Upon Bangabandhu's abduction by the Pakistani military in the dark night of 26th March after he declared independence, the Mujibnagar government took over the charge of leading the Liberation War. Who were the key players in the Mujibnagar government? History must not be forgotten.
It is the nature of great leaders to prepare the leadership which will take over from them, when history demands such circumstances, and carry the torch forward. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, having sounded the call to national freedom, was abducted by the Pakistan occupation army on 25 March 1971. But he left behind his close associates, men who had struggled long and hard in the struggle for emancipation under his leadership, who picked up where he had left off. These men were the leading lights of what would come to be emblazoned in history as the Mujibnagar government.
It was a burning Dhaka Tajuddin Ahmad said farewell to as he made his way to the suburbs and then the villages on 25 March 1971. In the company of Amir-Ul Islam, the lawyer and Awami League figure, Tajuddin Ahmad knew what he needed to do. Bangabandhu had been taken captive by the Pakistan army. In those early hours of the genocide unleashed by the soldiers, students and academics of Dhaka University were being mown down pitilessly.
It was apocalypse in Bangladesh. But Tajuddin, the consummate politician and brilliant associate of Bangabandhu, knew that resistance was of critical importance. He took up the mantle of leadership, crossed over to India, came in touch with the Indian leadership and set about putting in shape the very first Bengali national government in history. His eyes were on history. That Bangladesh, raised to the peaks of dreams of freedom under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, could not let the occupation run riot across the country mattered.
Mujibnagar - The Outlines of Resistance
In that hectic period between early and mid-April, Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, M. Mansoor Ali and A.H.M Kamruzzaman framed the outlines of the resistance against the occupation forces. As H.T. Imam, a pivotal player in the working of the Mujibnagar government, was to leave for the record, the structure of the Bangladesh government once it officially took charge on 17 April 1971 was the following:
Fifty three years after the Mujibnagar leadership informed the world that the Bengali nation had declared itself free, that it had a government formed by its elected representatives, that this government would wage war in defence of national liberty, how much do we remember of that seminal moment in our history? Of course, there will be all the platitudes and all the clichés today on the anniversary of the formation of the government-in-exile. But platitudes and clichés do not serve the purpose of history. And history is surely a vast canvas which must record the contributions of every single individual who has had a role in its making. To what degree do the young in Bangladesh know the background to the Mujibnagar government and the decisive role it played in the darkest of times for this nation?
Beyond the Fears and the Doubts
This morning, it is the details of history that matter. Tajuddin Ahmad matters, for his was a cerebral imagination which knew only too well that beyond the Pakistani repression, beyond the fears and the doubts, there was the paramount need for organized resistance to the enemy. An intellectual to the core, Tajuddin was one man who, in association with Bangabandhu, took the movement for autonomy and all that flowed from it forward. Let the truth not be sidelined, which is that had Tajuddin Ahmad not been around in April 1971, the history of this country would have meandered off in a different direction . . . and not necessarily a happy one.
History must necessarily be comprehensive. And because it must, the nation must be made acquainted with the political commitment which defined the lives of the other great men involved in the Mujibnagar reality. The contributions of Syed Nazrul Islam to the making of this free country have over the years been obscured. The defining role played by AHM Kamruzzaman in the story of national liberation – he was a member of the Pakistan national assembly in the 1960s and in that position was an authentic Bengali voice in the pre-1971 era – remains unknown to the young, to researchers. And the rich political career, accompanied by sustained devotion to the national cause, of M. Mansoor Ali is as good as forgotten today. The patriotism of MAG Osmany is fast becoming a receding memory. No comprehensive literature, no purposeful biographies of these great men are around. That should not have been our story.
A meaningful message must go out to the country today: as we recall Mujibnagar, we must plumb the depths of the personal and political histories of the four men – Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, AHM Kamruzzaman, M. Mansoor Ali – who told the world, in no uncertain terms in April 1971, that Bangladesh had arrived, that armed resistance to the oppressors was on. It becomes important for us to remind ourselves that Mujibnagar was a cause that along the way to liberation sometimes stumbled, as any great revolution stumbles, on difficulties arising out of the motivated politics of others in the movement.
The Mujibnagar government remains emblematic of national pride. None of the men who formed its nucleus could claim any earlier experience of government and yet they went about shaping and operating a government that lived up to popular expectations. This government put an administrative structure in place, reconfigured an occupied country into eleven war sectors, formed the Mukti Bahini and presided over the making and implementation of a guerrilla struggle against a brutal organized army. It did more. It gave shape to Shwadhin Bangla Betar, the radio outlet which inspired and encouraged armed resistance to the enemy all across the country. It defined the fundamentals of wartime diplomacy through having Bengali diplomats turn their backs on Pakistan and propagate and promote the national cause abroad.
The full history of Mujibnagar is yet to be written, in that broad sense of the meaning. It is the story of men like Amir-Ul Islam, the young lawyer whose contribution to the drafting of the Proclamation of Independence remains one of our great reasons for pride. It speaks of Professor Yusuf Ali, whose reading out of the Proclamation galvanized a nation. It is the tale of the peasants and the workers and the students and the government employees and the artistes who responded, in sheer energy and martial spirit, to the call to arms by the government.
History Treated in Selective Manner
This morning, let us be specific on this Mujibnagar question. Studies of history at schools, colleges, madrasas and universities in the country will be without focus, will be incomplete and therefore will be without meaning if the history of the Mujibnagar government is treated in selective manner or is passed over through brief references that are really footnotes.
Our history as a people certainly did not begin with the Mujibnagar government. The bigger reality, though, is that Mujibnagar made history on a grand scale. We the people were present at its creation, which is why we are not willing to see it pass into the mists of time.
About the Author
Syed Badrul Ahsan is the Chief Editorial Adviser of The Confluence; a journalist and author. He previously served as the Press Minister at the High Commission of Bangladesh, London and authored a biography on the Founder of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman entitled From Rebel to Founding Father: Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.