The Speech

In March 1971, I was working as an agricultural volunteer on a Gandhian related poverty alleviation project in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, in the villages worst hit by the Bihar Famine of the late 1960s.

I had been in India for three years as an agricultural volunteer. I know that I should/could have contributed more, but I was happy that the 'dairy farm', with dairy cows, that I organised at a Gandhian children's school in 1968/69, was going on well, and it is still going well in 2014.

Whenever I was at my 1^st floor flat in Gaya – the hottest (up to 50° C) and dirtiest town in India in 1971 — in the evening, I went on to the roof of the building to try to get the best reception on my radio, which could work on mains AND batteries, which was just as well as the electricity was a rare commodity. And on March 7th or 8th 1971, I heard about Bangabandhu's call to the Bangladeshis. The radio reception was not good, so I headed down to the centre of the town (Gaya) where a number of Bengali businesses and families were situated and always tuned into BBC Bengali language news. Different Bengali families, some with East Bengal/Bangladesh connections were very concerned. And I got the full English translation and my Bengali friends were very emotional and at the same time being very clear that a new country, Bangladesh, was about to be born.

As a 'bideshi' of only 25 yrs of age, I was amazed with what I had experienced and the content of everything with the Independence of Bangladesh being anticipated and my Bengali friends explained about the importance of Ekushey and how badly treated the Bengalis of East Pakistan had been by the Urdu speaking West Pakistanis. Some days later, through the mail, I received the Guardian Weekly from the UK which also detailed the tension which was taking place, particularly in Dhaka. I also spent some hours on successive days discussing the possible future scenario on Bangladesh with my next door neighbour, a retired civil engineer, who, more than a year later was to become my father-in-law! My father-in-law had been born in Patna, his father having migrated from Munshiganj in the early 1900s.

Little did I know at the time that within a couple of months I would be part of a huge humanitarian operation caring for people in refugee camps who fled over the borders from Bangladesh fleeing from the brutal genocide perpetrated by the Pakistan Army, their civilian officers and local collaborators. And, of course, in March 1971 in Bihar, India, I had no idea I would be meeting – in January 1972 – the man who made that amazing March 7th speech, Bangabandhu.

All these events and activities all those years ago significantly shaped my life which has been most fascinating, interesting and rewarding.