Bangabandhu declared the independence of Bangladesh on 26th March 1971 with a formal announcement which came on the air prior to his arrest by brutal Pakistan army. But mere announcement is not the whole credibility of him; rather, his creation of Bangladesh has to be judged entirely by Mujib’s struggle for independence which had started at the very onset of the creation of Pakistan which continued until Bangladesh was liberated.
In fact, Mujib’s main philosophy was the creation of Bangladesh for which ‘Bangabandu and Bangladesh’ are two most inseparable entity having one bonding which can never be separated from each other; we are proud of this greatest Bengali personality of thousand years of history. Bangabandhu himself is an institution who is often rated superior to many comparable world leaders like, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Mao Tse Tung, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, Vladimir Lenin, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhas Basu, Nelson Mendella, Fiedel Castro and some others like them.
Bangabandhu is embraced with an admiration as ‘the poet of politics’; he was a charismatic leader who taught his people to live with dignity and honour. I reiterate saying it repeatedly that, ‘had Bangabandhu not born, a country of us in the name of Bangladesh would have never been created’. While his triumphs and achievements had reached at the glorious peak of a mountain but his tragic end came when a group of culprits of the country killed this beloved global personality only when he was at his age of 55. People of this country with sensibility for millions of years will go on mourning his death and keep on praying for him.
Bangabandhu’s political activism started while he was a young student in Calcutta and obviously being in the network, soon he got involved directly with some glaring political personalities of undivided India like, Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and A.K. Fazlul Huq. He also met the legendary revolutionaries like Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Mahatma Gandhi who at that time were challenging the British colonial power to quit India. Bangabandhu witnessed the ravages of the Second World War and a stark reality of Winston Churchill’s mistreatment on the people of India which effectually created a havocial famine of 1943 taking at least five million lives in Bengal.
Being closer to Suhrawardy and other leaders of the sub-continent, Mujib also at that time, incidentally sided Pakistan movement but after its creation, soon he had the realization that it would be difficult to stay amicable with the Pakistanis due to their neo-colonial attitude of extracting resources from Bangladesh treating it as their hinterland. Accordingly for that reason, Mujib came up with his most sensational and thoughtful Six Point Programme seeking full regional autonomy of the provinces in Pakistan which was intended to prevent exploitation of one region by the other.
He apprehended that regional autonomy would eventually remove the fear of evidential Bengali exploitation of the Pakistanis. But unfortunately being inconsiderate, Pakistanis responded to his well-thought economic planning as mischievous, and took him to custody and later filed a fictitious Agartala Conspiracy Case formulated by General Ayub with a plea to punish him as a traitor. The result is an anti-Ayub vigorous upsurge throughout the country bringing a straight downfall of him and the state power was customarily given to another General, named Yahya.
Yahya also later siding civil conspirator, Bhutto in West Pakistan clearly cheated Mujib by depriving him from his legal electoral claim of Prime Minister Position of the country. Instead of transferring power to Bangabandhu, General Yahya rather killed millions of Bangladeshis which compelled Mujib to declare formal independence of the country followed by ten months civil strife which was culminated in Indo-Bangladesh intervention through war.
Bangabandhu not only gave us independence, he also taught us to live in dignity as his revolutionary image brought us prestige throughout the world. Since 1947 down to 1971, it was his 23 years’ political struggle containing imprisonment of several times for about 14 years. Mujib perhaps is the only exceptional leader in the world who even excited movement for freedom being in the custody with all his farsighted plans and programs in phases.
While finally he was taken to captivity in Pakistan on the night of 25 March, 1971, the Pakistan Army tried to kill him several times during his nine months custodial confinement, but due to international pressure, they did not however, dare to it. After his release from Pakistani jail in 1972, Mujib went to London where he was warmly greeted by British Prime Minister Edward Heath on 8th January, 1972. As he was anxious to reach his motherland, the British Government specially honored him by giving an R.A.F. aircraft for his onward journey to Dhaka through Delhi. In his stopover in Delhi, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi received Mujib with all warmth and cordiality on the footstep of his aircraft and Bangabandhu later spoke to a large audience in India.
Many leaders worldwide recognized this towering personality showing their highest tribute to Father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during his lifetime and even after his brutal assassination. Most frequently quoted remark of Fidel Castro on Bangabandhu was made in 1973 when the two unparallel leaders met for the first time at the Algiers Non-Aligned Summit. After the summit, the Cuban supreme leader made the historic remark with this statement saying that, “I have not seen the Himalayas, but I have seen Sheikh Mujib.
In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas”. While releasing a commemorative postal stamp marking the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s founding father very recently, the Nigerian Foreign Minister Geoffrey Onyeama remarked that “Bangabandhu was a true leader, an undaunted advocate of the interests of the Bangalees, and a hero not only to them, but also to all peace-loving people across the world”.
British socialist politician and a leader of the British humanist movement, Archibald Fenner Brockway once remarked, “In a sense, Sheikh Mujib is a great leader than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi and De Valera”. We have to acclaim that all these appreciations about him is not simply bestowed on Bangabandhu alone, rather, these are the applauders of our nation.
After his arrival in Dhaka on 10 January, 1972, Bangabandhu started visiting different countries of the world expressing his gratitude to the world communities and signing bilateral ties for the betterment of his people. As part of it, on March 1, 1972, Sheikh Mujib met Soviet Premier, Alaxei Kosygin and signed a joint declaration on 3rd March at Kremlin and later spoke at a big gathering of Russian dignitaries. On his way to Moscow, Bangabandhu was also warmly greeted by the Georgian Prime Minister who expressed his profound respect to him saying that they have deep respect for Bangabandhu and were keenly watching the liberation war of Bangladesh.
On 25 September, 1974, the Father of the Nation delivered his speech at the United Nations General Assembly and met its General Secretary, Kurt Waldheim at a very cordial sitting. After completion of his New York mission, Bangabandhu went to see the US President Gerald Ford on October, 1974 who greeted him with great honor.
Within the shortest possible time, Bangabandhu went to Japan to see the Prime Minister, Tanaka; he had cordial discussion with Kenneth Kaunda of Gambia and also met Senegalese President Leopold Senghor. In a five-day official visit to Egypt on 5 November, 1974, Sheikh Mujib had bilateral discussion with Anwar Sadat who hugged him in a very cordial and friendly atmosphere expressing his sincere emotion.
Since Bangabandhu fought for a nation, wherever he went, everywhere in the world he was acclaimed with special honor and dignity which many people could not even think of; many world leaders used to stare at him with bowing respect for his revolutionary role that he had played for the independence of a country. One renowned senior Indian political leader, Atal Bihari Vajpayee mentioned that Bangabandhu even is superior to many political leaders who fought for Indian independence during British period.
British journalist Sir Mark Tully thus once remarked that ‘Bangabandhu had a wonderful voice that could mesmerize any crowd very confidently’. Upon hearing the sad news of Bangabandhu’s assassination, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson wrote to a Bengalee journalist in UK with his mourning emotion that “this is surely a supreme national tragedy for you. For me, it is a personal tragedy of immense dimensions”.
Prof Dr A.H.M.Zehadul Karim is a former Vice Chancellor of a public university in Bangladesh, now teaches at Jagannath University
