Bangladesh will celebrate 2020-21 as Mujib Year on his 100th anniversary

Bangladesh will celebrate the 100th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation as Mujib Barsha or Mujib Year through yearlong programmes.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina made the announcement at the opening session of a joint meeting of the ruling Awami League’s Central Working Committee and Advisory Council at party headquarters at Bangabandhu Avenue in Dhaka on Friday.     

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was born at Tungiparha in Gopalganj on Mar 17, 1920. He spearheaded the Bengalis’ liberation struggle  and Bangladesh emerged as an independent country from Pakistan on the world map in 1971.

A year after his 100th birth anniversary, Bangladesh will celebrate the golden jubilee of independence on Mar 26, 2021.

“It’s my wish that we celebrate the year from 2020 to 2021 as Mujib Barsha through yearlong programmes. The programmes will end on the golden jubilee of independence on Mar 26, 2021,” Bangabandhu’s daughter Hasina said at the meeting.

She has already ordered Cabinet Secretary Mohammad Shafiul Alam to get ready for official celebrations of Mujib Year.

“The Father of the Nation repaid his debt with his life. We must now repay him,” the prime minister said.

Programmes on such occasions as Bangabandhu’s Homecoming Day, the Awami League’s founding anniversary, National Mourning Day and Jail Killing Day will be organised in coordination with the Mujib Year, Hasina said.

There will also be different publicationsnincluding a compilation of reports by Pakistan’s intelligence agency on Bangabandhu, she said.

The compilation will have 14 sections of 9,000 pages selected from 47 files of 30,000 pages, according to Hasina.

“There will be nothing else to know about Bangladesh’s history if you read the reports,” she said.

Another compilation of writings on the Agartala Conspiracy and Bangabandhu’s Smritikatha or Memories of Bangabandhu will also be published.

THE FREEDOM ICON

Sheikh Mujib was born to an ordinary family at Tungiparha. An energetic youth, he became involved in politics during his school years.

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy had been his political mentor.

Sheikh Mujib was an eighth grader at Gopalganj Mission School when he first spent time behind bars for taking part in protests against the British rule.

He became close to then top Muslim League leaders Suhrawardy and Sher-e-Bangla AK Fazlul Huq during his time at Kolkata’s Islamia College.

He quickly established himself as a young leader and joined the Awami Muslim League.

The party was later rechristened ‘Awami League’ for a wider and secular appeal.

He was arrested on Mar 11, 1948 for taking part in a general strike to have Bangla recognised as a state language. His political activities landed him in jail multiple times during the period between 1948 and 1952.

He took lead during the United Front election in 1954, protests against Ayub Khan’s martial law dictatorship in 1958, the 1962 movement against the Education Commission and other campaigns for public demands.

Sheikh Mujib rose to the top of Bengali leadership for his active role in these various movements. In 1966, he proposed the historic six-point charter of demands as the head of Awami League.

The move landed him in jail when the then Pakistan government accused him of sedition in the 1968 Agartala Conspiracy Case.

The movement for autonomy of then East Pakistan evolved to a struggle for self-determination under Bangabandhu’s leadership.

In March of 1971, he began the non-cooperation movement.

The fiery speech he delivered to a sea of mass supporters at Dhaka’s then Race Course Maidan, calling out for blood to be spilled for independence, is immortalised in Bangladesh’s liberation history.

He was arrested after the Pakistan Army began its genocide of Bengalis on the night of Mar 25.

But before his capture, Bangabandhu declared Bangladesh independent from Pakistan in the early hour of Mar 26.

He was jailed in Pakistan throughout the nine months of war that followed. He was made president of the exiled, war-time government that swore oath at Mujibnagar.

He was jailed in Pakistan throughout the nine months of war that followed. He was made president of the exiled, war-time government that swore oath at Mujibnagar.

With the sacrifice of 3 million lives, Bangladesh was liberated on Dec 16, 1971. Bangabandhu, released from the Pakistani prison, returned home on Jan 10, 1972.

He then delved into the work to reconstruct a new nation and its people left devastated by war.

In 1975, he announced a national programme for securing economic freedom, and formed the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League or BKSAL which prohibited activities of all other political parties.

Under one-party rule, all newspapers, except four, were closed down.

Bangabandhu, then president, was assassinated when a group of army officers stormed into his Dhanmondi residence on Aug 15, 1975.