New Delhi: The year was 1971. This was the time when tensions between East Pakistan and West Pakistan were increasing. Just a few months earlier, East Pakistan’s largest political party, the Awami League, led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in the general elections, but West Pakistan’s powerful political and military establishment did not agree to transfer power to Bengalis. were happening. Leadership.
The National Assembly was to be in session from March 3, 1971. But President General Yahya Khan suspended the session in a sudden decision on 1 March.
This announcement caused a lot of uproar in East Pakistan and people took to the streets in protest. Bengalis started a movement to establish their rights.
Sheikh Mujib went on strike in Dhaka on 2 March and another across the province on 3 March.
On 7 March he held a historic public meeting at the then Ramana Race Course ground, now known as Suhrawardy Udyan. what did he say in his speech That day, in front of a massive gathering of more than one million people, became known as one of the most influential speeches in the world – a speech that eventually led to the creation of Bangladesh by the end of that year, December. 16, 1971, with India providing full military assistance.
Sheikh Mujib said, “This time’s struggle is our freedom struggle. This time’s struggle is our freedom struggle.” His words inspired the whole of East Pakistan to prepare for war for independence.
Only 18 days later, the Bangladesh Liberation War began as the West Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight on 25 March against civilians, intellectuals, students, politicians and armed personnel from East Pakistan.
There was no written script for Mujib’s Bengali speech, but it survived in audio and video versions, with people making special efforts to record, make copies, and broadcast them when West Pakistan did not allow the telecast of the address. .
On October 30, 2017, UNESCO inscribed the fiery speech of the founding father of Bangladesh as a documentary heritage in the World Register of Commemoration.
“The speech effectively declared the independence of Bangladesh. The speech constitutes a faithful document of how the failure of colonial nation-states to develop inclusive, democratic societies alienated their populations from different ethnic, cultural, linguistic or religious groups.” separates,” the UN body said on its website.
what happened before 1971
In 1966, Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman launched a six-point movement demanding provincial autonomy for East Pakistan. But the military government of West Pakistan rejected the proposals and arrested Sheikh Mujib, accusing him of treason.
He was released three years later, in 1969. Due to massive protests and widespread violence, West Pakistan was forced to drop the case against them.
In 1970, Mujib’s Awami League won national elections, winning 167 of the 169 seats allocated to East Pakistan, and a majority in the 313-seat National Assembly. But Pakistan Peoples Party leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto did not allow the East Pakistani Party to form the government and President General Yahya Khan supported him.
Through an announcement over the radio, he adjourned the National Assembly session that was to begin on 3 March.
What did Sheikh Mujib say in his 7 March 1971 speech?
In his speech, which lasted about 19 minutes, Mujib stressed how authoritarian and military violence thwarted East Pakistan’s efforts for proper governance and self-determination and why it could not.
Before announcing the Civil Disobedience Movement, he summed up his entire political exchanges with West Pakistan, explaining how Yahya Khan had not agreed to negotiate with the Awami League.
“You all know how hard we have worked. But it is sad that the roads of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rangpur and Rajshahi are soaked in the blood of my brothers today, and the cry we hear from the Bengali people is a cry for freedom, for existence, for our Cry for rights,” Mujeeb said at the very beginning of his speech.
He said that the past nearly 23 years, since partition from India, saw nothing but bloodshed and “a history of constant lamentation” and tears.
Mujib said that the victory of the Awami League in the general elections should see the restoration of a constitutional government that would bring economic, political and cultural liberation, but it did not.
While he asked the people of East Pakistan to be ready to “put everything to a complete standstill”, and called on them to “turn every house into a fort”, if a single bullet is fired, the Awami League The leader of K also asked them to stay. Stay calm and stay away from provocateurs. “Bengali or non-Bengali, Hindu or Muslim, all are our brothers and it is our responsibility to ensure their safety,” he said.
Mujib asked people to stop working in radio, television and the press if they did not report the liberation movement.
“This time the struggle is for liberation! This time the struggle is for freedom.
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