As I read various archive materials and interviews on Abed bhai an interesting fact emerges about the man. That he was a fellow traveler of Marxism particularly in his London days in the late 50s. Delivering the Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed lecture, he remembers, “ We regularly attended Sunday meetings of the Marxist Study Circle organized by the late Tasadduq Ahmed and Hamza Alavi.”
Ian Smillie in his book “Freedom from Want” says on Abed in London, “Most of his friends were Marxists and he attended regular Sunday meetings with them. One friend ran for the parliament and he campaigned for them….”
Young, idealist and bright with a deep anger against injustice, it was natural for a man of his time and age to find Marxism as both an explanation of global misery and a solution to it.
Almost a decade later, far away from London, another young man was into Leftist politics in Dhaka with the same ideals. He too believed in Marxism as an answer to the national and international problems of the world. He was Aminul Alam and a student of Physics in the Dhaka University.
Yet both ended their relationship with Marxist politics soon after ending their studies and in the 70s. Abed bhai set up BRAC in 1972 and Amin bhai joined soon after. These two were two idealists but very practical people who chose a lifetime in BRAC. It maybe a puzzling question because NGOs have often been criticized by the socialists as anti-poor slowing down the revolution. That criticism may seem naive but it also reveals the deep conceptual conflict between the two.
Looking at their lives, it’s obvious that it’s the heart, the compassion and the will to fight injustice that brought them to socialism. But it was their commitment to do something that brought them to BRAC. Socialism may be fine ideologically but its inability to deliver goods to the poor was obvious to both. Abed bhai considered them too ‘marginalized’ and to Amin bhai the socialist future in Bangladesh didn’t seem possible. BRAC was an immediate and as it turned out a better idea. Socialism has collapsed here but BRAC is the top social service organization in the world.
Both were pro-poor rather than pro- ideological. So efficiency rather than speeches and clandestine activism made sense to them. They wanted to do something for the poor and not wait maybe for ever for a socialist world to be born and then do something. BRAC offered a way out, an opportunity to do something real for the poor rather than spend time waiting for history to happen. It was much better making history.
Ian Smillie in his book “Freedom from Want” says on Abed in London, “Most of his friends were Marxists and he attended regular Sunday meetings with them. One friend ran for the parliament and he campaigned for them….”
Young, idealist and bright with a deep anger against injustice, it was natural for a man of his time and age to find Marxism as both an explanation of global misery and a solution to it.
Almost a decade later, far away from London, another young man was into Leftist politics in Dhaka with the same ideals. He too believed in Marxism as an answer to the national and international problems of the world. He was Aminul Alam and a student of Physics in the Dhaka University.
Yet both ended their relationship with Marxist politics soon after ending their studies and in the 70s. Abed bhai set up BRAC in 1972 and Amin bhai joined soon after. These two were two idealists but very practical people who chose a lifetime in BRAC. It maybe a puzzling question because NGOs have often been criticized by the socialists as anti-poor slowing down the revolution. That criticism may seem naive but it also reveals the deep conceptual conflict between the two.
Looking at their lives, it’s obvious that it’s the heart, the compassion and the will to fight injustice that brought them to socialism. But it was their commitment to do something that brought them to BRAC. Socialism may be fine ideologically but its inability to deliver goods to the poor was obvious to both. Abed bhai considered them too ‘marginalized’ and to Amin bhai the socialist future in Bangladesh didn’t seem possible. BRAC was an immediate and as it turned out a better idea. Socialism has collapsed here but BRAC is the top social service organization in the world.
Both were pro-poor rather than pro- ideological. So efficiency rather than speeches and clandestine activism made sense to them. They wanted to do something for the poor and not wait maybe for ever for a socialist world to be born and then do something. BRAC offered a way out, an opportunity to do something real for the poor rather than spend time waiting for history to happen. It was much better making history.
BRAC found a way out of ‘pro-ideology’ to ‘pro-poor’ approaches and demonstrated how marginalized communities can still be served efficiently with scale-effect. Hopefully, in the coming decades BRAC will continue serving the underprivileged people with innovative approaches where ‘efficiency mania’ will not drive the poor out of its system.
ReplyDeleteAfsan bhai has shared his insights about BRAC's past and Adib bhai has expressed his hopes surrounding BRAC's future. I'd like to take a stab at saying something about the organization's present. And that is, generally speaking, at present, BRAC is doing a lot of "awareness raising" among those who are politically/financially weak while selling a lot of products/services to those who are resource rich and have a voice in society. We are NOT truly serving the poorest of the poor and we are certainly not viewing the middle-class as a crucial partner for achieving actual, sustainable impact.
ReplyDelete