Bangladesh Rewrites History: 'Ziaur Rahman, Not Mujibur Rahman, Declared Independence'

Bangladesh's textbooks are being revised to attribute the 1971 independence declaration to Ziaur Rahman, not Mujibur Rahman as previously stated.

Textbooks have been rewritten in Bangladesh stating instead of Mujibur Rahman, the independence was declared by Ziaur Rahman.

Source : Bangladesh Air Force

Bangladesh is rewriting its textbooks for primary and secondary students stating that it was Ziaur Rahman and not Mujibur Rahman who declared the independence of the neighbouring nation in 1971. 

Earlier the books stated that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, known as 'Bangabandhu', made the declaration. 

The new textbooks, undergoing several other changes, are currently being printed and will be distributed among students from January 1, reported The Daily Star. 

Since 2010, a year after ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina took office for the second time, the textbooks mentioned that Mujibur Rahman -- who spearheaded the independence movement -- had declared independence via a wireless message just before his arrest by the Pakistan army on March 16, 1971.

However, the new textbooks for the academic year starting in 2025 will state that "on March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu," said AKM Reazul Hassan, chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, as per the report. 

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The information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message was found not to be fact-based by those who revised the textbooks, said writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was involved in the process of making the changes. 

Notably, the information on who made the declaration kept changing with a change in power in the country, stated the report. 

Supporters of the Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League believe the independence was declared by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman while Ziaur Rahman, who was an army major and later a sector commander of the Liberation War, merely read out the declaration upon Mujib's instructions.

On the flip side, supporters of the country's main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party are of the view that the party founder and also former president of the country Ziaur had made the declaration.

From 1996 to 2001, when the Awami League was in power, the textbooks stated Sheikh Mujib as the one who declared independence, noted former NCTB officials. From 2001 to 2006, when the BNP came to power, the textbooks were rewritten to state that Ziaur had made the declaration.

Interestingly, the officials said they could not recall what was written in the textbooks before 1996.

Among other changes that are being made to the textbooks include the removal of the title "Father of the Nation" with regard to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.