The Father of the Nation Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Abdul Gaffar choudhury
He is not a mere individual. He in
an institution. A movement. A revolution. An upsurge. He is the architect of
the nation. He is the essence of epic poetry and he is history. This history
goes back a thousand years. Which is why contemporary history has recognized
him as the greatest Bengali of the past thousand years. The future will call
him the superman of eternal time.
And he will live, in luminosity
reminiscent of a bright star, in historical legends. He will show the path to
the Bengali nation his dreams are the basis of the existence of the nation. A
remembrance of him is the culture and society that Bengalis have sketched for
themselves. His possibilities, the promises thrown forth by him, are the
fountain-spring of the civilized existence of the Bengalis. He is a friend to
the masses. To the nation he is the Father. In the view of men and women in
other places and other climes, he is the founder of sovereign Bangladesh.
Journalist Cyril Dunn once said of him, “In the thousand – year history of
Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib is the only leader who has, in terms of blood, race,
language, culture and birth, been a full – blooded Bengali. His physical
stature was immense. His voice was redolent of thunder. His charisma worked
magic on people. The courage and charm that flowed from him made him a unique
superman in these times.” Newsweek magazine called him the poet of politics.
The leader of the British humanist
movement, the late Lord Fenner Brockway once remarked, “In a sense, Sheikh
Mujib is a greater leader than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi and De
Valera.” The greatest journalist of Egypt, Hasnein Heikal (former editor of Al
Ahram and close associate of the late President Nasser) said, “Nasser is
not simply of Egypt. Arab world. His Arab nationalism is the message of freedom
for the Arab people. In similar fashion, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman does not belong
to Bangladesh alone. He is the harbinger of freedom for all Bangalis. His
Bengali nationalism is the new emergence of Bengali civilization and culture.
Mujib is the hero of the Bengalis, in the past and in the times to be.
Embracing Bangabandhu at the Algiers
Non – Aligned Summit in 1973, Cuba’s Fidel Castro noted, “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.
Upon hearing the news of
Bangabandhu’s assassination, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson wrote
to a Bengali Journalist, “This is surely a supreme national tragedy for you.
For me it is a personal tragedy of immense dimensions.”
In Europe, the outcome of democratic
national aspirations has been the rise of modern nationalism and the national
state. Those who provided leadership in the task of the creation of nations or
nation-states have fondly been called by their peoples as founding fathers and
have been placed on the high perches of history. Such is the reason why Kamal
Ataturk is the creator of modern Turkey. And thus it is that Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman is the founder of the Bengali nation – state and father of the
nation of his fellow Bengalis.
But in more ways than one, Sheikh Mujib has been a more successful founding
father than either Ataturk or Gandhi. Turkey existed even during the period of
the Ottoman Empire. Once the empire fell, Ataturk took control of Turkey and
had it veer away from western exploitation through giving shape to a democratic
nation – state.
In Gandhi’s case, India and Indians
did not lose their national status either before or after him. But once the
British left the subcontinent, the existence of the Bengali nation appeared to
have been blotted out. The new rulers of the new state of Pakistan called
Bangladesh by the term “East Pakistan” in their constitution. By pushing a
thousand – year history into the shadows, the Pakistani rulers imposed the
nomenclature of “Pakistanis” on the Bengalis, so much so that using the term
“Bengali” or “Bangladesh” amounted to sedition in the eyes of the Pakistani
state. The first man to rise in defense of the Bengali, his history and his
heritage, was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. On 25 August 1955, he said in the Pakistan
Constituent Assembly, “Mr. Speaker, they ( government) want to change the name
of East Bengal into East Pakistan. We have always demanded that the name
‘Bangla’ be used. There is a history behind the term Bangla. There is a tradition,
a heritage, If this name is at all to be changed, the question should be placed
before the people of Bengal: are they ready to have their identity changed?”
Sheikh Mujib’s demand was ignored.
Bangladesh began to be called East Pakistan by the rulers. Years later, after
his release from the so – called Agartalas case, Sheikh Mujib took the first
step toward doing away with the misdeed imposed on his people.
On 5 December 1969, he said, “At one time, attempts were made to wipe out all
traces of Bengali history and aspirations. Except for the Bay of Bengal, the
term Bengal is not seen anywhere.
On behalf of the people of Bengal, I
am announcing today that henceforth the eastern province of Pakistan will,
instead of being called East Pakistan, be known as Bangladesh.” Sheikh Mujib’s
revolution was not merely directed at the achievement of political freedom.
Once the Bengali nation – state was established, it become his goal to carry
through programmes geared to the achievement of national economic welfare.
The end of exploitation was one underlying principle of his programme, which he
called the Second Revolution. While there are many who admit today that Gandhi
was the founder of the non – violent non – cooperation movement, they believe
it was an effective use of that principle which enabled Sheikh Sheikh Mujib to
create history. Mujib’s politics was a natural follow – up to the struggle and
movements of Bengal’s mystics, its religious preachers, Titumir’s crusade, the
Indigo Revolt, Gandhiji’s non – cooperation, and Subhash Chandra Bose’s armed
attempt for freedom. The secularism of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, the liberal
democratic politics of Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Hague and Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy Contributed to the molding of the Mujib character.
He was committed to public welfare.
Emerging free of the limitations of western democracy, he wished to see
democracy sustain Bengali nationalism. It was this dream that led to the rise
of his ideology. At the United Nations, he was the first man to speak of his
dreams, his people’s aspiration, in Bangla. The language was, in that swift
stroke of politics, recognized by the global community.
For the first time after
Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel achievement in 1913, Bangla was put on a position
of dignity. The multifaceted life to the great man cannot be put together in
language or color.
The reason is put on; Mujib is
greater than his creation. It is not possible to hold within the confines of
the frame the picture of such greatness. He is our emancipation – today and
tomorrow. The greatest treasure of the Bengali nation is preservation of his
heritage, a defense of his legacy. He has conquered death. His memory is our
passage to the days that are to be.
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