7th March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

When East Pakistanis, such as Khawaja Nazimuddin, Muhammad Ali Bogra, and Huseyn Shaheed
Suhrawardy, were elected Prime Minister of Pakistan,
they were swiftly deposed by the predominantly West
Pakistani establishment. The military dictatorships of
Ayub Khan (27 October 1958 25 March 1969) and
Yahya Khan (25 March 1969 20 December 1971), both
West Pakistanis, worsened East Pakistanis discontent.
In 1966, the Bangladesh Awami League, led by Sheikh
Mujib, launched the Six Point Movement to demand
provincial autonomy for East Pakistan. The Pakistani establishment rejected the leagues proposals, and the miliSheikh Mujibur Rahman delivering his speech on 7 March 1971. tary government arrested Sheikh Mujib and charged him
with treason in the Agartala Conspiracy Case. After three
years in jail, Mujib was released in 1969, and the case
The 7th March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was against him was dropped in the face of mass protests and
a speech given by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a Bengali na- widespread violence in East Pakistan.
tionalist leader, on 7 March 1971. It was given at the
Ramna Race Course in Dhaka to a gathering of over two In 1970, the Awami League, the largest East Pakistani pomillion people during a period of escalating tensions be- litical party, won a landslide victory in national elections,
tween East Pakistan and the powerful political and mili- winning 167 of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan
tary establishment of West Pakistan. The speech inspired and a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly.
the Bengali people to prepare for a war of independence This gave it the constitutional right to form a government.
amid widespread reports of armed mobilization by West However, Zulkar Ali Bhutto, the leader of the Pakistan
Peoples Party and a member of the Sindhi ethnic group,
Pakistan.
refused to allow Sheikh Mujib to become prime minister.
In the speech, Sheikh Mujib proclaimed: Our struggle is Instead, he proposed having two prime ministers, one for
for our freedom. Our struggle is for our independence. each wing.
(Bengali: " , "). He announced a civil Negotiations began in Dhaka between the two sides. In
disobedience movement in the province, calling for ev- January 1971, after the rst round of negotiations, Presery house to turn into a fortress. The Bangladesh Liber- ident Yahya Khan promised in the Dhaka airport that
ation War began 18 days later, when the Pakistan Army Sheikh Mujib would be the next prime minister and that
launched Operation Searchlight against Bengali civilians, the newly elected National Assembly would convene on
intelligentsia, students, politicians, and armed personnel. 3 March 1971. However, Bhutto was vehemently opposed to a Bengali becoming prime minister, and he
began a campaign of racially charged speeches across
West Pakistan to invoke fear of Bengali domination. He
1 Background
warned West Pakistani MPs-elect not to travel to the East.
Fearing a civil war, Bhutto secretly sent an associate,
Pakistan was created in 1947, during the Partition of Mubashir Hassan, to meet with Sheikh Mujib and memIndia, as a Muslim homeland in South Asia. Its terri- bers of his inner circle. It was decided that Sheikh Mujib
tory comprised most of the Muslim-majority provinces would serve as prime minister, with Bhutto as president.
of British India, including two geographically and cultur- These talks were kept hidden from the public and from
ally separate areas, one east of India and the other west. the armed forces. Meanwhile, Bhutto pressured Yahya
The western zone was popularly (and, for a period, o- Khan to take a stance.
cially) called West Pakistan; the eastern zone (modernday Bangladesh) was called East Bengal and then East
Pakistan. West Pakistan dominated the country politically, and its leaders exploited the East economically,
leading to popular grievances.

On 3 March, the convening of the National Assembly was

postponed until 25 March, leading to an outcry across
East Pakistan. Violence broke out in Dhaka, Chittagong,
Rangpur, Comilla, Rajshahi, Sylhet, and Khulna, and

the security forces killed dozens of unarmed protesters.

There were open calls for Sheikh Mujib to declare independence from Pakistan, and the Awami League called a
large public gathering at Dhakas Ramna Race Course on
7 March to respond.

The speech

Sheikh Mujibs speech started: Today, I come to you

with a heavy heart. You know everything and understand
as well. We tried our best. But the streets of Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, Rajshahi, and Rangpur have been dyed
red with the blood of our brethren. People of Bangladesh
today want freedom. They want to survive. They want to
have their rights. What wrong did we do?"
He mentioned four conditions for joining the National
Assembly on 25 March:
1. The immediate lifting of martial law;
2. The immediate withdrawal of all military personnel
to their barracks;
3. The immediate transfer of power to elected representatives of the people;
4. A proper inquiry into the loss of life during the conict.
He also gave several directives for a civil disobedience
movement, instructing that:
1. People should not pay taxes;
2. Government servants should take orders only from
him;
3. The secretariat, government and semi-government
oces, and courts in East Pakistan should observe
strikes, with necessary exemptions announced from
time to time;
4. Only local and inter-district telephone lines should
function;
5. Railways and ports could continue to function, but
their workers should not cooperate if they were used
to repress the people of East Pakistan.
The speech lasted about 19 minutes and concluded with,
Our struggle, this time, is a struggle for our freedom.
Our struggle, this time, is a struggle for our independence. Joy Bangla!"[1][2] It was a de facto declaration of
Bangladeshs independence.[3]
International media had descended upon East Pakistan
for the speech amidst speculation that Sheikh Mujib
would make a unilateral declaration of independence
from Pakistan. However, keeping in mind the failures

REFERENCES

of Rhodesias unilateral declaration of independence and

of the Biafra struggle in Nigeria, he did not make a direct declaration. Nevertheless, the speech was eective
in giving Bengalis a clear goal of independence.[4]

3 Historical signicance
Ziaur Rahman (later President of Bangladesh) wrote
in the magazine Bichittra on 26 March 1974 that the
speech had inspired him to take part in the 1971 Liberation War.[5][6]
The speech was included in the book We Shall
Fight on the Beaches: The Speeches That Inspired
History, by Jacob F. Field.[7]

4 In popular culture
The documentary lm Muktir Gaan, by Tareque
Masud and Catherine Masud, begins with a video
of the speech.
The novelist and columnist Anisul Hoque incorporated the speech into his historical novel Maa, published in 2004.
In his novel The Black Coat, Bangladeshi-Canadian
author Neamat Imam created a character called
Nur Hussain who memorized the speech during the
Bangladesh famine of 1974.

5 See also
List of speeches
Bangladesh Liberation War

6 References
[1] Srivastava, Prabhat (1972-01-01). The Discovery of
Bangla Desh. Sanjay Publications. p. 105.
[2] Guhathakurta, Meghna; Schendel, Willem van (2013-0322). The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics.
Duke University Press. p. 219. ISBN 9780822395676.
[3] Furtado, Peter (2011-11-01). Historys Daybook: A History of the World in 366 Quotations. Atlantic Books.
ISBN 9780857899279.
[4] March 1971: The emergence of a sovereign Bangladesh
| Dhaka Tribune. www.dhakatribune.com. Retrieved
2016-04-18.
[5] "

" Bichitra, 1974

[6] Zia on 7th March speech

[7] published in Great Britain in 2013 by Michael O'Mara
Books Limited

External links
7 March speech on Youtube
Bangladesh Liberation War. Mujibnagar. Government Documents 1971
Bangladesh Awami League
Muktomona blog on Bangabandhu

8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1

Text

7th March Speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_March_Speech_of_Sheikh_Mujibur_

Rahman?oldid=715988364 Contributors: Giraedata, Woohookitty, Koavf, Bgwhite, RadioFan2 (usurped), Joel7687, Saberwyn, SmackBot, Hmains, OrphanBot, Shyamsunder, Faizmomen, Radiant chains, James086, R'n'B, Skier Dude, Falcon8765, ImageRemovalBot, Parkwells, Hasive, Nafsadh, Dthomsen8, Addbot, Bazaan, Worldbruce, AnomieBOT, Xqbot, Bahahs, Ironboy11, Vanished user indfoijwe3ty,
JMRAMOS0109, Reaper Eternal, JeepdaySock, VernoWhitney, Fida29, Mar4d, ClueBot NG, Ahnaaf, BG19bot, Amit024, Arr4, Vanished user kjn lsr35kjhwertsek4, Epicgenius, Tower2Tower, Lesser Cartographies, The Devansh, JaconaFrere, Filedelinkerbot, Mehadi
Hasan Joy, Vinegarymass911, Prad Nelluru, The Novac, Matterington, Livetoedit1123, Quite00, Bostinnova and Anonymous: 18

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