Photo : Collected
The historic speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the crucial month of March rekindled the hope and aspiration of the people of East Bengal for an independent, democratic and secular nation-state—Bangladesh.
There was lots of speculation, confusion and rumours over the speech of Sheikh Mujib on March 7, whether the Pakistani military junta would ban the public meeting at Race Course Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan).
It was cold in Falgun morning and people became restless and poured into the streets in hundreds and thousands and marched to join the Race Course in the afternoon.
Finally, the ‘voice of thunder’ was heard by a million people, gathered to hear Mujib speak amidst the roaring slogan “Joy Bangla”.
The architect of Bangladesh spoke flawlessly, which changed the history of Bangladesh.
Bangabandhu unequivocally declared, "The struggle this time is for emancipation. The struggle this time is for independence." He called for a peaceful movement to continue the struggle for independence.
East Pakistan police intelligence estimated that there were 12 lakh people present in the public meeting. (East Pakistan Police Abstract of Intelligence, 13 March 1971)
In 2017, UNESCO recognised the 18-minute speech given by Bangabandhu in March 1971 as part of the world's documentary heritage. The speech was the first Bangladeshi content to be included in the Memory of the World Programme, a UNESCO programme that preserves, protects, and makes accessible the world's documentary heritage.
The speech invited reactions from military hawks in Rawalpindi, the Pakistani military headquarters, as well as in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States.
In response to Pakistan’s Military Dictator General Yahya Khan's call, a senior officer reported, "This is the best speech under the circumstances." (Siddiq Salik, Witness to Surrender, UPL 1997, pg. 54)
Khadim Hussain Raja, the then general officer commanding (GOC) in East Pakistan, termed Sheikh Mujib's speech, compared with Yahya Khan's 6th March speech, "remarkably conciliatory".
He further wrote, "Credit goes to Sheikh Mujib for averting an immediate crisis and for preventing a lot of Bengali blood from being split on the streets of Dhaka." (Khadim Hussain Raja, A Stranger in My Own Country, UPL 2012, pg. 63)
Consul General Archer K Blood wrote in his memoir: "The situation remains confused as two sides jockey for position and wait for the other to force issue. Mujib has, we believe, defused the immediate crisis. Little by little, the Sheikh and the Awami League become the de facto authorities in East Pakistan. Meanwhile, the concept of Pakistan continues to erode. At the same time, he keeps the initiative and maintains control of the situation." (The Cruel Birth of Bangladesh: Memoirs of An American Diplomat", UPL in 2002)
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