Mujib’s moment of truth

The history of the 20th century shows, national leaders had to deal with not only a testing period of political struggle but also a short critical moment or certain culmination point when each of them alone was faced with the burden of taking a decision on behalf of the millions passionately waiting for what they believed to be salvation from subjugation.

That one person once turned into the single voice of his people as he had been the embodiment of aspirations of the commoners as well as the symbol of all future institutions of the nation.

For Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who secured the people’s mandate in the 1970 elections to take any decision, be it formation of the cabinet in the erstwhile Pakistan or declaration of independence when denied the right to do so, it is 7 March 1971, now famous for his speech delivered at Race Course Maidan in Dhaka.

Already emerged as the undisputed leader representing the Bangalees of the then Pakistan territ6ory, Mujib was under tremendous moral pressure to formally proclaim independence when he was supposed to address the emotionally charged 7 March crowd.

Mujib, however, proved extraordinary oratory capacity to guide his audience who returned home animated from the Race Course Maidan but in one of the most peaceful manners in history of liberal struggle.

With his narratives crafted in language used by average Bangalees of the East Bengal, not the puritan dialect of the West Bengal elites of the century, Mujib clearly dictated the crowd full of grievances against the Pakistani rulers, anger that was raised further by the military regime’s dilly-dally to allow the winner of the majority seats in parliament, the Awami League, to form the government.

He made the people ready for liberation war but fell short making a formal independence proclamation. “The struggle this time is for emancipation! The struggle this time is for independence!” is what he said to satisfy the young blood that was insisting on declaration of independence by him at the historic gathering.

In the very turbulent subsequent days of March 1971, he joined talks with People’s Party leader ZA Bhutto, initiated by dictator Yahiya Khan and eventually he himself was arrested on 25 March night when the Pakistan military launched a crackdown in the Eastern wing.

However, the 7 March speech came up as a critical moment of history faced by Mujib alone. There were various claims about inputs of the speech, but it was Mujib who himself had to deliver what seemed to be fluent extempore speech.

And he was the leader, a leader of 75 million people of yet-to-be-born Bangladesh and recognised subsequently by world leaders.

Contemporary people were often derailed by the talks of nitty-gritty of the speech or events of the later period but what is generally missed is the climax of not only his political leadership but also a simple point that for that particular moment Mujib became the unified voice of the Bangalees, and the promise of future Bangladesh.

In the afternoon on 7 March 1971, Mujib was no longer any individual but himself the state, which was yet to see its legislature, executive and judiciary.

He was one of the classic cases of charismatic leaders who led independence struggle against colonial subjugation in Asia and Africa. Quite a number of nations have unfortunately failed to transform the charisma into local institutions to build functional democratic states while a few managed to make a peaceful and successful transition towards democratic journey.

In the real time, Mujib’s 7 March speech was given with challenge to meet public expectations of building a nation with ‘equality, human dignity and social justice’ as stipulated in the proclamation of independence made by the Mujibnagar government in April 1971.

Almost half a century later, the speech is being watched and read from another end - after formation of a nation. The expectations reflected in it might be seen through the lance of happenings of these years.

Now, the younger generation of this country may find a new context of Mujib’s historic speech in building a better Bangladesh.

The people’s resentment against the regime’s denial of democratic rights was reflected in their presence in Race Course Maidan and the listening to the speech via radio during the nine months of liberation war. The Bangladesh people still long for democracy.

However, every generation does not have the opportunity to witness such a climax of leadership and collective aspirations but generations wait, knowingly or unknowingly, for such a moment to make changes and build a future of the state and the society.