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A CENTURY OF PROGRESS AND OF PAIN


The 100 years brought profound reshaping of Bangladesh. The chapter of 20th century closes with the country being peralised and imprisoned by political instability, corruption and economical growth. If the 20th century is indeed to be remembered as Bangladeshi century from the spirit and souls of the Shaheeds can-do-attitude. As always, the year 1971 of the second millennium, will be the most memorable moment of Bangladesh history. The second most memorable moment of Bangladesh history will be the year 1952 as the language movement.

Other stories of the century toward the Creation of Bangladesh and thereafter, that led to major impact in Bangladesh history.

AGARTALA CONSPIRACY
The case was lunched against Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by Ayub Khan in December 19,1967. Mujib and twenty-eight others were charged that they had plotted with the First Secretary of the Indian mission Mr. P. N. Ojha to gain the independence of Bangladesh. Durring the course of the trial all details of the future state were fully described, such as the colors and design of the national flag, the national anthem, etc. The trial was never completed and the charges were dropped by Ayub Khan in February 22, 1969 and Mujib was released from prison.

ANTI-RODENT CAMPAIGN
The anti-rodent campaign, an annual feature since 1983, killed nearly 3.6 million rats. Armed with traps, poison and cats, more than a million farmers fanned out across Bangladesh in an annual drive to kill the rats that destroy nearly a third of the country's grains each year. Every rat tail turned over to the government during the monthlong drive fetches 14 cents, and anyone who kills more than 10,000 rats gets a color TV, a hefty bonus in a nation where many people can't afford a portable radio.

ASSASINATIONS OF THE PRESIDENTS
Mujibur Rahman and Ziaur Rahman two major figures were assasinated by military personals, that led to change of political hands.

BASIC PRINCIPLES REPORT.
The working draft of the constitution of Pakistan in 1950. The report was criticized and opposed by the United Front, because of its proposition which states that Urdu is the national language of Pakistan. The draft was restructured in 1956.

BENGAL PACT
In the l920s C. P. Das., leading Hindu and a profoundly tolerant man, anranged the Bengal Pact between MusIims' and Hindus. The pact promised Muslims full representation on the Calcutta council. Fazlul Huq was elected to represent muslims in the Brittish India. The pact enable Hindu and Muslim activist to work together against the Brittish Raj.

BENGAL, PARTITION OF 1905.
Lord Curzon The viceroy found it was dificult to administer a large territory such as the province of Bengal. The territory included present day Bangladesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa. Curzon decreed a partition in October 16, 1905. Lord Curzon divided Bengal into two provinces; one East Bengal joined with a district of Assam and the other West Bengal. East Bengal consist with majority Muslim and West Bengal consist with Hindu majority. The capital was Calcutta. Bengali Hindus objected strongly, violence and terrorism brokeout. The reasoning as stated by an English officer 'United Bengal is a dangerous force for the British. Once divided they cannot make trouble for us."

BENGAL, PARTITION OF 1947.
The partition of India in 1947 was also similiar to 1905. Bengal was partitioned once again. The Muslim majorities would go to Pakistan. The Hindu majority Khulna district were added to East Bengal and Murshidabad district with Muslim majority were given to India. Sylhet district of Assam was also added to East Bengal. Malda was divided to two. A little part of Cooch Bihar was given to E. Bengal also.

BOGRA MUTINY
On september 30, 1977 mutiny broke out in Bogra. Three officers had been killed. Rather than calling a coup it was more of a terrorist act of sevarel army officers of Bogra. An army tank regiment seized the local airport and demanded the freedom of Lieutenant Colonel Farook Rahman. A member of the first army coup to the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. As a result of this coup a large number of army personnel were executed and 11 Air Force officers died.

DIRECT ACTION DAY
August 16, 1946 a direct action day set aside by the Muslim League for hartals and work stoppages to emphasize the League's demand for the partition of India. This incident led to the alteration of the Lahore Reselution.

DISASTER
In Nov.13,1970 Bangladesh has faced one of the world's worst disaster, a 100 to 150 mph cyclone-driven tidal 25-foot-high wave swept in from the Bay of Bengal and flooded the offshore islands of the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Delta in the dead of night. Death toll ranged to 500,000, and 2.5 million homeless.

DISMISSLE OF PROVIANCIAL GOVERNMENT
1958 Scheduled national elections were cancelled. General Ayub Khan takes power through a military coup and gives the authoritarian and unrepresentative central government the power to appoint and dismiss the provincial government.

FIRST COSTITUTION OF UNITED PAKISTAN
In 1956 the first Constitution of Pakistan was adopted, forming a highly centralised federation between East Bengal (renamed East Pakistan) and the provinces of West Pakistan (soon afterwards unified into one province). East Pakistan is given fewer representatives per head of electorate in the National Assembly than West Pakistan.

FIRST REGIONAL AUTONOMY MOVEMENT
1954 The United Front of the opposition parties, demanding maximum regional autonomy for East Bengal among other things, wins the first elections to the Provincial Legislature. The United Front Government is dismissed within weeks of assuming power by the Central Pakistan Government on the pretext of antinational attitudes.

FOUR-POINT DEMAND
On March 7, 1971 Bongobondhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the historic announcement at the Dhaka Race course: " This struggle is for freedom.....". On every rooftop two flags were seen to be flying. A black flag to protest the Pakistani treachery and the flag of Bangladesh - green background with a golden color map of Bangladesh on the red Sun. In his speech Bangabandhu declared a four-point demand to consider the national assembly meeting on March 25, 1971.

HAJONGS REVOLT
After the creation of Pakistan the Bangalees began to show their resentment. In Netrokona under the greater Mymensing district the Hajongs revolted against the Tank and Levy system. Women were equal participants In this movement. Under peasant Leader Roman Mitro and Ila Mitro the peasants of Nachol in Rajshahi also revolted. The Pakistan Government used unorthodox force to put down all those revolts.

HILL TRACT TREATY OF 1997
The Peace Treaty in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, signed on the 2nd December of 1997 to be very precise a 'land-mark' achievement in Bangladesh history. Prime Minister Shiek Hasina, signed the agreemen of peace and tranquillity. Which achieved her a noble peace prize.
Mujib's 'Operation Dragon Drive' on tribal settlements left Violence and casual brutality against suspects. This opperation left a lasting imprint on the Montagnard. It gave birth to a new pool of PCJSS sympathisers who went on to join its armed wing; by removing the radicals from the CHT, it also created a vacuum which was quietly filled by an expanding Shanti Bahini. Thus, the begining of long-term war in 1976 became the jungle war in the CHT. By the summer of 1977, General Ziaur Rahman had partially restored calm, but was faced with a restive and divided military. Finally in 1997 the problem was solved by Shiek Hasina the daughter of the CHT problem creator.

INVENTION OF THE FAST GROWING RICE
In 1999 scientists have developed two varieties of fast-growing rice BR-22 and BR-23 which can be sown immediately after waters recede and deliver higher production.

JAIL KILLING DAY
The Coup led by Brigadier Khalid Musharaf in November 3, 1975 caused the resignation of Mushtaque Ahmad and installation of A.S.M. Sayem as president and chief martial law administrator (CMLA). Four brave sons of the soil were brutally killed. They were Syed Nazrul Islam, Tajuddin Ahmed, M. Mansur Ali and A. H. M. Kamaruzzaman.

LAHORE RESOLUTION
At the Muslim League's March 23,1940 conference in Lahore, Faziul Huq, who had been persuaded to join the league by its president, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, was invited to introduce the principal resolution of the conference.From the announcement made by Jinnah in 1944, Bangali viewed that the resolution ignored the autonomy for the Muslims of East Bengal and a unified Bengal.The resolution favored a single Muslim state, Pakistan. Fazlul Huq and H. S. Suhrawardy rallied the Bangalis for a united Bengal under Muslim rule. In 1946 the resolution was modified and Suhrawardy supported the resolution latter.

LANGUAGE MOVEMENT
In 1948 Jinnah declared that anyone opposing Urdu as the national language was an "Enemy" of Pakistan. From then on the struggle for mother tounge identity began, which resulted to the 1952 National Language movement.

OPERATION DRAGON DRIVE
In December 1974, Mujib sent the army into CHT. on a mission against the revolutionaries the Sarboharas and the PCJSS, which had tacitly partitioned CHT into eastern and western zones, with the Shanti Bahini recruiting in the more distant eastern reaches, and the revolutionaries using the western half as their base. The army's counter-insurgency operations forced the radicals out of the hills. The party chairman, Siraj Sikdar, was caught by National Security Intelligence operatives in Chittagong town and later killed in JRB custody. The eastern half of CHT came under intense military scrutiny. A short-term victory by mujib was achieved, although he just contributed and planted the seeds of a long-term violent inability to resolve jungle war in CHT.

PARTITION REVOKED
In 1911 Partition of Bengal of 1905 was revoked, and East Bengal once became the province of Bengal.

POWER TRANSFER OF 1969
1969 A nationwide political upsurge topples Ayub Khan, who is succeeded by General Yahys Khan. The latter promises elections to transfer power to the popular representatives.

SECOND MAJOR DISASTER
On Apr.30,1991 a 235kph cyclone hit Chittagong, Sandwip and Hatia islands devastated, Chittagong port damaged, all ships washed ashore and over 200,000 dead. U. S. came to the aid with Operation Sea Angles.

SECOND REVOLUTION
In 1974, Mujib proclaimed a state of emergency and amended the constitution to limit the powers of the legislative and judicial branches, establish an executive presidency, and institute a one-party system. Calling these changes the "Second Revolution," Mujib assumed the presidency. All political parties were dissolved except for a single new party, the Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL), which all members of parliament were obliged to join. BAKSAL. (Party) An acronym for Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League. In 1954 Awami League and Krlshak Sramik Party joined together to form the United Front. After liberation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared Baksal in June 1975 for his own benifit to keep one single ruling party. Reforming the party again was one of the points that led to the assassination of Mujibur Rahman on August 15, 1975. New government Khondakar Mushtaque Ahmad dissolved the party.

SIX-POINT PROGRAMME OF THE AWAMI LEAGUE
From Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, March 23,1966 Amader Banchar Dabi (Our Right to Live) a program toward Bangladesh independence. 1966 Sheikh Mujib Rahman of the Awami League demands the autonomy of East Pakistan on the basis of a six point programme which envisages a central government with responsibilities for defence and foreign affairs only, while giving all taxation and economic powers to the provincial governments.

THE DARK NIGHT
In the middle of the night on 25th March 1971 the Pakistan army cracks down on the autonomist forces who were demanding immediate transfer of power to the elected party in East Pakistan on the basis of complete regional autonomy. Mass killing and destruction in Dhaka and elsewhere in East Pakistan follow the arrest of Sheikh Mujib by the army.

THE VICTORIUS ELECTION OF 1970
In 1970 The Awami League wins a massive electoral victory in December, capturing all but two seats in the National Assembly in East Pakistan and gaining an overall majority. The west wing rejected on transfering of power.

Can we learn from this past and end the political strife in the begining of this new millennium ? This complex question remains the same unanswered. Lets hope for a new era and wait to see what holds in our future.


Contributed By Shamim A. Chowdhury