PROJECT WORK

Topic – Shamsul Huq and his contibution to the

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Abstract-
This report is about one of the many great personalities who had a contribution in the birth of
Bangladesh. In this report it has been tried to reflect the works of Shamsul Huq as elaborately
as possible. Beginning with his early life, where he was born, and his hand in the formation
of Awami League which had a huge contribution in the formation of the Bangladesh we live
in today. Reasoning is provided for why I have chosen this personality and also what
knowledge I have acquired in the process.

Methodology-
In this study, an elaborate review of existing articles available online and offline are done to
give an articulate and authentic description of the personality chosen and the contributions of
his for the rise of Bangladesh. Various online journals have been critically reviewed in order
to check to what extent his contributions were helpful and what exactly I have learnt through
all the research carried out.

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The role of Shamsul Huq in the emergence of Bangladesh
Shamsul Huq was one of the founders of the Bangladesh Awami League formerly known as
the All Pakistan Awami Muslim League, along with nationalists Abdul Hamid Khan
Bhashani, Shawkat Ali, Yar Mohammad Khan and Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy. Apart from
this, Shamsul Huq was a Bengali nationalist who headed the parliamentary committee to
promote Bengali language acceptance during the 1950s language revolution in the
Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. He was born on 1st February in the year 1918 in the
village of Delduar, Tangail under the British rule. In the Bengali Nationalist Movements of
the 1950s and 1970s, he was the first and third secretary-general of the Awami League. He
had a crucial role during this movement. Shamsul Huq became the first general secretary
after Awami League was created on 23rd June 1949. This vested a lot of power in Shamsul
Huq in order to bring about a change in the course of history for Bangladesh.

The emergence of Bangladesh is deeply entwined with the 1947 partition. The struggle of its
birth started right after the colonial rule ended. The town of Dhaka came to a halt on 11
March 1948 due to a general strike. A few months after the partition with Shamsul Huq as an
administrator, a new council was created to fight for Bangla as the state language. The new
council was named the Council of the State Language Community, an informal party of
intellectual elites and progressive young politicians. The strike was arranged by them. In a
nation which only arose eight months after centuries of British Colonial rule, the authorities
were shocked by such a display of protest. The purpose of the strike was for Bangla to be one
of Pakistan’s state languages. This was not what Pakistan's top officials anticipated.

The protesters threatened to bring the office building under siege. They were ruthlessly
beaten by police and handful of them had to be taken to hospitals. A number of picketers
have also been arrested. A broad and highly agile Dhaka University law student was among
them. Sheik Mujibur Rahman was the name of the 28-year-old student. This man had long
been the focus of a political revolution in the world and the founder of a country. That
country is Bangladesh. Along with our founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, there was
Shamsul Huq too who diligently participated in this revolution. He had been taken to one of
the police jeeps aggressively. Several students have been injured and imprisoned. Several of
the students were driven and abandoned in a jungle 30 to 40 miles from the area. A lot of
female students got harassed as well. Because of young leaders like Shamsul Huq the
revolution in favor of Bangla Language blazed throughout East Pakistan. This is the reason
why I chose Shamsul Huq as the personality for this project. He was tightly knit among
the group of the extremely dedicated human beings who worked tirelessly to hand us
over our blood smeared Bangladesh.

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Contribution of Shamsul Huq as a part of Awami Leaque-

For the people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), it is pervasively believed that the birth of
Bangladesh was possible because our people found in Bangla Language their ultimate
foundation and incarnation of national identity, a judgment that was intolerable altogether by
the leaders of West Pakistan. Patriotism was by far the key predictor in Bangladesh's
emergence as a separate country. Shamsul Huq being one of the founders and leaders of
Awami League had an important role in giving Bangladesh its recognition. He was the main
convener and the student leader who led this movement in order to sustain our own language.
He truly understood the vitality of nationalism. He used the passion of the people of East
Pakistan for their unique culture and influenced the students to fight for the things which are
their own. Being a member of the parliament, Shamsul Huq assembled a new committee
apart from the National Language Action Committee to propose for Bangla to be a state
language. The creation of this committee, as a first instance of eastern Pakistanis trying to
achieve sovereignty on the basis of their own "imagined culture," represents a key event in
the development of the nation-state of Bangladesh. They wouldn't be vulnerable to the
decisions of a regime that appeared to oppose their interests in West Pakistan. Overall it can
be sated that his actions had a great impact in the formation of the Awami League which is
the ruling party of Bangladesh today.

During 1949, the results of a subsequent election were highly significant in the Tangail
electoral district. The election of Moulana Bhashani for the East Bengal parliamentary
assembly was ordered to be invalidated. Opposition figures found this bye-election to be a
test in eastern Pakistan to prove their facts. They took the problem seriously and represented
Shamsul Huq against Khurram Khan Panni. The famous student leader was Shamsul Huq,
who came from the constituency itself. It should be considered that Khurram Khan Panni
was excluded from being nominated by the government in every election up to 1950.
However, the previous order of disqualification against Panni was revoked when Panni was
endorsed by the Muslim League for the Tangail Bye election by the Government. The
Governor's decision to allow Panni to compete while others remained ineligible was
incredibly biased. Shamsul Huq delivered a detailed program of action to the voters during
his successful election campaign. Shamsul Huq’s proposals were in print in the form of a
booklet entitled ‘Basic demands’. Some of them were-

1. As a state language Bengal should be acknowledged

2. Free Pakistan from international interference

3. Place for the workmen

4. Reservations on jobs by the Federal Government base on population

There were some fascinating trends in the electoral process for Shamsul Huq. Mrs. Panni
reached a hand out to help issue pamphlets against her husband who was the Muslim League
candidate. Mustaq Ahmed, Kamruddin Ahmed, Narayanganj's Shamsuzzuha, Muhammad
Almas Ali, Muhammad Awal, and Shoukhat Ali were other individuals who actively lobbied

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for Huq. For their anti-party actions, various members of the Muslim league were removed,
with three members of the Assembly, Mrs. Anwara Khatun, Khairat Hussain and Shamsuddin
Ahmed Choudhury, included in the list of expelled. The Muslim League was not able to
secure its candidate a victory amid immense expenditures and the use of its official resources
for its campaign. The Muslim League lost its first assembly seat on Tangail to Student Leader
Shamsul Huq. After this victory and a series of events later, on June 23 rd, 1949 during a
convention at Mughal Tuli, The Awami Muslim League was formed with Shamsul Huq its
first general secretary. At the convention, the goals and objectives of this newly formed party
was released. The resolutions merely reiterated East Pakistanis' long-standing frustrations. As
far as blueprint is concerned, with few changes, the draft previously prepared by Shamsul
Huq had been implemented.

West Pakistan was trying to unify the East and West under religious commonalities, but in
contrary the people of East Pakistan was solely focusing on the cultural and linguistic
common grounds. The resurgence of Western Pakistan's national language dispute in 1952
further reinforced the feeling. The initial dispute was never settled and the Muslim League
abruptly proclaimed in January 1952 that the Urdu is the only official language. The
governing party headquartered in western Pakistan. Eastern Pakistanis interpreted the
electoral process as being oppressed. Students at Dhaka University protested against the plan
on 21 February 1952 to clear contrast with the orders of West Pakistan. 26 students died and
400 people got injured. 21st February later went on to become the ‘Shahid Dibosh’ for
Bangladesh. This massacre also constantly reflected the injustice faced by Eastern Pakistanis
under West Pakistani rule.

Shamsul Huq along with the other leaders of Awami league, whose names are still embedded
in the minds of all Bangladeshis, were becoming increasingly conscious of the increasing
oppression of the ruling Muslim League, the group that led a struggle in Pakistan and the
Awami Muslim League had to break loose. Democracy was the target. The goal was to
convince the people of Pakistan that they had a political option to return to a need for
democratic politics for both East and West Pakistan.

The uproar of the language movement started the revolution for the people of Bangladesh
who were fed up living in the shadows of the Pakistani authorities. Shamsul Huq had a heavy
hand in starting this uproar. Starting from the 1952 Language movement till the 1971
Liberation war Shamsul Huq had a major contribution in reaching people’s minds to fight for
the things that they own. Hence, the creation of Awami League also reflects the need to
match the Bengali nation with the notion of regional autonomy for a first time. The Awami
League was a federalist, power-devolution forum for changing the political system in order to
provide sufficient representation in all branches of government for East Pakistan (and, by
implication, ethnic areas in both parts of Pakistan). In this regard, this was a precedent for the
strengthening of the condition of Bangladesh. This idea was not conceived well by the
leaders of West Pakistan. Thus, in March 1971 the liberation war started after the military of
West Pakistan started to occupy territory of East Pakistan. Then after 9 bloody months of
grueling fighting we earned our country Bangladesh.

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However, Shamsul Huq passed away before he could cherish the feeling of a free
Bangladesh. Sources say that he was a leading figure of the party; however, he went missing
figuratively speaking. He would die depressed and hopeless. It is very unfortunate that during
recent times many of the ruling party of Bangladesh Awami League do not remember him
and his contributions for the birth of this country.

My learning from this project work-

Like many other countries all around the world, Bangladesh had to fight for its independence.
It did not come for free. Shamsul Huq’s selfless promise to this country to take it to new
heights and give its people the recognition they deserve is extremely altruistic. As the faces of
the leaders of the future generations of Bangladesh we have tons to learn from these great
men and their sacrifices and contributions which helped make Bangladesh what it is today. It
made me realize the importance of perseverance and that I should never lose hope for this
country. No matter where we end up in the future, the works of Shamsul Huq and other
leaders should follow wherever we go because they are the ones who truly worked fro us to
be able to make that choice today. The freedom we have, the language we speak and our
democracy. We are indebted for every generation that is to come to leaders like Shamsul
Huq. This report made me understand how important it is that we carry on with their legacy
to make Bangladesh better than it already is today. Make them proud and hope and pray that
their benefaction will not ever go astray.

References-

Language Movement. (n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2020, from

Language movement: Bangabandhu and the strike that started it all. (2020, February 22).
Retrieved September 12, 2020, from https://tbsnews.net/panorama/language-
movement-bangabandhu-and-strike-started-it-all-46557

The independence movement of Bangladesh. (2015, April 10). Retrieved September 12,
2020, from https://www.thedailystar.net/op-ed/politics/the-independence-movement-
bangladesh-73172

Hussain, A. (2013, February 01). Bangladesh: A Case Study in the Rise of the Nation-State.
Retrieved September 12, 2020, from
http://www.inquiriesjournal.com/articles/1203/bangladesh-a-case-study-in-the-rise-of-
the-nation-state

(n.d.). Retrieved September 12, 2020, from https://books.google.com.bd/books?hl=en

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