মোহাম্মদ শাহ আলম
সহকারী অধ্যাপক
০৪ নভেম্বর, ২০২২ ০৪:২৫ অপরাহ্ণ
The Bengali Language Movement
The Bengali Language Movement
On February 21, 1954, Maulana Bhasani and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman paid homageat the Shaheed Minar.
Sheikh Mujib'spolitical activities began by taking part in the movement established with the demand to make Bangla one of thestate languages. On February 23, 1948,Dhirendranath Dutta, a member of the Congress of East Pakistan, rejected the proposal to speak in Urdu or English at the session of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistanin Karachi. He also demanded that Bangla be made the language of the Constituent Assembly. At that time, the Prime Minister of Pakistan Liaquat Ali Khan and the Chief Minister of East PakistanKhwaja Nazimuddinopposed the Bengali language, but the proposal was rejected.
On March 21, 1948, Muhammad Ali Jinnah declared Urdu to be the state language of Pakistan. [36] This led to an adverse reaction in East Pakistan. The protesting Sheikh Mujib immediately decided to launch a movement against this pre-planned decision of the Muslim League. On March 2 of the same year, a conference was held atFazlul Huq Muslim Hallof Dhaka University with the participation of leaders of different political parties. In that conference, the policy of the movement against the Muslim League was discussed. Sheikh Mujib presented a resolution from which it was decided to form an all-party struggle council. [38] A strike was observed in Dhaka on 11 March 1948 at the call of that council. During the strike, Sheikh Mujib and several other political activists were arrested in front of the secretariat. But in the face of strong protests from the student community, Sheikh Mujib and other student leaders were released on March 15. [39] On the occasion of their release, the All-PartyState Language Struggle Counciltook out a procession at Battala of Dhaka University, which was presided over by Sheikh Mujib. However, the procession was blocked by the police. On March 15, the State Language Struggle Council was formed under the leadership of Mujib. [38] Sheikh Mujib immediately announced a nationwide student strike on 17 March 1948 against the police action. [40] On 19 March, he led a movement aimed at securing the rights of class IV employees of Dhaka University. At the same time, he was again arrested on September 11 of that year for agitating against the cordon system in Faridpur. [41]
On January 21, 1949, Sheikh Mujib was released from jail. After coming out of jail, he again got involved in the movement to meet the demands of class IV employees for which he was fined by the university. But he declared the fine illegal and refrained from paying it. On April 26, 1949,Shamsul Haque, an anti-Muslim League candidate, won the tangail by-election. [42] Sheikh Mujib went on a hunger strike in front of the Vice-Chancellor's residence for the success of his movement for which he was again detained. During this time, he was expelled from Dhaka University. He was accused of leading the movement for the rights of the fourth grade employees of the university. It is to be noted that on August 14, 2010, after his death, the Dhaka University authorities returned his lost studenthood. [23] [43]
After his release fromDhaka Central Jailon June 26, 1949, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
In January 1950, the Awami Muslim League took out an anti-famine procession in Dhaka to mark the arrival of Pakistan Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujib was detained for leading the procession and imprisoned for two years. [44] On 26 January 1952, Although Mujib was scheduled to read out the jail release order, Khwaja Nazimuddin declared, "Urdu will be the only state language of Pakistan." After this announcement, despite being in jail, he played a courageous role in organizing the protest and resistance by indirectly conducting the State Language Struggle Council with the necessary directions. After that, it was decided to observe February 21 as the day to meet the demands of the state language. At the same time, Sheikh Mujib decided to observe a hunger strike from February 14 while in jail. His hunger strike lasted for 13 days. [31] [45] He was released from prison on 26 February. [14][46][47]
The Asian and Pacific Regional Peace Conferencewas held inthe capital, Peking, from October 2 to October 12, marking the third founding anniversary of socialist China in 1952. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman visited China to attend the summit as a member of the 30-member Pakistan delegation at the invitation of the Chinese government. [48][49]
Establishment of Awami League and United Front Government
On June 23, 1949, when Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy andMaulana Bhasaniformed the East PakistanAwami Muslim League, Sheikh Mujib left the Muslim League and joined the new party. He was elected joint general secretary of the east Pakistan faction of the party. [50] He was released from prison on 26 June. Soon after his release, he joined the movement against the ongoing food crisis. In September 1949, he was temporarily detained for violating Section 144, but was soon released. In October of the same year, both were detained for trying to send a delegation toLiaquat Ali Khanin association with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani. [51]
In 1954, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, minister of agriculture and forestry in the newly elected United Front government (2nd from left)
In 1956, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was sworn in as a minister from Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq, the governor of East Pakistan.
On July 9, 1953, Sheikh Mujib was elected general secretary of the East Pakistan Awami League at the end of the council session. [53] [54] On 14 November of the same year, it was decided to form aUnited Frontconsisting of various parties to participate in the provincial assembly elections of East Bengal. The election was held on March 10, 1954. In the election, the United Front won 223 of the 237 seats by a huge margin, of which 143 seats were won by the Awami League. [55] Sheikh Mujib won the seat in Gopalganj by a margin of 10,000 votes. [56] His rival there was Muslim League leader Wahiduzzaman. On 3 April, the United Front under the leadership of Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq formed the government ineast Bengalprovince and on 15 May Sheikh Mujib joined the government and got the charge of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Cooperatives. [57] On 29 May, the central government dissolved the United Front. He was detained at the airport after returning to Dhaka from Karachi on May 31. He was released on December 23. On June 5, 1955, Sheikh Mujib became a member of the Constituent Assembly for the first time. [58] On 17 June, the Awami League presented a 21-point demand at a conference heldat Paltan Maidan, which included the autonomy of East Pakistan. On June 23, at a meeting of the party's executive council, it was decided that all members of the legislative assembly would resign if east Pakistan's autonomy was not achieved. On 25 August, at the session of the Constituent Assembly in Karachi, Pakistan, Sheikh Mujib said:[14]
| (English) «Sir (President of the Constituent Assembly), you will see that they want to place the word ‘East Pakistan’ instead of ‘East Bengal’. We have demanded so many times that you should use Bengal instead of Pakistan. The word ‘Bengal’ has a history, has a tradition of its own. You can change it only after the people have been consulted. If you want to change it then we have to go back to Bengal and ask them whether they accept it. So far as the question of One-Unit is concerned it can come in the constitution. Why do you want it to be taken up just now? What about the state language, Bengali? What about joint electorate? What about Autonomy? The people of East Bengal will be prepared to consider One-Unit with all these things. So, I appeal to my friends on that side to allow the people to give their verdict in any way, in the form of referendum or in the form of plebiscite. [31]» | (Bengali) "Sir (President of the Constituent Assembly), you will see that they want to change the name "East Bengal" to "East Pakistan". We have demanded many times that you should use Bengal (Bengal) instead of Pakistan. The word "Bangla" has its own history, tradition. You can change this name in consultation with our people. If you want to change that name, then we have to go back to Bengal and ask the people there whether they will accept the name change. The question of one unit can be included in the constitution. Why do you want to take it up now? What about accepting Bengali as the state language? Is the question of creating a joint constituency the solution? Are you thinking about our autonomy? The people of East Bengal are ready to consider the question of one unit along with other questions. So I would like to appeal to my friends in that part of me to accept the verdict given by our people'sreferendumor referendum. [59]» |
At a special session of the Bangladesh Awami Muslim League held on October 21-23, 1955, the word "Muslim" was unanimously dropped from the party's name and Sheikh Mujib was re-elected as the general secretary of the party. [60] At a meeting of the Awami League with the Prime Minister on 3 February, the party demanded that autonomy be included in the draft constitution. On July 14, a resolution against military presence in the state administration was placed, which he submitted to the government. On September 4, an anti-famine march was taken out under his leadership. At least four people were killed when police opened fire on the procession for violating Section 144. [61] On 16 September, Sheikh Mujib joined the provincial government and simultaneously held the portfolios of Industries, Commerce, Labour, Anti-Corruption and Rural Assistance. On 15 January 1957, he went to New Delhi to attend the Pakistan-India Trade Agreement Conference. He resigned from the cabinet on 30 May 1957 to devote full time as the general secretary of the party. On 7 August 1957, he visitedChinaand theSoviet Unionon an official visit. The convenience of the civic life of these two socialist countries made Sheikh Mujibur Rahman enamored of socialism. He was appointed chairman of the Pakistan Tea Board for the fiscal year 1957-58.
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