“A room without books is like a body without a soul.” ― Marcus Tullius Cicero
Library and Information Division (LID)
Bangabandhu & Muktijuddah Corner
SU Library and Information Division have launched Liberation War Corner in March 2018 and with some modifications launched Bangabandhu & Liberation War Corner in March 2022 at its Green Road Campus Central Library northwest side of the ground floor. This corner consists of a good number of historic, liberation war-related books, monographs, photographs, portraits, posters, videos, documents, films, maps, etc. collected and preserved on the basis of Life History of Great Leader Bangabandhu and Liberation War of Bangladesh held in 1971. The center has been developed to strengthen the spirit of the Liberation war and increase the knowledge of the history of the liberation war among the university student community. Video clips and CDs are available for users to see and feel the war and glorious struggle on a day-to-day basis throughout the nine months of 1971.
The corner’s physical space is about 300 sqft, which contains Bangabandhu, the history, and the liberation war of Bangladesh related more books than 250 copies. Through this corner, faculty and staff members, students, and researchers of the university will be able to get a comprehensive idea about Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the glorious history of the Liberation War along with the birth of Bangladesh. The corner is enriching day by day. It is noted that this corner will provide the students and the faculty members of SU to know the dedication of the heroic freedom fighters and the history of the liberation war of Bangladesh and its independence.
Brief History:
After the fall of the Mughal Empire, the British ruled in this Indo-Pak subcontinent for about 200 years, which lasted from 1757 to 1947. The major populations of this continent were mostly Hindu and Muslim. So, the British encouraged a “divide and rule” policy between these Hindus and Muslims. Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of the nationalist movement against British Rule of India and used nonviolent methods to fight for India’s independence. On 14-15 August 1947 Pakistan and India gain independence from Great Britain.
After the independence, Mohammad Ali Jinnah became the first Governor-General of Pakistan, and Jawaharlal Nehru became India’s first president. Although West and East Pakistan were Muslim-majority areas, though they were culturally, ethnically and linguistically very different places. Jinnah addressed on 11 March 1948 at Kurzon Hall in Dhaka University that “Urdu and only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan”. But Sheikh Mujib and a group of students of Dhaka University instantly denied it. Language Movement started in 1948 and reached to the climax in early 1952.
During a strike on 21 February 1952, the protesting students tried to defy a curfew. Police opened fire and killed a number of students including Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat, and Abdul Jabbar. In 1953, as a fore-front leader, Mujib played a vital role in organizing the first anniversary of 1952, 21st February as ‘Shahid Dibosh’.
Mujib got elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly (provincial assembly) from the ‘United Front’. He and other Bengali politicians and parliamentarians strongly advocated for Bangla to be given the status as one of the state languages of Pakistan and in 1956 Bangla was recognized as one of the state languages of Pakistan.
In 1954 Mujib was first appointed as the Minister of Agriculture and Forest. Later he was elected to the second Constituent Assembly of Pakistan but could not linger long due to the conspiracy of the central leader of the Muslim League. In 1956, he joined a second coalition government as Minister of Industries, Commerce, Labour, Anti-corruption, and Rural Development, but resigned in 1957 to organize the party Awami League.
President Iskander Mirza on 7 October 1958 declared martial law in Pakistan and appointed General Ayub Khan, as the Chief Martial Law Administrator. Later on 27 October, 1958 General Ayub Khan seized the presidency from Iskander Mirza in a bloodless coup, and he became the second president of Pakistan.
The elected Assembly initially did not meet as President Yahya Khan and the Pakistan Peoples Party did not want the majority party from East Pakistan forming government. This caused great unrest in East Pakistan. The military junta responded by executing a genocidal crackdown which led to the Bangladesh War of Independence. In March 1971, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in East Pakistan. The operation resulted in the commencement of the Bangladesh Liberation War also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh was a revolution and armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Bengali nationalist. The ensuing violence led to almost 10 million Bengali refugees fleeing from East Pakistan into India. A spontaneous Bengali guerrilla force, the Mukti Bahini, was formed. This force along with the newly formed Bangladesh Forces, consisting of Bengali defectors from the Pakistan Army under the command of General Bangabir M A G Osmani. After fighting for nine months a written agreement between India, Pakistan, and the Provisional Government of Bangladesh that enabled the surrender of 90,000 West Pakistani troops of the Armed Forces Eastern Command. Lt. Gen A. A. K. Niazi, Commanding Officer of Pakistan Army forces in East Pakistan surrender on 16 December 1971 to Indian and Bangladeshi join forces in the presence of Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Arora.
Web Address / Link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agartala_Conspiracy_Case
Photo Gallery of Bangabandhu Memory