Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

Only a handful of people in history can fairly be said to have talked a nation into being, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is one of them. In this hour-long episode of The Leader Files Podcast, Mike tells the whole story of Mujib, known as Bangabandhu, the Friend of Bengal, and as the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh. He was the independence leader who spent close to thirteen years in prison by one count, and the president whose time in power many Bangladeshis still find hard to forgive. It is not a tribute and not a takedown. It is the full life, told in a conversational, personal way.

Next comes Dhaka: his expulsion from Dhaka University, the founding of the Awami Muslim League, later the Awami League, and the Bengali Language Movement, with the 21 February 1952 shootings and the Shaheed Minar, now remembered on International Mother Language Day. We cover the 1954 United Front landslide, his 1955 defense of the name Bengal in the national assembly, his warning against detention without trial, and General Ayub Khan's military rule.

Then the road to independence: the Six Points of 1966, Tajuddin Ahmad, the Agartala Conspiracy Case, the 1969 uprising that freed him and gave him the title Bangabandhu, the Bhola cyclone, and the 1970 Pakistan election, when the Awami League won an outright majority. We walk through the 7 March 1971 speech at the Ramna Race Course, now on UNESCO's Memory of the World register, Archer Blood's reports, the night of 25 March, Operation Searchlight, his arrest, and the debate over the declaration of independence.

We cover the Bangladesh Liberation War carefully and without graphic detail: mass killings that many historians and the government of Bangladesh call a genocide, ten million refugees, the Blood Telegram, the Mukti Bahini, the Mujibnagar government, India's role under Indira Gandhi, and the surrender on 16 December 1971 on the same racecourse ground.

Then the hard years: his return through London and Delhi in January 1972, the 1972 constitution, a shattered economy, "friendship to all, malice to none," and the first Bengali speech at the United Nations. We look honestly at the disputed 1973 election, nationalization and corruption, the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini and the accusations against it, the amnesty and the return of Pakistani prisoners of war, the 1974 famine and Amartya Sen's view of it, and the one-party BAKSAL system of 1975.

Finally, the 15 August 1975 coup in which he and most of his family were killed, the jail killing of four senior Awami League leaders, the Indemnity Ordinance and the later trial, and the long fight over his legacy, through Ziaur Rahman, Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina to the 2024 uprising and its aftermath.