Bangabandhu in focus : Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a biography by Syed Badrul Ahsan

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a biography penned by Syed Badrul Ahsan leaves an indelible impression of Bangladesh’s founding father on the world today.

A prominent figure in the history of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman started his political career early. Syed Badrul Ahsan, the Executive Editor of The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi daily, begins with the political figure’s initiation into politics, who later became a member of the Muslim League.

 

The narrative focusses on Mujibur’s rise as a young political leader who supported the formation of a separate state of Pakistan in 1947, to a rebel pressing for the rights of Bengalis in East Pakistan and the one who was even jailed for his secessionist actions.

 

The book traces Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s evolution from a young, raw, fiery member of the All India Muslim League to becoming a mature political leader, who steered the inception of the state of Bangladesh. With his well-known oratory and political skills, he soon came to be known as ‘Bangabadhu’ or Friend of Bengal. He concludes the book with a detailed description of Mujibur’s assassination on August 15, 1975, in the chapter aptly titled ‘Murder of Caesar’.

 

The book was not the mere culmination of a spark of an idea, but a long-held admiration for the politician. Ahsan says, “The idea of the book had been in my mind for a long time.” The book is based on Ahsan’s readings on Mujibur (as they have appeared in the various Bengali language works on him, together with his memories of the newspaper reports that he diligently followed since his school-days, in the mid-1960s). And it was during a holiday in London that he prepared the manuscript of his work.

 

“One particular aspect that struck me was that there has hardly been any book on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the English language for readers outside Bangladesh,” Ahsan says. He had been to various libraries abroad, where biographies of Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, among others, were on the shelves. But the stark gap left by the absence of a biography on Bangladesh’s founder stuck with him, and it was at this point when he was convinced a biographical work on Mujibur was in order.

 

Ahsan was also of the opinion that the current generation of Bangladeshi youth was deprived of knowledge of the true history of Bangladesh over the period of 21 years especially the role played by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, following the coup. “Bangabandhu, as we know him, was turned into a non-person by the military-cum-communal regimes which came between 1975 and 1996,” Ahsan remarks.

He further adds, “Fortunately since 1996, the lessons of history are being imparted to our youth in a way that reflects the reality behind the emergence of Bangladesh. Today’s youth have now a full understanding of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s place in the story of Bangladesh which, as I see it, is a healthy sign of things.”

 

Currently a Fellow at Jawaharlal Institute of Advanced Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Ahsan is still in awe of the former leader of Bangladesh. What inspires him the most were his courage in the face of adversity, his absolute dedication to the cause of the common masses, his unwillingness to let personal ambition get the better of his larger goals, his uncompromising position in the matter of leading Bengalis to freedom and restoring the nation’s historical sense of secularism and cultural heritage.