CHARU MAZUMDAR
from Liberation, July 1971-January 1972.
Friends who have come from East Bengal,
Imperialism and domestic reaction have jointly destroyed your peaceful way of life[1]. Peace will not be restored as long as the reactionaries are in power. The Indian government is seeking foreign aid by exhibiting you and is turning you into beggars. This state of affairs is unbearable. Whether you continue to stay here or return to East Bengal, you will have to carry on struggle. You will not get back a dignifed way of life without waging struggle for establishing your rights as men. Today, in East Bengal also, a revolutionary Party — the East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) — has been formed. They have also taken to the path of armed struggle. You should join hands with them and help make their struggle powerful. Those of you who want to stay on here should break the barrier erected by the Indian government to isolate you from the revolutionary struggle in West Bengal and should participate in the struggle as partners in the democratic revolution in West Bengal. There is no other way. That this is possible has been shown by the people of Vietnam. The 14 million toiling people of South Vietnam have repeatedly defeated U.S. imperialism, the most powerful of all the imperialist powers of the world. We — the people of the two Bengals — are more than 110 million. There is no reason why we should not be able to defeat the reactionaries of our countries, to put an end to our humiliation, to fight and win dignity as men. You are not helpless. Both the common men of East Bengal and the common men of West Bengal are on your side. If you wage struggles, this support will take the form of co-operation on a vast scale. The reactionaries of both the countries are weak. They are not, therefore, capable of suppressing this revolt of ours. All their edifices will break into pieces like a house of cards. As a golden Bengal will be built by the poor men of East Bengal, so also a golden Bengal will emerge through the efforts of the poor men of West Bengal. So, keeping that bright future in view, prepare for struggle today.
September 7, 1971
Note :
1. According to an estimate of the government of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), ten Million people, Hindus and Muslims, persecuted by the Pakistan government and the Razakars, entered West Bengal in 1971.
