Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

"Bangabandhu" and "Mujibur Rahman" redirect here. For other uses, see Bangabandhu (disambiguation) and Mujibur Rahman (disambiguation).

Bangabandhu
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান
Portrait, c. 1950
1st President of Bangladesh
In office
25 January 1975 – 15 August 1975
Prime MinisterMuhammad Mansur Ali
Preceded byMohammad Mohammadullah
Succeeded byKhondaker Mostaq Ahmad (usurper)[a]
In office
17 April 1971 – 12 January 1972
Prime MinisterTajuddin Ahmed
Preceded byPosition established
Succeeded byAbu Sayeed Chowdhury
2nd Prime Minister of Bangladesh
In office
12 January 1972 – 24 January 1975
President
Preceded byTajuddin Ahmad
Succeeded byMuhammad Mansur Ali
Member of the Bangladesh Parliament
for Dhaka-12
In office
7 March 1972 – 15 August 1975
Preceded byConstituency established
Succeeded byJahangir Mohammad Adel
4th President of Bangladesh Awami League
In office
26 March 1971 – 18 January 1974
General Secretary
Preceded byAbdur Rashid Tarkabagish
Succeeded byA. H. M Qamaruzzaman
Pre-independence roles
1946–1948Councillor of Bengal Provincial Muslim League
1953–1966General Secretary of Awami League
1954Rural Development and Co-operatives Minister of East Bengal
1954–1958Member of East Pakistan Provincial Assembly
1955–1958Member of the National Assembly of Pakistan
1956–1957Industry, Commerce and Labour Minister of East Pakistan
1966–1971President of All-Pakistan Awami League
Personal details
Born(1920-03-17)17 March 1920
Tungipara, Bengal, British India
Died15 August 1975(1975-08-15) (aged 55)
Dacca, Bangladesh
Manner of deathAssassination
Resting placeMausoleum of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
Nationality
  • British subject (1920–1947)
  • Pakistan (1947–1971)
  • Bangladesh (1971–1975)
Political partyBangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (1975)
Other political
affiliations
SpouseBegum Fazilatunnesa
Children
Parents
RelativesTungipara Sheikh family
Residence11/32 Dhanmondi, Dhaka
Alma mater
Occupation
  • Insurance executive
  • politician
  • statesman
AwardsJoliot-Curie Medal of Peace
Independence Award
Gandhi Peace Prize
SAARC Literary Award
Signature
NicknameKhoka
Part of a series on the
Independence of Bangladesh
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Key persons
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Sheikh Mujibur Rahman[c] (17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), popularly known by the Bangabandhu[d] was a Bangladeshi politician, revolutionary, statesman, activist and diarist, who was the founding leader of Bangladesh. As the leader of Bangladesh, he had held continuous positions either as Bangladesh's president or as its prime minister from April 1971 until his assassination in August 1975.[e] His nationalist ideology, socio-political theories, and political doctrines are collectively known as Mujibism.

Born in an aristocratic Muslim family in Tungipara, Mujib emerged as a student activist in the province of Bengal during the final years of the British Raj. He was a member of the All India Muslim League. He supported Muslim nationalism and had a Pakistani establishmentalist outlook in his early political career. In 1949, he was part of a liberal, secular and left-wing faction which later became the Awami League. In the 1950s, he was elected to Pakistan's parliament where he defended the rights of East Bengal.

By the 1960s, Mujib adopted Bengali nationalism and became the undisputed leader of East Pakistan soon. He became popular for opposing political, ethnic and institutional discrimination; leading the six-point autonomy movement; and challenging the regime of Field Marshal Ayub Khan. In 1970, he led the Awami League to win Pakistan's first general election. When the Pakistani military junta refused to transfer power, he gave the 7th March speech and announced an independence movement. During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Mujib declared Bangladesh's independence.[8][9] Bengali nationalists declared him as the head of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh, while he was confined in a jail in West Pakistan.[10]

After the independence of Bangladesh, Mujib returned to Bangladesh in January 1972 as a hero and the leader of a war-devastated country.[11] In the following years, he played an important role in rebuilding Bangladesh, constructing a secular constitution for the country, transforming Pakistani era state apparatus, bureaucracy, armed forces, and judiciary into an independent state, initiating first general election and normalizing diplomatic ties with most of the world. His foreign policy during the time was dominated by the principle "friendship to all and malice to none". He remained a close ally to Gandhi's India and Brezhnev's Soviet Union, while balancing ties with the United States. He strongly opposed the apartheid policies of South Africa and dispatched an army medical unit during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. He gave the first Bengali speech to the UN General Assembly in 1974.

Mujib's government proved largely unsuccessful in curbing political and economic anarchy and corruption in post-independence Bangladesh, which ultimately gave rise to a left-wing insurgency. To quell the insurgency, he formed Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini, a special paramilitary force similar to Gestapo,[12] which was involved in various human rights abuses, massacres, enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings and rapes. Mujib's five-year regime was the only socialist period in Bangladesh's history,[13] which was marked with huge economic mismanagement and failure, leading to the high mortality rate in the deadly famine of 1974. In 1975, he launched Second Revolution, under which he installed a one party regime and abolished all kinds of civil liberties and democratic institutions, by which he "institutionalized autocracy" and made himself the "unimpeachable" President of Bangladesh, effectively for life, which lasted for seven months.[14][15] On 15 August 1975, he was assassinated with most of his family members in his Dhanmondi 32 residence in a coup d'état.

A populist of the 20th century, Mujib was one of the most charismatic leaders of the Third World in the early 1970s. His post-independence legacy remains divisive among Bangladeshis due to his economic mismanagement, the famine of 1974, human rights violations, and authoritarianism. Nevertheless, most Bangladeshis credit him for leading the country to independence in 1971 and restoring the Bengali sovereignty after over two centuries following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, for which he is honoured as Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal).[16][17] He was voted as the Greatest Bengali of all time in the 2004 BBC opinion poll.[18] His 7 March speech in 1971 is recognized by UNESCO for its historic value, and was listed in the Memory of the World Register.[19] Many of his diaries and travelogues were published many years after his death and have been translated into several languages.[20]

  1. ^ Hasan Pias, Mehedi (16 August 2020). "Inside the Indemnity Ordinance that protected the killers of Bangabandhu". Bdnews24.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2023. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  2. ^ "Civil Petition for Leave to Appeal Nos. 1044 & 1045 OF 2009" (PDF). The Daily Star. 2 February 2010. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 July 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  3. ^ Ali Manik, Julfikar (25 August 2010). "5th amendment verdict paves way for justice". The Daily Star. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 15 June 2022.
  4. ^ Asif Shawon, Ali (14 August 2021). "Bangabandhu's grand return to DU was ruined by assassination". Dhaka Tribune. Archived from the original on 27 July 2022. Retrieved 28 July 2022.
  5. ^ "Mu jib Reported Overthrown and Killed in a Coup by the Bangladesh Military". The New York Times. 15 August 1975. Archived from the original on 27 June 2024.
  6. ^ "Mujibur Rahman". Britannica. 11 August 2023. Archived from the original on 16 April 2019. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  7. ^ "Who is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose birth centenary Bangladesh is observing today". The Indian Express. 17 March 2020. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  8. ^ "Immortal Bangabandhu". Daily Sun. 15 August 2023. Archived from the original on 5 November 2023.
  9. ^ "First Schedule" (PDF). Laws of Bangladesh. Archived from the original (PDF) on 5 August 2024.
  10. ^ "Waiting for Mujib, Bengalis Delay Key Decisions". The New York Times. 7 January 1972. Archived from the original on 10 October 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  11. ^ Butterfield, Fox (16 January 1972). "Bangladesh". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 10 October 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  12. ^ Ziring, Lawrence (1999). Bangladesh: From Mujib to Ershad. Oxford University Press. p. 98. ISBN 9780195774207. Opinion was strong that the paramilitary organization was no different from Hitler's Brown Shirts or the Gestapo
  13. ^ "One Man's Basket Case". The New York Times. 30 January 1975. Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  14. ^ Dixit, J.N. (1999). Liberation and Beyond: Indo-Bangladesh relations. University Press Limited. p. 198. ISBN 9788122005455.
  15. ^ "SHEIK MUJIB GETS TOTAL AUTHORITY OVER BANGLADESH". The New York Times. 26 January 1975. Archived from the original on 26 September 2023. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  16. ^ "Who is Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, whose birth centenary Bangladesh is observing today". The Indian Express. 17 March 2020. Archived from the original on 27 May 2024. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  17. ^ Krebs, Albin (16 August 1975). "Mujib Led Long Fight to Free Bengalis". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 September 2024. Retrieved 2 August 2024.
  18. ^ "Listeners name 'greatest Bengali'". BBC News. 14 April 2004. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 16 April 2018.
    Habib, Haroon (17 April 2004). "International : Mujib, Tagore, Bose among 'greatest Bengalis of all time'". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018.
    "Bangabandhu judged greatest Bangali of all time". The Daily Star. 16 April 2004. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 9 November 2018.
  19. ^ "Unesco recognises Bangabandhu's 7th March speech". The Daily Star. 31 October 2017. Archived from the original on 31 October 2017. Retrieved 15 December 2022.
  20. ^ "'Amar Dekha Noya Chin': Bangabandhu's formative journey in a travelogue-style graphic novel". Prothom Alo. 28 February 2024. Archived from the original on 1 March 2024.


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