The Bangabondhu Regime 1972-1975

Presented By
Ataus Samad Raju
Senior Lecturer
Dept. of Natural Science
Port City International University
Email: rajudu88@gmail.com
 The Bangabondhu Regime 1972-1975

1. Homecoming
2. Making of the constitution
3. Reconstruction of the war ravaged
country
4. BAKSAL
5. The murder of Bangabondhu and his
family and the ideological turn-around.
 Homecoming
• Bangabondhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman was
released from Pakistan
jail and via London he
made a triumphant
homecoming, arriving in
Dhaka on 10 January
1972 in the midst of joy
and jubilations
throughout the country.
• Hundreds of thousands of people of all walks
of life received him at the Tejgaon old Airport
according him a heroic welcome.
• Bangabondhu briefly assumed the
provisional presidency and later took office as
the prime minister.
 Making of the constitution

• Bangabondhu charged the

provisional parliament to
write a new constitution, and
proclaimed the four
fundamental principles of
"nationalism, secularism,
democracy, and socialism,"
which would come to be
known as "Mujibism“
• It was adopted on 16
December 1972
• The following day on 11 March 1972, in his capacity as
the President of newly independent Peoples’ Republic
of Bangladesh, issued the Provisional Constitution of
Bangladesh Order 1972.
• On 23 March 1972 the Constituent Assembly of
Bangladesh Order was promulgated as envisaged in the
Provisional Constitution of Bangladesh Order 1972.
• This Order provided for parliamentary form of
government and constituted the Constituent Assembly
with the Members of National Assembly (MNAs) and
East Pakistan Provincial Assembly (MPAs) who were
elected, under the Legal Framework of President
Yahiya Khan’s martial law, by the people of East
Pakistan in December 1970 and January 1971 for giving
the newly independent country a secular democratic
Constitution.
• The Constituent Assembly had its first meeting on
10 April 1972. The Speaker and Deputy Speaker
were Mr Shah Abdul Hamid and Mr Mohammed
Ullah. In this session a Constitution Drafting
Committee consisting of 34 members (including
Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed and AHM
Kamruzzaman) was formed under the
Chairmanship of Dr Kamal Hossain (the then Law
Minister).
• The only woman member of the Constitution
Drafting Committee was Razia Banu, whereas the
only opposition member was Mr Surenjit Sen
Gupta.
• The Drafting Committee had 74 meetings to draft
the Constitution and on 10 June 1972 it approved
the Draft Constitution. With a purpose of
observing practical working of the parliamentary
constitutional system, the Chair of the Committee
Dr Kamal Hossain went to the UK and India. A
foreign expert on drafting Constitution was
reported to have brought to Dhaka and his
assistance was taken in drafting the Constitution.
• The Draft Constitution of 72 pages containing 103
Articles was presented to the Constituent
Assembly on 12 October 1972, in its second
session.
• The Third Reading on the Bill was held on 4
November 1972 and on the same day the
Assembly adopted the Constitution of
Bangladesh.
• To commemorate this historic day, 4 November is
observed as the ‘Constitution Day.’ It was given
effect from 16 December 1972, on the first
anniversary of the ‘victory day’ of Bangladesh.
• The original hand written Constitution was of 93
pages. The main writer of the original
Constitution was Mr Abdur Rouf. The
handwritten Constitution was decorated by noted
Artist Joynal Abedin.
• The hand written Constitution, both Bengali
original one and its corresponding English
translated one, was signed by the Members of
the Constituent Assembly on 14 December
1972.
• The Constitution has declared Bangladesh a
Republic committed to the principles of
democracy and human rights; rule of law;
freedom of movement, assembly and
association; freedom of religion and
international peace and harmony.
 Reconstruction of the war
ravaged country
• After the Liberation, Bangabandhu and the
Awami League government faced a formidable
challenge in reconstructing the war-ravaged
country. Communication system, the posts and
industries were completely in ruins.
• Schools and colleges, factories and food silos
were burnt to ashes by the marauding Pakistani
soldiers. Then there was the staggering problem
of the rehabilitation of the families of the
martyrs, of those who were maimed by the War
and of the women tortured by the Pak army.
• In January 1972 Time magazine reported:-
"In the aftermath of the Pakistani army's rampage
last March, a special team of inspectors from the
World Bank observed that some cities looked "like
the morning after a nuclear attack." Since then, the
destruction has only been magnified. An estimated
6,000,000 homes have been destroyed, and nearly
1,400,000 farm families have been left without
tools or animals to work their lands. Transportation
and communications systems are totally disrupted.
Roads are damaged, bridges out and inland
waterways blocked. The rape of the country
continued right up until the Pakistani army
surrendered a month ago.
In the last days of the war, West Pakistani-owned
businesses which included nearly every commercial
enterprise in the country remitted virtually all their
funds to the West. Pakistan International Airlines
left exactly 117 rupees ($16) in its account at the
port city of Chittagong. The army also destroyed
bank notes and coins, so that many areas now
suffer from a severe shortage of ready cash. Private
cars were picked up off the streets or confiscated
from auto dealers and shipped to the West before
the ports were closed."
• Ten million refugees, who had fled to India, were
to be brought back and rehabilitated.
• The economy was in a shambles, foreign currency
reserve was nil; the food silos were empty.
• The possibility of a famine was being forecast.
Things were compounded by the drought of
1972, the devastating cyclone of 1973, the
adverse effect of the worldwide recession owing
to the Arab-Israeli War and the floods of 1974
etc.
• A greater threat to the political stability of the
newborn country was posed by the conspiracies
of the defeated anti-liberation quarters.
• The government of Bangabandhu had to confront these
challenges of reconstruction on a War footing. On his
return from his confinement in Pakistan on January 10,
1972, Bangabandhu devoted himself to this stupendous
task of reconstruction. We can enumerate the successes of
the Bangabandhu government of 3 years briefly as follows:

(a) Restoration of communication system within the shortest

possible time; the clearing of mines at Chittagong and
Chalna Ports

(b) Rehabilitation of 10 million refugees who had taken shelter

in India

(c) Granting of economic aid to the families of martyred

freedom fighters
(d) Rehabilitation of narly 3 lakh women who were
dishonoured during the War
(e) Sending of disabled freedom-fighters abroad for
treatment
(f) Ensuring the return of the Indian forces within 3
months of the Liberation
(g) Framing of one of the world’s best constitutions
within 10 months
(h) Introduction of Parliamentary system
(i) Holding of general elections in 1973 (AL won 293
out of 300 seats)
(j) Reorganization of the Defence Forces
(k) Appointment of the Kudrat-e-Khuda Education
Commission for framing a scientific and secular
education policy
(l) The promulgation of a democratic ordinance for
the universities (1973)
(m) Nationalization of 40 thousand primary schools
(n) Winning of recognition by 140 nations of the
world
(o) Singing the Ganges-Water Sharing Treaty with
India ensuring 44,000 cusecs of water for
Bangladesh; etc,
Foreign policies:
• Bangabandhu set forth the
guiding principle of
Bangladesh's foreign policy:
'Friendship to all and
malice to none’.
• After Bangladesh achieved
recognition from major
countries, Bangabandhu
helped Bangladesh enter
into the United Nations and
the Non-Aligned
Movement.
• He travelled to the
United States, the
United Kingdom and
other European nations
to obtain humanitarian
and developmental
assistance for the
nation.
• Bangabandhu maintained a
close tie with India. He signed
a treaty of friendship with
India, which pledged extensive
economic and humanitarian
assistance and began training
Bangladesh's security forces
and government personnel.
• Bangabandhu forged a close
friendship with Indira
Gandhi, strongly praising
India's decision to intercede,
and professed admiration and
friendship for India.
• On the international stage, Bangabandhu and his
Indian counterpart Indira Gandhi signed the 25-
year Indo-Bangladeshi Treaty of Friendship,
Cooperation and Peace. Bangladesh joined
the Organization of the Islamic Conference,
the Commonwealth of Nations and the Non-
Aligned Movement.
• Bangabandhu sought Bangladesh's membership
in the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and
the Islamic Development Bank and made a
significant trip to Lahore in 1974 to attend the
OIC summit, which helped repair relations with
Pakistan to an extent.
• Bangabandhu was invited to Washington DC and
Moscow for talks with American
and Soviet leaders. He declared that Bangladesh
would be the “Switzerland of the East” and by
this declaration he meant that Bangladesh would
steer clear from the Cold War and would remain
non-partisan in the tug of Cold War between the
US and the Soviet Union.
• Many Eastern European countries,
particularly Yugoslavia, East Germany and Poland,
enjoyed excellent relations with Bangladesh.[
• The Soviet Union supplied several squadrons
of Mig-21 planes for the Bangladesh Air Force.
• Fidel Castro said: “I have
not seen the Himalayas.
But I have seen Sheikh
Mujib. In personality
and in courage, this man
is the Himalayas. I have
thus had the experience
of witnessing the
Himalayas.”
 BAKSAL (Bangladesh Krishak
Sramik Awami League)
• Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami
League (BAKSAL) the only legally recognised party
of Bangladesh founded on 7 June 1975 following
the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution of
Bangladesh.
• Under the Fourth Amendment (Article 117A),
Bangabandhu entrusted with the responsibility of
forming a new 'national party' which would try to
tackle the social, political and economic
destabilisation consequent upon the War of
Liberation on the one hand, and on the other,
reconstruct the nation from the debris of the
war.
• The rules of BAKSAL required all other parties and
associations including various services and forces
to join the national party and work untidily in
fighting corrosive forces and in rebuilding the
nation. Elaborating on the various aspects, scopes
and prospects of BAKSAL, Sheikh Mujib
characterised it as a 'second revolution'.
• In seeking national unity, the Fourth Amendment
provided that no person could continue to remain
a member of Jatiya Sangsad unless he joined the
national party before a time fixed by the President.
• BAKSAL, the new national party, was scheduled to
replace officially the nation's other political
organisations and associations on 1 September
1975.
• Organizationally, President Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman, the BAKSAL chairman, appointed for the
national party a fifteen-member executive
committee, a 115-member central committee,
and five front organisations, namely, Jatiya
Krishak League, Jatiya Sramik League, Jatiya
Mahila League, Jatiya Juba League and Jatiya
Chhatra League.
• All members of the executive committee were to
enjoy the status of ministers. BAKSAL was also
designed to overhaul the administrative system
of the country in order to make it people-
oriented.
• In short, BAKSAL, as a system,
aimed at achieving an
exploitation-free and socialist
economic and administrative
order more or less close in
spirit and contents to the
systems of government in
contemporary socialist
countries.
• As a result of this, the law and
order situation improved
considerably, the prices of
essential commodities came
down and political stability
returned to the country.
 The murder of Bangabondhu and his
family and the ideological turn-around
• On 15 August 1975, a group
of junior army officers
invaded the presidential
residence with tanks and
killed Mujib, his family and
personal staff. Only his
daughters Sheikh Hasina
Wajed and Sheikh Rehana,
who were visiting West
Germany, escaped.
• They were banned from returning to Bangladesh.
The coup was planned by disgruntled Awami
League colleagues and military officers, which
included Mujib's colleague and former
confidanté Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, who
became his immediate successor. There was
intense speculation in the media accusing the
US Central Intelligence Agency of having
instigated the plot.
• Lawrence Lifschultz has alleged that the CIA was
involved in the coup and assassination, basing his
assumption on statements by the then US
ambassador in Dhaka Eugene Booster.
• Mujib's death plunged the nation into many
years of political turmoil. The coup leaders
were soon overthrown and a series of
counter-coups and political assassinations
paralyzed the country. Order was largely
restored after a coup in 1977 gave control to
the army chief Ziaur Rahman.
• Declaring himself President in 1978, Ziaur
Rahman signed the Indemnity Ordinance,
giving immunity from prosecution to the men
who plotted Mujib's assassination and
overthrow.
• This brutal assassination not only put an
indelible smudge in the newborn nation’s
history, but led the country into a political
vacuum. Democracy started fading away and
the reconstruction process suffered a major
setback.
• In a 2004 BBC Bengali opinion poll, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman was voted as the
"Greatest Bengali of All Time".
 Any Question ?

“My greatest strength is the love for my people, my

greatest weakness is that I love them too much.”
- Sheikh Munibur Rahman
 Thank You

“As long as Padma, Meghna, Gouri, Jamuna flows on, Sheikh

Mujibur Rahman, your accomplishment will also live on.”
-Annada Shankar Ray.
 Sample Questions
• Describe reconstruction programs of the war-ravaged country under
Bangabandhu.
• Discuss the initiatives of the Bangabandhu government to reconstruct
the war destroyed country.
• “Independence is the biggest achievement of our country and
people”- what are your logics in the favour of this statement?
• Explain the process of reconstruction of a war affected country.
• Explain the reconstruction process of the war torn country.
• Describe the contribution of Bangabandhu in achieving the
independent.
• What is Mujibism? Discuss The Bangabandhu Regime (1972-1975).
• What is Mujibism? Write a brief note on Constitution of 1972
(Bangladesh).
• What do you know about BAKSAL? Describe reconstruction programs
of the war-ravaged country under Bangabandhu.
• What is the role played by Russia in the Liberation War of Bangladesh
(1971)?
• What led to the split up of East and West Pakistan and the creation of
Bangladesh?