Reflections

Major Abdul Ghani, the Architect of the Bangladesh Army

Lt. Gen. M. Atiqur Rahman (Retd.), RAOWA No. 577

I have never seen Major Mohammad Abdul Gani, I do not know him, and I am not an officer of the East Bengal Regiment. My knowledge about him is only based on newspapers, yet I believe we have not properly assessed or appreciated him. I say this because we, influenced by Lord Macaulay's ideology, generally do not favor recognizing the good or reputation of others. However, I cannot explain why he has not been properly assessed. On November 9, 2019, RAOWA and Major Gani Council jointly organized a discussion meeting in memory of Major Gani's 63rd death anniversary, where I was invited and shared my thoughts. These views are strictly my own.

Major Mohammad Abdul Ghani was born on December 1, 1919, in Brahmanpara Upazila of Comilla district. Due to his parents' financial constraints, he faced many challenges in his education but was supported by many kind-hearted individuals. He organized boys of various ages from a young age. I will not write about Major Gani's history before joining the army, as much has been written on this, and it is not the subject of my writing. I will try to assess him from my perspective.

Bengalis' participation in the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny was significant. Consequently, the British decided not to recruit Bengalis into the British Indian Army. Even if they were employed in the Service Corps, they were almost absent in the Fighting Corps. The lesson from the Sepoy Mutiny was that Bengalis in the army could sow the seeds of rebellion, complicating their control over India. Major Gani's example clarifies this. Although he was commissioned in the infantry, he was initially not posted to an infantry regiment but assigned to an auxiliary unit. While some Bengalis were in the Service Corps, there were virtually none in the Fighting Corps, especially not Bengali Muslims.

In 1947, during the partition of India, the armed forces of Pakistan consisted mostly of Punjabis and Pathans. The number of Bengalis was minimal, even fewer than the Balochis, and it seems there were none from Sindh province. Taking advantage of this situation, Punjabi and Pathan officers decided not to recruit from other provinces, especially Bengalis. They feared that Bengalis, if included, would demand a proportional share, reducing opportunities for people from Punjab and the Frontier Province. They argued that Bengalis were not a "martial race" and thus recruited very few of them. Punjabis generally came from areas like Jhelum, Rawalpindi, Gujrat, and Campbellpur, and Pathans from the economically challenged North-West Frontier Province. With no other source of income, these areas found the army's monthly salary of seventy rupees during World War II very attractive, leading to their significant enlistment and gaining the reputation of being a "martial race". It's said that in the village of Dhamial in Punjab, every capable man joined the army in various capacities during World War II. After the war, the government, pleased with their service, wanted to reward them. The village elders, after discussion, requested two cannons used in World War II to be installed at two ends of their village, which still stand there, now in poor condition due to lack of maintenance. They didn't ask for anything beneficial to the community, only the cannons, cementing their identity as a "martial race".

Here, I'll depict the relationship between senior and junior officers in our time and before, just to show the position of a junior officer in the military community. It was a difficult task for Major Gani to implement his plans in such an impenetrable environment. The common saying among military officers was "A junior officer is to be seen, not heard," meaning a junior officer should only be visible, not vocal. Senior officers were like the Eid moon, rarely seen. We used to see our commander once a week on Monday during the commander's parade. Seeing other senior officers was a matter of luck. To clearly see the army chief once a year, one needed binoculars. In such an environment, it wasn't easy for Major Gani to achieve anything. Furthermore, government approval was required for any initiative, not the army chief's. Jinnah's government was informed that there were Punjabi, Pathan, Bengali, and Baloch members in the army, with their respective regiments like the Punjab Regiment, Pathan Regiment, Baluch Regiment, but no Bengal Regiment. The creation of the East Bengal Regiment was the result of Jinnah's political acumen and Major Gani's strong will. However, this didn't mean all members of the East Bengal Regiment would be Bengalis, just like the Baluch Regiment had very few Balochis, mostly filled with Punjabis and Pathans. I believe that a Bengal Regiment would have been formed eventually due to political necessity, but Major Gani accelerated its formation. Jinnah's government ordered General Sir Frank Walter Messervy (KCSI, KBE, CB, DSO & Bar) to form the Bengal Regiment. Major Gani was tasked with its organization. Finding Bengali soldiers for the regiment was possible from the Pioneer Corps, but what about officers? There were no Bengali officers, so they had to rely on non-Bengali officers. Major Gani was aware of the scarcity of Bengali officers and its reasons

Both the British and Punjabi-Pathans had their reasons for not including Bengalis in the armed forces, but we Bengalis were also largely responsible for not joining the forces. We always blamed the British and Punjabis, covering up our own faults. I will discuss the reasons why we Bengalis didn't join the army:

· There were many casualties in World War I. Although there were hardly any Bengalis among them, the news of the massive casualties reached us, and we knew that casualties were inevitable in war. Thus, during World War II, Bengali parents didn't consider sending their children to the army, fearing death and the fact that their children would be far away from home. If someone died, no one would see them, so why join the army when one could do something in the country and stay close to family? After World War II, it was hoped that Bengali parents would be less fearful. However, the situation changed rapidly in the subcontinent. Pakistan emerged as a new country and immediately got involved in a conflict with India over Kashmir. This kept the fears of Bangladeshi parents unchanged, and they forgot that their children could also join the army.

·      Since the inception of Pakistan, communication between East and West Pakistan was poor. The Ispahani industrial group formed The Orient Airways with a few DC-3s to bridge the aerial gap between East and West, but the flight time was over seven hours. This journey had its inconveniences, like having to land in Delhi or Kolkata for refueling, requiring passports for all passengers. Eventually, with the advent of modern aviation technology, the flight time significantly reduced, eliminating the need to land in Kolkata or Delhi and for passports.

·        Bengali parents believed that if their son became an army officer, he would become a drunkard and morally corrupt. They thought all army officers were addicted to alcohol and of bad character, so they were not willing to marry their daughters to army officers. This created a taboo-like situation. Even if a young man wanted to join the army, he hesitated, fearing he would remain unmarried. At that time, many British officers were in the Pakistani army, and alcohol was freely available in messes and markets. Some Pakistani officers, influenced by the British officers, started drinking to fit in. However, it was not justified to label all officers as drunkards. I haven't seen many cases of drunkard officers being immoral. Many of my friends drank, but I found them gentle, polite, and magnanimous. This issue of alcohol was so deeply ingrained in Bengali parents' minds that it took a long time to eradicate. I'm mentioning my own marriage as an example. I got married in 1961, 14 years after Pakistan's creation. I studied in Delhi, Shimla, and Rawalpindi, and spent my early career in West Pakistan. I had no friends in Bangladesh, so getting unbiased information about me there was difficult. A distant relative of my mother-in-law, Captain (later Major General, Ambassador, now deceased) Golam Dastagir, asked only one question about me to my mother-in-law: whether I drank alcohol. He replied, "Bubu, I drink tea, cigarettes, and pan, he doesn't even do that, so alcohol is out of the question." Captain Dastagir jokingly told me that he had vouched for my character, or else I wouldn't have gotten married. By then, alcohol had been banned in all Pakistani messes and open markets, yet 14 years later, the fear of alcohol still haunted Bengali parents. This was a major reason why Bengali youths were not keen on joining the army, as they didn't want to remain unmarried for life.

From the above text, it's clear that we Bengalis are equally responsible for not joining the military. Many young men didn't even consider the army as an option. Even if Major Gani organized the Bengal Regiment, would it have become a regiment controlled by Bengalis? Who controls a regiment depends on who joins as officers. If Bengalis didn't join as officers, Punjabi or Pathan officers would take charge, not Bengalis. Major Gani understood this well, and hence his primary goal and effort was to attract Bengali youth to officer positions in the military. This was his main task. As a Recruiting Officer, he tirelessly visited schools and colleges across Bangladesh, encouraging young men to join the army as officers. He spent hours answering students' questions and trying to correct their misconceptions about the military. His efforts gradually started bearing fruit. For example, in my army batch (1951), there were seven Bengali cadets with me. The number was less before and increased later. When Bangladesh became independent, there were about a thousand repatriated officers from Pakistan, aside from those already in Bangladesh. This, I would say, was the result of Major Gani's persistent efforts, especially in overcoming the deeply ingrained label of 'drunkard'. Eliminating the 'army phobia' from the minds of Bengali parents and youth was perhaps his greatest contribution, resulting in many Bengalis joining the army.

The Liberation War was organized with the participation of countless people from all walks of life, including the East Bengal Regiment, who were ready for war. They knew that the army, especially the Bengal Regiment, would provide leadership in the Liberation War because it was organized for war and led by Bengali officers, joined by other Bengali officers from different branches. If non-Bengali officers had been in command, the war might not have happened, let alone achieving liberation. For instance, in Balochistan, where Balochis are fighting for rights, the Baluch Regiment participates against them because it has very few Baloch officers or soldiers. During the Liberation War, those battalions of Bangladesh Rifles with Bengali officers participated as whole units, whereas those with non-Bengali officers saw their soldiers deserting individually to join the fight. Hence, the leadership of Bengali officers in Bengali battalions was a major factor in the victory. The formation of the East Bengal Regiment was a significant success for Major Gani, but his greater achievement was motivating Bengali guardians and youth to overcome their fear of the military, understanding that without officers, no organization can be controlled. The Bengal Regiment he formed and managed to have led by Bengali officers was instrumental in achieving independence and later became the nucleus of the Bangladesh Army. So, if I say Major Gani is the architect of the Bangladesh Army, would it be an exaggeration?