Sheikh Mujib: A visionary of extraordinary foresight

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s personality was exceptional. Those close to him, and even his adversaries on a personal level, were drawn to him. Some senior officers of the Pakistani military were also inclined towards his stance. This is why, before the genocide began, Major General Sahabzada Yaqub Khan, serving as the head of the army in East Bengal, resigned; and SM Hasan of the Navy was replaced by Tikka Khan as governor and military ruler. Tikka Khan had earned the title ‘Butcher of Balochistan’, a title he rightly deserved, and he came to East Bengal in the same capacity – as a ‘butcher’.

This Punjabi military officer had risen from the very ranks of the enlisted men, and there were doubts whether he had even passed his matriculation when he joined the army. He left East Bengal before the defeat, and on account of his ‘competence’, President Bhutto had even appointed him as the head of the army. Bhutto himself was ultimately killed at the hands of the same ruthless Pakistani military. Bhutto was an ardent Pakistani nationalist, and his killers were of the same persuasion, but they believed that Bhutto too bore responsibility for the dismemberment of Pakistan; and that under his control, the state’s long-coveted ‘Islamic’ character would not be preserved. Therefore, it was necessary to remove him.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s remarkable successes were backed by his personal charisma. He was courageous, certainly, but his intellect was also sharp. He knew precisely when to raise a voice, and how to ensure people would respond. He did not compromise. His ability to read people was unparalleled. The reason he could draw students and youth so closely to him lay in his leadership skills. He knew who could do what. During the Agartala Conspiracy Case, it was no secret that the student league and Awami League were agitating for his release; yet he understood that to give full force to the movement, one person was essential – that was Maulana Bhasani. Through journalist Ataus Samad, he sent a message to Maulana Bhasani from the military court, requesting his support for the movement for Mujib’s release.

In a brief note, he stated that he would need Maulana for the future of politics, and Maulana would also need him. Presumably, Maulana had been waiting for exactly such a message. He promptly announced that a public meeting would be held at Paltan on 16 February to demand Mujib’s release. At that meeting, Maulana delivered a fiery speech that inspired the people and instilled fear in the rulers. He said that if necessary, cantonments would be surrounded, prison locks broken, and the military fortress would fall like Bastille. From the gathering rose the deafening chant, ‘We will break the prison locks, we will bring Sheikh Mujib.’ It was then inevitable that the Agartala case would be withdrawn, and all the accused, along with other political prisoners, were released during the 1971 uprising.

Before the genocide, in the first week of March 1971, former Pakistan Air Force Chief Asghar Khan met Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. He did not consider Mujib’s demand for power transfer unreasonable. His concern was to preserve Pakistan, and he sensed that oppression would not sustain it. Sheikh Mujib spoke to him with deep sorrow, saying that the Pakistani rulers had never trusted the Bengalis and had never treated them humanely. Asghar Khan was astonished at Mujib’s foresight. Sheikh Mujib told him he was certain that Yahya Khan had already decided not to transfer power. Yahya intended to crush East Pakistan permanently using the army.

Sheikh Mujib even outlined what would happen next: first Yahya Khan would arrive in Dhaka, shortly after followed by Planning Commission Chief MM Ahmad, and then Bhutto. Then Yahya Khan would take military action, which would destroy Pakistan. All of these events transpired exactly in that order. Regarding himself, Mujib said he would be taken prisoner; if not, he would be killed either by the Pakistani army or by his own people. Asghar Khan recorded these events in his book Generals in Politics 1958–1982.

It is noteworthy that during the March meeting between Yahya and Mujib, when Mujib met Bhutto privately at the President’s House in Dhaka, he warned Bhutto that the army would kill Mujib first, and then Bhutto. Bhutto ignored this warning; he was dreaming of gaining power with the army’s support. Yet what Mujib had predicted was exactly the army’s plan. They tried to kill Mujib and failed; later they killed Bhutto successfully. Bhutto himself has written about Mujib’s warning in his book The Great Tragedy, written in August 1971. Without such foresight, how could Mujib have become such a great leader, surpassing his contemporaries? His courage was unmatched. He knew what was about to happen, yet he did not lose heart. Even when his life was at risk, he remained steadfast.

The head of the Pakistani Navy was Vice Admiral SM Hasan; during the early phase of Yahya’s rule, he became governor of East Bengal. Hasan too was sympathetic to Mujib. Under his management, Yahya had private meetings with Mujib in Dhaka in late November and early December 1970. Hasan was drawn to Mujib because he believed that political compromise was the only way to save Pakistan. Another reason Hasan trusted Mujib was his anti-communist stance. Hasan was staunchly anti-communist, and under his tenure, the East Bengal government harassed leftists in every possible way. Without Mujib, he feared the communists would return. Hasan was a strong supporter of the Pakistan-US military agreements, and this anti-communist sentiment was widespread in the military.

In politics, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman found trailblazers and guides in Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani. Initially, they too were nationalist leaders and had fought for Pakistan. Later, they parted ways, primarily due to questions of nationalism. Suhrawardy remained a Pakistani nationalist throughout; Bhasani did not. Bhasani had become a Bengali nationalist immediately after Pakistan’s creation. Mujib followed the same path. However, Mujib’s separation was not from Suhrawardy but from Bhasani; in 1957, Bhasani left the Awami League to form NAP because he was determined to push the nationalist struggle towards socialism, while Mujib was not prepared to go that far. He acknowledged that socialism was necessary and accepted it, but becoming a communist, or siding with communists, was not possible for him, as he himself stated. He had previously explained this to his contemporaries, and after independence, to his followers, regarding taking a stance for socialism.

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman possessed a magical ability to draw people close and tried to push no one away if possible. For instance, Khondkar Moshtaq Ahmad, a dissatisfied politician, was kept close, perhaps because pushing him away could have led to conspiracies. Moshtaq had participated in the Language Movement and had not strayed from the Bengali nationalist cause, but he was influenced by the spectre of Pakistani nationalism and shared Mujib’s intense anti-communism; he declared himself anti-communist, though not necessarily a non-communist.

The people in the Bangladesh army who committed the horrific act of killing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were essentially Moshtaq supporters. Mujib repeatedly recognised that merely separating from Pakistan to create a state for Bengalis was not enough; a new type of state required a new type of people, and he lamented the difficulty of finding such people, while striving to overcome this in his own way.

After liberating Bangladesh, he understood that another revolution was necessary. The first step for that revolution, he realised, was to change the character of the state. But he did not get the time; he was gone before he could implement it. He spoke of socialism, which imperialists, especially US imperialists, did not approve of. They wanted to remove him and install a loyalist. They generally do not fail, and this case was no exception.

Had Suhrawardy been alive, he would have mourned Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s brutal murder; Maulana Bhasani, who was still alive, felt not only grief but extreme distress. The relationship between these two leaders was not warm, but both recognised Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s greatness – though Bhasani understood it more fully than Suhrawardy could have.

Sirajul Islam Chowdhury: Emeritus Professor, Dhaka University