Author:
Vaibhav Goyal, Student, University Institute Of Legal Studies, Panjab University (SSGRC, Hsp.), Chandigarh
Bangabandhu is the Founder of Bangladesh, who played a major role in its independence from Pakistan. This article will deal with the legacy of BangBandhu and the journey of East Pakistan to the formation of Bangladesh.
“A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep.”
—Vernon Howard
The reality with regards to the intrigue behind the executing of Bangabandhu, founder of Bangladesh is a reality that is enveloped by secret until date. In any case, it is likewise sure that Pakistan Army-ISI and their partners in Bangladesh were behind the August 15 assassination that cleared off Bangabandhu and his family. The executioners stayed everywhere for a long time and a long time until PM Sheik Hasina dispatched a mission to execute these professional killers.
Advancing the genuine truth behind the scheme is significant for recuperating the injuries of individuals that are still new in numerous personalities even following 45 years of the episode. Individuals see the occurrence as an assault on the foundation of basic estimations of the country and its freedom.
In 1971, Bangladesh battled for freedom from Pakistan for values including majority rule government, secularism, and flourishing individuals. Bangabandhu addressed the soul and individuals' goals for freedom. Beginning from administration characteristics to basic reasoning capacities and sympathetic perspectives, he had procured all the 21st-century authority abilities path back in 1943.
For long 25 years, people have endured the various difficulties tossed their way with no desire for salvation until at last, they discovered fortitude to battle for autonomy under the initiative of Bangabandhu Sheik Mujibur Rahman in 1971. Bangabandhu, the planner of free Bangladesh, the Father of Bangladesh Nation, was born in 1920, in a regarded Muslim family at Tungipara in Gopalganj.
Sheik Mujibur Rahman initially commuted his authority abilities in 1943 when he dispersed rice to the famine-stricken individuals from his dad's stock, covertly. Since that episode, he grew up to be the saint in the country, guiding his country into their most brilliant crossroads ever. Mujib turned out to be politically dynamic when he joined the All India Muslim Students Federation in 1940.
He joined the Bengal Muslim League in 1943. During this period, Mujib turned out effectively for the League's reason for a different Muslim territory of Pakistan, and in 1946 he proceeded to become general secretary of the Islamia College Students Union. M. Bhaskaran Nair portrays that Mujib "arose as the most influential man in the gathering" given his closeness to Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy.
After the Partition of India, Mujib decided to remain in the recently made Pakistan. On his re-visitation of what got known as East Pakistan, he took a crack at the University of Dhaka to consider the law and established the East Pakistan Muslim Students' League. He got perhaps the most conspicuous student political pioneers in the area.
Following the assertion of Muhammad Ali Jinnah on 21 March 1948, that individuals of East Bengal would need to receive Urdu as the state language, fights broke out among the populace. Mujib promptly chose to begin a development against this previously arranged choice of the Muslim League.
The strike was commended in Dhaka on 11 March 1948, at the heading of this board. During the strike, some other political activists, including Mujibur, were arrested before the secretariat building. Be that as it may, because of pressing factors from the student dissent, Mujib and other student pioneers were released on 15 March. In the event of their release, the Rastrabhasa Sangram Parishad (National Language Action Committee) convened a meeting that occurred at Dhaka University. The police obstructed this meeting. In fighting police exercises Mujib promptly reported a cross country student strike on 17 March 1948.
On 19 March, he coordinated a development pointed toward getting the privileges of the fourth class representatives of Dhaka University. On 11 September 1948, he was again arrested. On 21 January 1949, Mujib was released from jail. Out of prison, he again got engaged with the cause for the interest of the fourth class representatives, for which he was terminated from the college. Yet, he abstained from getting these fines as unlawful.
On 23 June, Suhrawardy and Maulana Bhasani framed East Pakistan Awami Muslim League. After the establishment, Mujib left the Muslim League and joined this new group. He was chosen joint general secretary of gathering East Pakistan. Toward the beginning of January 1950, the Awami Muslim League held an enemy of famine parade in Dhaka on the event of the appearance of Pakistan's Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in East Pakistan. Mujib was arrested this time as a result of his administration. He was detained for a very long time.
In 1953, he was made the party’s overall secretary and chose for the East Bengal Legislative Assembly on a United Front alliance ticket in 1954. He was chosen for the second Constituent Assembly of Pakistan and served from 1955 to 1958. The central government proposed to break down the territories for a blend of the western areas of the Dominion of Pakistan in a plan called One Unit; simultaneously the focal government would be fortified.
That year East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan as a feature of One Unit simultaneously. Mujib requested that the Bengali individuals' ethnic character be regarded and that a mainstream decision ought to choose the subject of naming and true language. In 1956, Mujib entered a second alliance government as pastor of businesses, trade, work, hostile to defilement, and town help. He surrendered in 1957 to work all day for the gathering association.
In 1958 General Ayub Khan suspended the constitution and forced military law. Mujib was arrested for getting sorted out opposition and detained till 1961. After his release Mujib began putting together an underground political body called the Swadhin Bangal Biplobi Parishad (Free Bangla Revolutionary Council), including student pioneers, to restrict the system of Ayub Khan.
In 1966, Mujib announced a 6-point plan named Our Charter of Survival at a public meeting of resistance ideological groups at Lahore, in which he requested self-government and impressive political, monetary and safeguard self-rule for East Pakistan in a Pakistani alliance with a frail focal government. As per his plan:
The constitution ought to accommodate a Federation of Pakistan in its actual sense on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary type of government with incomparability of a lawmaking body straightforwardly chose based on the all-inclusive grown-up establishment.
The government should manage just two subjects: safeguard and international concerns, and any remaining residuary subjects will be vested in the unifying states.
Two isolated, however openly convertible monetary forms for two wings ought to be presented; or if this isn't practical, there ought to be one money for the entire country, yet compelling sacred establishments ought to be acquainted with preventing the trip of capital from East to West Pakistan. Moreover, a different financial hold ought to be set up, and a separate monetary and money-related approach be embraced for East Pakistan.
The force of tax collection and income assortment will be vested in the combining units and the government place will have no such force. The Federation will be qualified for an offer in the state assessments to meet its uses.
There ought to be two separate records for the unfamiliar trade profit of the two wings; the unfamiliar trade prerequisites of the central government ought to be met by the two wings similarly or in a proportion to be fixed; native items should move liberated from obligation between the two wings, and the constitution ought to enable the units to set up exchange joins with far off nations.
East Pakistan ought to have a different state army or paramilitary powers.
Mujib was arrested by the Pakistan Army and following two years in prison, an authority rebellion preliminary in a military court opened. Broadly known as the Agartala Conspiracy Case, Mujib, and 34 Bengali military officials were blamed by the government for plotting with Indian government specialists in a plan to separate Pakistan and compromise its solidarity, request, and public safety. The plot was affirmed to have been arranged in the city of Agartala, in the Indian territory of Tripura.
The government buckled to the mounting pressure, dropped the charges on 22 February 1969, and genuinely released Mujib the next day. He got back to East Pakistan as a public legend. He was given a mass gathering on 23 February, at Racecourse ground and consulted with the title Bangabandhu, which means Friend of the Bengal in Bengali.
In the Pakistani general decisions hung on 7 December 1970, the Awami League under Mujib's administration won a monstrous larger part in the common governing body, and everything except two of East Pakistan's quantity of seats in the new National Assembly of Pakistan, along these lines shaping an unmistakable lion's share. The biggest and best gathering in the western wing of the country was the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) headed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.
Bhutto dreaded common conflict and sent a mysterious message to Mujib and his inward circle to organize a gathering with them. Mubashir Hassan met with Mujib and convinced him to frame an alliance government with Bhutto. They concluded that Bhutto would fill in as president, with Mujib as Prime Minister. In the meantime, Bhutto pressed Yahya Khan to stand firm on dissolving the public authority. Following political gridlock, Yahya Khan postponed the meeting of the gathering.
It was on 7 March 1971 that Mujib called for autonomy and requested individuals to dispatch a significant mission from common rebellion and coordinated furnished obstruction at a mass social occasion of individuals held at the Race Course Ground in Dhaka. Mujib was arrested and taken to West Pakistan afternoon from Tejgaon Airport on a PAF C-130 flight directly under the noses of ATC Officer Squadron Leader Khaja, Senior Operations Officer Wing Commander Khademul Bashar, and Director of Airport and Flight Security Squadron Leader M. Hamidullah Khan. All were on the job that evening because of the highly sensitive situation.
The Army's drive to reestablish request before long declined into a frenzy of fear and assassination. With volunteer armies known as Razakars, the military focused on Bengali-educated people, legislators, and association pioneers, just as customary regular folks.
A significant insurrection drove by the Mukti Bahini (Freedom Fighters) emerged across East Pakistan. Regardless of the worldwide pressing factor, the Pakistani government would not release Mujib and haggle with him. Following Indian mediation in December, the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, the Pakistani Army gave up to the joint power of Bengali Mukti Bahini and the Indian Army, and the League initiative made an administration in Dhaka which was known as the Mujibnagar Government.
Mujib resuscitated the Islamic Academy (which had been restricted in 1972 for suspected agreement with Pakistani powers) and prohibited the creation and offer of liquor and prohibited the act of betting, which had been one of the significant requests of Islamic gatherings. He additionally proclaimed a typical pardon to the speculated war lawbreakers, on certain conditions, to get the help of extreme right gatherings as the socialists were not content with Mujib's system.
He charged the temporary parliament to compose another constitution, and declared the four central standards of "patriotism, secularism, popular government, and communism," which would come to be known as "Mujibism". Mujib nationalized many enterprises and organizations just as deserted land and capital and started land change pointed toward aiding a huge number of helpless farmers. A constitution was announced in 1973 and elections were held, which brought about Mujib and his gathering acquiring power with an outright greater part. He further laid out state projects to extend essential education in Bangladesh, disinfection, food, medical care, water, and electric stock the nation over.
A five-year plan released in 1973 centred state interests into farming, country foundation, and bungalow businesses. After Bangladesh accomplished acknowledgement from significant nations, Mujibur assisted Bangladesh with entering the United Nations and the Non-Aligned Movement. He made a trip to the United States, the United Kingdom, and other European countries to get compassionate and formative help. Mujibur kept up close binds with India. He marked the 25-year Indo-Bangladeshi Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Peace, which swore broad monetary and helpful help and preparing from India for Bangladesh's security powers and government faculty.
In the Delhi Agreement of 1974, Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan promised to work for provincial steadiness and harmony. The establishment made ready for the arrival of interned Bengali authorities and their families abandoned in Pakistan, just as the foundation of conciliatory relations among Dhaka and Islamabad. Mujibur looked for Bangladesh's participation in the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Islamic Development Bank.
Mujibur was welcome to Washington DC and Moscow for converses with American and Soviet pioneers. He announced that Bangladesh would be the "Switzerland of the East", implying that Bangladesh would stay non-hardliner in the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. Numerous Eastern European nations, especially Yugoslavia, East Germany, and Poland, appreciated phenomenal relations with Bangladesh.
On 15 August 1975, a gathering of junior armed force officials attacked the official home with tanks and executed Mujib, his family, and individual staff. Just his little daughters Sheik Hasina and Sheik Rehana, who were visiting West Germany at that point, escaped away. They were prohibited from getting back to Bangladesh. The coup was arranged by disappointed Awami League associates and military officials, which incorporated Mujib's partner and previous friend Khondaker Mushtaq Ahmad, who turned into his nearby replacement.
Mujib's passing dove the country into a political disturbance. The coup chiefs were soon ousted and a progression of counter-overthrows and political deaths incapacitated the country. The situation with the order was to a great extent re-established after an overthrow in 1976 that offered control to the military boss Ziaur Rahman. Proclaiming himself President in 1978, Ziaur Rahman marked the Indemnity Ordinance, giving protection from indictment to the ones who plotted Mujib's death and oust.
Sheik Hasina had returned and herself became Prime Minister. She overturned the indemnity order and in 1998 twelve-armed force officials, including Abdul Majed, were condemned to death. The Supreme Court of Bangladesh maintained the decision and five of them were hanged.
References
Mujibur Rahman (Sheikh), The Unfinished Memoirs, University Press Limited, 2012
Sheikh Hasina, Secret Documents of Intelligence Branch on Father of The Nation, Bangladesh: Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: Volume 2 (1951-1952), Routledge, 2020
Enayetur Rahim and Joyce L. Rahim, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Struggle for Independence: UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, De-classified Documents, 1962–1971. Hakkani Publishers, 2013
N. Islam, Governance for Development: Political and Administrative Reforms in Bangladesh, Palgrave Macmillan US, 2016
Muhāmmada Nūrula and Kādira, Independence of Bangladesh in 266 days: history and documentary evidence, Mukto Publishers, 2004
S. A. Karim, Sheikh Mujib: Triumph and Tragedy, The University Press Limited, 2005
Meghna Guhathakurta and Willem van Schendel, The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics, Duke University Press, 2013
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