Government Parties

Bangladesh Awami League is the oldest and biggest political party of Bangladesh. It originated in the soil of the country and evolved with the evolving hopes and aspirations of the people living on the Padma- Meghna- Jamuna delta. It is the party that gave leadership in the glorious Liberation War. Awami league is one of those political parties in the world under whose leadership struggles were led and won, tearing apart the chains of domination and servitude. Awami League represents the mainstream of the progressive, non-communal, democratic and nationalist politics of Bangladesh.
This half-a-century- old party has a glorious of relentless and uncompromising struggle against autocracy and communalism, against political and economic domination. Its greatest achievement is the emancipation of the Bangalee people from the colonial rule of Pakistan. This was the party that both germinated and helped blossom the Bangalee nationalism: the independence won in 1971 is the undying monument of that grand success of Awami League as a political party. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, our Father of the Nation, gave the leadership to the people and the party that took us through the glorious War of Liberation. Since then, the party has worked tirelessly to combat autocracy and communalism, to nourish the non communal political tradition and to institutionalize democracy through establishing a constitutionally elected government.
Therefore, as a political party, Awami League can claim to have attained success in the overall development of the political history of the country, particularly in the process of building a nation-state for the Bangalee people. It is continuing in its role as the people- oriented political party with progressive and pragmatic political, social and economic agenda for the betterment of the lot of the toiling masses of the country.

It is known to all that, in 1940, Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq tabled the historic Resolution incorporating the idea of more than one states in the Indian subcontinent. According to this resolution, there was to be a separate state comprising the Bangla speaking regions of the sub continent. But the plan was completely sidetracked when India was divided in 1947 on the basis of Mr. Jinnah’s Two-nation Theory, and the artificial state of Pakistan came into being with two wings separated by a thousand miles. These two wings comprised two entirely different lands, languages and cultures. The establishment of Pakistan could not solve the problem of Bangalee nationality. On the contrary, the repressive policies of the Pakistani ruling elite against various nationalities brought the question of Bangalee’s separate nationhood to the forefront. In this backdrop, within 4 months and 20 days of the creation of Pakistan an opposition student’s organization named East Pakistan Student League was formed under the leadership of the then young and promising student leader, Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (January 4, 1948). On June 23, nest year, a meeting of the leaders and workers known to be the supporters of Hussain Shaheed suhrawardy was held at ‘Rose Garden’ of K. M. Das lane, Dhaka. There a new political party named Awami Muslim League was formed with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani as chair, Shamsul Haq of Tangail as Secretary, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (then interned in Jail) as Joint Secretary and Yar Mohammad as Treasurer. It was the first oppsition party in the then East Bangal (later renamed East Pakistan). In a process of secularization, the word ‘Muslim’ was eventually dropped from the name of the party. Since its inception, Awami League has championed the cause of the political rights of the Bangalee people and fought relentlessly for the attainment of those rights. The present Bangladesh Awami League inherits the legacy of the party founded in 1949. Bangabandhu’s daughter Sheikh Hasina is the present president of Bangladesh Awami League.

The Bangalee people living on the Padma- Meghna- Jamuna delta first rose in revolt on the question of the state language of Pakistan. The language policy of the non-Bangalee rulers of Pakistan was not only undemocratic but also strongly biased against the various nationalities. They refused the claim of Bangla, the language of the majority people of Pakistan, to be one of the state languages alongside Urdu. Rather they trid to impose Urdu as the sole state language of Pakistan. The people of East Bengal statged their clamorous protest against this blatant injustice and a strong mass-movement originated on the question of state language. Both Awami League and its student wing Chhatra League evolved through this Language movement that stretched from 1948 till 1952. The leaders of these two parties played the dominant role in organizing this movement. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s name should be specially mentioned in this regard.

On March 11, 1948 he led a siege of the East Pakistan Secretariat and was arrested along with some of his colleagues. On March 21, 1948, in a meeting in the Racecourse of Dhaka (now Suhrawardy Garden), Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the first Governor General of Pakistan declared unequivocally, “Urdo and only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan.” A number of young activists including Bangabandhu raised their voice of protest against this declaration. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became the target of the wrath of the Muslim League government for a number of reasons which included his active participation in the language movement, his protest against the repressive measures taken by the Muslim League government, his leadership in the movement of the class four employees of Dhaka University etc. He was being thrown into Jail into Jail again and again. He was still in jail when the final phase of the Language movement started in 1952. He got himself transferred from the central jail to Dhaka Medical College on medical ground and established contacts with the leaders outside.
Through chits smuggled out of the hospital he gave directives to the leaders of the movement. On February 16, 1952, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib and his close associate late Mohiuddin Ahmed went on hunger-strike-till-death. With a view to isolating them from the outside world, the government transferred them to Faridpur Jail. Bangabandhu was then Joint Secretary of Awami League. This hunger strike added a new dimension to the final phase of the Language Movement. The police opened fire on the demonstrasting student on February 21, 1952, killing several persons. This bloody incident opended a new chapter in the history of the Leberation struggle of the Bangalee nation.
It should bementioned here that the movement for Bangla Language was being conducted under the aegus of a multi-party forum called the ‘All Party State Language Action Committee. It was formed on January 30, 1952, and Awami League played a leading role in its formation. On the streets, inside the prison, in the Constituent Assembly-everywhere Awami League and Bangabandhu fought relentlessly for the cause of mother tongue. In a speech given in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, Bangabandhu made this memorable comment : “It is not important whether we know any other language or not. We want to speak in Bangla in this House.” When new consperacies started being hatched against Bangla language and Bangalee culture in the sixties, Bangabandhu and his party organized a strong protest movement against those nefarious designs of the Ayub regime.
In 1974, after the Liberation of Bangladesh, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman delivered his speech in the UN in Bangla and thus for the first time glorified our language in the world arena. His daughter, the present Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina can justifiably claim the credit of glorifying Bangla once again : it was due to her initiative that UNESCO has declared (November 17, 1999) the 21st of February as the International Mother Language Day. From now on, February 21, the day of martyrdom for Bangla, will be celebrated all over the world every year in recognition of the right of the mother tongues of all speech communities of the world. The glorious sacrifice of the Bangalee nation has now acquired international recognition through this decision of UNESCO.

In March 1954, an election of the last Pakistan Provincial Assembly was held, which is known as the United Front election. The opposition political parties, under the leadership of the mainstream party, Awami League formed the United Front to fight the electoral battle against the ruling Muslim League. It was formally inaugurated in December 1953 with Hussain Shaheed Sugrawardy, Sher-e-Bangla A. K. Fazlul Huq, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as Chief proponents. United Front chalked out a 21 point socio-economic programme as its election manifesto; it included the ‘State language issue’ and ‘the demand for the autonomy of East Bengal’ as two main points. The election symbol of the Front was ‘boat’. It had a landslide victory, winning 300 seats out of 309. The ruling Muslim League got only 9 seats. Out of the 237 muslim seats, United Front bagged 223 (Awami League topped the list among the members by winning 137 seats). This electoral win by United Front marked a watershed in the politics of East Pakistan. The ruling Muslim not only suffered a crushing defeat; it was virtually wiped out as a political force from East Bengal. For the Bangalees it was a revolution through ballot. But the United Front Government formed under the leadership of Fazlul Huq was short-lived : the central Gvoernment of Pakistan ousted it on the 56th day of its assumption of power. Bangalees were outraged and infuriated by this nefarious act on the part of the Pakistani ruling clique. The election of 1954 and its aftermath played an important role in the evolution of the concept of the separate Bangalee nationhood.

Since the beginning, Awami League has been a secular democratic party. The term ‘Muslim’ was appended to the name of the party at the time of its foundation as a political tactic only. India was divided on the basis of a communal birurcation, and in 1949 it was really unthinkable to launch an opposition political party with a declared secularist agenda. Moreover, the separate election system for defferent religious communites was still operative in Pakistan. The founding fathers of Awami League, therefore, thought it opportune to hide their intentions under the name ‘Awami Muslim league’ for the time being. Meanwhile, through the cataclysmie events of the Language Movement, the United Front election of 1954 and the defeat of Muslim League in that election created a secular political atmosphere in East Bengal. A resolution in favour of ‘non-communal combined system was adopted (Murree Pact, 1955), for whice Awami League can claim the sole credit. In the backdrop of this, in the initiative of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then General Secretary of the Party, the three-day 3rd council meeting was held in Rupahal Cinema Hall of Dhaka on 21-23 October, 1953. In this council, a resolution regarding the change in the name of the party was adopted : the word ‘Muslim’ was dropped and the party was renamed ‘East Pakistan Awami League’. It was a historical and bold political decision, as a result of which the party became open to all irrespective of caste, creed and colour. The secular democratic character of the party was thus institutionalized and perfected.