WHAT IS MASS UPSURGE 1969?
The 1969 uprising in East Pakistan, observed on 24 January as Mass Uprising Day, was a democratic political movement in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
The uprising consisted of a
series of mass demonstrations and sporadic conflicts between government armed
forces and the demonstrators.
Although the unrest began in 1966
with the Six point movement of Awami League,
it got momentum at the beginning of 1969 and culminated in the
resignation of Field Marshal Ayub Khan, the first
military ruler of Pakistan.
The uprising also led to the
withdrawal of Agartala Conspiracy Case and acquittal
of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his colleagues from the case.
OBJECTIVE
The main goals and objectives of
the student community & politicians in this historic mass uprising were:
•
Full implementation of democracy
•
establishment of autonomy, good governance
•
elimination of existing inequalities
•
eradication of anti-people forces,
•
abolition of military and civilian bureaucracy
CAUSES OF MASS UPSURGE OF 1969
Mass Upsurge, 1969 started
with the student unrest of 1968 against the tyrannical rule of ayub khan,
President of Pakistan.
The Agartala conspiracy case was
considered as the main reason for the mass uprising and its main aim was to
establish autonomy of East Bengal. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was made the number
one accused in the Agartala conspiracy case and the students took to the
streets to vigorous protest against this fabled and fake case.
The 6 points of 1966, known as
the charter of liberation of Bengalis and the 11 points of All Student Action
Committee simultaneously paved the way for a mass uprising.
TIMELINE OF EVENTS IN 1969
5 January: Shorbodolio
Chatro Shongram Porishad (The All Party Student Action
Committee) puts forth its 11-point agenda.
7–8 January: Formation of
a political coalition named Democratic Action Committee (DAC) to restore
democracy.
20 January: Student activist Amanullah
Asaduzzaman dies as the police opens fire on the demonstrators.
24 January: Matiur
Rahman Mallik, a teenager activist, is gunned down by the police.
15 February:
Sergeant Zahurul Haq, one of the convicts of Agartala
Conspiracy Case, is assassinated in the prison of Kurmitola Cantonment.
18 February: Shamsuzzoha of
the University of Rajshahi is killed as the police open fire on a
silent procession in Rajshahi.
22 February: Withdrawal
of Agartala Conspiracy Case. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the
All-Pakistan Awami League, released from his prison cell in the Dhaka
cantonment.
23 February: Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman is accorded a grand reception, where he is given the title Bangabandhu (friend
of Bengal).
10–13 March: Ayub
Khan calls for a round-table meeting with the opposition.
25 March: Ayub Khan hands
over power to General Yahya Khan, the army Chief of
Staff.
PLOT OF MASS UPSURGE 1969
1966 March 23: 6-Point Formula
– Bengali's Right to Live by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman:
Six-point Programme, a
charter of demands enunciated by the awami league for
removing disparity between the two wings of Pakistan and to put an end to the
internal colonial rule of West Pakistan in East Bengal.
The Awami League demanded that
changes would be made in regard to East Pakistan. These changes were embodied
in Mujib's Six Points Plan, which he presented at a meeting of opposition
parties in Lahore in 1966.
1966 March 24:
President Ayub Khan burst out on
those ‘six points demands’, they believed them as separatist demands – the West
Pakistani establishment and their military regime could not receive those as
the demands of justice and honor of the East Pakistanis.
1968 January: Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman arrested on the charge of the Agartala Conspiracy Case.
Agartala Conspiracy Case was
a sedition case in Pakistan during the rule of Ayub Khan against
Awami League, brought by the government of Pakistan in 1968 against Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman.
The case is officially
called State vs. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, but are
popularly known as Agartala Shoŗojontro Mamla (Agartala
conspiracy case) as the main conspiracy was alleged to have taken place in the
Indian city of Agartala in Tripura state, where Sheikh
Mujib's associates met Indian military officials.
The case was filed in early
1968 and implicated Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others in conspiring with India against
the stability of Pakistan.
The government of Pakistan
brought charges against 35 political personalities including three eminent
civil servants officials under civil law.[
1969, January 8:
The leaders of the East Pakistan
Students Union formed the Students' Action Committee (SAC) and declared their 11-point
Program.
Significant aspects of the
11 point programme offered by the student community were:
1. Granting autonomy to East
Bengal on the basis of 6 points
2. Restoration of parliamentary democracy
on the basis of universal suffrage
3. Providing autonomy to universities
4. Nationalization of industrial
institutions including bank, insurance.
5. Freeing the farmers from extra
burden of tax
6. Withdrawal all political and false
cases including Agartala.
When 11 point demands of the
students became very consolidated, the eight political parties, including Awami
League and NAP (Muzaffar) formed the Democratic Action Committee (DAC) on 8
January 1969.
EVENTS OF MASS UPSURGE 1969
1969 January 20-March 25:
Section 144 was enacted in
Dhaka from January 20, 1969 and police opened fire as students marched
on the Shaheed Minar in violation of section 144 . In the procession police
opened fire and Asaduzzaman, a leader of the Students Union (Menon), was
killed.
The situation of Dhaka went
beyond control of the police when Matiur, a student of class IX and a
rickshaw puller died of police firing on 24 January, giving further
momentum to the movement to remove the Ayub Khan regime from power
Army was deployed in the city and
curfew was imposed for an indefinite period. Indiscriminate firing of the army
and the EPR caused death to a woman while feeding her baby.
Sergeant Zahrul Huq, an
under-trial prisoner in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, died of bullet injury in
the Dhaka Cantonment on 15 February 1969.
On 16 February, Maulana
Bhasani proclaimed in a glowing voice, 'if anything happened to Mujibur Mia,
there would be no more Pakistan’.
On 18 February 1969 Dr
Mohammad Shamsuzzoha, Proctor of the Rajshahi University, was bayoneted to
death..
On February 22, The
Pakistani Government Set free Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and other political
prisoners from the Agartala Conspiracy Case.
On 23rd February Student leader Tofail
Ahmed gives Sheikh Mujibur Rahman honorary title of 'Bangabandhu' (Friend of
Bengal).
On 25th March,General
Yahya Khan captured the power by a hidden coup in which Yahya forced Ayub Khan
to hand over his powers and resign.
EFFECT & RESULT OF MASS UPSURGE 1969
Along the path of this mass
uprising, the Bengali nation achieved great independence through a bloody armed
liberation war.
Martial Law was re-imposed, but
simultaneously it was agreed that elections would be arranged soon on the basis
of universal adult franchise, and parliamentary democracy would be introduced.
Fear of police and civil and
military bureaucrats minimised to a very great extent .
Class consciousness grew and
advanced a step forward.
The demand for a separate state
became stronger than ever before among the people of Eastern Bengal.
Bangali nationalism became
sufficiently strong to sustain during the war of liberation in
1971
For the honor of Shahed Asad, the
Students' Action Committee proposed to change few places' name, these are;
• Ayub Nagar to Sher-e-Bangla Nagar
• Ayub Gate to Asad Gate
• Ayub children's park to Matiur
children's Park etc.
Also, Sergeant Zahurul Haq were
honoured by the naming of a students' residential hall of the University
of Dhaka after him.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MASS UPSURGE 1969
The importance and significance
of the mass uprising of 1969 was immense. Some fundamental changes were
achieved through mass uprising. They were:
1. Conclusion of Ayub Khan's dictatorship
2. Abstraction of Agartala case
3. Parliamentary democracy and
recognition of voting
4. Increasing status of Bangla language
5. Economic freedom
6. Development of Bengali
nationalism
7. Inspiration of independence
CONCLUSION
The journey from six demands to
eleven demands and finally to one demand (that of sovereignty) should be seen
as a natural progression toward a common goal—and every movement that we waged
pushed us one step closer to that goal.
This event taught us how to stand up against wrong doing. It was an epic tale of Bengali aspirations being articulated and Bengali ambitions finding fulfillment. It all began with the Mass Upsurge taking shape in January 1969.