On this day in 1971, Mujibnagar Government — the provisional government of Bangladesh during liberation war — took oath to wage war against an organised military might of that time. For the first time, a republic formed by Bangalees and constituted of Bangalees was what happened in Mujibnagar. The men who gave us Mujibnagar were young but dedicated to the cause of freedom and fired by patriotic zeal beyond measure. They appeared on the stage before the nation in response to the clarion call of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
April 1971 was a defining moment in history as the month would, in the subsequent months, would decide what way the fight for liberation of the Bangalee nation would be operated on. April came down on this part of the world, in that year, with an ultimate message of emancipation of a nation in the map of the universe. Through the call from Mujibnagar government, young men and women, driven by patriotic commitment, were organised to awaken their need to reaffirm legacy. All Bangalees convinced themselves to the national cause that this holy motherland needed to reclaim from the enemy and their fawning collaborators. Many civilian government officers in the police and administration turned their backs on home, on family, in towns and in the villages, and marched into the battle field. Many in the following months would come back while many would never. Following them came droves of artistes, journalists, doctors and academics to enlist their names to the cause, a free Bangladesh.
Mujibnagar brought all Bangalees together. Outside the occupied land of Bangladesh, Bangalees across the diaspora banded together to aid the cause back home. These Bangalees, with roots in Bangladesh or West Bengal, came together in a forceful demonstration of common ethnicity. Today, it is time again to celebrate that shining moment in history.
