In 1976 17th March on the 56th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu, we, some Bengalis who believed in his ideals organised a commemoration meeting in Conway Hall in central London. Four prominent Labour MPs including Peter Shore and Sydney Bidwell attended that meeting. At that time a military junta was in power in Bangladesh and uttering Bangabandhu's name was almost banned in the country. So publicly the birth anniversary was not observed in Bangladesh. In London though there was a large Bengali community but they were afraid to attend the commemoration for fear of reprisal from the military junta. So the attendance was not large. But these Labour MPs of Britain attended the meeting and paid their respect to the departed soul of Bangabandhu. The Military government's order was not to observe this day or utter a single word about the founding father of Bangladesh in the country and abroad. We, some Bangladeshis violated this order and observed the birth anniversary of the Father of the nation. At the time a Labour government was in power in Britain and Harold Wilson was the Prime Minister. He sent a message for this meeting through the late Gaus Khan, a prominent community leader. He said in his letter, addressing us- 'With the death of a great man like Sheikh Mujib, you lost your leader. It is a national tragedy for you, but for me it is a personal tragedy'.A man with vision and mission
Sheikh Mujibs vision was to liberate the Bengalis and unite them as a non-communal cultural nation
ABDUL GAFFAR CHOUDHURY
In 1976 17th March on the 56th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu, we, some Bengalis who believed in his ideals organised a commemoration meeting in Conway Hall in central London. Four prominent Labour MPs including Peter Shore and Sydney Bidwell attended that meeting. At that time a military junta was in power in Bangladesh and uttering Bangabandhus name was almost banned in the country. So publicly the birth anniversary was not observed in Bangladesh. In London though there was a large Bengali community but they were afraid to attend the commemoration for fear of reprisal from the military junta. So the attendance was not large. But these Labour MPs of Britain attended the meeting and paid their respect to the departed soul of Bangabandhu. The Military governments order was not to observe this day or utter a single word about the founding father of Bangladesh in the country and abroad. We, some Bangladeshis violated this order and observed the birth anniversary of the Father of the nation. At the time a Labour government was in power in Britain and Harold Wilson was the Prime Minister. He sent a message for this meeting through the late Gaus Khan, a prominent community leader. He said in his letter, addressing us- With the death of a great man like Sheikh Mujib, you lost your leader. It is a national tragedy for you, but for me it is a personal tragedy.
In his speech Bidwell said:Sheikh Mujib had a great vision. That vision was to liberate Bengali people wherever they lived, to free them from communalism and religious nationalism and to unite them as a non-communal cultural nation on the basis of their thousand-year old secular language and culture. He wanted to establish a secular and socialist Bangladesh and wanted to prove that a state established on religion could not make any real nationhood. He first demanded autonomy for Bengalis in East Pakistan and for Sindhis, Baluchis, Pathans and Punjabis also who lived in the different provinces of West Pakistan. In the 60s two leaders emerged in Pakistan after 65s India-Pakistan war, one was Sheikh Mujib and the other was Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. Bhutto was in service of the military junta led by general Ayub and Mujib was fighting against this Fascist Junta and went to jail for years together. He was accused of treason for which a case was prepared by the Junta to hang him. It was the great upsurge of mass people in 1969 which defeated the Junta and Sheikh Mujib came out from jail as the undisputed leader of the Bengalis.
Today we are observing his birth centenary not only in Bangladesh but all over the world. Of course the Bangladesh government declared this month as the beginning of the Mujib year but Bengali people everywhere in the world are also observing this day and they will also continue observance of the Mujib year because he was born in this month on 17th March in 1920. History shows that dying or being killed for a noble cause makes a man immortal. A man can be killed but his ideals are indestructible. This old saying is proved again in Sheikh Mujibs case. The murderers killed him with almost all his family members. They wanted to erase his name from history. They tried to abolish all his ideals on which the independent Bangladesh was founded. For long 21 years they enjoyed absolute power in Bangladesh. But what a surprise! Like Joan of Arc a woman came out from her peaceful family life and started a journey which was both dangerous and deadly. Like her father she had neither arms nor army to defeat a vicious military junta and their surrogates like BNP and Jamaat, who not only ruled but terrorized the whole country capitalizing on religious extremism. Sheikh Hasina awoke the slumbering people and armed them with her fathers ideals. It inspired the young generation to fight and defeat the enemy of the independence of Bangladesh. A London daily The Guardian said, The peoples movement now initiated by Sheikh Hasina is nothing but a fight led by Sheikh Mujib from the grave.
44 years ago the late British Labour MP Sydney Bidwell said that Sheikh Mujib had both vision and mission. Now we can say that his mission has almost been accomplished. He recovered the Bengali nationhood with its thousand-year old language and prestige and established an independent state. But his vision is not yet fulfilled. This vision was to establish a cultural nationhood comprising of all Bangla speaking people all over the world, develop Bangla language as a world language like English and French and transform Bangladesh as a non-communal state with social justice and equality. His BAAKSAL was nothing but a step towards that vision. He did not want to follow either the western bourgeois democracy or an establishment led by anti- people bureaucrats. He created the post of the state governor who would elected by grass roots people and power would be vested at the hands of peoples representative.
He started to abolish the class system in professionals. Previously, the lawyers of the country were divided in three classes-barristers, advocates (ukil) and mukhteers. Among these three classes barristers were the most privileged. Bangabandhu abolished this class difference and all the three classes were named advocates (ukil). He arranged mukhteers to train for a short course to become an advocate. The classification of physicians were also along the same line. There were high and low grade physicians MBBS and LMF (Licentiate Medical Faculty). Those who passed from Medical College were MBBS doctors and those who passed from Mitford Medical School were LMF doctors. Bangabandhu abolished the division and both MBBS and LMFs were classified as doctors. A short course for LMF doctors were introduced. He upgraded the status of proof readers of newspapers as journalists. This was resented even by some prominent journalists of Dhaka. But Bangabandhu fulfilled the demand of the proof readers of newspapers for which they had been clamouring for a long time. He transferred power of deputy commissioners to elected district governors. He had a plan to curb the power of big businesses to limit the ownership of land and nationalized banks, insurance companies and big businesses. He wanted to minimise the imbalance of different income groups especially the rich and the poor. After declaring Bangla as a state language he declared it as a national language also and ordered all official work in the country and abroad to be done in Bangla.
If his vision was fulfilled Bangladesh would have surpassed the development of Singapore and Malaysia. Bangladesh would have reached self-sufficiency in food production long ago. With his death the Fascist military Junta and after them the autocrat governments destroyed all achievements and took the country back to its colonial past. After long 21 years the daughter of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina came to power. She ousted the anti-people dictators but could not yet oust their colonial system which they reintroduced in the country. The world situation has also changed. With the collapse of Soviet Union and communist Chinas acceptance of capitalist economy the socialist ideals and states are in exile. Global capitalism is the order of the day now. In this very difficult circumstances Sheikh Hasina developed the countrys economy but on the path of capitalism. She resisted the uprise of communalism and religious fundamentalism and again defeated them. But still the countrys establishment is in the grip of civil and military bureaucrats. Hasina is trying to reach her fathers goal and fulfil his vision slowly but steadily. In this birth centenary Bangabandhu came back from his grave. His historic speech on 7th March 1971 is now heard in every household of Bengalis. The new generation of the people of Bangladesh are now aware of the ideals of the father of the nation. So there is a hope that when his daughter have been in power for three consecutive terms and created the mind-set of the new generation to achieve the goals of the founding father, it could be expected that the final defeat of the reactionary forces inside and outside of the country is not far away. Bangabandhu will lead this struggle also. Sheikh Mujib is dead, long live Bangabandhu.
London, Friday 07 March, 2020
