Dream becomes reality: CU gets ‘Joy Bangla’ sculpture

block
Imran Hossain, CU :
A very splendid attainment of a country can contribute to the enrichment of its way of life as that juncture worked like a pole star to the forthcoming generation. With the aim of carrying on this feat memorable as well as getting in touch with the subsequent generation, there are many types of commemorative plaques in all the countries throughout the history with the intention that it can kindle the vision of the past.
1971 is the finest reaching for the Bengali nation. Three million martyrs as well 250,000 ‘Birangona’ sacrificed their lives to achieve the country’s independence in the liberation war. However, Chittagong University did not have any sculpture related to the liberation war after independence.
The university has also 16 martyrs who sacrificed their lives for the nation in the liberation war in 1971. After 51 years of its establishment, much awaited dream of teachers and students of the university comes into reality. To show the spirit of martyrs of liberation war, for the first time the CU authorities established such kind of sculpture titled ‘Joy Bangla’ in front of Shaheed Minar on the university campus. Around Tk 20 lakh was spent for the sculpture, work of which started in mid-July, 2017. Life casting methods have been followed in the sculpture.
It is built upon 2 layers and around 18 feet tall. Sayed Mohammad SohrabJahan, a former student of 41st batch of the Institute of Fine Arts of the university, made the sculpture with the assistance of MujahidurRahman Musa and Jayshish Acharya which took more than a year.
The height of the sculpture is 18 feet and the width is about 22 feet.
Meanwhile, the height of each of the three freedom fighters is 11 feet at upper level and the height of each of the freedom fighters is 5 at bottom level. Besides, life casting methods have been followed in the sculpture
Total 18 individual sculptures both male and female who were students are exhibited in sculpture exposed the spirit of the liberation where female are seen to be fought equally along with men.
On October26, 2018, Vice-Chancellor of the university Prof Dr Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury inaugurated the sculpture.
Contacted, CU VC Iftekhar Uddin Chowdhury said there was no university authority who took initiative to establish such kind of sculpture in the university campus.
 “For the first time, we built a sculpture related to liberation war. ‘Joy Bangla’ is not just a slogan but Joy Bangla and Joy Banghabandhua was bold pronunciation of the liberation war,” said Iftekhar Uddin.
Syed Md. SohrabJahan, the sculptor of the sculpture said, women freedom fighters have been given priority as well as male warrior in the sculpture. Most of the sculptures of the liberation war can be seen to be give priority to male warriors and female warriors are seen as co-warrior.
“As female and male both have participated equally in the liberation war, so I tried to focus on the sculpture on equal participation in the liberation war,” said he.
Earlier, in 2016, some students of the university under the banner of “We CUean” formed a human chain demanding establishment of sculptures related to the liberation war in the campus.
After couple of days, the university authorities announced to build this sculpture.
block