Sheikh Mujib: A natural born leader

Born on March 17, 1920, in a small village of Tungipara in Gopalganj, Sheikh Mujib was the eldest son of his parents whose ancestry is traced back to Baghdad, Iraq. From the family history, it is estimated that around 400 years ago, Sheikh Awal came from Iraq to preach Islam in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Part of the family may have settled in Sonargaon near Dhaka, and another part settled in Gopalganj. Mujib was part of the seventh generation in the Sheikh family, the eldest son of Sheikh Lutfur Rahman and Saira Khatun.

From an early age, Mujib protested against anything which he thought was not right. In 1937, he was admitted into the Gopalganj Mission School. In this district, Muslims and Dalits were minorities and it was difficult for them to sit in the front row of any class. Young Mujib refused to take this easily. On the very first day of school, he sat in the front bench. Eyebrows were raised but Mujib remained defiant. The class teacher Girish Babu ignored the incident.

After passing high school, Sheikh Mujib was sent to Kolkata to study at the Islamia College (now Maulana Azad College) in 1942 and his days there shaped his political future, as he came into contact with politicians from both Muslim League and Congress. That was a time when Netaji Subhas Bose and Gandhi's movement against the British rule in India was gaining momentum while the Second World War was destroying Europe. Just before Mujib arrived, Netaji Subhas Bose escaped India for Germany. Mujib's early political life was influenced by politicians like Netaji, Gandhi, A K Fazlul Huq, Huseyn Suhrawardy, Sarat Chandra Bose and Abul Hashim.

In 1943, because of the flawed policy of the British Government, Bengal was ravaged by a devastating famine in which an estimated five million people starved to death. From his school days, Mujib was a good organiser, and he immediately organised relief teams to help the starving people of Kolkata and Gopalganj. During this time, Khaja Nazim Uddin of Muslim League was the Prime Minister (now called Chief Minister) of Bengal and Hussein Shaheed Suhrawardy was given the portfolio of Food Minster. Mujib's humanitarian work brought him near to Suhrawardy, who later on became his political guru.

The famine of Bengal brought about a total change, particularly in the thoughts of the politicians of Bengal. The political leaders of Muslim League, Congress and other minor parties were convinced that to improve the socio-economic conditions of the common people, the British must leave India and give India its much deserved independence.

There were a number of alternatives as to what would happen to India if and when the British leave. Would India be one country as perceived in the Cabinet Mission Plan of 1946? Mujib wrote in The Unfinished Memoirs: "According to it (the plan), defence, foreign office and the ministry of communications would stay with the central government while the remaining ministries would revert to the provinces. Later, however, the Congress reneged on its commitment to the plan. As a result, the Cabinet Mission plan had to be abandoned." Under this plan, India would be a federal state and the division of India would be avoided. Gandhi even proposed that the first Prime Minster of India should be Jinnah. Nehru was not convinced. Mujib writes, "the British, it seemed to me, were eager to hand over power to Congress (the larger of the two parties) and leave India as soon as possible. But Muhammad Ali Jinnah knew the Congress and the British government well, and it wasn't easy to deceive someone like him. Jinnah declared that August 16, 1946 would be the "Direct Action Day"—a day to demonstrate Muslim solidarity for a separate land for them. He issued a statement urging everyone to observe this day peacefully. He wanted to show the British government that ten crore Muslims of India were determined to achieve Pakistan at any cost. The Congress and Hindu Mahasabha leaders began to issue statements claiming that "Direct Action Day" was really directed against them."

The Muslim League leaders tried their best to maintain calm on that day but unfortunately the people of both communities got involved in riots where thousands of innocent people lost their lives. Mujib and his young political workers tried their best to protect people from both communities, but the toll was quite heavy. The rioting lasted three days. This one single incident changed the political career of young Mujib, and to him, the division of India became inevitable.

On the stroke of midnight on August 14, 1947, India—the land that had remained united for time immemorial—fell victim to the unholy intentions of selfish politicians and the shrewd British, and was divided into India and Pakistan. That single event destroyed the peace and harmony of the region forever. 

Young Mujib relocated himself from Kolkata to Dhaka and for a while remained active with the Muslim League. However, Jinnah's visit to Dhaka in March 1948 changed his vision of politics for ever. Jinnah, the first Governor General of Pakistan, did not speak a word of Urdu but addressed a public rally in Ramna racecourse in English to say that Urdu—a language spoken by only 5 percent of the people of Pakistan (mostly migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar)—shall be the state language of Pakistan. This declaration was the first nail in the coffin of united Pakistan. The people, and later the students of the University of Dhaka, protested this irresponsible statement. Mujib, although he was a brilliant organiser, knew very well that such sporadic protests would not serve any purpose. To turn the protests into an organised movement, they needed an organisation, and the East Pakistan Muslim Student League was born in 1948. This was Mujib's first step into politics, as a student leader. The following year, East Pakistan Awami Muslim League (later to be renamed as East Pakistan Awami League) was born, and Mujib played a key role in making this happen.

Mujib's political career spread over 23 years of Pakistan and he had to spend 13 years of it in prison. Awami League was banned on a number of occasions by the military rulers of Pakistan. This was the only party which was considered a threat to the unity of Pakistan. Mujib faced death on two separate occasions, once during the Agartala Conspiracy Case and second during the Liberation War in 1971. It was only his courage and the people who loved him that stood in between. After his release from prison in 1969, preceded by a mass movement, he earned the title Bangabandhu—the Friend of Bengal. After his unprecedented victory in the general election of 1970, followed by the nine-month bloody War of Liberation, Mujib was crowned as the father of a new nation. Mujib lived only 52 years before he, along with his family members, were brutally murdered on the fateful night of August 15, 1975. During his lifetime, not only did he see the history and geography of this subcontinent change; he was part of it. He lived under three flags, the British at birth till Partition, Pakistan until 1971 and later on, he lived under the flag of Bangladesh, which he was instrumental in creating. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a true leader who had vision and could see the future. May his soul rest in peace and his memories live forever. History remembers only heroes, villains are forgotten. Joseph Campbell, an American Professor of Literature, wrote: "A hero is someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than oneself." No words could be truer than these when one assesses the contribution of Mujib to the history of this nation.   

Abdul Mannan is a former Chairman, University Grants Commission of Bangladesh.