On his 124th birthday, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who led Bangladesh to freedom will not only be remembered as Bangabandhu (Friend of Bengalis), but also as a role model liberator in the post-colonial world.
Considering that the creation of Bangladesh from the ruins of the failed experimental nation-state of Pakistan was the first successful secessionist struggle from a majoritarian post-colonial state in a post-imperial world, Mujib’s leadership model as the ultimate populist agitprop leader has and had many takers.
From the leaders of Papua New Guinea freedom struggle like Jacob Henri to the Kashmiri nationalists of the JKLF variety to the Tamil Tiger supremo Prabhakaran and not the least PLO founder Yasser Arafat, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not only an inspiration but also a path breaker who evolved from a power-seeking electoral (sometimes street fighting) politician to a mass protest mobiliser with his trademark demagogy seeking autonomy and rights for the oppressed Bengalis in Pakistan’s eastern wing .
That he traversed this political escalator without much difficulty in the humdrum of Pakistani politics marked by military rule is a testimony to his political acumen and tactical (should we say survival) abilities not seen amongst the traditional middle class Bengali leaders.
Mujib was rooted in rural Bengal and his long years in Calcutta and Dhaka did not deprive him of his ability to connect to the grassroots. So much as he could evoke passion and romanticism for the Bengali cause, he was never carried away by the emotionalism of the........