Syed Badrul Ahsan - Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: From Rebel to Founding Father

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Text Syed Badrul Ahsan

Photographs Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Trust

Editor: Jayalakshmi Sengupta

Cover Design: Shashi Bhushan Prasad

Layout: Sarojini Gosain

ISBN: 978-93-83098-10-1

Publication: 2014

Reprint: 2018

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If there is one man to whom the emergence of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh (1971) is indebted, whose contribution to history has made him a legend, it is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. His patient endeavour and staunch belief in the rights of the Bengalis created a new milestone for them, giving them the opportunity to not only establish and uphold their cultural entity at last, but also the dignity to proclaim it on the world stage. The story of this great mans meteoric growth, and his equally tragic end, is part of Bengali folklore today, which continues to inspire millions of Bangladeshis across the globe.

Mujib was Bangabandhu, a friend of Bengal, an honorific a grateful nation bestowed on him in early 1969 after he was freed from incarceration in the Agartala Conspiracy case by the Pakistani military regime of Field Marshal Ayub Khan. He deserved the honour, for it was his dedication to the cause of Bengali autonomy within Pakistan and then independence from Pakistan that was to underline his political struggle, all the way to his assassination in August 1975.

A remarkable aspect of Bangabandhus political character was the steady and sure evolution of his personality from one steeped in the communal politics of the Muslim League in the 1940s, to that of a political being, ready not only to embrace but inaugurate a secular order for his people by the mid-1960s. His Six-Point Programme of regional autonomy for Pakistans federating units, as presented in early 1966, was the first clear sign of how he meant to steer politics towards a new frontier.

Mujibs significance in the politics of Pakistan and subsequently of Bangladesh came to be formally acknowledged when, for the first time in the history of a state carved out of British India in 1947, he emerged as the undisputed leader of the majority party at Pakistans first general elections in December 1970. Of course, the results of those elections were to be subverted by the military regime of General Yahya Khan in league with the machinations of the leader of the minority Pakistan Peoples Party, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. The conspiracy snowballed into a crisis that engulfed Pakistan in March 1971, followed by the genocide launched by the Pakistan army against its Bengalis later that month. It convinced Bangabandhu in no uncertain terms that his people needed to find their own way out of Pakistan. His declaration of Bangladeshs independence in the early hours of 26 March 1971, followed by his arrest at the hands of the army and his subsequent solitary confinement and secret trial in West Pakistan, were events which galvanised Bengalis into a necessary spirit of liberation.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman remains that rare instance of a statesman in history in whose name, and in whose physical absence, a nation fought its way to freedom. The surrender of Pakistan in Bangladesh in December 1971 was indeed the culmination of Mujibs long struggle for the emancipation of his people. That was when the legend around the man took shape. In the following three and a half years in which he governed his new nation, Bangabandhu was buffeted by problems of an unprecedented nature inasmuch as he was fortunate in propelling his country into the councils of the world. He asked his nation to give him three years to turn the country around. His enemies made sure he did not survive. They killed him, with most of his family, on 15 August 1975.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman remains in death, as he was in lifetime, Bangladeshs foremost political symbol. For people outside Bangladesh, and indeed for the generations that came to life and adulthood after his passing, it is important that his story, the record of his times, be presented in a dispassionate manner. Syed Badrul Ahsans work on the founder of Bangladesh, I am convinced, will do that job to the satisfaction of all.

A.F. SALAHUDDIN AHMED

National Professor

President, Managing Committee, Bangabandhu

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Memorial Museum, Dhaka

My association with Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Father of the Bengali Nation and Bangabandhu to his grateful people, began in early 1968 when I heard my father speaking in whispers with his colleagues about the charge of conspiracy laid at Mujibs door by the Pakistan government. My fathers conviction was absolute: Mujib, a believer in constitutional politics, was made of better stuff.

As the chief of the Awami League, he toured innumerable villages and towns in East Bengal, then known as East Pakistan, trying to impress on his people the belief that if democracy was the goal, and economic prosperity of the various regions of Pakistan was the overall national objective, the state of Pakistan would need to change. The change would necessarily have to be based on the Six Points he and his party offered to the country. The Six Points argued for a federal state where its constituent provinces would enjoy the highest degree of regional autonomy.

The Six Points were brushed aside despite the electoral triumph of the Awami League at Pakistans first general election in December 1970. What followed the collapse of the tripartite talks, involving the Awami League, the Pakistan Peoples Party and the Pakistan Army in March 1971, was horror. Once again, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a prisoner of the state intent on demonstrating its ferocity in East Bengal. In the nine months that followed, three million Bengalis died at the hands of the army and two hundred thousand Bengali women were raped by Pakistani soldiers. Eventually, in December 1971, the Mukti Bahini, in alliance with the Indian Army, rammed through Pakistans defence lines, to preside over the birth of a new, secular and democratic country.