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Overview of the cult of personality around Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
This article appears to be slanted towards recent events. Please try to keep recent events in historical perspective and add more content related to non-recent events. (November 2024)
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A cult of personality was created around Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during his tenure, where his supporters venerate him.After being pushed to the sidelines by the successive military rulers Ziaur Rahman (who founded the Bangladesh Nationalist Party) and Hussain Muhammad Ershad (who founded the Jatiya Party), Mujib came back to dominate public consciousness from 2008 under the Awami League government led by Hasina. Hasina was criticised for overemphasising the role of her father and the Awami League in securing Bangladeshi independence at the cost of sidelining other prominent figures and political parties of the time.
During her tenure, Hasina amended the constitution to make the presence of Mujib's portrait mandatory in every school, government office & diplomatic missions of the country and made it illegal to criticise Mujib, his ideals & his deeds, especially the one-party BAKSAL regime headed by him, through writing, speech or electronic media. Many events commemorating the birth-centenary of Mujib in his lifetime were launched by the Hasina administration, including an official biopic in collaboration with the Indian government. The Hasina government converted Mujib's residence in the capital city of Dhaka, where he & his family was assassinated by military personnel in 1975, into a memorial museum. Hasina designated the day of Mujib's assassination as the National Day of Mourning. The Hasina government also made the birthdays of Mujib, his wife Sheikh Fazilatunessa, eldest son Sheikh Kamal & youngest son Sheikh Russel as official government holidays, alongside March 7 (on that day in 1971, Mujib declared Bangladesh's seccession at a speech in Dhaka). Under Hasina's rule, the country was doted with numerous statues of Mujib alongside several roads & prominent institutions named after him. Critics state that Hasina utilises the personality cult around her father to justify her own authoritarianism, crackdown on political dissent & democratic backsliding of the country.
Following the violent overthrow of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, the cult of personality around Mujib is being systematically dismantled. After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina, many places named after Mujib was changed. Biographies of Sheikh Mujib or his family members were replaced by the biographies of Kazi Nazrul Islam, Rabindranath Tagore, Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani and four national leaders from the elementary textbooks. Government also decided to remove the portrait of Sheikh Mujib from the banknotes of Bangladeshi taka.
Campbell, Charlie (25 July 2024). "How Mass Protests Challenge Bangladesh's Past—and Threaten to Rewrite Its Future". Time. Archived from the original on July 28, 2024. Retrieved 6 August 2024. In lieu of a true popular mandate—the U.S. deemed January's election, which returned the Awami League for a fourth straight term but was boycotted by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), as neither free nor fair—Hasina increasingly leans upon the cult of personality she's constructed around her father.
Media related to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's cult of personality at Wikimedia Commons
