We all know that when everything went against their tide, the British decided to leave Indian subcontinent. With the declaration of the partition of India in August 1947, British rule in India came to an end which resulted in two independent dominions, namely India and Pakistan. The rulers (British empire) indeed played shrewdly till the last moment of the colonization and ensured while leaving the subcontinent that the people of this region remained divided (‘divide and rule’ policy) and they chose religion to pull off their plan. They hatched the conspiracy (some people term this as ‘political farsightedness’ as well) realizing the reluctance of the then political leaders to co-existence and executed it successfully. Such a partition came with a heavy price – indiscriminate killing of innocent people by the fellow countrymen, unrestrained vandalism and a perpetual enmity between two groups following two different religious ideologies (Muslims and Hindus).

Later on in 1971, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) got independence under the able leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from Pakistan after a nine-month-long bloody war. Though we snatched away our freedom being inspired in the spirit of unity (our people took part in the war unitedly) and equality (the aim was to establish parity in the society), it seems that after 47 years of independence we are again divided and the division among people from all walks of life has been very cunningly put in motion by our political leaders and parties by maneuvering the very tenets of ‘divide and rule’ policy, which were once detested by politicians of this region.

Well, there is no denying that we (people of this country) are now divided into many groups and the only point of contention to validate this division is our political ideology or belief. It is staggering to see that our teachers, journalists, lawyers and even doctors have parted their ways based on their political ideology or belief and those factionsare always at draggers drawn. Well, there is no harm in having or supporting a specific ideology but it is also true that your ideology should not be the reason for someone else’s agony and hamper peaceful coexistence. For example- our DU teachers are split into two main groups – ‘Neel Dol’ and ‘SadaDol’. Despite the fact that both these groups have teachers of good caliber but they never work together for the betterment of the university and the students. They always come up with divisive opinions and the group supporting the ruling party enjoys different kinds of privileges and gets the upper-hand over other teachers. Under such circumstances one may possibly ask –if the teachers themselves don’t work and stay collectively, how will they teach their students to be united and work together for the betterment of the country and its people?

However the worst case in this connection is probably the example of students. Political parties have diverted the attention of the university students from something creative to something comparatively destructive (student politics). Student politics has so far taken a heavy toll – it has created division amonggeneral students and empowered specific groups who carry out different agendas of the political parties and maintain the grip over other general students which ultimately has resulted in an ambience of anarchy on the university campuses.

To sum up, unless we realize their (the politicians) trick and ill-motive, we will never be able to excel in different fields as a nation. We must learn to coexist with differing opinions and ideologies. Our difference in ideologies should not overpower our conscience and initiate division among us. We should not forget that even Socrates and Plato had so many differences as far as their ideas and thoughts were concerned, nevertheless they never locked horns, spoke ill of one another in their absence and inspired division in the society. Rather they respected each other and created different paths for others to follow. We should also learn to do so instead of turning ourselves into mere pawns of the political leaders.