Mujibnagar: the mother government of Bangladesh

Afsan Chowdhury
Published : 24 April 2016, 03:06 AM
Updated : 24 April 2016, 03:06 AM

The Cabinet Secretary of the Mujibnagar government, Mr. H.T. Imam, has expressed his ire that said government had been referred to as the "provisional" government of Bangladesh. This stems from lack of information and also lack of interest in the history of 1971 beyond what serves as a tool of political advantage seeking on either side.

In this situation Mr. Imam too should ponder whether he has played a role or not. Has he done enough to compile a free, independent history of 1971, which serves no purpose other than to enlighten us about our birth as a state, and ensure its distribution?  We have been developing our national identity for decades and this matured into a state in 1971 after conflict with Pakistan. Mujibnagar government is the first government and this is history, not politically convenient data.

It's an interesting question to ask when the Bangladesh Government began because the de facto and de jure element are not the same, but both are significant.

Legalistically, when we observe March 26th as the Independence Day, the government of a state can only happen after that. However, the process began after the speech of March 7 and not because of the declaratory part of it but because the administrative directions given and even more important, the willingness of the people to participate and follow them.

This part is generally referred to as the "non-cooperation" movement period which in effect also means that the Pakistan government ceased to be in power de facto and only as de jure, that is in paper only. It was also as, Dr. Kamal Hossain once said in an interview to me, "our finest period in history."  It lasted from March 7 to March 25.

In the areas outside Dhaka, people began to gather together around the period and in the rural areas, the Sangram Committees began to be organized. This was perhaps the most historic transition process of them, all as the older/earlier rural elite whose power was based on land holdings gave away to the political elite whose power stemmed from traditional sources but also from other sources including extra-farm income and social capital stemming from political influence.

As the Muslim League, the party of choice of the old elite, was routed in the 1970 elections, a new elite which supported the Awami League came to the forefront. It was the new elite which formed the core of the subsequent resistance after the crackdown. The old elite formed the Peace committees that lasted till December. Thus, this was the most important impact of the March 7 speech in terms of socio-political mobilization.

There were offers made to Sheikh Mujib to help him cross over to India to lead the movement after the crackdown but he refused. There were several reasons for that but one reason he stated to his close friend Moazzzem Ahmed Chowdhury from his Kolkata days. Sheikh Mujib said, "Don't you see the skies are all lit with fires? If I go the Pakistanis will search and destroy every home in Dhaka. I can't go."

Sheikh Mujib knew of the consequence of his flight and chose to be arrested. The other point was that he was never sure about India/Delhi's intent and felt that they never fully respected the people he represented. He did cross over to India in 1962 but was arrested and this miffed him a great deal. After this incident he never trod the conspiratorial path with India. He was also an East Bengali with their natural distrust of the non-Bengali and the upper class Hindus which to him was represented by India, again a residual feeling from his Kolkata days.  A relationship of mutual convenience existed between Mujib and India but so did discomfort and perhaps suspicion, on both sides.

Thus the responsibility of crossing over after making a perilous journey was left to Tajuddin Ahmed with Barrister Amirul Islam. Other allies came from various other routes. However, Indira Gandhi and Tajuddin Ahmed had a meeting in Delhi – Prof. Rehman Sobhan was also in Delhi – and then the Mujibnagar government was decided to be formed with five senior AL leaders. In some ways, it was India/Indira Gandhi who lent the support and took the risks and insisted that the cabinet should not have not have more than 5 ministers, an instruction that was followed till the end, according to several sources.

However, the Muijibnagar government was not free from the politics that was already there in the Awami League and one example was the surreptitious formation of the Mujib Bahini. Thus several factions emerged and their long shadow fell on independent Bangladesh and its politics.

The Mujibnagar government is not just a political government but also the narrative of the "patriotic" bureaucracy at work. The documents published in Volume 3 of the Liberation war documents series shows how the Mujibnagar staff worked as selflessly as possible and conducted an extreme job. To run a government-in-exile which in principle had an objective of providing administrative cover to a liberation war is an incredible task. They assisted in setting up camps for fleeing Bangladeshis, people wanting to fight back, run the skeleton of a health, information and Foreign Service etc on a budget so small that it was almost invisible. But this task was achieved.

While collecting and editing such documents it was also obvious to me that Secretariat habits were not thrown away and it was as formal a government as possible under the circumstances. Even inter-ministerial letter registers were maintained.  Work went beyond the ministries and ran deep into the Zonal Administrative Councils that were partnered with the military sectors as much as possible. In the end, representing the formal part of the state, it became the narrative of the establishment of the government. If Bangladesh state's social structure was being constructed within the boundaries of this geography, the governmental part was rooted in Mujibnagar.

I would like to end here with the wish that the people who matter, of whichever party, would one day be interested in the history of 1971 on its own and not use history just to serve political aims.