Father of the Nation: Selected Speeches of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Dr Abul Hasnat Milton

Description

Father of the Nation contains twenty-five of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s speeches, which show how he led the Bengali people to seek freedom.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was an extraordinary orator. He was termed as a ‘poet of politics’ by the international ‘Newsweek’ magazine in April 1971. With the magic of words, he could awaken people.

During the turbulent late 1960s and early 1970s, he gave speeches that showed Bengalis the way to freedom. And at the forefront of Bangabandhu's great speeches is the one he gave on March 7, 1971, in a crowded Racecourse ground in Dhaka (now known as Suhrawardy Udyan). By leading the Bengali people to independence, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the Father of The Nation and the leader of the world's oppressed peoples' liberation movement.

This book contains 25 selected speeches of Sheikh Mujib. These speeches will provide insight into Bangabandhu's overall leadership ability. Therein lies the path to the liberation of the world's marginalised people. The words spoken in these speeches are still relevant today, despite being delivered decades ago. This is a must-read for those interested in Bangladesh's independence struggle, Bangabandhu, or the Third World citizens. Aside from that, we think our readers will enjoy this book. They can understand how, despite being the leader of a small South Asian country like Bangladesh, Bangabandhu emerged to become one of the world's most influential leaders in his time. Readers can also discover how a leader overcame adversity to change the path of his country and time.

 

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“I have not seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujib. In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas.” -Cuban leader Fidel Castro speaking about Mujib during the Non-Aligned Summit held in Algiers in 1973.

“In a sense, Sheikh Mujib is a greater leader than George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi and De Valera.” -Lord Fenner Brockway, British politician and passionate socialist.

“The Indian subcontinent is going through a hard situation due to ideological misleading and we have many reasons to seek help from Bangabandhu aiming to get encouraged and direction to this end. Sheikh Mujib’s thoughts and judgments are still relevant.” - Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.

“Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was ahead of his time. He was a champion of human rights who fought against oppression and exploitation. I had to prepare a draft report which was sent from Delhi to Seoul to establish diplomatic relations with Bangladesh. With my fountain pen, I signed a document for establishing diplomatic relations between the two nations.” - Former Secretary General of United Nations Ban Ki Moon.

Sujets

• Political Science
• Sheikh Mujib
• Bangabandhu
• Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
• Mujibur Rahman
• Bangladesh

Informations

• Publié par: Balboa Press AU
• Date de parution: 12 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781982291846
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

FATHER of the NATION Selected Speeches of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
 

 
DR ABUL HASNAT MILTON
 
 
 

 
 
Copyright © 2021 Dr Abul Hasnat Milton.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
Balboa Press
A Division of Hay House
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Bloomington, IN 47403
www.balboapress.com.au
AU TFN: 1 800 844 925 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
Cover design: Angie Alaya, Florida, USA
 
Image sources: mujib100.gov.bd, Website of Bangladesh Awami League www.albd.org , Graphic Arts Institute, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
 
Copy editor: Paul Mayhew, 121editorial.com.
 
 
 
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9185-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9186-0 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-9822-9184-6 (e)
 
Balboa Press rev. date: 10/03/2022
With respect and gratitude,
this book is dedicated to the daughters of
Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,
Sheikh Hasina
and
Sheikh Rehana
Preface
Our family friend and neighbour from Newcastle, Australia, taught English at a school in Bangladesh for many years. In Dhaka, she paid a visit to the Bangabandhu Memorial Museum. One day after her return, she asked me, “There was such a great leader like Sheikh Mujib in your country. Why didn’t we know about him before?”
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was indeed a great leader and the founder and official “Father of the Nation” of Bangladesh, earning his name “Bangabandhu,” friend of the people of Bangladesh, in his lifetime. 1 He has long been an inspiration to me for devoting his entire life to loving his people and liberating them from thousands of years of oppression.
There is some international awareness of his political struggle and role in the creation of Bangladesh, but little of his ideology and thinking is known outside Bangladesh. He was a brave man with a keen understanding of his followers and the people around him. He was also a powerful and eloquent orator who spoke from his heart for the demands and aspirations of millions of Bengalis. He inspired, motivated, and coordinated his audience, ultimately preparing them to give their lives in the Liberation War to achieve freedom.
Following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most of his family members on August 15, 1975, the new government attempted to suppress his name and achievements. This is certainly a part of why he is not more widely known internationally. The situation began to improve in June 1996, when Sheikh Hasina, Sheikh Mujib’s daughter, was elected prime minister of Bangladesh. With time, Sheikh Mujib is now receiving the recognition a great leader deserves, and his story will no doubt continue to spread across borders and centuries.
I recently noticed discussions on social media of the need for translations of Bangabandhu’s speeches. Researching for myself, I could only find a small portion of his life and works in English. Thus the seed of this book was sown.
Although I primarily write in Bengali, I have increasingly also written in English for my teaching and academic work. With this experience and evolving confidence, and with a desire to share his work with English-speaking readers around the world, I started translating Bangabandhu’s key speeches. I feel a sense of duty to spread his story to the entire world. Let the world know that a South Asian leader named Sheikh Mujibur Rahman fought to liberate the world’s exploited people!
With this selection of speeches I aimed to cover Bangabandhu’s entire political career, from 1956 to 1975. The speeches prior to the 1971 independence war provide valuable context for the liberation struggle in Bangladesh, and the post-1971 speeches convey a lot about the condition of the country at the time, as well as his ambitions and plans for restoring it. Also included, in chapters 2 and 3, are two speeches to the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in the 1950s, which he delivered in English. As a minor editorial point, chapters 5, 6, 7, 18, and 21 are incomplete speeches, as full transcripts were unavailable. I felt their value still warranted their inclusion.
My sources included both audiovisual recordings available on the internet and books of his speeches in Bengali. Where I found variations in the wording of published speeches, I tried to match the audiovisual version to ensure the speeches’ original meanings remained intact. For each chapter, the key references used are given in footnotes on the first page.
Sheikh Mujib liked to speak in the first-person singular in his speeches, often using “I” instead of “we” or “us.” This reflects his unique sense of possessing all Bengalis in his own existence. In translating, we considered occasions where “we” might be more his intention, but for him and many Bengalis, there was and is no line between Sheikh Mujib and the Bengali spirit.
Many people have assisted me in translating the book in various ways, some of whom I list in the subsequent “Acknowledgements” section. Many thanks to all my friends and well-wishers for their unwavering support. In addition, my family has provided me with immeasurable assistance in completing this time-consuming task. Thanks especially to my wife, Dr Shahnaz Akter Nupur, and my two children, Parthib Hasnat and Purnota Naz Hasnat, for making this possible. A special thank you to Paul Mayhew for help in developing and copy-editing the book.
If there is interest, I hope to pursue more work to spread the words and awareness of the great Bangabandhu.
It is my sincere hope that in this book the reader will discover a world-class political leader in Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Best wishes to all. Cheers!

Foreword

My father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was in school when he protested on behalf of his schoolmates and raised demand for a good hostel and good classrooms. He knew how to speak and motivate people around him to work for achieving their rights.
He never stopped or failed to be by the side of common people. He was righteous in nature, courageous in every step, and bold to say the truth. He believed in the power of his people, and he was committed to them.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s firm belief in freedom, equality, justice, and secularism made him the unquestionable leader of the Bangalee nation, and he became their beloved Bangabandhu, the Father of the Nation.
He was actively engaged in stopping riots during the partitioning of the Indian subcontinent, getting rights for the low-income peasants and labourers on their land and water bodies. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib was one of the earliest organizers of Language Movement, which culminated in a mass protest in 1952.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was an extraordinary orator. He could read the minds of his people, and everywhere he spoke, people followed him like he was a magician casting a spell on them. He subtly organized the youth to fight for the liberation of Bangladesh since 1948, and in 1966, he declared the Six-Point Demands, which became the framework of the movement for a democratic and independent Bangladesh.
His struggle for ending the feudal zamindari system, where landlords exploited the poor farmers, earned him huge support in the beginning of his political career. He had the wisdom, courage, and political wizardry to connect with and mobilize the people. His mesmerizing speeches acted like the Pied Piper of Hamelin on the Bangalee nation. The nation strived and struggled for independence, and on March 7, 1971, he gave one of the most treasured speeches of all, which changed the course of world history. The speech united the whole nation towards the war of liberation and emancipation from thousands of years of old monarchy, colonialism, and military rule. Bangladesh was born to end the story of deprivation and deceit. Now we can boldly say: If Sheikh Mujib was not there, no one knows if the Bangalee population would ever attain self-rule.
He had exceptional knowledge about society, culture, religion, democracy, and politics. He was a staunch advocate of human rights, women’s rights, child rights, and labour rights. He had his own vision to achieve what he wanted. Sheikh Mujib’s thoughts are portrayed in many of his speeches where he outlined his own ideas about socialism, poverty, and distribution of wealth. He was like a sailor who knew the map to freedom and had it engraved inside his heart. Sheikh Mujib became the everlasting source of inspiration and a beacon of hope for his people. His name is not just a name; his name depicts the glory of a hard-working nation. His speeches convey the messages to the people living now and for the future.
He was assassinated by the enemies of independence on the fateful night of August 15, 1975, along with eighteen of his family members, including wife, Begum Fazilatunnesa Mujib; three sons—freedom fighter Captain Sheikh Kamal, freedom fighter Lieutenant Sheikh Jamal, and ten-year schoolboy Sheikh Russel; two da