Speech of 7 March is a political grammar: Swadesh Roy

Very few leaders in the world get a towering historical moment in his political carrier. On the contrary a few leaders in the world can create themselves a towering historical moment in his political lifespan. In our sub-continent Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the only leader who created that enormous political situation and gave a speech standing on his self-created Everest. Now that speech is one of the political grammars in the world.

 It happened on 7 March, 1971. We have no exact words that can express the day. We can only say, it was the greatest day, it was the best time, it was the highest moment for his life and the life of his nation. The afternoon when he reached the political Everest, and gave the speech to his people, then he and his people, and the place Dacca city became the part of the world history. It added a new chapter to the political history of the world. It was created by Bangabandhu, his people, and in Dacca.

Mujib gave a very short speech but its every word carried a volume of political meaning. If a student of politics does not read and understand this speech, he or she cannot complete his or her journey through the history of the politics in the world. In future, researchers will write volume after volume on it. In fact, this speech can never be illustrated precisely in an article. In this article, I am only trying to give effort to exemplify two object from this political grammar of 7th March speech. First, we can try to understand from his speech, what will be the characters of a modern constitution of a nation. In his speech he told, “We would formulate a constitution and this constitution would ensure peoples’ political, economic and cultural freedom.” This is the basic point of any constitution of any modern state. As a political leader, Bangabandhu could avoid cultural emancipation- he could emphasise only political and economic freedom. The iconic politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did not make that mistake. He knew that for a sustainable political and economic freedom of a nation or a human race needs conceptual cultural freedom. Only conceptual cultural freedom can make an all-embracing and diverse society. The diverse society and its freedom is the main key of the sustainable economic development that helps to develop a liberal political atmosphere in any country.

We know that economy is one of the main visible stakes of a human life or life of a nation, but economy cannot build without liberal political atmosphere and diverse cultural society. Now a days, we are observing in many countries diverse culture is being wrapped up by the religion, or by dogmatic ultra-race faith. Britain has no written constitution but they have a constitution through the convention which is liberal and in favor of diverse society. Recently they went for a referendum, which shows only for taking a decision either they will stay with European Union (EU) or pull out of EU. In spite of that, if anyone goes through inner blood flow of that referendum, he can see, it is in favor of racism and religion of the majority. Ultimately, it will hamper their diverse culture. Culture will die gradually because of religion and race and color. Its ultimate result is walking towards medieval society. Medieval society never gives you a modern sustainable economy and political freedom. So through the constitution- Bangabandhu wanted to make cultural emancipation which will safeguard the economic and political development.  Now the world is not in a good shape in the point of view of culture of the civilization but it has to walk forward for some beautiful days. For this reason, the only thing has to be ensured is the cultural freedom of a society or the nation; and it only can be protected by the constitution.

Secondly, in this speech Bangabandhu gave a definition of liberal democracy- which is more liberal version than that of Abraham Lincoln. Address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania on 19 November 1863, Abraham Lincoln ended his address, “government of the people, by the people, for the people,”. Lincoln’s definition still expresses what is democracy, but it also expresses democracy as only the verdict of majority people. On the other hand, after one hundred and eight years of the address of Abraham Lincoln - on 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman said, “In spite of majority party, if anyone, even if he is a lone person- raises a sensible voice we will support it.” Truly, it is the most liberal version of the definition of democracy. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, inserted the point in the definition of democracy that, it will be not only the voice of the majority it will also be the safeguard of the sensible voice of the society. Sometimes, only voice of the majority can be a rule of the majority. That rule cannot be the safeguard of all the beauty of the good sense and beauty of the society. The definition of Bangabandhu fulfills this shortcoming of the definition of Abraham Lincoln. We may compare it to Bose and Einstein theory. Bose from Dacca fulfills Einstein’s theory of condensate. From the same place Dacca, Mujib gave a totality of Abraham Lincoln’s definition of democracy.

Given in this context, it can be said that if anyone goes through each word of this speech, he will get that in every word, in every line of this speech is itself a basic structure of politics. Therefore, this speech is a grammar of politics. In every language, grammar gives the structure of the expression of language; in the same manner, the speech of 7 March teaches how politics becomes the leading power of the society and the state and how politics gives the freedom to the human kind, and what the conflict between liberal politics and all type of tyranny is. Moreover, the speech of 7 March and its situation teaches the people - how much patience makes a man an iconic politician.

Writer: Executive Editor, The Daily Janakantha

Courtesy: The Bangladesh Post

Published: March 6, 2018