Ahmedur Rashid Chowdhury Tutul started the little magazine Shuddhasharin 1990. Fourteen years later, it grew into Shuddhashar, the publishing house, known for bringing about a new wave in the Bangladeshi publishing scene. On October 31, 2015, Tutul was viciously assaulted, along with his friends Tareque Rahim and Ranadipam Basu, for printing the works of free thinkers. He sought refuge in Norway soon after and lives there till date. Irfanur Rahman Rafin talks to him about the state of free thinking and reactionary politics in Bangladesh.
The interview was published in The Daily Star on November 17, 2017.
The Daily Star: How are you, Tutul bhai?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: I should say I’m fine. But am I? Though the anxiety and insecurity have gone, I feel a strange kind of helplessness—as if I’ve lost my way.
The Daily Star: I understand. Living in exile is a painful experience. What do you miss the most about Bangladesh in Norway?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: Myself.
The Daily Star: Before we discuss the present in more details, let’s look at the past. When did you move to Dhaka from Sylhet? How did your little magazine, Shuddhashar, which later became a publishing house as well, begin?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: I moved to Dhaka in 1992, but it was not a planned decision. It was family pressure that compelled me to move. In my childhood and teenage years, I developed a habit of reading books, which drove me towards publishing little magazines. One day, while I was cycling, suddenly the name Shuddhashar came to mind. The first issue of Shuddhasharwas published in December 1990, after the fall of Ershad’s regime.
The Daily Star: Who wrote for Shuddhashar in the beginning?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: Initially, it was sort of a family affair. We wrote and we published, all by ourselves. We also found some enthusiastic contributors, some of who went on to become renowned writers. Most of them are still committed to the arts and human rights.
Our group was not a closed one. We hardly cared about our academic lives. But we used to keep ourselves up-to-date about global affairs. We hardly got advertisements for our magazine. I had to sell two of my cameras to keep it alive.
The Daily Star: Could you tell us about the books you published in the early years of Shuddhashar?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: We published quite a lot of books on the Liberation War, science, poetry, literature, etc. We also published a series of Russian novels, simplified writings of Albert Einstein, and interviews of Arundhati Roy, among others.
The Daily Star: “Homosexuality” by Avijit Roy was published by Shuddhashar in 2009. “The Philosophy of Unbelief”, co-authored by Avijit Roy and Rayhan Abir, was published in 2011. “Earthly”, co-authored by Ananta Bijay Dash and Saikat Chowdhury, was published in the same year. The topics of these books range from homosexuality to atheism, which are still considered taboo in our society. Given Bangladesh’s socio-cultural reality, other publishers might have refused those writers. What encouraged you to publish them?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: The company of those extremely courageous writers, along with my commitment to free speech and critical thinking encouraged me to publish those books. You may notice that before the murder of Faisal Arefin Dipan [who ran Jagriti Prokashony and had also published Avijit Roy], many other publishers also published books on topics considered “unconventional” or “taboo”. But, after Dipan’s murder, everything changed.
The Daily Star: Can you elaborate a bit more how things have changed?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: The changes are evident to those who are willing to notice. It was the first time that Dipan had published Avijit’s books. As far as I know, some other young publishers were also considering publishing books with similar ideas. In the Boi Mela in which Avijit was murdered, a publishing house had been banned. We strongly protested that at the time. But after Dipan’s murder, in the Book Fair of 2016, yet another publishing house was banned. Its publisher was arrested; he still hasn’t been able to return to work. One does not need to imagine how much self-censorship is being exercised by those who had similar works in the line—one can simply look at the list of published books. It is unclear when these publishers will be able to work freely again.
The Daily Star: Looking back at the Shahbagh movement of 2013, how would you evaluate it now and the subsequent rise of Hefajat?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: When Bangladesh was under military rule, political failure and criminal activities alienated student politics from the grassroots.In a country like Bangladesh, progressive political parties are expected to function like an alternative school of thought, developing democratic, secular, and progressive ideas. But post-1990s, a vacuum was created. With the fall of the Soviet Union, left-wing politics lost its ground. Many became disillusioned, which made them inactive. Fundamentalist politics seized the moment. It started to spread everywhere and rooted itself in every nook and cranny of society. It even spread into the grassroots.
On the other hand, progressive politics remained confined to some closed groups in the cities and towns. This situation created both a sense of disappointment and a need for change among the progressive, educated middle class. We have seen the explosion of these two realisations in the Shahbagh protests. Though the movement emerged from certain specific demands and achieved those eventually, there was the dream of more. The spirit of our Liberation War was to build a progressive democratic state and Shahbagh brought back that dream.
The rise of Hefajat was also noticeable. The political and cultural detachment of the erudite middle class from the grassroots enabled such a movement as Hefajat to arise. Afterwards we noticed how the platform [Shahbagh] became a political ploy. It’s incredible that those in positions of power began to consider it a threat. There are a lot of stories as to on whose advice, they began to think/do so [but I am not interested in visiting those stories]. What we can say is that the end result has not been good.
The times have changed. The space for democratic expression and progressive politics is shrinking day by day. It appears that groups like Hefajat enjoy a kind of leniency—and even support—that emboldens them. Some say that this is to prevent radicalisation. I disagree. De-radicalisation is impossible without educational and cultural reforms. As we have seen from the textbook reform incident, our hope is shrinking.
The Daily Star: How do you evaluate the progress made by the government in apprehending the perpetrators of the attacks on bloggers, writers and publishers?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: As an ordinary citizen, I want justice for all kinds of crimes. At the same time, I believe that our laws need to be reformed and modernised. There should definitely be justice for the murders and attempted murders of bloggers, writers and publishers, even though we express our hopelessness at the current situation, and declare that we do not expect any justice. But it falls upon the state to ensure justice. Over the last two or three years we have made some observations regarding the investigations that have given rise to such hopelessness. It is the responsibility of the government to put an end to this hopelessness. Another thing I think is important is that if someone really is arrested for committing such crimes, he should be given the chance to realise his ideological fallacies. To understand and to be able to make others understand is a crucial aspect of deradicalisation.
The Daily Star: If you see the practice of free thinking in Bangladesh as a movement, what are its internal weaknesses?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: I don’t think that there is a lot of space for creativity in any type of organisational practice in this country, left or non-left. Free thinking developed in this part of the world in a lot of ways—there are social and political backgrounds to it. Some thinkers developed locally, such as Aroj Ali Matubbar. But I think by the free thinking movement, you are referring to the blog-centred free thinking movement. Freedom of thought is itself a dangerous force. When humans start thinking beyond convention, beyond the structure of traditional thinking, no force can be greater than that in the world. But sophistication is necessary, as is common sense. I don’t believe in self-censorship, but writers must have common sense.
The Daily Star: In Bangladesh, especially since 2013, we have seen a new wave of reactionary politics. How can we resist it, at least intellectually? Do you have any advice for young free thinkers?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: It is not the duty of young free thinkers alone to resist reactionary politics. Politicians should play a greater role. Finally, the state itself should take steps. I consider free thinkers as writers. I hope they will write logical and constructive write-ups in a way which will be easily communicable to readers, so that readers get a chance to understand the falsity, illogicality, and irrelevance of reactionary ideas and review their own thoughts. And the free thinkers have to increase their engagement with people. Intellectual motivation is needed in the grassroots.
The Daily Star: What is the role of the youth now given the constrained political reality of the country?
Ahmedur Chowdhury: You see, through many events, a kind of de-politicisation has taken place in Bangladesh. No one considers the national assembly as the centre of state machineries. The young people hate politics. This is, indeed, a pathetic situation. It deepens the already-existing class divisions. Most of the youth are not involved with the process of dreaming about changing poor people’s lives. They dream of a democracy without politics! But it is not the youth who should be blamed for this situation. It is the politicians who must be held accountable for this reality. Except for this apathy, the youth of today are very smart. This smart young generation encourages me.
But I want political change in a political way, in a democratic way. To resist fundamentalism, we must stop corruption, stop violence against women; we must encourage women’s empowerment. And for that, we need quality and meaningful education for all. These are more important than erecting new bridges and cantonments and flyovers. But no change is possible without commitment. If young people join politics in a democratic way (not through financial influence or family connections), there is a chance of a brighter future.
Irfanur Rahman Rafin is a Bangladeshi blogger. He is one of the co-founders of Florentino Ariza, a Bangladesh-based translation agency. He regularly writes on politics and culture.
https://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/conversation-ahmedur-rashid-chowdhury-tutul-1495573