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Six-Point Programme, a prelude to independence


Bangladeshpost
Published : 06 Jun 2020 08:58 PM | Updated : 06 Sep 2020 05:15 PM

Abdul Mannan

“It is quite obvious that this man (Sheikh Mujib) is a menace and will continue to mislead the Bengalis as long as he lives.” (Diaries of Field Marshal Mohammad Ayub Khan, 1966-1973).” 

This is how Pakistan’s Military and Civilian rulers before and after him assessed Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, later the Father of the Bangladesh Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Mujib changed the destiny of Pakistan and lead the creation of a new country, Bangladesh. 

Mujib as a young student in Calcutta (Kolkata) fought alongside with the Muslim League leaders for the creation of a separate country for the economically and socially downtrodden Muslims in Bengal. 

He saw from his early childhood school days how the Muslim community of Bengal suffered economic and social deprivation at the hands of large Hindu land owners, Zamindars, money lenders and social elites. This happened all over undivided Bengal.  

Mujib was a person who was very much concerned   with what he saw around him and when he went to Calcutta for his College studies, he thought he got a platform to fight against the oppressors to emancipate the oppressed and soon became an active worker of student front of the Muslim League. 

He became a witness of the horrific Bengal famine of 1943 and the communal riots of 1946. Soon he came into contact with popular Muslim Leaders in Calcutta, like Huseyn Shahid Suhrawardy, A K Fazlul Hoque, Abdul Hashim and others. Like most Muslims he was also mistakenly convinced that only a separate homeland for them could improve their socio-economic conditions of the Muslims in Bengal. He was not much aware about the Muslims in other parts of India. 

India was divided into two separate states, India and Pakistan and the separation came into effect on 14 August 1947 based on the strange Two Nation Theory of Jinnah. To put things in proper perspective there were others who also believed in this strange theory. 

Pakistan also became a unique country with one thousand miles of Indian territory in the middle and there were more Muslims in India than in Pakistan. When the two new countries were carved out of one undivided, sub-continent most people were not aware which country they belonged to as the line of demarcation was not published till 17 August 1947. This led to another catastrophic riot in many parts of Indian sub-continent, specially Punjab. 

The Muslim Leaders of Bengal along with many others migrated to the newly created the then East Bengal (later East Pakistan and subsequently Bangladesh) just to find out the main reason behind the so called a separate country for the Muslims. It was a just a ploy to replace the English and the large land and money owning exploiters by the rich capital owing Punjabis. 

Only the large land owners of West Punjab who had the money and muscle. They just used Jinnah as their front-line crusader as he had western education, studied law and behaved like a westerner. He was not considered a Muslim by orthodox Muslims as he came from an    Ismaily Khoja family in Gujrat. 

Jinnah did not speak any other language, other than English and a bit of Gujrati. That same Jinnah came to Dhaka in 1948 and declared English will be the lingua franca of Pakistan which simply meant 94 percent of the population of Pakistan will virtually become illiterate as only 6 percent of the people of Pakistan, most of whom migrated from the Northern India spoke Urdu.  

At birth of Pakistan East Pakistan had 56 percent of the total population of Pakistan and their language was Bangla. When Jinnah declared that only Urdu shall be the lingua franca of Pakistan it was the people, especially the students of Dhaka University who protested, amongst them Mujib being one of them. 

The people realized that there will not be any change in their socio-economic condition of the people of Bengal. The creation of Pakistan only changed the rulers and not the plight of the common people. The rich money owners of specially   Punjab have replaced the English and the Hindu Zamindars and big land owners. 

The unjust decisions of Pakistan’s rulers never went unchallenged in East Pakistan, the students playing the vanguard. But the vigilant students  also understood the instead of a organized protest they needed an organized platform and thus they formed the East Pakistan Muslim Students’ League virtually the first opposition party of Pakistan in 1948 and East Pakistan Muslim Awami League the following year. 

In the formation of both organizations young Mujib played important roles. He could see the future of the people of Bengal and how these political platforms would come to play an important role in shaping their destiny. 

The first testing time for the people of East Bengal came in the month of February of 1952 during the language movement.  The language movement was a crucial turning point in the history of East Pakistan.  

In 1954 the first ever election of Pakistan was held in East Bengal to elect the members of the Provincial parliament. It was a testing time for Muslim League the party in power and the entire administration behind it. Though initially the political parties of East Bengal decided to compete in the election individually the students of Dhaka University again made a history when they managed to forge an alliance of major political parties, names United Front or Jukta Front  Awami League taking a leading role. 

‘United Front’ was led my Maulana Bhashani, Huseyn Shahid Suhrawardy and A K Fazlul Hoque. The went to the people with the 21 points manifesto which highlighted the discrimination the people of Bengal imposed on them by the rulers in West Pakistan. The 21-point manifest, among others included (a) complete autonomy of each province as promised in the Lahore resolution of 1946. 

Only Défense, foreign relations, and foreign currency related issues will be dealt by the Centre, Bangla would be one of State Languages of Pakistan, release of all political prisoners, separation of judiciary from the administration complete land reforms favouring the landless farmers etc. Each and every point of the 21 point was pro-poor and pro-people.  

The election was won by the Front with a landslide victory with only nine seats going to Muslim League. Sher-e-Bangla A K Fazlul Hoque was sworn in as the Chief Minister of East Bengal on 2 April 1954 he formed a cabinet with Sheikh Mujib as one of the members. But the conspiratorial rulers of West Pakistan in a matter of 41 days dissolved the provincial government on 20 May 1954 and imposed the Governor Generals Rule in East Pakistan and arrested most of the leaders of United Front.  

This may be seen as a victory of the people of East Bengal as it was evident that the West would never allow the people of this part of Pakistan to fight for their legitimate rights.  It was evident that the rulers sitting in the West would never yield to the legitimate demands of the people of Eastern wing, they were born to be subjugated the mistakenly thought.   


Abdul Mannan is a Bangladeshi educator. He served as the 12th chairman of University Grants Commission of Bangladesh during 2015–2019 and the vice-chancellor of the University of Chittagong during 1996–2001