Before discussing the book ‘Janapada Janapada in the hills’ written by journalist Biplob Rahman, we must first go back to the last part of the last century, when almost every day in the Chittagong Hill Tracts was full of turmoil and unrest. After the mass uprising of the nineties, the wind of constitutional rule has just begun to blow in the country.
In the days of the mass uprising in Dhaka, the hill children studying in colleges and universities also participated in the procession-meeting. The dream of political change is revolving in the eyes and minds of the hill children like the democracy loving people of this country. But it did not take long for their hopes to be dashed. With the Logang massacre of Khagrachhari on April 10, 1992, the thunder signal of black clouds resounded in the mountain sky! At that time, by publishing an illustrated report on the Logang genocide, journalist Biplob Rahman exposed the unknown chapter of the hill in front of everyone at home and abroad.
The article about Biplob Rahman’s meeting with the then guerrilla leader Santu Larma at the hideout at the beginning of the book ‘Endangered Town in the Hills’ will undoubtedly thrill anyone. Every detail of the journey to the meeting seemed to touch the thrilling moment! In fact, two and a half decades ago, the conditions and environment of the mountains were really like that. Before taking a step forward, one has to think for three seconds whether anyone is watching from front to back. But the ‘Bengal’ revolution accomplished that impossible. That is why Biplob Rahman jokingly said about himself, ‘Bengal revolution has crossed the mountain
In the last two and a half decades, Biplob has gone to the mountains many times, collected the real information behind many incidents and brought it to the pages of national newspapers. Many events are happening in the mountains, but in the course of time, the days and dates of many events are also disappearing from our minds. However, the book ‘Endangered Mountains’ will take you back to those tragic events in no time.
In each chapter of his book, Biplob Rahman has written descriptions of different events, day-to-day, behind-the-scenes stories in such a neat way that it will not make anyone hesitate to understand about that event. For example, the experience he gained while visiting a mountain refugee camp in the Indian state of Tripura is as follows: As I was walking around the shelter, a group of Chakma children surrounded me. All these children were born in the shelter camp. They have only heard from adults about the dream of their happy life in Bangladesh. And he heard that one of the reasons for leaving the country was genocide, land grabbing by the settlers, the violent politics of their armed attacks. The group of children surrounded the ‘Bengalis’ who came from Bangladesh. Keep shouting, settler! Settler!
Without further ado, the book’s critique will remain incomplete, as the author presents some of the parties in the context of discussing the regional political parties in the CHT in such a way that the reader may wonder if he is not completely impartial. The tone of his writing shows a tendency towards bias towards a particular party. The book would undoubtedly have been more universally accepted if the internal affairs of a particular area had been examined from the point of view of a neutral observer in order to analyze the events of that particular area.
The book ‘Pahare Bipanna Janapada’ was published in 2015 by Samhati Prakashan.
