Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who was adamant on the demand for Pakistan, had called a big meeting of Muslim League leaders in Bombay on 29 July 1946. A 26-year-old firebrand leader of the Muslim League could not attend this meeting. He himself has written the reason for this in his diary. This young leader was Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a 5 feet 11 inch tall, long-haired Bengali Muslim.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wrote, “I could not attend this meeting due to some financial constraints. Jinnah Saheb declared 16 August as Direct Action Day. He announced to celebrate this day peacefully through a statement. He wanted to show the British government and the Cabinet Mission that 10 crore Indian Muslims are adamant for Pakistan. They will not accept any obstacle.”
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman missed the opportunity on 29 July. But the next time on 16 August 1946, when the turn for (Direct Action) came, he was not going to stay behind. Sheikh Mujibur reached the designated place in Calcutta ahead of time and hoisted the flag of Muslim League there.
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But now let’s go back a little. Let’s understand the background of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Born on 17 March 1920 in Faridpur district of Bengal province of British India, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman belonged to a landlord family. When Mujib was in the seventh grade, he suffered from an eye disease called glaucoma. Due to this, his studies were interrupted for 4 years. Much later than his age, he passed the matriculation examination from Gopalganj Missionary School.
When Sheikh Mujiburahman understood the difference between Hindus and Muslims
In 1938, Bengal Prime Minister Fazlul Haq and his Labor Minister Syed Suhrawardy visited Gopalganj. Let us tell you that at that time the post of CM in Bengal Assembly was known as Prime Minister.
During this time a special thing happened. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was preparing to welcome the Chief Minister along with other Muslim boys. But Mujibur Rahman was surprised when he saw that the Hindu boys stayed away from this event. According to Mujibur Rahman this was happening on the instructions of Congress. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman writes, “This news shocked me because we did not treat Hindus and Muslims differently then. I was very friendly with Hindu boys. We used to play, sing and roam around the streets together.” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (file photo)
Remember, this was the time when the Congress and the Muslim League had taken different paths in the freedom movement of India. The communal divide was clearly visible in this path. In this environment, the seed of ‘separate identity’ started growing in the mind of young Mujibur Rahman. The events of that time constantly nourished this seed.
Suhrawardy Sarpasti and the rise of Sheikh Mujibur
So after the welcome ceremony in this school of Gopalganj, Suhrawardy noted down the name and address of young Mujib and asked him to stay in touch. After this, such a relationship of ideology was established between these two personalities that lasted till Suhrawardy’s death.
For the time being young Mujibur came to Islamia College in Calcutta and started studying Intermediate. He used to live in room no. 24 of Baker Hostel here.
As a college student, Mujiburahman actively participated in the movement for the creation of Pakistan, a separate country for Muslims.
‘We have to create Pakistan, without it there is no future for Muslims’
In his biography ‘Unfinished Memoirs’ he writes,“I was convinced that we must create Pakistan and without it there was no future for Muslims in our part of the world. The only newspaper I read was Azad and I felt whatever I read in it was true. I went to Calcutta immediately after my examinations. I started attending meetings there too. I also went to Madaripur and founded a Muslim Students League there.” This part of his biography is published in Bangladesh’s leading newspaper, Dhaka Tribune.
23rd March 1940 proved to be a big opportunity for Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was influenced by the Two Nation Theory. This was the day when the Muslim League presented the Lahore proposal to create Pakistan. According to this proposal, a separate country would be created in the North West and East regions of British India. Mujibur Rahman thought that this eastern region, i.e. East Pakistan, would definitely be his own country. But he was a victim of a misunderstanding. This proposal of the Muslim League mentioned creating Muslim states for Muslims. That is, the Muslim League wanted to break the undivided India and create not one but two Muslim nations. These two countries were West Pakistan, i.e. present Pakistan and East Pakistan, i.e. today’s Bangladesh.
But this illusion of Sheikh Mujiburah was shattered in 1946 when a meeting of Muslim League was held in Delhi in April of that year. Sheikh Mujiburahman was also present in it. In this meeting a new proposal was passed and a proposal was passed to make a state instead of states for the homeland of Muslims. This means that now only one homeland was going to be formed for Muslims. This was surprising for Mujiburahman. He wanted to see East Bengal as an independent country. Where he could see his future. He presented his complaint in front of the big leaders of Muslim League. But the shrewd leaders of the League including Jinnah convinced Mujiburahman. For the time being Mujiburahman remained firm with the League for the Pakistani objective. Islam was working as a bonding factor in this objective.
His movement continued in Bengal. Under the patronage of Suhrawardy, Mujiburahman became a well-known leader of the Muslim League in Bengal in a few years. It is worth mentioning that at that time Lahore, Kolkata and Dhaka were the only cities that were the centres of Muslim League’s activities.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Suhrawardy succeeded in convincing the Muslim population of the region about Pakistan through their efforts. The result was that in the 1945-46 elections, the Muslim League got a bumper victory here and the party managed to win 113 seats. The League formed the government here on its own and Suhrawardy became the next Prime Minister of Bengal.
Friday in Calcutta and Direct Action
A few days after this, Jinnah announced direct action. The date was fixed as 16 August 1946. Jinnah warned the Congress and said, “We do not want war, but if you want war then we accept the offer without hesitation. We will either divide India or destroy it.”
This call was very special for Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. 16th August was a Friday. Muslim League leader and Bengal Prime Minister Suhrawardy was adamant for a separate country. At that time, Suhrawardy was handling the Home Department. Despite this, he gave the rioters a free hand to commit violence and declared a holiday on Friday. Reports suggest that Suhrawardy himself was sitting with his supporters in the police headquarters in Lalbazar, Calcutta.
Muslim League flag hoisted in Calcutta University
Sheikh Mujibur writes in his autobiography, “I was asked to take charge of Calcutta Islamia College, where the students were to assemble at 10 am. I reached Calcutta University at 7 am with Nuruddin and hoisted the Muslim League flag. No one stopped us. But later we came to know that when we left from there, the flag was torn.”
Mujibur Rahman further writes that when we left from there and entered the campus of Islamia College, some students came running to the college. They were all covered in blood. Some of them had knife wounds and some had been hit on the head. We were not prepared to deal with these situations.
Slogan of ‘Pakistan Zindabad’
As the day progressed, riots started in Calcutta. Mujibur Rahman says, “There were 40 or 50 of us and we were moving towards Dharmatala Square. We were not armed. I did not know clearly till then what a riot was. The Imam of the mosque came running towards us, people with sticks and swords were chasing him. Some of us shouted ‘Pakistan Zindabad’.”
The long week of knives has begun
According to Mujibur Rahman, after some time a crowd came in our support, then the Hindus stopped moving forward and we did the same. The whole of Calcutta had turned into a war zone. During the violence, we saved many Muslim and Hindu families. Dead bodies were lying on the streets of Calcutta. Muslims were taking refuge in Muslim areas and Hindus were going to Hindu-dominated areas.
History books tell us that in this riot, 4000 people were killed in Kolkata in just 72 hours and one lakh people became homeless. The period of violence that started after this is known in history as the Long Week of Knives.
Later, when the partition of India was decided, a referendum was held to decide the fate of the Bengali Muslim-dominated Sylhet district of Assam province. Sheikh Mujibur wanted Sylhet to join Pakistan. To influence this referendum, he went from Kolkata to Sylhet with 500 activists.
This was the first innings of Sheikh Mujibur’s life. The second innings was to begin after the formation of Pakistan on 14 August 1947. When he had to fight the same League leaders with whom he had stood shoulder to shoulder to create Pakistan, to establish Bangladesh.
Source (PTI) (NDTV) (HINDUSTANTIMES)