Mukto-mona Ghulam Murshid Message 1 of 1 , Mar 8, 2004 In response to: groups.yahoo/group/mukto-mona/message/15603 Declaration of Independence Bangladesh became independent almost 33 years ago, but the controversy over who declared the independence of Bangladesh goes on. The question is: Is there a real controversy? I sincerely believe there is none - some people with a political motive just keep it alive. If we look at the history of the emergence of Bangladesh, we can clearly see that it was not created in one day or just because of a declaration by somebody on a certain day. It all started with the Language Movement in 1948, possibly even earlier. The very foundation of Pakistan was on a tenuous layer of quicksand. With the two wings of the same country situated more than a thousand miles apart, with the striking disparity between the peoples of the two wings and with their culture traits so very different, Pakistan was destined to be doomed one day sooner or later. However, the triggering factor was the Language Movement. It later turned into a secular democratic movement that sounded the death knell of Pakistan. It also created a strong sense of regionalism that led to the demand for an autonomous East Pakistan. In this movement Fuzlul Huq, Bhasani and Suhrawardy played a significant role initially in the 1950s. However, Huq and Suhrawardy died in the early 1960s and in the second half of that decade Sheikh Mujib took over the leadership. There is absolutely no doubt that it was under his leadership that the emergence of Bangladesh became feasible. Once the elections of 1970 were held and once the Pakistani leadership failed to transfer power to Mujib, the rest became more or less inevitable. It is doubtful if Mujib was in favour of total independence on 7th March when he delivered that momentous speech. He was possibly still hoping that he would be able to negotiate a deal with the Pakistani leadership. But the people of East Pakistan had by then been carried away by a strong desire for independence. Even Mujib, who was most certainly the dear and unchallenged leader of the Bengalis, was, at that stage, unable to stop the tide of independence. Willingly or hesitatingly, he had to declare the independence of Bangladesh - although not in unambiguous terms. No one - I mean the members of the public - at that time knew Major Zia. When the resistance movement started spontaneously everywhere in Bangladesh following the crack-down of the 25th, no one had even heard the name of Major Zia, a junior army officer. Rafiqul Islam, the renowned freedom fighter, told me that Major Zia had participated in the resistance movement until 27th - in fact, on that day he was returning from the Port of Chittagong to the cantonment. Islam stopped him on his way back to the cantonment and told him what danger he might face if he went there. In fact, Islam persuaded him to go the Kalurghat radio station and make that announcement. The first time he announced that he had assumed power and asked the countrymen to participate in the war. The second time, he corrected himself and announced that he was making the declaration on behalf of Sheik Mujib. That announcement is on record. The short announcement was as follows: I, Major Ziaur Rahman, do hereby declare independence of Bangladesh on behalf of our great national leader, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Apart from that, he wrote in some details about why and how he participated in the War of Independence in his article published in the weekly Vichitra on 26th March 1972. His announcement most certainly greatly inspired the EPR, the members of the armed forces, the police and the ordinary people, but they had not started the fight because one certain junior officer of the Army had declared independence. The people had started the uprising because they wanted independence - declaration or no declaration. However, if any declaration played any part in this fight at all, it was Mujibs somewhat ambiguous declaration of 7th March. Even Zia himself joined this uprising in view of Mujibs declaration. We should also remember that after the sudden crack-down, Mujib himself made no declaration, despite the claim by some Awami Leaguer leaders. Ghulam Murshid
Posted on: Sat, 15 Nov 2014 16:51:57 +0000
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