Farewell Muchkund Dubey, farewell dear friend of Bangladesh

I suddenly received a call from my friend Amitabh Mathur in Delhi on the afternoon of 26 June 2024. He informed me that Bangladesh's friend and well-wisher Muchkund Dubey was no more. It took me some time to come to terms with this sudden sad news. Our close friendship spanned over more than four decades. So many memories, happy and sad, of our long friendship flooded the deep recesses of my mind. I hadn't met him since the Covid outbreak, though we had spoken over the phone several times.

Muchkund Dubey was born to a middle class family in Jasidih of Deoghar (now in the newly formed state of Jharkhand) of Bihar. He studied in Deoghar, Patna, New York and London. He was a student of economics. After obtaining a Master's degree in economics in 1956, he taught there for one year.

He then joined the Indian foreign service as a diplomat. After the independence of Bangladesh, he was placed in charge of the Bangladesh desk of the Indian foreign ministry. Earlier in December 1971 he had come to Dhaka for two weeks as a UN official. He had drawn up a report for the UN regarding what Bangladesh required at the time.

When Muchkund Dubey was a joint secretary with the Indian foreign ministry, he built up close ties with the Bangladesh administration, particularly with Professor Nurul Islam member of the planning commission, Professor Rehman Sobhan and others. For more than two decades since then, he was closely involved in various deals signed between the two countries pertaining to political, diplomatic, economic, water-sharing, trade and border issues. From within the government and outside, he always tried to view Bangladesh's interests in a positive light.

Muchkund Dubey had been the Indian high commissioner in Dhaka from 1979 to 1982. It was then, in 1981 to be precise, that I made my acquaintance with him. It was that year that a Dhaka newspaper had published a report that Muchkund Dubey had "assaulted a member of a security agency". What had actually happened was that the intelligence vehicle tailing Muchkund Dubey's car had hit his car from behind. The drivers of the two cars and the security men got into an altercation over the matter. The incident created a diplomatic fracas between the two countries and was even discussed in the Indian parliament. Narasimha Rao, the Indian foreign minister at the time, staunchly supported Muchkund Dubey. He described Dubey's initiatives as a safeguard to the interests of the two countries. The incident had hurt Muchkund Dubey. I remember meeting him in those dark days of his.

It was actually around that time that my proximity with Muchkund Dubey began to grow. After that incident, we met and talked at various times not just in Dhaka, but in Delhi, Lahore, Kathmandu and other places. It was while he was in Dhaka that we learnt of his particular liking of the Bangla language. When he had been in Iran earlier, he learnt Farsi there too.

His own interest in the language prompted Muchkund Dubey to learn Bangla while in Dhaka. He understood Bangla well and could speak it too. He developed a deep love for the poetry and songs of the great Baul Lalon Shah. He went to the Lalon ashram in Kushtia. He cherished this passion for Lalon's songs till the very end.

Prothom Alo organised a seminar on Lalon at Bengal Shilpalaya in Dhaka in 2016. The main speakers at the event were Muchkund Dubey, Bangla Academy's director general Shamsuzzaman Khan and the renowned Lalon scholar Abdul Ahsan Chowdhury.

Muchkund Dubey's view about Lalon was clear. In an interview with Prothom Alo on 3 April 2016, he had said Lalon was one of the great ascetic poets of this part of the world. He was above the ascetic poets of North India. It is unfortunate that he is not known in the rest of India other than West Bengal.

Muchkund Dubey went on to say that Lalon was hugely relevant in today's divisive world filled with conflict, hatred and animosity, where innumerable people are losing their lives, where not only people of different religions hate each other, but people of different castes in the same religion are filled with hate and conflict. Lalon was relevant for Bangladesh, but even more so for India.

I recall that other than the interview and article, a piece by Muchkund Dubey, "Lalon Fakirer Shadhona" (Lalon Fakir's Pursuit), was published on 29 October 1999 in Prothom Alo's literary periodical. As a result of his hard work and perseverance, Delhi's Sahitya Akademi in 2007 published a 100 poems and songs of Lalon in Hindi, "Lalon Shah Fakir Ka Geet". Professor Anisuzzman was present as special guest at the launch of this book (in 2017) of Lalon's works translated by Muchkund Dubey. They had a staunch friendship.

An incident of 2016 remains alive in my memory. Muchkund Dubey informed me over phone that he would be coming to Dhaka from Delhi. I invited him to my home. I asked whether anything would be of particular interest to him. He said, "I want to meet old friends. And also arrange a Lalon song session. I want to hear Farida Parveen sing Lalon."

We made arrangements. For as long as Farida Parveen sang, Muchkund Dubey sat with eyes shut, immersed in the songs. Also present there that day were Professor Rehman Sobhan, Rounaq Jahan, Dr Kamal Hossain, Hamida Hossain, Faruq Ahmed Chowdhury, Anisuzzaman, poet Nirmalendu Goon, poet Mahadev Saha, Asaduzzaman Noor and others. After Farida Parveen's songs, the poets Nirmalendu Goon and Mahadev Saha recited their poems. Asaduzzaman Noor recited excerpts from Syed Shamsul Haque's drama "Nuruldiner Shara Jibon".

Then in March 2019 we organised an event of Lalon songs and discussion at Bengal Shilpalaya. Farida Parveen sang there too. Muchkund Dubey had also held an event of Farida Parveen's Lalon songs in Bangla and Hindu at Delhi's India International Centre (IIC).

Shamsur Rahman was Muchkund Dubey's favourite poet. He translated about 40 of Shamsur Rahman's poems into Hindi. I recall when Shamsur Rahman passed away in 2006, Muchkund Dubey had been in Paris. He sent a letter for Prothom Alo from there, "Hey Bondhu Priyo Kobi" ("Oh Friend, Dear Poet"). His deep love and admiration for Shamsur Rahman was reflected in that article.

In that piece he quoted from several of the poet's works including "Tomakey Pawar Jonno He Shadhinata". He termed the poet as a "great Bengali poet". He said, "In his death, a massive pillar of the Indian subcontinent's intellect and literature had fallen, I can say with all conviction." He wrote, "After Pablo Neruda, no poet other than Shamsur Rahman has entranced me so much."

Other than Shamsur Rahman, during his stint in Dhaka he developed close ties with many of the contemporary poets of the day including Syed Shamsul Haque, Abu Zafar Obaidullah, Nirmalendu Goon, Mahadev Saha and others. He translated Nirmalendu Goon's poems into Hindi too.

Muchkund Dubey's wife Lalita Dubey was from Odisha. She would sing, and when in Dhaka, she would take lessons in Nazrul Geeti from the veteran artiste Sohrab Hossain. After that, whenever Lalita and Muchkund Dubey came to Dhaka, they would also bring gifts for Sohrab Hossain. Thus Muchkund Dubey grew deep ties with Bangladesh, ties that remained firm till the end of his life.

Around the mid-eighties, I visited Delhi several times. I would be in contact with Muchkund Dubey every time. He invited me to his house and office many times. He would pick me up from the airport and take me back too in his own car. He arranged for me to interview the foreign minister of the Congress cabinet back then and later even the Indian Prime Minister IK Gujral.

In 1990-91 Muchkund Dubey was the Indian Foreign Secretary. One of his nephews, Amar Bhushan, had been the counselor for educational affairs at the Indian high commission in Dhaka at the time. We became close friends too through Muchkund Dubey.

After the 1991 general elections in Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia formed the government. Muchkund Dubey came to Dhaka at that time as a special envoy from India. I recall that we met deep in the night at the home of Amar Bhushan, education councillor of Indian High Commission. After long discussions, his official car dropped me off at our house in Wari.

Throughout the nineties I was busy with the publication of Bhorer Kagoj and then Prothom Alo. I was a bit less in contact with Muchkund Dubey at that time. There wasn't much opportunity to meet either.

By then he had retired as secretary and has been teaching economics and international relations for around eight years at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. From 1995 onwards he remained president of India's Delhi-based Council for Social Development.

Towards the end of the last century and for a few more years I had the opportunity to visit Delhi several times as a member of the South Asian Forum for Human Rights (SAFHR), the organisation led by India's IK Gujral and Pakistan's Asma Jahangir, and also to join various journalist conferences. As a member of the civil society, Muchkund Dubey had been involved in various organisations, in issues pertaining to South Asian economic development, political stability, etc.

I recall in 2001 I got to meet Muchkund Dubey in Lahore where I had been visiting as a member of an election observation team to observe the elections in the SAARC member state Pakistan. A decade later we spent time together for quite a good few days in Kathmandu, Nepal, where we were attending a seminar on peace and stability in South Asia. Muchkund Dubey attended Prothom Alo's 16th anniversary on 14 November 2014 at Sonargaon Hotel in Dhaka as our guest.

Over the past three decades, Muchkund Dubey authored and edited over 10 books on Indian and South Asian politics, economy and diplomacy.

The closeness which Muchkund Dubey developed with Bangladesh since 1972, continued even after the end of his career in government service. He took part in many civil society dialogues of both the countries in Dhaka and Delhi. He was very active in political thinking.

He was a man with a liberal and progressive mindset. He had a sort of zeal towards leftist ideology. He told me about his soft corner for the Marxist Communist Party among the political parties of India. Later, though, he sought Congress Party nomination in the Indian general elections of 2014. That didn't come through eventually.

It was very clear that when it came to India-Bangladesh relations, Muchkund Dubey was actively conscious about Bangladesh's interests. He often would sternly criticise the Indian government policy in this regard too. He would write about this in Indian newspapers as well. He would always say, India didn't do enough for Bangladesh -- whether it was in economic investment, trade and commerce, water sharing or resolving the Rohingya crisis. He was very vocal about these issues. I recall in an interview with Bhorer Kagoj on 5 August 1994, he had said he would continue to speak on Bangladesh's behalf, whether anyone likes it or not.

As I go through the old issues of Bhorer Kagoj and Prothom Alo, I see we had published around 10 interviews of Muchkund Dubey over the last two decades. The interviews were basically focussed on India-Bangladesh relations and other regional issues. The interviews always reflected his empathetic stand towards Bangladesh.

We had also published 10 of his articles. Some of them had appeared in India's renowned newspaper The Hindu. We translated those into Bangla and published them in our newspaper with permission from the writer and the newspaper. We published two lengthy articles by Muchkund Dubey before and after the 2001 election. He had clearly spoken about Bangladesh's political and economic crisis in those pieces. He expressed grave concern at the predicament of Bangladesh in the backdrop of the political conflict and clashes between the two major parties.

He said that goons dominated in Bangladesh, plunging it into the grip of terrorism. He said that there were thugs and goons both in Awami League and BNP, but had an upper hand when patronised by the ruling party. It is the responsibility of the government to pull the reins on the goons, he also pointed out. Those words of his written two decades still ring true.

Whenever we met, in Delhi or in Dhaka, we held intensive discussions on a wide range of topics. He would ask in detail about Bangladesh. He would express great joy and enthusiasm at Bangladesh's successes and economic advancement.

Muchkund Dubey was also very frank when speaking about India's domestic politics. He was a stern critic of India's Modi government. He would speak out about this and write about it. In an interview with Prothom Alo on 24 March 2019 he said that Modi had risen up through extremism and so would never be able to leave this path. India's long history of tolerance, non-communalism and a strong civil society was now threatened. In the same interview he said India's pluralist society was under attack.

In another interview published on 4 April 2016 he said communalism had been revived in India. He was extremely concerned at the frequent attacks on the minorities in India, on their being killed for eating beef, marrying into other religions and so on. He said,"if we can't keep our pluralistic society united in the country, this create problems for the neighbouring countries to hold on to their pluralism. This will certainly have an adverse impact on our neighbouring countries."

The last time that Muchkund Dubey came to Bangladesh was in 2020. We had the chance to spend a lot of time together then. He had come to the Prothom Alo office too. Professor Rehman Sobhan, Rounaq Jahan and other eminent persons including the Indian high commission Riva Ganguly had joined in. We had also directly talked about many issues at that time.

We shared a lot of Muchkund Dubey's interviews and articles with Prothom Alo readers. We published an interview with Muchkund Dubey then too. He termed India's Citizenship Act as "unfortunate". He was angry about how a secular country could say they would give citizenship in the basis of religion.

Even today memories of Muchkund Dubey flood the mind. So many stories, so many laughs. There were sudden flares of temper too. Then when we would meet in Delhi again, he would embrace me, make no mention of that spurt of anger and diminish any hurt feelings by that unspoken gesture of apology. And that booming laugh again. Thus over the past four decades we developed a friendship, strong and durable.

Upon hearing the news of Muchkund Dubey's death, the first thought that came to my mind was Bangladesh lost a firm friend in Delhi. A public intellectual who was vocal and active for Bangladesh bade us farewell.

Farewell, Muchkund Dubey, dear friend of Bangladesh,

Farewell.

* Matiur Rahman is the Editor and Publisher of Prothom Alo.