Harry Potter and the Spirit of Freedom

M. Jashim Ali Chowdhury

Senior Lecturer, Department of Law

Northern University Bangladesh

Published in Obiter Dictum, Issue 1 (2010), pp 10-12

Published by: Department of Law, Northern University Bangladesh, Dhaka

Of course, Harry Potter is a child thriller pleasantly describing the adventures of Harry Potter and his two intimate friends - Ron and Hermione - in the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in a world necessarily hidden from the Muggles (i.e., we the non-magic folk). As a grown up person interested in law, you may have apathy towards sparing valuable time being indulged in something like Potter. But if you have had a leisurely look, fortuitously perhaps, on any of the seven Harry Potter sequels, you can't but go through the rest, I'm sure. You can't even think of a kid's fantasy, unless you have gone through this one, so affluent in the spirit of democracy, human rights, freedom of press, justice, politics and such other elderly issues. This is the story of a baby (Harry Potter) thrown into the vicious cycle of politics from the lap of its mother who ultimately appears to be the last reservoir of hope for the wizarding community.

Start with the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Poor little Harry's Muggle mother laid down her life to save him from Voldemort, the scoundrel Dark Lord. Voldemort tried the killing curse on Harry as well. But something mysterious made the curse backfire at Voldemort to destroy his power. Harry survived with a scar on his forehead.

Harry was rescued and reared up in the house of his muggle aunt and uncle. Five years later Harry's fight against tyranny and oppression starts. He was called to the Hogwarts by Albus Dumbledore, the greatest Headmaster of Hogwarts who has refused the post of Minster of Magic (at least five times), the highest executive post in the wizarding world. Little Harry chooses his way to humanity by choosing to be in the Gryffindor House over the Slytherin House. He did it instantly after hearing that almost all the wizards who went berserk were in the Slytherin. It is the tender Harry who refuses the theory of superiority of one wizard clan over another by refusing to shake hands with Draco Malfoy, who is excessively proud of his pure-blood (unmixed with any Muggle) family line. Lucky enough Harry is to get by his side the unnaturally brilliant Muggle born Hermione (mud-blood in the eyes of Draco) and unconditionally loyal Ron, a pure-blood having a traditional pro-Muggle leaning.

Come to the second of the sequel - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Now Harry is in the second year of his Hogwarts life and the second one (Dumbledore being the first) who plucks the courage to call Voldemort by name while the whole of the wizarding world calls him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named' or 'You-Know-Who.' Harry 'must be very brave to mention his name, or very foolish' warns Lucius Malfoy, the father of Draco and an ardent follower of Voldemort. And then you shall hear Hermione, now a girl reading in class two, replying, "Fear of a name only increases the fear of the thing itself." Doesn't Hermione, the level-two-girl, remind us of our sacred duty to talk the straight in defiance of all brute force? How can a leader inspire his people to fight the rule of fear in a way better than that of Hermione?

The third is the Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Sirius Black, Harry's Godfather, managed to escape from Azkaban - the prison for the derailed wizards. He is the first wizard ever to do this. This in turn is the story of a gross executive failure and great miscarriage of justice. He was imprisoned in Azkaban on the charge of helping Voldemort kill Harry's parents. Without any substantial proof he was kept locked in Azkaban for long twelve years. Even after Sirius's escape, the Ministry of Magic did the same thing as our governments do - running after the shadow while leaving the real culprit out of sight. The Dementors - police you may call them - unnecessarily and excessively intrude into the privacy of the citizens in the name of state security. Truth coming out at last, the Ministry - the non-responsive executive with its antagonistic egoism - would not face it rather continue the hide and seek.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is the fourth in the sequel. It is about the glorious Tri-wizard Tournament, an extremely risky competition between the champions of three different institutions - Hogwarts, Beauxbatons Academy of Magic and the Durmstrang. With an unexplainable mystery and in an apparent violation of the rule, Harry was selected to compete in the Tournament. Later on with the murder of Mr Bartemius Crouch, Head of the International Magical Cooperation Department in the Ministry and the Master of the Tournament, Dumbledore becomes sure of the conspiracy underneath, though Cornelius Fudge, the Minster of Magic, is not. The Minister asserts, "In times like this the wizard world looks to its leaders for strength." In response to Dumbledore's urge to show 'some of his strength' to stop the Tournament, adamant Cornelius Fudge declares, "The Tri-wizard Tournament shall not be cancelled and I shall not be seen as coward." Dumbledore reiterates the foremost principle of leadership, "A true leader does the right thing no matter what others think." But who cares? The mottled leadership would result in the murder of Cedric Diggory (a contestant) and Voldemort regaining his power.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth one, best accommodates the politics and political theories. About the 'incontrovertible evidence' of Voldemort's return, the Ministry resorts to the habitual indifference of the rulers to the reality. By all means the Ministry tries to prove the death of Diggory an accident and the return of Voldemort a myth. The missing freedom of press in the wizarding world allows the Ministry a free hand over Dumbledore and Harry. The Daily Prophet, the state owned newspaper, comes out with the headline - The Boy who lies. Not only that, the Ministry 'seeking education reform' sends Dolores Umbridge, the Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, to Hogwarts on deputation 'to adjust the seriously falling standards of education.' Umbridge starts her Hogwarts mission, "The Ministry of Magic has always considered the education of young witches and wizards to be of vital importance. Although each Headmaster has brought something new to this historic School, progress for the sack of progress must be discouraged. Let us preserve what must be preserved." What does it mean? "It means that Ministry is interfering Hogwarts", little Hermione explains to Harry. Umbridge prescribes a 'carefully structured and Ministry approved course of defence magic' instead of the 'disturbingly uneven' practical approach taken by Dumbledore. If you question her medieval method, you shall hear straight, "To question my practice is to question the Ministry and by extension the Minister himself." 

Should this unquestionable loyalty remain unrewarded? Under the Educational Decree No 23, the Ministry appoints Umbridge as the High Invigilator with a power to sack any teacher found unworthy. Ms. Trelawney, a Professor of the Art of Divination with 16 years' experience, is the first to face the guillotine. Umbridge sacks her with bag and baggage. Professor Dumbledore intervenes at last to escort Trelawney back, "Though you can sack my teachers, you can't vanish them from the garden of Hogwarts. That power remains with the Headmaster." "For Now", the ready response of Umbridge is sure to remind you of Montesquieu, the exponent of Separation of Power. Being the executive as well as the legislator, the Ministry of Magic now gets every semblance of a tyrant. Meanwhile ten extremely dangerous Death Eaters (Armies of Voldemort) escape the Azkaban. Evidence becomes clear that Voldemort is on move. But how could the Ministry accept that? So in advance of any full scale inquiry, like our Muggle Ministers, the Minister declares, "We strongly suspect that the breakout was planned and it was engineered by a man who has the experience of escaping from Azkaban - notorious mass murder Sirius Black!" Ultimately poor Sirius would have to die to prove that Voldemort has returned.

In Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, the sixth one, Cornelius Fudge has to resign for the persistent failure of the Ministry to guard the security of the ordinary wizards handing the baton over to Scrimgeour. Albus Dumbledore dies leaving Harry in a wilderness.

In the last one, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Scrimgeour follows his forerunner in letter and spirit. To minimize the growing discontent over the Ministry's feeble response to Voldemort gang, Scrimgeour needs something new. Rita Skeeter, a columnist hospitable to 'juicy news' comes to his aid. The Daily Prophet starts publishing a series on The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore written by Rita Skeeter. Alas! The devaluation of a hero and foggy illusions wouldn't save Scrimgeour. A 'smooth and virtually silent coup' leads to the death of Scrimgeour, the official version of which is that he has resigned and replaced by Pious Thicknesse, a figurehead under the complete control of Voldemort. Why did Voldemort himself not assume the post? Like the mastermind of 1975 coup in Bangladesh, he remains in the dark until everything comes quiet and settled. "Declaring himself as the Minister of Magic might have provoked open rebellion. Remaining masked has created confusion, uncertainty and fear," as R J Lupin, once a Professor of Hogwarts, puts it.

Harry, now a fugitive and the Undesired No 1, is accused of having a hand in Dumbledore's death. Voldemort regime starts a systematic persecution against the wizards having Muggle link in their family line. The Ministry of Magic orders every Muggle-born to present them for interview by a newly appointed Muggle Born Registration Commission, a kangaroo court with Dolores Umbridge, now a Senior Undersecretary to the Minister, as its Head.

The later parts of the story shall make you the witness of a just struggle for freedom. From the armed rebellion to information warfare - what shall you not go through? 'The Quibbler' comes out in response to 'The Daily Prophet'. The revolutionary radio "Potter Watch" is a response to the 'Wizarding Wireless Network News' of Voldemort government. All these are to result in the victory of freedom loving mass over suppression to be attained in a fashion similar to our 1971 experience. A student, a teacher or a lawyer interested in law and politics must not miss Harry Potter.