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History revisited: The rise of Sheikh Mujib as a statesman

Published : Friday, 24 March, 2023 at 12:00 AM  Count : 669
Syed Badiuzzaman
Last Friday was March 17 and an important day in the history of Bangladesh. On this day in 1920, the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was born and thus Bangladesh celebrated his 103rd birth anniversary recalling his contributions to the making of a free country and rise to an enormous fame as a statesman and world leader.

No one knew that the boy who was born on that day into a modest Muslim family in a little known village named Tungipara of what was then undivided India would one day win the hearts of millions of people of a country after liberating them from decades of exploitation, oppression and injustices and then go on to address the world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly laying out his vision for the world.

That was a moment of great pride for all Bengalis. As he delivered his historic speech in pure Bangla at the 29th General Assembly of the United Nations on September 25 in 1974, world leaders heard our language for the first time and learned about his vision for the world. By speaking in Bangla before the heads of state and government of so many countries, he honoured our native language in a way no one did ever before. That was the moment of our language that day before the biggest international organization of the world.

A word after a word in Bangla -- the language we speak to communicate with our mother, father, brother and sister-- resounded through the auditorium of the United Nations General Assembly in style. That was indeed a very proud moment for our language. And in keeping with that great tradition and following in her father's footprint, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina also delivered her speeches in Bangla at the United Nations. This reflected her true love for the language and a higher sense of patriotism.  

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a visionary leader. His historic speech which he made about half a century ago at the United Nations General Assembly still applies quite perfectly to the present global situation. "Today the nations of the world are faced with critical choices. Upon the wisdom of our choice will depend whether we will move towards a world haunted by the fear of total destruction, threatened by nuclear war, faced with the aggravation of human suffering on a horrendous scale, and marked by mass starvation, unemployment, and the wretchedness of deepening poverty, or whether we can look forward to a world where human creativity, and the great achievements of our age in science and technology will be able to shape a better future free from the threat of nuclear war and based upon a sharing of technology and resources on a global scale, so that men everywhere can begin to enjoy the minimal conditions of a decent life."

Every country in the world wasn't destined to have a leader like Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Bangladesh was blessed to have him as its founding father paralleling those in only few other countries in the whole world, for examples Mohandas Gandhi, the Father of the Nation of India who brought India's independence through a non-violent movement, George Washington, the founding father of the United States who commanded the American Revolution and became the first U.S. president and Winston Churchill, the famous British prime minister who led Great Britain against the Nazi Germany during the World War II.
 
Leaders like Bangabandhu, Gandhi, George Washington and Winston Churchill are not born every day in our world. They were extremely capable and visionary politicians, who came to our planet with a mission to inspire people, organize them for establishment of their rights and lead them in their battle for freedom and independence. Without the leadership of Bangabandhu, Bangladesh could not earn its independence in 1971. But for the continued exploitation, oppression and injustices by West Pakistani politicians and military dictators, Bangladesh would surely liberate itself at one point but that liberation would be delayed.

Bangladesh and Bangabandhu are like two sides of the same coin. They are like conjoined twins. They are inseparable from each other. In other words, one is not complete without the other. The life and work of Bangabandhu centred on the establishment of the rights of people and their ultimate freedom. The true history of Bangladesh will always remain unfinished without Bangabandhu. Similarly, the memoir of Bangabandhu will remain incomplete without his role and leadership in the independence of Bangladesh.  

His role in awakening the people for their language and culture, fundamental rights and independence began right from the 1952 Language Movement. Then throughout the two consecutive decades, the 1950s and 1960s, he continued to inspire people with his mesmerizing speeches. And finally at the March 7 historic rally in 1971 in Dhaka which was attended by over a million people, he called on Bengalis to prepare for war for their ultimate freedom from decades of continued oppression and injustices and declared in unambiguous terms the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

Soon after the midnight of March 26 in 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman dispatched the following historic declaration of independence to what was then called Radio Pakistan, a propaganda machine of Pakistani rulers: "This may be my last message. From today, Bangladesh is independent. I call upon the people of Bangladesh wherever you might be and with whatever you have, to resist the army of occupation to the last. Your fight must go on until the last soldier of the Pakistan occupation army is expelled from the soil of Bangladesh and final victory is achieved."

His love for the people of Bangladesh was real and because of that genuine love, he built an unbreakable bonding with them. No other politicians of Bangladesh except Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani could do that. Bangabandhu often used to tell his close associates and political confidants: "My greatest strength is the love for my people, and my greatest weakness is I love them too much." The people of Bangladesh also used to love Bangabandhu genuinely. And they still do.

Although the assassins' bullets brutally cut short the life of the founding father of Bangladesh along with most of his family members in the most shameful event of the nation's history on August 15 in 1975, they failed to take him out of the hearts of millions upon millions of people of the country. Visionaries like Bangabandhu, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. never die. Even though they are not physically among us anymore, their visions will remain forever and their ideals will be followed by people through generation after generation.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not only the chief architect of our independence and the founding father of Bangladesh, he was also the best of Bengalis of all time who tirelessly championed the rights of people and their aspirations to live free from all forms of subjugations, exploitations and injustices.

The writer is a Toronto-based journalist who also writes for the Toronto Sun as a guest columnist



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