‘Now we begin to see how Derrida’s notion of ‘sous rature’ differs from that of Heidegger’s. Heidegger’s Being might point at an inarticulable presence. Derrida’s trace is the mark of the absence of a presence, an always already absent present, of the lack at the origin that is the condition of thought and experience.’  

[Translator’s Preface in ‘Of Grammatology’ by Jacques Derrida, page: xvii (Translated from French to English by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, The Johns Hopkins University Press; First Published; Maryland, 1976 and First Indian Edition by Motilal Banarsidass Publishers Private Limited, Delhi).]  

Although renowned French philosopher Jacques Derrida had explained the term ‘sous rature (under erasure)’ from a linguistic, philosophical and metaphysical viewpoint, today the epithet ‘sours rature (under erasure)’ is being used from a more comprehensible prism. ‘Under Erasure’ seems equivalent to ‘self-censorship.’ Now what is ‘self-censorship?’ ‘Self-censorship, also known as self-censure, is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals purposefully choose to limit or restrain their own expression, thoughts, or actions. It often arises out of fear or apprehension of potential consequences, such as social backlash, legal repercussions, or professional harm. While self-censorship can be seen as a means of self-preservation or complying with societal norms, it is a complex and intricate concept that warrants deeper examination (https://psychologyfanatic.com/self-censure/). 

To put in more lucid terms: do the authors, journalists or even common people feel ‘self-censured’ before writing anything which may challenge authority, hierarchy or hegemony? Be it state, government, religion, patriarchy, culture or anything with a cumulative force against an ordinary individual or a group of individuals with less power to bargain? How much free are we in the real sense? Can we speak up, write or claim for our just demands within a coercive state machinery?  

If Derrida seems too difficult to be understood, novelist Milan Kundera may sound somehow easier who underscored ‘the struggle of man against power as the struggle of memory against forgetting.’ Kundera, in addition, observed: ‘The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have somebody write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long that nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was.’ (The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, trans., Michael Henry Heim, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1980, page: 3).  

Demolition of 105 Sufi shrines since August 2024 to March 2025, 2,010 incidents of attacks on minorities (including 69 temples) during 4 to 20 August of last year as per a report of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council  and dismantling and destroying of a total of 1,494 statues, relief sculptures (images engraved on walls using ceramic or terracotta to create a raised appearance), murals and monuments across 59 districts during 4th to 14th August of last year endorse the statement of Kundera. But when does the situation turn out  to be even more deplorable? Even more menacing? When do school children have to raise voices to archive the exact number of deaths on their campus?  

In the year of 1989, we have witnessed the Chinese government’s ruthless action to thwart the student protesters in the Tienanmen square and simultaneous undertaking of an ‘official stance to downplay its significance, labeling the protesters “counter revolutionaries” and minimizing the extent of the military’s actions on June 3–4. The government’s count of those killed was 241 (including soldiers), with some 7,000 wounded; most other estimates have put the death toll much higher (https://www.britannica.com/event/Tiananmen-Square-incident)’’ Viral video footages and photos of rain drenched students of Milestone school, Uttara to keep track of the death counts compelled me to ponder over: how a ‘self-proclaimed revolutionary’ government can be accused by even school children of ‘hiding the death tolls’ of their  friends? How a so ‘legitimate’ government who takes pride in eliminating ‘discrimination’ and ‘fascism’ from the land  be demonic enough to bury or cremate the martyrs of Gopalganj mayhem without an autopsy just several days ago? While the Awami League government allowed to perform the autopsy of each death in July 2024?  

Inferno:  

“I am the way into the city of woe,
I am the way into eternal pain,
I am the way to go among the lost.’’ (Dante Alighieri, Inferno).  

The death toll from the Milestone School and College tragedy rose to 35 today (26 July) after two more victims succumbed to their injuries at the National Institute of Burn and Plastic Surgery (NIBPS), according to a report of today’s ‘The Business Standard.’ 

According to hospital sources, nearly 40 patients remain admitted at the Burn Institue, with several in critical condition.  (https://www.tbsnews.net/milestone-tragedy/milestone-tragedy-death-toll-climbs-35-two-more-burn-victims-pass-away-1197001).  

Hospital-wise list of casualties  

(Source: Dhaka Tribune, last updated on July 25; the report quotes Chief Adviser’s Press wing).  

Late poet Shamsur Rehman, however, equated his fiancée’s promises with government press note- both are sheer lies! Then what’s the exact death toll? How can we forget the fresh social media footages of a number of school boys and girls seem to be bursting into tears and providing their eye witness accounts like: ‘How can the death number be too little? I have dealt with 50 dead bodies in my own hand’ or ‘We have seen 100 dead bodies in our own eyes!’ Those screams and tears, yelling and curses of agonies- can they all be false? We watched the students of Jahangirnagar University (JU) chanting slogans towards our ‘worthless’ army: ‘Barrack er Beralera/Barrack e Fire Jaa (You- Cats of the Barrack/Go back to your barrack!)’ Salute to them.  

On July 21, 2025, a Bangladeshi Air Force (BAF) F-7 training fighter jet, allegedly enduring from a mechanical error, landed with catastrophe on the grounds of Milestone School and College. It busted straightly into the two-story school building to unleash a series of nightmares. The young students were till then engrossed in their studies (approximately at 1:18 p.m.) when the old jet banged into the campus like a blazing epitome of structured degeneration. Although the civilians from all walks of life, i.e., guardians, students, teachers and local people hurried to aid the wounded children, ambulances appeared delayed. Firefighters and volunteers endeavored to extend their best service but hardly there was any proper ‘disaster preparedness’ to salvage the children from their classroom. Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) being solely responsible for this sudden disaster, showed least capability to coordinate medical support, organize mobile hospitals or trauma units.  

We witnessed the state protocol offered during the burial of the pilot (Flight Lieutenant Md. Taukir Islam) who ejected from the jet at costs of too many little souls but later died from his injuries at the Combined Military Hospital. And the civilians? Tense parents of the children with third degree burns and fighting for life in hospitals were lathi charged by the law enforcing agencies in the Milestone campus and at Bangladesh Secretariat premises.  

Six points’ demands of the students from schools to universities  

1. Publish the full names and identities of the demised students, teachers,   and other school staff. 

1. Reveal an authentic and proper list of the wounded ones. 

1. Seek a public apology for the army’s action against teachers at the damaged school premises.  

1. Extend compensation to the families of the victims. 

1. Admonish decade-old aircraft and provide more secure and updated planes. 

1. Shift and rearrange Air force training routes far away from civilian  habitats.  

 ‘Where have all the flowers gone?’ 

According to the Dhaka Tribune, a local media report quoting students, the scenarios were, “Minhaz, a ninth-grade student at Milestone, said: “I was eating in the school canteen when suddenly I heard a loud noise. I saw the plane hit the seven-storey building and then crash into the two-storied building. Immediately, the fire broke out. Everyone was screaming and running. Many younger students caught fire.” 

Miraj, an 11th-grade student, said: “I saw many young students burn right before my eyes. Some were dismembered. I could not believe if I was dreaming or it was real.”   

Piles of photos and video footage of children turned into ashes or coals along with their school bags and ID cards will haunt our collective memory for many more days. And how ridiculously the noble laureate Chief Adviser appealed for crowd funding soon after such a shocking and outrageous incident on his social media and later deleted the post! 

Mahreen and Masuka Begum : ‘And so my life became a funeral!’  

When Mahreen Chowdhury was a married woman (age: 44) with two kids of 16 and 6, Masuka Begum was a confirm maiden all throughout her life (age: 38). Mahreen seems to appear in conventional, religious get-up with long sleeve kamiz, salwar and covering her head with dupatta while Masuka seems to follow a more cultural (Bengali) way of dress-up with sari and hair not covered. But whatever petty differences they might have, both possessed the chord of the lute named ‘humanity.’  

Thirty-eight years’ old confirm maiden Masuka Begum implored the hospital staff to send her dead body to her elder sister. She did not hesitate to threaten her own existence to save her students. A woman from Chilokut village in Brahmanbaria Sadar upazila, she was the youngest kid in her family and earned her honors degree from Brahmanbaria Government College and her master’s from Eden college, Dhaka. She made her career as an English teacher in the primary section of Milestone School and College.  

Masuka’s family, including her father, elder sister and brother-in-law, now looks for accountability and fair probe into the accident, according to different news reports. 

 None of us could desist tear after knowing the valor and utmost sacrifice of teacher Mahreen Chowdhury. With 80 degrees of burn, she endeavored to rescue near about 20 to 25 students from a blazing building on her campus. She offered her services in this institution for 17 years and was promoted to ‘Coordinator’ position in the Bangla department from class teacher position.  She was a resident of Uttara with her spouse, Mansur Helal, and their two sons: Ayan Rashid Miaaz and Adil Rashid Mahid. Mansur Helal’s interview was difficult to endure. 

Helal informed press that he first called his wife after coming to know about the plane crash in her work place. Getting no response, he told his eldest son to go to Milestone campus and know the whereabouts of her mother, according to news reports.  

But Mahreen, who had tried to pull out 20 to 25 of her students from the blazing site, was taken to the National Burn Institute, where she was soon put on a ventilator in the ICU. She did not survive long and departed on Monday after having burns to nearly 100 percent of her body.  

Meantime, her husband got a phone call from an ambulance driver who told him his wife’s condition and suggested him to reach Uttara Modern Medical Hospital. By the time Helal reached, his wife was shifted to ICU. 

Mahreen’s brother Munaf Mujib Chowdhury narrates to media that it is becoming difficult for him to console her two sons and particularly the younger one.  

According to Munaf, his sister got 100 percent burned and even her lungs or trachea too got burned. The students who were taken to hospital kept emphasizing that Mehreen Miss saved them. The lion-hearted lady aided the students to come out first and only then she tried to leave the area.  

Depicting Mehreen’s last time, her brother Munaf mentioned that how his Apu spoke a lot before leaving the world. She talked a lot regarding her sons’ education and wellbeing. When his brother-in-law asked her that why she did not think about their two kids, she answered that her students too were her children.  

Then that tragic line gets resonated and reverberated across this green delta.   

‘She pressed her hand on my chest and uttered: probably I won’t be able to see you any longer!’ Mahreen’s husband broke into tears.  

We don’t know how Mr. Mansur Helal will pass the rest of his life! To end with last year’s noble laureate author Han Kang’s immensely poetic prose: ‘After you died, I could not hold a funeral/And so my life became a funeral.’  

End-notes:  

1. https://nenews.in/neighbours/since-august-2024-105-sufi-shrines-destroyed-in-attacks-by-extremist-islamists-in-bangladesh/21194/, 

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Bangladesh_anti-Hindu_violence, 

1. https://en.everybodywiki.com/2024_sculptures_and_murals_vandalism_in_Bangladesh., 

Shweta Irina