26th March is the Independence Day of Bangladesh. The month is very significant in the history of Bangladesh. A proposal for an independent United Bengal was mooted by the then Prime Minister Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy in 1946, but was opposed by the colonial authorities. Eventually, political negotiations led, in August 1947, to the official birth of two states, Pakistan and India. The Dominion of Pakistan comprised two geographically and culturally separate areas to the east and the west with India in between.
The western zone was popularly termed West Pakistan and the eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan. Although the population of the two zones was close to equal, political power was concentrated in West Pakistan and it was widely perceived that East Pakistan was being exploited economically, leading to many grievances. Administration of two discontinuous territories was also seen as a challenge.
In 1948, Governor-General Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared that “Urdu and only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan”. However, Urdu was prevalent only in the North, Central, and Western region of the subcontinent; whereas in East Bengal, the native language was Bengali. The government stand was widely viewed as an attempt to suppress the culture of the eastern wing. The people of East Bengal demanded that their language be given federal status alongside Urdu and English.
The Language Movement began in 1948, as civil society protested the removal of the Bengali script from currency and stamps, which were in place since the British Raj. The movement reached its climax in 1952, when on 21st February, the police fired on protesting students and civilians, causing several deaths. The day is revered in Bangladesh as the Language Movement Day. Later, in memory of the deaths in 1952, UNESCO declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day in November 1999.
Although East Pakistan had a larger population, West Pakistan dominated the divided country politically and received more money from the common budget. East Pakistan was already economically disadvantaged at the time of Pakistan’s creation yet this economic disparity only increased under Pakistani rule. Factors included not only the deliberate state discrimination in developmental policies but also the fact that the presence of the country’s capital and more immigrant businessmen in the Western wing directed greater government allocations there. Due to low numbers of native businessmen in East Pakistan, substantial labour unrest and a tense political environment, there were also much lower foreign investments in the eastern wing. The Pakistani state’s economic outlook was geared towards urban industry, which was not compatible with East Pakistan’s mainly agrarian economy.
Although East Pakistan accounted for a slight majority of the country’s population, political power remained in the hands of West Pakistanis. Since a straightforward system of representation based on population would have concentrated political power in East Pakistan, the West Pakistani establishment came up with the “One Unit” scheme, where all of West Pakistan was considered one province. This was solely to counterbalance the East wing’s votes.
The East Pakistanis observed that the West Pakistani establishment would swiftly depose any East Pakistanis elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. Their suspicions were further aggravated by the military dictatorships of Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan, both West Pakistanis. The situation reached a climax in 1970, when the Bangladesh Awami League, the largest East Pakistani political party, led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the National Elections. The party won 167 of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan, and thus a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly. This gave the Awami League the constitutional right to form a government.
However, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, refused to allow Rahman to become the Prime Minister of Pakistan. Instead, he proposed the idea of having two Prime Ministers, one for each wing. The proposal elicited outrage in the east wing. Bhutto also refused to accept Rahman’s Six Points. On 3 March 1971, the two leaders of the two wings along with the President General Yahya Khan met in Dhaka to decide the fate of the country. After their discussions yielded no satisfactory results, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called for a nationwide strike.
On 7 March 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered a historic speech at the Racecourse Ground. In this speech he mentioned a further four-point condition which were the immediate lifting of martial law, immediate withdrawal of all military personnel to their barracks, an inquiry into the loss of life and immediate transfer of power to the elected representative of the people before the assembly meeting on 25 March. He urged his people to turn every house into a fort of resistance. He closed his speech saying, “Our struggle is for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence.” This speech is considered the main event that inspired the nation to fight for its independence.
A planned genocide carried out by the Pakistan Army – codenamed Operation Searchlight – started on 25 March 1971 to curb the Bengali Independence Movement. The original plan envisioned taking control of all of East Pakistan’s major cities on 26 March, and then eliminating all Bengali opposition, political or military. The violence unleashed by the Pakistani forces on 25 March 1971 proved the last straw to the efforts to negotiate a settlement.
Following these incidents, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman signed an official declaration that read: “Today Bangladesh is a sovereign and independent country. On Thursday night, West Pakistani armed forces suddenly attacked the police barracks at Razarbagh and the EPR Headquarters at Pilkhana in Dhaka. Many innocent and unarmed have been killed in Dhaka city and other places of Bangladesh. Violent clashes between E.P.R. and Police on the one hand and the armed forces of Pakistan on the other are going on. The Bengalis are fighting the enemy with great courage for an independent Bangladesh. May Allah aid us in our fight for freedom! Joy Bangla [May Bangladesh be victorious]”. He was arrested on the night of 25-26 March 1971 at about 1:30 am.
The message was translated to Bengali by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Station of Pakistan Broadcasting Corporation. However, the message was read several times by the independent Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendro Radio established by some Bangali Radio workers in Kalurghat. Major Ziaur Rahman was requested to provide security of the station and he also read the Declaration. Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
(Md. Arafat Rahman, Asst. Officer, Career & Professional Development Services Department Southeast University ; e-mail: [email protected])
Md. Arafat Rahman
