Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is a villain for many Pakistanis. One-sided history books tell us that Mujib was a traitor who broke up Pakistan with the help of India.
We read in our history books that All-India Muslim League was formed in Dhaka in 1906 but we don’t know why the Pakistan Army surrendered to the Indian Army on December 16, 1971, in Dhaka.
We tried to cover the black spots of our history with lies but the The Unfinished Memoirs of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman have negated all the official history books taught in our schools and colleges.
This autobiography reveals that Mujib was actually an active worker of the Pakistan movement since his school days. He wrote the truth about himself in his memoirs. He never hid his role for the creation of the Muslim League in his hometown Gopalganj in 1939.
He even accepted that at one point Bengali leader Fazlul Haq refused to submit to the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah in 1941. At this stage the Muslim League started a campaign against Fazlul Haq and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was part of that campaign.
He was with Jinnah, not with Fazlul Haq. He was among those young workers of the Muslim League who used to sell a pro-Pakistan weekly newspaper Millat on the streets of Dhaka.
It is important to note that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wrote this book when he was imprisoned in Dhaka jail during the dictatorial regime of Gen Ayub Khan. He narrated some important events of the Pakistan movement very honestly.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman exposed the dishonesty of Viceroy Lord Mountbatten and wrote that Mountbatten was helping the Congress Party covertly in all sorts of ways against the Muslim League.
He was incarcerated by a military dictator at that time but he never tried to please the Congress which was ruling India in those days.
This book is a first-hand account of politics in Pakistan from 1947 to 1955, which was full of palace intrigues and conspiracies. This book is a great source of history for the young generation of Pakistan.
This book tells us about the communal violence that broke out after the division of India in 1947. One day Sheikh Mujibur Rahman saw that hundreds of Hindus were attacking a mosque. He cried out “Pakistan Zindabad!” with some other young Muslims and started resisting the Hindu mob by brick-throwing.
Why did this soldier of the Muslim League leave the party of Muhammad Ali Jinnah immediately after the creation of Pakistan?
Young Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was very disappointed when the prime minister of Pakistan declared in the Legislative Assembly that the people of East Pakistan must accept Urdu as their state language. Young Mujib came out on the roads on March 11, 1948, against this declaration.
He was not opposing Pakistan. He was only defending his language, which was his political right, but he was arrested. Mujib was released on January 21, 1949. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was no more and Mujib left the Muslim League.
He joined the newly formed Awami Muslim League under the leadership of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Within five years the Awami League swept the Muslim League from East Pakistan.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won the election from Gopalganj in 1954 and took oath as provincial minister for agriculture. The Muslim League government in the centre never accepted its defeat and dismissed the United Front government in Dhaka. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was again arrested.
His memoirs are unfinished, but we must accept some historical realities as the ultimate truth in our own interest.
When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested in 1954, army chief Gen Ayub Khan was preparing his officers for a military coup. The first chief of the general staff of the Pakistan army, Sher Ali Pataudi, wrote in his autobiography that Ayub wanted to interfere in politics, and once told him: “The bloody politicians and civilians were useless, corrupt and inefficient.”
The Legislative Assembly asked the GHQ to increase the recruitment of Bengalis in the army. Pataudi tried to implement the orders of the assembly, but Ayub was not interested. When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was writing his memoirs in jail, former chief justice of Pakistan Muhammad Munir was the law minister in Ayub’s regime.
He wrote a book From Jinnah to Zia in 1979. He wrote that Ayub Khan suggested that he should talk about separation with some influential Bengali leaders. One day Law Minister Munir spoke to a Bengali minister, Ramizuddin. “His reply was prompt and straight. He asked me whether I was suggesting secession. I said yes; or something like confederation or more autonomy. Ramizuddin said: “Look here, we are the majority province and it is for the minority province to secede because we are Pakistan.”
Why did Ayub dislike Bengalis? Because Bengalis supported Fatima Jinnah against Ayub in the presidential election of early 1965. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the chief polling agent of Fatima Jinnah in Dhaka.
The fact is that it was not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who wanted to break up Pakistan. He only demanded provincial autonomy in the 1950s and 1960s, but our military regime tried to silence his voice by throwing him in jail.
He never abandoned the political struggle and participated in the first general elections of Pakistan in 1970. The Awami League emerged as the majority party, but the military regime of Gen Yahya Khan refused to transfer power to the Awami League. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was arrested and a military operation was started.
What happened in this operation? In A Stranger in My Own Country, Major Gen (r) Khadim Hussain Raja, who served in Dhaka between 1969 and 1971, wrote that on March 10, 1971, Lt Gen Niazi spoke to senior officers in the operations room of Dhaka. Niazi became abusive and started talking in Urdu.
He said: “Main iss (...) qaum ki nasal badal doonga. Yeh mujhey kia samajhtey hain?” He threatened that he would let his soldiers loose on their womenfolk. The next morning a Bengali officer, Maj Mushtaq, went into the bathroom at the command headquarter and shot himself in the head. There were reports of Bengalis being massacred and their women being raped.
The Unfinished Memoirs of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is historical evidence that Bengalis never broke up Pakistan, but actually created Pakistan.
In fact, the political intrigues and blunders of military dictators broke up Pakistan. We forced Bengalis to take up arms against us. It’s time now to apologise officially to the people of Bangladesh. Only brave people accept their mistakes.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
was Mohammed Ali Jinnah. Jinnah was leader of the Muslim League. He felt that Muslims…
- 747 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
When the peace treaty was being formed between the Pakistan and Indian government, Pakistan threatened to kill over 400,000 Bengalis who were stranded in West Pakistan. The reason why Pakistan threatened to kill over 400,000 Bengalis, because they felt they were superior to the Bengalis and felt that they were not at the same social class as the Pakistani. (Genocidebangldesh) In retaliation, the Bengalis threatened to kill Pakistan army officials who were arrested in Bangladesh during the genocide. The army officials that were captured by the Bangladesh government was prisoners of war during the genocide. Not only did the Pakistani threaten to kill the Bengalis nationalists that were stranded in West Pakistan, but the Islamic militant groups placed in Bangladesh during the genocide from the Pakistan army, created fear among the Hindu people. (Narain.Icpsnet) Groups such as the Al – Badr and Al – Shams, who slaughtered Hindus in the name of Islam, were never found guilty of their involvement during the genocide. However they created fear in the Bengali people. (Jahan 304) Bengali people feared that another genocide would occur again soon, with perpetrators of the Al – Badr and Al - Shams walking among them and never found guilty of their actions and involvement during the…
- 2723 Words
- 11 Pages
Good Essays -
According to orthodox historians, Jinnah was central to the partition of India.* He transformed the Muslim League from an elitist, marginally supported party to one of the most influential bodies at the all-India level. He mobilised the Muslims masses and according to Gilmartin, helped them to transcend their provincial divides and focus on a wider cause.* Jinnah accused the Indian National Congress of having a Hindu bias and feared their totalitarianism. He developed the 'Two Nations' theory, which asserted that Hindus and Muslims were two separate nations and should have parity in central and provincial governments. This led to the passing of the Lahore Resolution in March 1940, which orthodox historians highlight as the beginning of his campaign for Pakistan. Jinnah formally asserted that the Muslims were a nation and 'independent states'* should be formed. In June 1940, he published his 'Tentative Proposals,' which repeated his demands for the division of Hindus and Muslims and advocated…
- 2129 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
“The establishment of Pakistan for which we have been striving for the last ten years is, by grace of God, an established fact today, but the creation of a State of our own was a means to an end and not the end in itself. The idea was that we should have a state in which we could live and breathe as free men and which we could develop according to our own lights and culture and where principles of Islamic social justice could find fairplay.”…
- 348 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
[ 47 ]. The meeting between Gandhi and Mountbatten, as described in the Mountbatten Papers. Singh, 2009, pg. 435…
- 5859 Words
- 24 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto assumed control of Pakistan in the aftermath of the debacle that was 1971: the State of Pakistan had lost more than half of its population and a major source of revenue to a secessionist movement, its army was humiliated with almost ninety-three thousand prisoners of war in hostile Indian custody, and the economy was in complete turmoil. Bhutto’s rallying cry of ‘Roti, Kapra, Makaan’ had allowed him to win the majority seats in West Pakistan in the elections of 1970, and with the secession of East Pakistan in 1971, the path to the presidency was clear. Certain historians and political analysts have credited Bhutto with pulling Pakistan through the darkest period of its history, but in ‘Signposts to a Police State’, Eqbal Ahmad, argues that Bhutto might have done more damage to Pakistan than good. To support this claim he draws attention towards personality flaws of the man himself which resulted in certain damaging policy decisions. In addition to this, Eqbal also shows how the balance of power within the country was shifting in the military’s favor, partial responsibility of which he places on Bhutto. ‘Signposts to a Police State’ is then a critique of Bhutto’s policies in the period 1972-1974, based on which Eqbal attempts to give a prognosis of the direction in which Pakistan was headed politically.…
- 692 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The history of Pakistan as a separate country began in 1947 when the Indian subcontinent gained independence from Great Britain and was partitioned into the two countries of Pakistan and India. This separation was the culmination of events set in motion by the formation of the All-India Muslim League in 1906 to seek political rights for Muslims. Mohammed Ali Jinnah, called Qa'id-e-A'zam (Great Leader), served as the league's president and was the main force behind partition. At first he worked with India's Congress party for a free united India, but the Muslims doubted that a Hindu majority would respect their rights. In 1940 Jinnah demanded a separate Islamic state, and when the British departed in 1947 Pakistan came into being as a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Karachi was made the administrative capital, and Dhaka in East Pakistan later became the legislative capital. Jinnah ruled as governor-general until his death in 1948.…
- 2033 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the early 80’s and the following secret intervention of the United States by way of raising a rebellious religious army within Afghanistan, it was not difficult for Musharraf to manage an assignment in the operation. He was one of the favorites of President Zia ul-haq, Musharraf came into the charmed circle after he had put a popular rebellion in the Afghanistan. Musharraf’s role was to help establish training camps set up logistics and penetration routes and organize guerilla attacks on the Soviet forces. He courted religious leaders helped them set up madarsas, routed man and material support and became part of a new, evolving strategy being crafted by the Pakistan army to turn its single point agenda of crippling India to avenge to name just two reasons, Kashmir and East…
- 849 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
clinging to the sides of the train and they may fall off when the train…
- 2597 Words
- 21 Pages
Good Essays -
By the turn of the decade, the Muslim League had lost all credibility in East Pakistan because of its language policy.There the mainstream Muslim League broke away and formed the Awami League in 1949. In West Pakistan, the Muslim League split into two informal groups-one consisting of old Leaguers who were mostly migrants from India and the other comprising the new entrants, mostly Punjabis and a few Sindhis and Pathans.…
- 910 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
WOMEN played a major role in the Pakistan Movement. This was of great historical significance, for the Muslim women of the subcontinent had never participated in such great numbers in a political movement. It was a befitting culmination of the reformist movements of the late nineteenth century for the emancipation and education of Muslim women. The Quaid can be seen as source of inspiration for their emergence as players on the political scene.…
- 345 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
August 15 -- Quid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah (1876-1948) of Muslim League becomes first governor-general and Liaquat Ali Khan(1895-1951) of Muslim League becomes the first Prime Minister of the new nation.…
- 2488 Words
- 10 Pages
Good Essays -
Kingdom on 14 August 1947, when British India was divided by the United Kingdom, in a region…
- 549 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Izharul Haq, S.M. “Iqbal’s Role in Reawakening the Muslims”. Daily The Pakistan Times, LHR. (9th November 1992)…
- 580 Words
- 3 Pages
Best Essays -
WOMEN played a major role in the Pakistan Movement. This was of great historical significance, for the Muslim women of the subcontinent had never participated in such great numbers in a political movement. It was a befitting culmination of the reformist movements of the late nineteenth century for the emancipation and education of Muslim women. The Quaid can be seen as source of inspiration for their emergence as players on the political scene.…
- 1566 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays