What Happened in 1971 | History Of Pakistan
It was March 11, 1948, when protests were taking place in Dhaka.
One protest procession was heading to the residence of Chief Minister Bengal Khwaja Nazimuddin.
The protestors were demanding national language status for the Bangla language.
The protestors were very angry over the Urdu language instead of Bangla printed on coins and stamps.
Attempts were made to stop this protest rally.
Which increased tension wherein the police resorted to serious action against the protestors.
Many were injured including the leader of the protest rally.
He was the same person who had presented the Pakistan Resolution in 1940.
He was Sher-e-Bengla Abul Kasem Fazlul Huq, AK Fazluq Huq.
From Chittagong to Quetta only one was the subject of discussion in 1948.
That whether national language would be Urdu, or Bengla or both.
And Capital of East Bengal, Dhaka was the center of this dispute.
In 1948 Founder of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah came to Dhaka to talk to the people on this issue.
A huge gathering of the Quaid's fans was present before him.
Everyone had one question in mind; whether or not Bengla would be the national language?
What happened in that public meeting?
Why this dispute on language ended up at the division of the largest Islamic state in the world?
And that too drawing a line of unabated hatred.
What was the inside story of 1971?
I am Faisal Warraich and in the Dekho Suno Jano's mini-series of History of Pakistan...
"what happened in 1971," I will show you all this.
A smartly dressed person was addressing gracefully the public at...
the Race Course Medan Dhaka on March 21,1948.
He was Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the Founder of Pakistan.
He praised the Bengalis on their role and sacrifices in the struggle for independence.
Then he came to the real question.
He categorically supported Urdu as the national language of Pakistan.
"Let me make it very clearly to you. There should be no doubt that the state language...
of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language."
He said no nation could make progress unless it had a single national language.
"Without state language, no nation can survive."
He asked the Bengalis to consider making Bengla an official language of Bengal.
And a decision would be taken on it at the time of framing the Constitution.
"For official use in this province, people of (the) province can choose any language they wish."
This question will be decided only in accordance with the wishes of this province. Hello...
As freely expressed through their elected representatives at the appropriate time."
The Bengalis highly respected Quaid-e-Azam.
Therefore the matter of Bengla language was put to the back burner for the time being.
But sentiments of the Bengalis got reignited when the language issue remained unsettled till Quaid's death.
The sentiments flared to the limit that the Bengali leaders formed a separate party on June 23, 1949.
This political party was formed against the Founder Party of Pakistan, the Muslim League.
The Bengalis named it Awami Muslim League.
However, after a few years, the world ''Muslim'' was omitted from its name.
And it was renamed "Awami League."
The Bengali leaders wanted the Party to run on a secular basis instead of religion.
Maulana Bhashani was the first president of this Party.
And a student leader of the Pakstan Movement was among its joint secretaries.
His name was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman had been a member of the Muslim Students Federation (MSF).
His political guide was Hussain Shaheed Suharwardi.
Suharwadi had served as Chief Minister Bengal before the partition of India.
But after establishment of Pakistan, he had quit the Muslim League.
And later joined the Awami League.
So this party formed in the background of language issue began the struggle...
to achieve the objective from the very first day.
It was for making Bengla the national language of the State of Pakistan.
But the situation went bad due to the statement by a Bengali leader on January 26,1952.
On that date, Prime Minister of Pakistan Khwaja Nazimud Din, himself a Bengali,...
announced that Urdu should be the official language of Pakistan.
This announcement had coincided with the framing of the Constitution of Pakistan.
The Constitution had to resolve the language issue also.
Awami League was much angry over this announcement.
So protest demonstrations started in East Pakistan immediately.
Awami League was leading these protests.
In order to stop the protest, Section 144 was imposed in Dhaka on February 20, 1952.
Now the gathering of more than four persons at a place was banned.
The student of Dhaka University did not accept this restriction.
So they took to street protest on February 21.
The students blocked roads and forced vehicles to stop.
And pelted stones if any vehicle did not stop.
The police tried to check the protestors but they became more violent.
In the height of fury, both sides took to violence.
Students attacked the police force.
Many policemen were injured due to stones pelting.
And the police opened fire to disperse the students.
And the firing took the life of five students.
The students were dispersed but the entire Bengali people had known that...
five students laid down their life for the sake of Bangla language.
The news further angered the already agitated people.
The next day in East Pakistan began with protests and strikes.
Students staged a boycott of the classes and Pakistani flags lowered deliberately.
The protests intensified.
And the police again restored to firing and more protestors were killed.
Now curfew was clamped and army called in.
In Dhaka curfew was imposed intermittently.
At times It was at night and some times in the day.
But Awami League continued protests and strikes.
It announced a complete shutter down strike in Dhaka on February 23.
And also gave a protest call.
Thus strike and protest both were held.
And the army also continued patrolling.
And Dhaka Unversity was the centre of this entire stormy situation.
So the University was closed down for some days.
It calmed down the situation for the time being.
But the situation popularised the Awami League for which it took the benefit...
two years after in the provincial elections.
Polling took place for the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly in March 1954.
They were the first elections for the provincial assembly taking place only in East Bengal.
The Muslim League was undoubtedly the most popular party before these polls.
It was to compete with the newly formed Awami League now.
Awami League was fully prepared to take part in the elections.
It formed an electoral alliance with three other nationalist parties.
It was named Jukto Front or the United Front.
The alliance announced to contest the election on the basis of a 21-point agenda.
Seeking a complete autonomy for the East Bengal was the crux of the 21-point agenda.
Only the defence, currency, communication, and foreign affairs should be with the central government.
Making Bangla the national language was the second most important demand of this alliance
Sher-e-Bengal AK Fazlul Huq was the head of this Front.
Polling was held on March 9 and 11.
And the results were highly surprising.
The United Front had obtained 97 percent votes against less than 3 percent by the Muslim League.
It was so crushing defeat which could be assessed from the fact a young student of the Front...
Khaleequz Zaman had defeated the Muslim League candidate and CM Bengal Nurul Amin.
Amin was defeated with a big margin.
United Front won the elections and AK Fazulul Huq was made the Chief Minister.
A happy result the Front's victory came as acceptance of the demand of the Bengalis.
That on April 19, 1954, the Constituent Assembly also gave Bangla the status of state language with Urdu.
This second most vital demand of the Awami League was accepted.
But their demand for autonomy to East Bengal was still unfulfilled.
With the passage of time, this demand became very strong.
But this demand was not being accepted.
So the split between the government and the Opposition on this issue went from...
arguments to physical fight and violence.
The Bengalis and the non-Bengalis in the United Front came down to clashes.
On May 15 violent protests took place in Adamjee Jute Mills near Dhaka.
Within days the death toll in the clashes rose to 400 while thousands of others injured.
The situation damaged popularity of the United Front.
The media published that a large number of RSS Hindus from India had entered East Pakistan...
and in collusion with the Communists, they had allegedly triggered violence.
That the Fazlul Huq government had also failed to take timely action to check the violence.
These were the charges levelled on the Awami League.
A newspaper also cartooned Fazlul Huq pulling down the wall of the Ideology of Pakistan.
The allegations were so serious that CM Fazlul Huq was charged with treason.
Fazlul Huq gave the interview to the US newspaper, The New York Time.
The newspaper attributed to him a statement that he wanted Bengal's separation from Pakistan.
Fazlul Huq categorically disowned this statement.
But the local media did not stop labelling him with treason.
Sher-e-Bengal was also cartooned as clustered by the Hindus.
In this situation, Governor-General Ghulam Muhammad dismissed his government on May 23, 1954.
The Governor-general declared the governor's rule in Bengal.
Sikandar Mirza, a Bangali, was appointed the Governor.
Airforce planes dropped the pamphlets against Fazlul Huq and to justify his removal on the ground ...
that he was planning to break the country.
Thus the first elected government that came with the huge mandate was dismissed...
in less than two months on the treason charges.
The leader who had presented the Pakistan Resolution was dubbed as a traitor and...
and put under house arrest.
Subsequently, 659 leaders of the United Front were also detained.
Among them, Minister of that short-lived government Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was also included.
But it was not his last arrest.
During the Martial Law of General Ayub Khan in 1958, Mujib was again arrested.
And this time, the arrest had changed his heart and mind.
He said it was the moment when his thoughts took a diametrical change.
According to the Awami League website then Mujibur Rahman had resolved to fight...
for the liberation of Bengal.
After the death of Hussain Shaheed Suharwardi in 1963, Mujibur Rahman became...
the president of Awami League.
The future of Pakistan had practically come into his hands after he took over the most popular party.
Because East Pakistan outnumbered West Pakistan in population.
From this point such incidents began to shape up that resulted in...
dividing the largest Islamic state in the world into two.
The major incident took place in the Indian city which was located at the border of East Bengal.
A year before the 1971 war, India had attacked East Pakistan and killed hundreds of Bengalis, why?
What caused the killing of lakhs of Bengalis months before clashes started in 1971?
And who said at that time that another one million Bengalis would lay down the life if the need arouse
/ dekhosunojano
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