July uprising memories resurface at venue

Striking posters and festoons depicting different moments and slogans of the July uprising placed in various corners of the Amar Ekushey Book Fair venue remind visitors of a new Bangladesh, witnessed seismic changes last year.
Red, black and white -- the three theme colours chosen for this year's fair -- are also symbolic as red represents revolution, black signifies mourning and white refers to the eternal lamp of hope.

A special arch has been installed at the main gate of Bangla Academy on the occasion of the book fair. On its one side, martyr Mir Mugdha stands with a bottle of water in his hand and on the other side, the picture of martyr Abu Sayed spreading his two hands represents the courageous youth of the country.
There is another digital print of a photo that carries a procession moving forward with clenched hands and a picture of the injured comrades being rescued in the movement. And the main theme of the book fair is written on the top of the pylon "July Gono Obbhuthyan: Notun Bangladesh Binirman" (The July Uprising: Rebuilding a New Bangladesh).

Entering the Bangla Academy part of the fairgrounds after crossing the gate, everyone's attention gets caught by the large-scale digital prints of various scenes of the movement on the newspaper pages.
These include the flag-draped head of Shaheed Golam Nafeez hanging on the lower part of a rickshaw on one side and the lifeless legs on the other side. A rickshaw puller saluting the movement activists in another poster highlights the participation of people from all classes and economic backgrounds in the uprising.
All famous slogans of the uprising days like "Buker vetor darun jhor, buk petechhi guli kor" (There is a lot of storm in the chest,

shoot me in the chest), "Jodi tumi voy pau, tobe tumi shesh/jodi tumi rukhe darau, tobe tumi e Bangladesh," (If you are afraid, then you are finished/if you stand up, you are Bangladesh) and "Hamar Betak Marlu Kene?" (Why did they kill my son?) harken back all to the bloody and fiery days of the uprising, the deaths and protests.
Visitors exploring the book fair said the posters, festoons and pictures are necessary as these not only highlight the struggles and sacrifices of Bangladesh's mass people but also pay tribute to the martyrs and the injured.
"I was involved with the movement directly. We took inspiration from language martyrs' sacrifices while taking to the streets against autocracy. This is beautifully portrayed and made relevant in the fair," Tazwar Mahbub, a student of East West University's CSE department, told the Daily Sun while visiting the fair.
There were mixed reactions from the visitors and authors as well as they found these posters mainly placed on the Bangla Academy premises. Besides, they raised questions about the lesser importance given to the Language Movement and the War of Liberation.
Jahanara Parvin, an author, said, "The July uprising of 2024 is certainly a big breakthrough in Bangladesh's history. Apart from this, the Language Movement of 1952 and the War of Liberation of 1971 are the bases of all our achievements. But I think these two historic periods didn't get much emphasis compared to the July uprising this year."
Two stalls of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement and July Revolution Parishad on the Bangla Academy premises were drawing a good crowd. On the evening of the third day of the fair on Monday, a good number of people visited the stall of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement.