New textbooks in Bangladesh: 'Ziaur Rahman, not Mujibur, declared freedom'

Former Bangladesh prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) chairperson Khaleda Zia’s husband Ziaur Rahman, and not Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, has been credited with declaring the country’s independence in 1971 in new school textbooks for the academic year starting 2025.

Mujibur vs Ziaur

Mujibur Rahman, also deposed Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s father, is credited for spearheading the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and declaring independence from Pakistan. Mujibur’s supporters say Ziaur Rahman, a former army major and a second commander in the Liberation war, had merely read out the declaration on the command of the former. Ziaur Rahman’s supporters, however, say it was him who declared Bangladesh’s independence.

Also read: How Sheikh Mujib's legacy has been compromised in Bangladesh

The same version is being printed in the newly-launched textbooks for primary and secondary students, under the interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus, The Daily Star reported.

The books were slated for distribution from January 1 onwards.

‘Exaggerated, imposed history’

School textbooks published since 2010, soon after Hasina came to power for a second time, have been saying that Mujibur declared independence via a wireless message before his arrest by the Pakistan army on March 26, 1971.

The Daily Star quoting AKM Reazul Hassan, chairman of the National Curriculum of Textbook Board said that the new textbooks will say that Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh on March 26, 1971 and made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu (Mujibur) on March 27.

Hassan said the revised information can be found in the free textbooks.

Also read: All about ‘Bangabandhu’ Mujibur Rahman, Awami League, and birth of Bangladesh

Academics involved in the making of the textbooks say the decision was taken to liberate textbooks from “exaggerated, imposed history.”

“Those who revised the textbooks found that it wasn't a fact-based information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message (declaring independence) while being arrested by the Pakistani army, and so they decided to remove it," said writer and researcher Rakhal Raha.

End of Mujibur’s legacy?

This is not the first time textbooks in Bangladesh are being changed according to the whims of the government in power. Former NCTB officials told The Daily Star when the Awami League was in power, textbooks stated that Mujibur made the declaration of independence and Ziaur Rahman read out the announcement. On the other hand, when BNP was in power between 2001 and 2006, it had said that it was Ziaur who made the declaration.

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The changes in textbooks are the latest of attempts by the interim government to erase the legacy of Mujibur from Bangladesh’s history. The cult status that the late politician had achieved received its first blow when irate protesters destroyed and toppled his golden statue in Dhaka on August 5 last year, soon after Hasina left the country amid widespread protests against her regime.

A day after Hasina’s ouster, Khaleda Zia, convicted in the Zia Orphanage Trust case, was acquitted and freed by an order of then Bangladesh president Mohammed Shahabuddin.