Bangabandhu a Fearless Poet of Politics and Independence

Bangabandhu is a great dauntless hero. He never hesitated to face the enemy. He has been arrested many times in his political life but has never gone into hiding. Knowing that his death was certain, he did not leave the house on that horrifying night of March 25, 1971. Bangabandhu an outstanding personality of boundless love, humanity and boundless courage towards the country and people, won the hearts of people of all classes and professions including rich and poor, poets, writers and intellectuals of Bengal.

That is why Bangabandhu is our great leader. Under his leadership, we have fought for freedom for 23 long years. At his call, the freedom-loving people of Bengal fought the war of liberation in 1971 with the help of arms. Victory is snatched from the enemy. The red-green flag is brought by independent-sovereign Bangladesh. Bangabandhu and Bangladesh are therefore one and integral part.

Each country has a leader in the freedom struggle, such as Lenin of Russia (former the Soviet Union), Mahatma Gandhi of India, George Washington of the United States, Mao Zedong of China, Sukarno of Indonesia, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Fidel Castro of Cuba, Patrice Lumumba and Kawmi Nkruma of Ghana, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Marshal Tito of Yugoslavia Bangabandhu is well-established as an indispensable and inseparable chapter in world history, an active example of his outstanding patriotism and self-sacrifice. He is not only the Bangabandhu of Bengalis but also a world-class and world-pleasing politician.

Bangabandhu's excellence that he was not only a dreamer of a state called Bangladesh, but he was also able to make the dream of a thousand-year-old Bengali nation a reality by uniting the Bengali nation in a bond of unique common unity. Many famous politicians before and after Bangabandhu were born in this Bengal but no one was able to awaken the Bengalis in a frenzy.

That is why everyone has given Bangabandhu the title of the best Bengali of the millennium, just as it is never possible to banish him from history. Bangabandhu awakened the Bengalis with the enchanting power and magic touch of his leadership and inspired them with the intonation of independence.

On April 5, 1971, Newsweek Magazine of the United States reported on their cover about Bangabandhu. In this report, they described Bangabandhu as a 'poet of politics'. However, according to those who were present at the racecourse ground that day, that inflammatory speech is not a speech, but a rhythmic poem of an expert, skilled poet.

 In that speech, Bangabandhu called upon the Bengalis of East Pakistan to be ready for the freedom struggle. A written commentary on this speech was distributed. However, even though he spoke like a poet in Bengal that day, Newsweek magazine awarded Bangabandhu a beautiful title like the first 'Poet of Politics'. On April 5, 1971, the magazine carried a picture of Bangabandhu on their cover and called him a 'Poet of Politics'.

 He was given the title for his historic speech on March 7. When Bangabandhu declared the independence of Bangladesh, some of his critics remarked that Sheikh Mujib had almost bowed down to his extremist supporters and that he wanted to climb to the top of the wave in which he was surrounded. However, the emergence of Sheikh Mujib as the fighting leader of this new Bengali nation is the logical consequence of his lifelong struggle for Bengali nationalism. Even if Sheikh Mujib wanted to climb to the top of the wave, his position there was not accidental at all.

Bangabandhu was born on 17 March 1920 in Tungipara, Gopalganj. He was the third of four daughters and two sons of father Sheikh Lutfar Rahman and mother Saira Khatun. Khoka is a cute name given by parents. His defensive character was identified as a teenager. Started his school in the village. Then to Gopalganj Public School. His anti-injustice mentality, his love for the poor and his promise to alleviate their suffering brought him into politics. He got involved in politics from school.

Bangabandhu has done more politics than education. His father did not stop him from getting involved in politics. According to Bangabandhu's unfinished autobiography, his father told him, "Father, I will not object to politics. You are fighting for Pakistan. It is a matter of happiness, but don't forget to study." You can't be a real human being without learning. " He was admitted to Islamia College, Kolkata. There, as an activist of the Muslim League, he drew the attention of his elders.

In 1917, the Russian Revolution took place in favor of exploitation. The politics of the world is divided between the exploited and the exploiters. In the politics of this subcontinent, various active trends of the anti-British movement have started.

 In his political life, Bangabandhu was inspired by the motto of the Russian Revolution-exploitation, the patriotism of the anti-British revolutionaries aroused him. At the same time, Gandhi-Nehru constitutional movement attracted him. He deeply embraced the non-communal Bengali nationalism of Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das. The young Sheikh Mujib was strongly inspired by Netaji Subhash Basu's Swadeshi movement.

Bangabandhu had deeply embraced his identity, his culture, heritage, the social and political history of undivided India. India's first independence struggle, the Sepoy Rebellion, the Santal Rebellion, the Garo-Hajong Rebellion, the Peasant Rebellion, the Blue Rebellion and all the movements and struggles against the British rule in undivided India. In undivided India, he joined the anti-British movement to liberate the poor people of Bengal from exploitation, deprivation, oppression and poverty.

He was always a believer in the constitutional movement. That is why he joined the anti-British constitutional movement of Gandhi-Jinnah-Nehru. The movement for the establishment of the state of Pakistan then supported the liberation of the exploited, deprived, poor Bengali people. But after 1947, when the mother tongue Bengal was attacked, the masks of the Pakistani rulers were unveiled. Bangabandhu became vocal in protest and joined the state language movement.

At a meeting of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly held in Karachi in 1948, Muslim League leaders expressed the view that Urdu shall be made the state language. Then Dhirendranath Dutta, an elected Member of Parliament from Cumilla, demanded that Bengali, the language of Pakistan's majority, be made the state language; but no Muslim League member from West Pakistan or any Muslim League member from East Bengal supported his proposal.

After the language movement of 1952, the people of this country gradually organized in the spirit of independence and nationalism. Through movement and struggle, they started protesting against exploitation, oppression and discrimination. The movement for the constitution, the United Front election, the education movement of the sixties, the six-point movement, the Agartala conspiracy case, the mass movement of the seventy-nine, the election of the seventy are all milestones of that struggle.

Everyone knows the history of how Bangabandhu, who was tested through these movements and struggles for the rights of Bengalis, became everyone's favorite leader. In the face of a mass uprising in 1979, Pakistan's President Ayub Khan resigned and handed over power to Yahya Khan, a general in the military.

He seized power in Pakistan in 1958. When Yahya Khan announced the election after taking over the presidency, the political arena in Pakistan became busy with electioneering. In the general election held on 7 December 1970, Bangabandhu's Awami League got a single majority. 160 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly.

Nine other Pakistani parties, including independents, won the remaining 140 seats. In addition to winning 160 seats in the election, the Awami League won 7 of the 9 seats reserved for the East Pakistan National Assembly. The total number of seats was 167. Bangabandhu's Awami League won 288 of the 300 seats in the provincial elections held alongside the general election. The great victory of the Bengalis was achieved is called the Landslide victory. Despite this, the Pakistani ruling class was delaying the transfer of power with various excuses.

The rebellion march came in 1971! Since the beginning of March, the non-cooperation movement, protests and struggles have been raging all over the country. Every day the poet of politics was composing new chapters of the epic called Bangladesh. Protests erupted across the country when President Yahya Khan announced the cancellation of the National Assembly session to be held in Dhaka on March 3. Dhaka became a city of protests, furious processions.

On March 15, 1971, President Yahya Khan suddenly arrived in Dhaka. In the meantime, that historic speech has been uttered in the thunderous voice of the courageous poet Bangabandhu in the public meeting of the racecourse on March 7. Infallible call for freedom. Not a speech, but a unique poem of the heart's desire of the people of Bengal, which the poet recited for 19 minutes in a very symbolic style. Arriving in Dhaka, Yahya Khan hatched a deep conspiracy behind the drama of handing-over power. After several meetings between Mujib and Yahya from March 18-24, Yahya left Dhaka without informing anyone.

On the night of March 25, according to the blueprint planned by the Pakistani regime, the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight, the most heinous massacre in the history of the world. In the middle of the night, a surprise attack was carried out on a sleeping innocent Bengali. Bangabandhu was arrested and taken to West Pakistan.

 Before his arrest, in the early hours of March 26, Bangabandhu sent a proclamation of independence to various districts of the country, including Chattogram, via a secret transmitter set from the Baldha Garden in Old Dhaka via a wireless set of the East Pakistan Regiment (EPR). That night Bangabandhu instructed all his fellow leaders to move to a safe place, But he stayed at his home in Dhanmondi No. 32 and was arrested.

We all know the history of the Bengal struggle and liberation war against the Pakistani ruling class led by Bangabandhu. Bangabandhu is an integral part of these histories. No matter how many conspiracies, no matter how many attempts, he can never be separated from Bangladesh. He was our undeniable leader, a dauntless poet of politics. 

The poet imagines, thinks, dreams. Poetry is the epitome of that dream. Bangabandhu dreamed of politics, that dream was to bring freedom to a people, to give the gift of an independent sovereign state. Like poets, Bangabandhu has shaped his dream. He wrote a poem that represents the dream of breaking the shackles of subjugation and bringing freedom to this people, the gift of an independent sovereign state.

That poem of Bangabandhu became our favorite motherland in Bangladesh. Many poets and writers from different countries and abroad wrote stories, songs, poems and plays about this poet of politics. Certainly, so many poems have been written about very few statesmen and metaphors in the world. Inspired by the writings of the elder poets, as contemporary poets are writing, the poets of the future will also depict Bangabandhu in their poems in various ways. As long as there is Bengali language and literature, some poems, stories, novels will be written about Bangabandhu.

From the writings of Thala Bati Kambal-Jelkhanar Sambal (utensil-blanket wealth of Jail), it is easy to imagine the depth and vastness of Bangabandhu's unique general compositions, rich in symbolism, analogy and canvas of time, from his writings in the book 'Prison Diary' written by Bangabandhu. Bangabandhu wrote, "Those who have not gone to jail, they do not know what jail is. I was forced to go to jail five times. I have been imprisoned as a political prisoner and have had to suffer rigorous imprisonment". He also had to go to jail as a prisoner. It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the post.


Hiren Pandit is a columnist and researcher