Dewan Shamsul Arefin

Bhashani, the Maulana Bhashani, the Comrade Dewan Shamsul Arefin

"Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani was unique in many respects. He was a political activist who had never allowed himself any respite in his political struggle since the age of 14 till he died at 91. And unlike most political leaders of our region, he was more than a politician; he was indeed a statesman with a dream to which his commitment was unflinching. Bhashani's interest was not in gaining power for himself or his party; he did not work for electoral success, his dream was of a social revolution. That is precisely where he travelled beyond the other political leaders we have known. We Bengalis have been fortunate in having leaders of the stature of Chittaranjan Das, Subash Chandra Bose, A. K. Fazlul Haque and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, all of whom were great and unique in their own ways; but it would be neither unfair nor an exaggeration to say that Bhashani was the greatest among the great. He was a hero, not of a tragedy, but of an epic," (written in the foreword by professor emeritus Serajul Islam Chowdhury, Dhaka, Bangladesh, in the book Moulana Bhashani Leader of the Toiling Masses, a publication of Moulana Bhashani Foundation, New York, USA).