Bangabandhu's 101st birth anniversary: Bangabandhu...as our generation remembers him
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2022
FRIDAY, MAY 27, 2022
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Splash
  • Features
  • Videos
  • Long Read
  • Games
  • Epaper
  • More
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Subscribe
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
Bangabandhu...as our generation remembers him

Bangladesh

Junaidul Haque
17 March, 2021, 10:15 am
Last modified: 17 March, 2021, 01:35 pm

Related News

  • World Premiere of Mujib Amar Pita held in New York
  • Police provide housing to 400 homeless families marking Mujib Year
  • President for building 'Sonar Bangla' to pay respect to 1971 genocide martyrs
  • Bangladesh HC in London launches special memorabilia on Bangabandhu 
  • Sonali Bank celebrates Bangabandhu’s birthday

Bangabandhu...as our generation remembers him

Five decades after our independence and forty six years after his death, what does Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman mean to our one hundred and sixty million people? What does he mean to our generation?

Junaidul Haque
17 March, 2021, 10:15 am
Last modified: 17 March, 2021, 01:35 pm
Bangabandhu greets people gathered at Freedom Fighters’ weapon submission event at Dhaka Stadium on January 31, 1972/Collected
Bangabandhu greets people gathered at Freedom Fighters’ weapon submission event at Dhaka Stadium on January 31, 1972/Collected

We came to know Bangabandhu's name as a child. Slowly but surely we began to love him. That was in the early 1960s. We knew that no one championed the Bengali cause more than him or better than him. Our parents admiringly gave us a lot of information about him. The Agartala Conspiracy Case and the great 1969 movement for democracy found us school-going boys but very thoughtful, patriotic boys. Our respect and affection for him was sky-high then. On March 07, 1971, when his Suhrawardy Udyan (then Race Course) speech shaped our destiny and readied us for our war of independence, we were sixteen-year-old tenth graders. He was our undisputed leader. The magician, the Pied Piper of Hamelin whom our people adored. Seventy five million people loved him. Our people fought for our independence in his name. Our women prayed for his release from Pakistani jail and were ecstatic when he returned home in January, 1972. When he was assassinated on August 15, 1975 we were twenty-year-old sophomores at Dhaka University. We were very shocked and very sad. We felt that he didn't deserve a death like that. Our greatest patriot couldn't die like that. You couldn't wipe off a Mahatma Gandhi from the history of India! You simply could not do that.

How do we remember him now? A hundred years after his birth? Fifty years after the birth of Bangladesh? Five decades after our independence and forty six years after his death, what does Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman mean to our one hundred and sixty million people? What does he mean to our generation? 

He to us is our best ever politician. He is our greatest patriot. He is the selfless leader who fought his whole life for an independent country for his Bangalee brothers and sisters. He finally achieved his goal although he had to leave tragically a few years later. His people love and respect him beyond description. He loved them to a fault and they loved him in return. As long as the Padma and the Meghna will flow, Bangabandhu will be fondly remembered by his people. He is our Nelson Mandela. When he gave his speech in Bangla at the UN in 1974, he could not start speaking for full five minutes! The thunderous applause didn't stop and didn't allow him to begin his speech! He went on nodding to his right, left and front! Such was the respect and love for him from world leaders. He and Bangladesh were synonyms to people around the world. He was not only the founding father of Bangladesh, the architect of its independence, but also a great third world leader. He was loved by Mandela, adored by Yasir Arafat and admired by suffering people around the world.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman founded independent Bangladesh after fighting for our rights for twenty-four long years. He was a successful student leader, a very capable youth leader. He was an organiser par excellence. He went to every village in Bangladesh. He met millions of people and remembered thousands by name. Such was his charisma and sincerity! He spent many years in jail. The half-educated Pakistani colonial rulers put him in jail at the slightest pretext. They knew whom to fear. He accomplished amazing feats which lesser leaders could not even dream of. He was a living legend. He was the first leader to make us clearly understand the oppression of the Pakistanis. Our people flocked to listen to him, to be inspired by him. He taught us to be proud of our Bengali identity. He taught us to live with honour and dignity. A true friend of Bengal, he had a heart proportionate to his tall, handsome physique. He had the voice of thunder. His oratory was matchless. His indomitable spirit, his bravery, his charm and his self-confidence was beyond the ordinary. His personality cast a magical spell on our people. They readily accepted his party's six-point program. Our students gave him heartfelt support. During the late nineteen sixties, still in his forties, he was our most popular leader. No wonder he was called the poet of politics. No wonder Fidel Castro compared him to the Himalayas.

As I told you before, the Bangalees of East Pakistan accepted the famous six-point program of the Awami League from the core of their heart. They wanted provincial autonomy and economic emancipation. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib fought against the autocratic Pakistani governments and organised mass movements. Slowly and surely he grew in stature. The Pakistani military regime was very frightened of him and committed the great mistake of taking him into custody for the so-called Agartala conspiracy case.

The Bangalees didn't fail to recognise their greatest nationalist leader and supported him whole-heartedly. The students and the common people took the 1969 movement for democracy to great heights and it achieved full success. The Pakistani rulers had to release Sheikh Mujib from jail. Ayub Khan had to leave, handing over power to the army chief Yahya Khan, who was quick to promise early elections.

Bangabandhu's Awami League won 167 out of 169 seats of East Pakistan. This made him the leader of the biggest party in the whole of Pakistan. But Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, who won 80 plus seats in West Pakistan, conspired with Yahya and his generals to start the post-election unfair game. The West Pakistanis were in power for 24 years since Pakistan's birth. How could they give up power so easily? So, they very wrongfully decided to dishonour the clear popular verdict given to the charismatic Bangabandhu by his people. Yahya Khan cancelled the national assembly session he had called earlier. Something which never happened before in political history began to happen. 

The people of East Pakistan were seething in anger. They went for a month-long peaceful non-cooperation movement under Bangabandhu's leadership. He was the de facto prime minister of the land. His political wisdom impressed his people as well as the international community. He could rightly feel the pulse of his people. Stalwarts like Syed Nazrul Islam and Tajuddin Ahmad assisted him during the most critical period of Bangladesh's history. But negotiations failed due to the treachery of Yahya Khan and his military junta. He was ill-advised by the clever and greedy Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. The Pakistani went for a military crackdown and its army killed thousands like birds on the night of March 25. It was a brutal genocide to tame the freedom-seeking Bangalees. But 'Pakistan lay buried under corpses' and a nine-month long all-out war of independence finally brought us freedom. 

Junaidul Haque. Illustration: TBS
Junaidul Haque. Illustration: TBS

We fought our noble war of independence in the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, our best ever political leader, an orator of the highest order and 'a giant with the soft heart of a Bangalee mother'. Our people fought heroically for independence. The government-in-exile of Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, Mansur Ali, Qamruzzaman and others guided the nation in its crisis with wisdom, sincerity and sacrifice. The governments of India and the Soviet Union were our great friends in 1971. We Bengalees proved to the whole world that we were a heroic nation and the leader who turned us into a confident and united nation was none else than Bangabandhu himself. Our losses were great but we were a free nation. Our future generations would not be colonial citizens anymore! 

As a ruler Bangabandhu had to build the war-ravaged country from zero. That was not an easy task. The most powerful nation in the world was against our independence and their government was yet to forgive Bangabandhu. They had planted men in politics, journalism, the civil service and the armed forces. So they successfully created a distance between Bangabandhu and some of his most trusted men. There were impediments here and there. Despite his best efforts, our great leader had failure as well as success. But he certainly did not deserve death for that. That was a period when great nationalist leaders were not allowed to survive. Bangabandhu, Salvador Allende and the likes had to embrace martyrdom and make way for military rulers, who served as yes-men to the mightiest nation. When we think of Bangabandhu's tragic death, we are engulfed with unbearable sorrow.

How do we remember Bangabandhu now? What is he to me? To men and women of our generation? To our one hundred and sixty million people? He is our best politician ever born. He is the selfless leader who fought his whole life for an independent country for his Bangalee brothers and sisters. He achieved his goal although he had to leave tragically after a few years like quite a few third-world nationalist leaders. His people love and respect him beyond description. He loved them to a fault and they love him in return. His achievement will never be wiped off from the hearts of Bangladeshis. He will shine as the best star in our political firmament. A hundred years after his birth, his image is the brightest ever. To quote the poet, he is the most beautiful rose in the garden of our politics. 


Junaidul Haque writes fiction and essays. He also researches the history of Bangladesh

Top News / Mujib Year

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman / Birth Centenary of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman / Mujib Year

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • All banks have to sell dollars at same rate
    All banks have to sell dollars at same rate
  • Ctg port Asia’s least efficient for container handling: World Bank
    Ctg port Asia’s least efficient for container handling: World Bank
  • Photo: Bloomberg
    Bigger food crisis can be averted if Asia remembers not to panic

MOST VIEWED

  • Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi
    Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi
  • Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
    Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
  • Photo: Collected
    BSEC seeks explanations from Shakib Al Hasan on entering gold venture
  • Project delays: The Sinohydro case
    Project delays: The Sinohydro case
  • Photo: Collected
    It's a rumour, no Monkeypox patient detected at BSMMU: VC
  • File Photo
    Engineer found dead at Intercontinental Dhaka

Related News

  • World Premiere of Mujib Amar Pita held in New York
  • Police provide housing to 400 homeless families marking Mujib Year
  • President for building 'Sonar Bangla' to pay respect to 1971 genocide martyrs
  • Bangladesh HC in London launches special memorabilia on Bangabandhu 
  • Sonali Bank celebrates Bangabandhu’s birthday

Features

Photo caption: Business models are already being hit by climate risk. It is the function of regulators to force banks to pay attention to the future risks to businesses. Photo: Bloomberg

HSBC and its discordant climate songbook

14h | Panorama
Illustration: TBS

Should Belayets be allowed to return to school at 55?

18h | Pursuit
Impact Hub Dhaka is designed to cater to connectivity, offering lots of communal areas where you can chat over coffee, watch a webinar as a group or even host events. Photo: Courtesy

Inside Impact Hub: The surprising benefits of working in a co-working space

19h | Pursuit
Pacific Jeans uses sustainable technology in washing and finishing, and now has the facility to wash with zero water. Photo: Courtesy

How big dreams and smart investment made Pacific Jeans a denim exporting giant 

20h | Panorama

More Videos from TBS

Inflation changes lives of limited-income people

Inflation changes lives of limited-income people

6h | Videos
 Vat on locally-made mobile phones, fridges may increase prices

Vat on locally-made mobile phones, fridges may increase prices

7h | Videos
Local brands dominate country’s refrigerator market

Local brands dominate country’s refrigerator market

7h | Videos
5 latest exciting movies

5 latest exciting movies

12h | Videos

Most Read

1
Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge
Bangladesh

Tk100 for bike, Tk2,400 for bus to cross Padma Bridge

2
Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi
Bangladesh

Bangladesh at risk of losing ownership of Banglar Samriddhi

3
Corporates go cashless…tax cut on cards
NBR

Corporates go cashless…tax cut on cards

4
Photo: Courtesy
Panorama

Misfit Technologies: A Singaporean startup rooted firmly in Bangladesh

5
BSEC launches probe against Abul Khayer Hero and allies
Stocks

BSEC launches probe against Abul Khayer Hero and allies

6
Illustration: TBS
Banking

Let taka slide

The Business Standard
Top
  • Home
  • Entertainment
  • Sports
  • About Us
  • Bangladesh
  • International
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
  • Contact Us
  • Economy
  • Sitemap
  • RSS

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net

Copyright © 2022 THE BUSINESS STANDARD All rights reserved. Technical Partner: RSI Lab