We wish to begin this piece in the words of Dr Seuss: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than you.”
March 17 is his birthday. Today would have been his 103rd. He is our own man; a great human being, the greatest Bengali; a great patriot; a great statesman of world stature; a remarkable fiery orator; our Father of the Nation -- our beloved Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Eminent journalist Cyril Dunn is correct when he says: “In a sense, Sheikh Mujib is a greater leader than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, and De Valera.” Because he was always found strong-willed, and determined to create his people's own country; his beloved Bangladesh.
He suffered imprisonment for more than two decades at the hands of the Pakistani regime due to the noble cause he pursued for his people. He was the dominant figure in Bangladesh's politics for more than four decades.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman does not belong to Bangladesh alone. He is the harbinger of freedom for all Bengalis. Mujib is the hero of Bengalis, in the past and in the times that are. He was a veteran fighter for his people, a great visionary thinker, founder of the Bengali nationalist movement, a practitioner of common people's techniques of resistance, and an active exponent of the idea of a Bangladesh government.
We shall remember this stormy petrel of Bangladesh's politics in different parts of the country along with the general public, workers, political leaders, intellectuals, and social workers. Bangabandhu's birthday offers an opportunity to revisit his background, personality formation, political career, thought processes, and ideological orientation. It makes us understand how his followers prepared a comprehensive plan to spread his vision of restructuring Bangladesh's society.
This should be an occasion to discuss the utility of his approaches in the present-day context towards the place of common people in Bangladesh's society.
Bangabandhu tried to revitalize his 6-point movement by giving fresh theoretical, ideological, programmatic, and agitational foundations to it. Throughout his life, Bangabandhu was a man of action and a hero in leading powerful people's movements against Pakistan's colonial rule for more than two decades. He developed techniques of peaceful collective actions, non-violent civil disobedience against injustice, and finally re-modelled his methods of mass protests through armed struggles.
His speech on March 7 is regarded as a landmark in world history. His strategic move to give concrete shape to the Bengali freedom movement in March, 1971 is an epoch-making event in the pages of world history. At the peak of his political glory, only at the age of 55, his life-journey came to an end on August 15, 1975 -- assassinated along with all his other family members.
In Bangabandhu's framework of social-economic transformation, politics is the real moving force. In his concept of political theory and practice, struggle and constructive work, democracy and civil disobedience are combined together. Like Marx, his emphasis was on struggle but he first discarded the idea of violence. He tried to refine the Gandhian techniques of non-violence; by accepting non-violent methods of struggle but adding mass-based civil disobedience against injustice and exploitation.
Let us resolve to re-analyze his intellectual contributions. Let us try to spread his re-examined messages of broad nationalism, democracy, socialism, and the international order. As a nationalist, Bangabandhu was a valiant fighter for Bangladesh independence and his primary concern was to rebuild Bangladesh through principled politics, equality, a decent standard of life, capital formation through control over wasteful expenditure and conspicuous consumerism.
His nationalism was not narrow. He was a great votary of an egalitarian international order and a world government. He considered himself a world citizen.
The cries of “Joy Bangla” and “Joy Bangabandhu” will fill the air on this auspicious day. He is the patriot of patriots. The “Joy Bangla" slogan was the battle cry of our freedom fighters during our glorious Liberation War in 1971 and he roused the nation to a great patriotic height.
All over the country, tributes shall be paid to this great hero who fought for freedom and sacrificed his life for the cause of his people. The heroic spirit of Bangabandhu is an unfailing source of inspiration to the youth of the country.
His courage, spirit of adventure, and patriotism are an example to one and all.
We recall with highest regards the kind words as pronounced by revered Anandashankar Ray in memory of Bangabandhu: “As long as Padma, Meghna, Gouri, Jamuna flows on, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, your accomplishments will also live on.”
In remembering Bangabandhu today, we wish to finish-off today in the words of William Shakespeare, “The golden age is before us, not behind us.” He lived for something rather than die for nothing. Joy Bangabandhu. Joy Bangla. Long live Bangladesh.
Anwar A Khan is an independent political analyst who writes on politics and current and international affairs.