Comrade Badruddin Umar passed away after a long struggle with old-age-related ailments in Dacca, Bangladesh. A veteran Communist who was been active for over six decades, Comrade Umar never compromised on matters of principle. Prof. Mohmmad Yunus, the Chief Advisor to the present government of Bangladesh and a target of much of Comrade Umar’s strident criticism, in his condolence message called him: “the shining beacon of our struggle for free thought and progress”

His father and grandfather were well known political figures in the independence movement. The family suffered much from communal violence that accompanied the partition and after; they migrated to East Pakistan in 1951. Yet they continued to be strident opponents of religious communalism and fundamentalist politics, a tradition Comrade Umar continued all his life.

Born in 1931 and educated in Oxford, Comrade Umar taught in several universities of the then East Pakistan, but chose to resign his position to take up active political roles. In 1969, Comrade Umar joined the East Pakistan Communist Party (ML), and from February 1970 to March 1971, edited the party’s weekly Shaptahik Ganashakti. He was president of the Bangladesh Krishak Federation (Bangladesh Peasant Federation) and the Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir—an organisation of progressive writers, intellectuals, and cultural activists.

He was among the communist intellectuals who had an important role in fostering a new Bangladeshi nationalist spirit which opposed the repressive and genocidal military regime of Pakistan. This led to the national liberation war of 1971 and the subsequent independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan. Comrade Umar was strongly critical of the role of Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman and his Awami League which pushed the people into the war without any adequate preparation and failed to give any organised leadership to the movement when it faced the genocidal repression of the Pakistan army. Yet Mujib and his party assumed leadership of the new born nation and set up a repressive and authoritarian rule which served a small class of crony capitalists. Scores of Communists were killed and thousands were jailed by this regime backed by the Indian government. Comrade Umar was a relentless critic of the Awami leadership and also played an active role in ousting it. However he was no admirer of those who came to power subsequently and ended up criticising their anti-worker and peasant policies. When Bangladesh entered the new era of neoliberalism with the ‘micro-finance revolution’ spearheaded by Dr. Yunus, and the garment industry ‘revolution’, Comrade Umar exposed the neoliberal strategy of the multinational corporations to penetrate deeply into Bangladeshi society and economy tapping the savings of the people and exploiting their cheap labour. Comrade Umar was among those who founded the Jatiya Mukti Council (National Liberation Council) in 2003. He was its founder president till he death. He was also the editor of its journal, New Age, which tirelessly took up the causes of the labouring people of Bangladesh.

The return of Sheikh Hasina in 1996 was followed by the transformation of the Bangladesh state into a highly repressive and anti-democratic apparatus, which facilitated the neoliberal transition and ‘growth’. The resultant escalation of crony capitalism and political corruption and deep rooted nexus between the corrupt Awami League and the administration became too oppressive and eventually the regime was ousted through a popular uprising in August 2024. Comrade Umar wrote extensively about these developments. Even though he was an ardent supporter of the ouster of Sheikh Hasina regime, he was no admirer of the new regime. In one of his last articles published in May  2024, he pointed out that despite the restoration of some democratic freedom, the repressive state apparatus and the control of old capitalist class had not been dismantled and the policies continued within the framework set by the capitalist class. Even the demand for a slight wage increase for the workers was rejected by the interim government.  He also warned of the growth of rightist and religion-based political forces in Bangladesh after the August uprising.

If comrade Umar was a strident critic of neocolonial bourgeois politics of Bangladesh, he was equally critical of revisionism and opportunism on the international scene. He strongly disagreed with both the Soviet Revisionism and the Chinese revisionism and ardently supported the line of the Party of Labour of Albania led by Com. Enver Hoxha. He was a regular contributor to our journal Revolutionary Democracy and appreciated the positions taken therein. His organisation supported the  International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO) and he contributed to the journal Unity and Struggle too.

The Revolutionary Democracy Organisation condoles the death of comrade Badruddin Umar and earnestly hopes that his organisation will continue his revolutionary legacy.

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