Of blood, sweat and tears: The India-Bangladesh rivalry and why it is crossing all borders including the moral one
“Joy Bangla, Banglar Joy!”
And so began the chants, “Joy Bangla, Banglar Joy,” (roughly translates to ‘Victory to Bangla’) as the streets were crowded with rallying men and women. They were all ecstatic, and why wouldn’t they be? After nine months of war the Pakistani forces had surrendered.
Bangladesh had just won the war of liberation. The land that absorbed the blood and sweat of the martyrs and the tears of their relatives was finally free from the oppressive Pakistani regime. However, it came at a high cost.
Two days before surrendering, when the Pakistani forces had already resigned to their fate, they carried out a mass killing of Bangladeshi intellectuals—a move that, perhaps, threw even the country’s future into a quagmire, which was precisely the intention of Pakistan before leaving the territory.
After all, these were the people who were expected to be the leaders of the new-found land. But that’s not all, Bangladesh remains the only country that had to shed blood to even speak their mother tongue: Bangla.
On February 21, 1952, several students were shot dead by the police for protesting against the constitution that denied Bangla from being recognised as an official language. The day is now commemorated as International Mother Language Day.
“Pakistan Zindabad!”
And so began the chants, “Pakistan Zindabad,” (roughly translates to ‘Hail Pakistan’) as the streets of Dhaka and Chittagong were crowded with rallying supporters of the Pakistan cricket team. They were all ecstatic, and why wouldn’t they be? After entering the Champions Trophy as the lowest ranked team, they had won the tournament after winning the final against India.
However, there was something weird about this, something very wrong. Something that didn’t seem appropriate and almost insulting to history. Actually, screw the word “almost” in the previous sentence, it WAS insulting to history.
It was insulting to the martyrs that laid down their lives in the quest for freedom; dig the land enough and you might still feel the scent of their blood in it. It was insulting to the mothers and sisters and daughters and wives and every relative who lost their loved ones during the war’ look carefully and you will still see the horror in their eyes.
It was insulting because those chants were heard in Bangladesh after Pakistan beat India to lift the Champions Trophy.
Why?
The love for Pakistan and the hate for India
Bangladesh has a lot of fans of the Pakistan cricket team and I have a tad too much attachment towards my life to discuss the reasons for it. However, everyone has the right to support the team they want to because it is a matter of the heart, after all.
And then there is the case of hating India. There are quite a several reasons why many Bangladeshis loathe India, some of them are sporting reasons while others are not. However, we will discuss only the sporting aspect of it at the moment.
Most Indian cricket team fans mock the Bangladesh cricket team and absolutely despise the fans for their terrible immaturity. Premature celebrations and derogatory photoshopping of Indian players, swearing, spamming, trolling… you name it.
Ever since the rise of Bangladesh cricket, most of the fans have never hidden their disgust towards the Men in Blue and have behaved in the most classless of ways possible.
However, here’s the thing: many Indian fans are no different either. Despite Bangladesh fans’ constant terrible behaviour, the only team they really target is India. The reaction is nowhere near when the Tigers achieve victory against the other nations.
And there is a solid reason for this. For around a decade, most Indian fans have resorted to similar behaviour against most of the teams. They might completely scorn Bangladesh, but the truth is that Pakistan, Australia and England have also faced a similar reaction from Indian fans over the years.
The rise of social media in the last five years has magnified the acts of the Bangladeshi fans, whose team have only started to rise in the last three years or so, but the things for which most Indian fans criticise Bangladeshi fans is something that most of them have been doing against the other teams for a good part of a decade.
Even when Bangladesh were minnows, most Indian fans didn’t leave them alone as they constantly mocked them and saw them in a derisory light all their life.
And then there is the tendency of Indians to burn effigies of their own players and pelting their houses with stones if things don’t go their way. But let’s not get into that now since that is a discussion for another day.
All these factors amalgamated itself to form the situation that is today. The love for Pakistan and the hate for India saw many Bangladeshi fans rally with joy at the scene of Pakistan winning the Champions Trophy. After witnessing these reactions, one would have thought that Bangladesh won the tournament instead of Pakistan.
But to be fair, nothing could really justify that act. I mean, have we ever seen Indians shout, “All Hail England,” in rallies after their victories against arch-rivals, Pakistan? Never. And we never will, either, simply because it will be an insult to their martyrs, just like chanting “Pakistan Zindabad” on the very soil for whose freedom the martyrs’ laid down their lives.
India deserve to be hated by the Bangladeshi fans. Heck, Bangladesh fans should celebrate every India loss, but chanting “Pakistan Zindabad” is just a step too far. One can only wonder whether the souls of the martyrs are now regretting their decision to sacrifice themselves for freedom.
Also read: ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Ranking the Indian team's performance
The ‘Jewel’
Before concluding this piece, I would like to share the story of a budding cricketer who was aptly named Jewel by his parents. Haleem Chaudhri, nicknamed Jewel, was an opening batsman for various teams and played in the first-class division in East Pakistan.
That youngster had a dream, he wanted to be the opening batsman of the Bangladesh cricket team after the war ended. After witnessing the dead body of a closed one, he decided to join the liberation effort. His mother didn’t allow him and how could she? After bearing him in her womb for nine months, how could she let him go to face certain death?
And so he fled from the backdoor, leaving behind his photo with a letter, “if I don’t return, you will always find me in this photo.” And that’s what happened, he never returned as he was killed in the war after being subjected to brutal torture.
All his dreams to be the nation’s opening batsman and captain died with him, but his legacy still lives… and those chants were like spitting on it.
Also read: Bangladesh's victories over Test-playing nations in ICC tournaments