By Nivedita KhandekarNew Delhi, Dec 17 : If journalists write the first drafts of history unfolding around, it is the photojournalists who actually capture the moment happening in real time.Famed photojournalist Raghu Rai happened to witness the tragic events leading to the birth of Bangladesh 50 years ago.
As bullets went past him and shrapnel threatened to destroy his camera, Rai’s lens captured the pain and suffering of the common people at the hands of the Pakistani Army, documented how ‘Mukti Bahini’ carried out their tactics and he was also there to capture the surrender of the Pakistani forces.
Forty years later, he brought out a photo book ‘Bangladesh: The Price of Freedom’.On Thursday, the 50th anniversary of the day of surrender by Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh, IANS caught up with the ace photographer for a walk down the memory lane.
Q: Were you part of the contingent that went along with the Indian Army to Bangladesh 50 years ago?
A: No, I went there first on my own.Then, in December 1971, it was an undeclared war.I went with an Indian Army Captain; we went to Khulna with the first column.(First column is tanks and the soldiers that go in the forefront and attack the enemy) where the Indian forces were moving in and Pakistanis had withdrawn from the area.
Twice I survived, one was an airburst (cannon bursts about 50 feet from the ground and sends splinters down to inflict more damage to the property and the people), from where me and the Army Captain who was conducting me, ran almost a kilometre in reverse direction.
There, bullets went past me when the Captain asked me to duck and lie down on the ground.Three hours into a tea shop, then I saw the Indian Army walking in with 200 soldiers.
Two Indian soldiers were wounded badly and there was a Pakistani soldier badly injured and crying in pain.Those are the pictures I took.
Q: This continued for how many days? How did you send your photos to your office then?
A: After what I said above, the next day, the same exercise was repeated.But we were getting nowhere.
Then the Indian Air Force went in and attacked them (Pakistan) but by that time, the latter had no air force left in East Pakistan.
I was inside Bangladesh for three days.
I was working for ‘The Statesman’, and I had to feed the paper.The Captain said, “It might be another week or so when the surrender happens”.
So, I went back and a day after, the news came that Pakistani soldiers — General Niazi and 90,000 soldiers have agreed to surrender.I was very nervous because I was back in Kolkata.
I rang up the Indian (Army) headquarters, their helicopters were to go, and I hitched a ride, reached Dhaka in the morning.
The pictures I have of signing (of the surrender), I was just three feet away from them.
And, you could see Gen Niazi, there was such an expression of shame and humiliation on his face and even when he was signing the papers, you could see the humiliation and all that.
Q: The photos of these refugees that you took from the West Bengal and Tripura side also and there were photos inside Bangladesh too.
A: I was shooting Bangladesh refugees for the last several weeks, in the Indian side of Bengal, and I went to Tripura also.The base there was one side was India and the other side was Pakistan.
Every now and then, the Pakistan Army was shelling the airport.When we landed, everybody was keeping their fingers crossed because it could hit us.
I was also going once in a while with the ‘Mukti Bahini’ inside Bangladesh.I went to their training camps too.They were all untrained people with just old rifles, and they had no control.Even though they tell the world that ‘we won the war’, if the Indian Army hadn’t moved in and helped them, they couldn’t have done anything for years to come.
Q: Did you speak with the people around? Getting a photo is one thing, but capturing what the people are fearing, what they are feeling?
A: I saw refugees in miserable condition, you could see the suffering on their faces.I had seen several women and even a 16-year-old girl lying like a cabbage, who was raped by the Pakistan Army.
A 35-year-old woman with her five-year-old son, walking along like a skeleton and you can see that this woman has been mistreated, misbehaved so badly.Very sad, very painful expressions I had seen.
Also, when the partition of India took place, I was just a 4-5 year-old boy.I remember the misery and the way things were and then when I was photographing these refugees, this is how I thought, “Oh my god! This is happening again”.
Q: Were there occasions when those expressions, the pain around would make you numb or stop clicking photos?
A: How can you stop clicking? You have to be a clean mirror to reflect the intensity and suffering of the people.If you become sentimental or if you get bogged down by the suffering and the pain, then how will you record the events as they unfold in front of you?
Q: Your negatives were lost and found many years later.Tell us about it.A: In the meanwhile, after leaving Statesman, I joined Sunday magazine, then I was with India Today for 10 years as their photo editor and then shifting offices and homes.The negatives were packed in some boxes, and we had forgotten about it.One day, we were scanning our old work — negatives and transparencies one by one — my Assistant Amit, he suddenly saw a bundle, ‘Bangladesh refugees and war’.And almost after 39 years we found it, we scanned, and we did the book and the pictures were exhibited in Dhaka.And Sheikh Haseena government honoured me with a ‘Friend of Bangladesh’.That was 10 years ago.Q: Do you plan to go to Bangladesh again? A: No, not now.I have been there so many times.Shahid-ul-Alam is a very important photographer there, who has got a Paathshala, they teach photography there.
I have my exhibitions done there and workshops there.I have got very good relationships.But I don’t have to go on the 50th.niv/khz/ksk/
‘You have to be a clean mirror to reflect the intensity and suffering of the people’
Q: What happened to your negatives? They were found years later.Please tell us more.Q: I left Statesman in the meantime and joined Sunday magazine.After 10 years, I moved to India Today and became their photo editor.We had lost track of the negatives that were in boxes.
We were going through our work, scanning negatives and transparencies, one at a time.One day, my assistant Amit noticed a bundle that said, “Bangladesh refugees, war”.
We found the bundle almost 39 years later, scanned it and made the book.The pictures were then displayed in Dhaka.
The Sheikh Haseena government gave me a “Friend of Bangladesh” award.This was 10 years ago.
Q: Will you be returning to Bangladesh?
A: Not now.It has been so many times.Shahid-ul-Alam, a prominent photographer in Pakistan, has a Paathshala and teaches photography.There are workshops and exhibitions that I’ve done.It has been a great experience.However, I do not have to be on the 50th.
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