Today, Bangladesh is observing the year-long celebrations marking the 100th birthday of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of independent Bangladesh. This Year Bangabandhu’s birth centenary will also be celebrated all over the world in line with the initiative of Unesco as part of a one year long programme.
Bangabandhu, if he had lived would be 100 years old today. But he died prematurely at the hands of heinous killers on August 15, 1975. Thus, he lived only 55 years to serve the country for the creation of which he made matchless personal sacrifices.
The killers probably calculated that his killing would forever bury his legacy. But they were proved resoundingly to be very wrong for the party which he led triumphantly came back to power in 2009, fully rehabilitated in people’s eyes and in the next year tried his killers and hanged five of them. Six others are absconding abroad from justice.
Why the name and fame of Banghabandhu endures so popularly is because he was not merely an individual. Through his unflinching dedication to his cause, matchless patriotism and self sacrifice, he has lived through the decades in people’s memory as an iconic personality. Thus, today, he is romanticised and described as a whole splendid revolution himself, an upsurge-the essence of epic poetry and history. Contemporary history has recognized him as the greatest Bengali of the past thousand years.
His greatness, the vision and promises thrown forth by him, are the basic source of inspiration of this Bengali nation.
He was a very great friend of the teeming millions of our people. To the nation he is the Father. In the view of men and women in other places and other climes, he is the founder of sovereign Bangladesh.
Journalist Cyril Dunn once said of him, “In the thousands of years of history of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujib is the only leader who has, in terms of blood, race, language, culture and birth, been a full-blooded Bengali. His physical stature was immense. His voice was redolent of thunder. His charisma worked magic on people. The courage and charm that flowed from him made him a unique superman in these times.” Newsweek magazine called him the poet of politics.
Embracing Bangabandhu at the Algiers Non Aligned Summit in 1973, Cuba’s Fidel Castro noted, “I have not seen the Himalayas. But I have seen Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. In personality and in courage, this man is the Himalayas. I have thus had the experience of witnessing the Himalayas.” Upon hearing the news of Bangabandhu’s assassination, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson wrote to a Bengali journalist, “This is surely a supreme national tragedy for you. For me it is a personal tragedy of immense dimensions.”
The liberal democratic politics of Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Haque and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy contributed to the mouldingof Mujib’s character. He was absolutely committed to work for the public interest and the national interest with everything he possessed in his body and soul. He distinguished himself soon in his political career as the strongest advocate of Bengali nationalism. It was this particular passion that led to the rise of his ideology based on Bengali nationalism and for democracy leading to his brilliantly steering the course for the achievement of independent Bangladesh.
At the United Nations, he was the first man to speak of his dreams, his people’s aspiration, in Bangla. The language was, in that swift stroke , recognized by the global community. For the first time after Rabindranath Tagore’s Nobel achievement in 1913, Bangla was put on a position of dignity.
The multifaceted life of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman cannot be all put together here in language or colour. The reason is : Mujib was a larger than life titanic figure. It is not possible to hold within the confines of this column the picture or the extent of his greatness. He was the supreme leader in the struggle for our national independence . The greatest treasure of the Bengali nation is preservation of his legacy. He has conquered death. His memory should be an everlasting guide to his countrymen.
It was because of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rhman that his countrymen today live completely free in the air of freedom and enjoy unfettered all the opportunities for theirself development and progress and their collective advancement as a people and nation. Bangbandhu’s activities of a lifetime bestowed these great gifts on his people and the country.
Today, Bangladesh is recognized as a rising power in the family of nations. Various projections by world renowned analysts have confidently projected that Bangladesh is destined to be a great economic power house only decades from now and also a force for the good and welfare of entire mankind at the world stage. When this happens, Bangladeshis will realize how much they owe to Bangabandhu for setting them on this glorious path.
