the writer mentions that
people like Tajul are born only to give, nothing to take, nobody will remember their glory,
support, and courage.

Taagra(তাগড়া): The name of this story is based on the protagonist himself. Taagra, 26 years
old, bold, and uncompromising fighter whose occupation is taking over small land(চরদখল).
Everybody fears Taagra, and his boldness when he was in his prime 71 came. He became a
common man and took part in war just like other men. Their battle took place in Debhata-
Vetkhali( Shundarban). When Muktibahini was suddenly attacked, Taagra and his comrades
fought back with hasty defense. Both sides were fighting die-hard, suddenly firestopped from
both sides. A Pakistani soldier stepped up, shouting for a hand to hand combat and asking if
there is any man who is brave enough to fight him. Brave Taagra couldn't stop himself and
step up from this side. It was like a war between war. Everybody was watching a fire
suddenly from the Pakistani side hit Taagra, and Taagra died. That Pakistani man couldn't
take this and fire his own teammate. But our brave fighter Taagra died fighting till his last
breath.

Rakhine Meye Princha(রাখাইন মেয়ে প্রিনছা): Princha, a lone tribal girl who fought for her
homeland in 1971. She is a fighter who fights until the end. It was July when she was
captured from Barisal by Pakistani. She then became a pot of enjoyment. She bears that
inhuman torture, gangrape, and sincerely she wanted to take revenge. She was almost
successful. Pakistani military used to make her cook food, and she took advantage of that.
One night she mixed poison in their food and left the camp. Fourteen soldiers died, and 42
gravely poisoned with her plan. She is a symbol of patience that waits until the right moment.
There are many women like Princha who fought; some succeeded, and some don't.

After reading this book, I can't help shedding tears imagining how hard and tough the
liberation war was. People from all categories of life bring their hand to achieve freedom.
This book is well written and detailed, and I came to know many tactical terms used in war.
In our class, we learned about war, how Pakistani and Rajakar, Al-Badar, Al shams teamed
up and slaughtered our innocent people. When I read this book, those militia people were
mentioned many times, and the writer says how heinous crimes these people have committed,
how horrific that was. This book is all about the general people fighting in the war, so there
are very few topics about politics, which I think the writer could have included. Jonojuddher
Gonojoddha gave me a glimpse of war that was fought country-wide by both men and
women. I will definitely recommend this book to everyone. Throughout the book, the writer
repeatedly told his readers how we are forgetting, how historians are forgetting the
contribution of mass people and embracing only a tiny part of the war. He was ashamed, so
am I, as we couldn't bring more of their valiant struggle, their stories, to the front page.