1971
Bissmillah,
My body aches with sharp pain, and the more I think about it the more my body throbs. In spite of my pain, my mind is overjoyed with happiness. It has finally happened, and everyone in East Pakistan is overwhelmed. Sorry, it is no longer East Pakistan, but Bangladesh. That word is the most enthralling word any of us in the Awami League have ever heard. Ok, there is no Bangladesh yet, but when there is, it will be a perfect society for us Bengalis. It is going to be a monumental event for all residing in East Pakistan. As the head of the Awami League, a nationalist group that advocates for East Pakistan to be its own state. It is my job to organize East Pakistan and get ready for our Independence, and make sure our new state will not collapse when we declare independence from Pakistan, and so far we are prepared for everything.
I remember when H.S. Suhrawardy first organized the Awami league in 1949. The league was intended to give a say to the Bengali’s living in East Pakistan. The people there were a part of Pakistan in geography, but socially, there was a border between us that speak Bangla, and the Panjabi’s that speak Urdu. That was actually one of the first things, we at the Awami league tried to propagate. We believe that since there two Pakistan, there should be two different languages, if necessary, for Pakistan as a whole. This one movement was one of the first plans to create a separate State from Pakistan, and now this act is being called the Bengali Language Act, and It gave us all more hope to keep going forward no matter what struggles came to us.
Besides the Language Act, we first discussed the topic of making a new state, and started with the basics. The first thing we organized was our proclamation from Pakistan. It was a challenging task, because we do not have an army to support us nor the materials. After many revisions and thoughts later we had it, and I still remember the enlightened words that were used. As I recall it went,
In order to ensure for the people of Bangladesh equality, human dignity and social justice, declare and constitute Bangladesh to be a sovereign People's Republic and thereby confirm the declaration of independence already made by Banga Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and do hereby affirm and resolve that till such time as a Constitution is framed, Banga Bandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman shall be the President of the Republic and that Syed Nazrul Islam shall be the Vice President of the Republic.
Those words were the beginning of our plan to create the Republic of Bangladesh. All our work has finally paid off, and now we will have a home for our people.
Creating a Bangladesh has been a tough and hard task, but for a certain reason we are all so happy and overjoyed by completing such a grand task. I look at my past and remember all those times I have been arrested and persecuted by Pakistani officials for leading a revolution, or as General Mohammad Ayub Khan said, for “posing a threat to national stability.” After that I was once again arrested by Yahya Khan and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, because I was forming a government for Bangladesh. Now I look back at those experiences and laugh, because now we are united, they cannot do anything to us.
We at the Awami league are now just waiting for the right moment to declare our independence, just itching to proclaim ourselves as a Bengali Republic. Inshallah, we will become a untied state, and Inshallah, we will have a place for our people to live in peace and equality, and I, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, swear on my soul, that I will create a Bangladesh, in which us Bengalis can live in peace and prosperity!