The habitat presently called Bangladesh had assumed different names over the ages since time immemorial. The place which was known as ‘Vanga’ or Bangla’ was only a part of today’s Bangladesh and West Bengal state of India. The land was divided into a number of settlements including the well-known Pundra, Gauda, and Vanga. They derived their names from their identities of statehood and possessed separate mechanisms of governance.
It was the Muslim rulers of the medieval era who unified the whole region and named it as ‘Bangla’. That signaled the end of ancient entities like Gauda, Pundra, Rarha, Harikel, Samatat, Chandradwip, Varendra, etc. The period of Muslim Sultani rule was thus the period when Bangla’s glory reached its zenith.
During the reign of Keshab Sen and Bishwarup Sen of the Hindu Sena Dynasty, Vanga was divided into two parts. One was the Bikrampur region around present-day Dhaka; and the other was Nabyamandal extending from Bakerganj (present-day Barishal) towards the east and reaching up to the sea. The name of another habitat called Harikel is also mentioned quite often. Its boundary stretched from the Bakerganj region to Sylhet. It was also known as Chandradwip.
‘Samatat’ was another ancient habitat of Bangla whose territory extended from Tripura up to the Chabbish Pargana districts of present-day West Bengal. On the other hand, Eastern Bangla itself was also called Samatat during the Buddhist Pala era. The whole land area of eastern and southern Bangla (coastal belt) was included in it.
The capital of Pundrabardhan was ‘Mahasthangarh’ (in present-day Bogura region). Dinajpur and Rajshahi regions were also included in it. The ‘Varendra’ habitat on the other hand consisted of Bogura, Dinajpur, Rajshahi, and Pabna. Although the areas of Bardhaman, Hooghli and Howrah districts in present-day West Bengal were identified as southern Rarha, in reality they belonged to the ancient ‘Sukkha’ habitat.
The ancient Brajabhumi included places such as Murshidabad, Birbhum, and Katwa of West Bengal. Although the Gauda habitat was originally located in Murshidabad and Birbhum, at one stage the whole of Bangla was known by that name.
In the 6th century CE, an independent dynasty of Kings was installed in the Vanga habitat, giving rise to a new state-formation. From 7th century onwards starting from the rule of King Shashanka, efforts were made to bring together various habitats of ancient Bangla. This same effort continued during the Buddhist Pala and the Hindu Sena rule (8th to 12th century CE). Then the unified state during the 200 year-rule of the independent Sultans of Bangla, who remained outside the sphere of control of the Muslim emperors in Delhi, was a landmark in the establishment of Bangladesh entity. It was during this Sultani era (1342-1538) that Vanga and Gauda were fused together to form a new state.
The unified entity of Bangla also existed during the Pathan (Suri) rule (1538-1564). But the emperor Sher Shah Suri used to rule from Delhi, and consequently the united Bangla lost its sovereignty.
In this backdrop, the Mughals (1576-1757) became the rulers of this region. And it was during the rule of Mughal emperor Akbar that Bangladesh was named as ‘Subah Bangla’. Dhaka was then made its capital with the nomenclature ‘Jahangirnagar’. It could then boast of being the capital of Bangla for the first time.
Near the fag end of the Mughal era, the British rulers (1757-1947) seized power here and named Bangla as Bengal. Up to 1905, Bengal, Bihar, Orissa (now called Odisha) and Assam were included in the province of Bangla. When ‘Banga-bhanga’ (partition of Bangla) was announced in 1905, Eastern Bangla along with Assam became a separate province, and Dhaka was once again made the capital. This arrangement was again reversed in 1911 due to pressure from the Hindu Bangali elites.
Things continued like this up to 1947. But as a consequence of the ‘divide and rule’ policy of the British rulers, two separate states—India and Pakistan—were created by dividing the subcontinent on 14-15 August 1947. Bangla was partitioned again, and ironically, this time it was the Hindu Bangalis who opposed a unified Bangla for fear of Muslim domination in an independent country. West Bengal therefore became a constituent state of the Indian Federation, while eastern Bangla was included in Pakistan as its eastern wing – subsequently renamed as East Pakistan.
But the movement for autonomy of East Pakistan started within a couple of years because of language and cultural differences and economic disparities between the two wings of Pakistan. The Language Movement of 1952 for the recognition of Bangla as a state language could be termed as the first step towards the independence of Bangladesh. Political and economic deprivations in East Pakistan prompted its citizens to demand regional autonomy during the 1960s, which in effect laid the foundation for the eventual independence of Bangladesh.
Although the Awami League led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won absolute majority in Pakistan Parliament in the national election held in December 1970, the party was not allowed to form government by the ruling military junta. And in a preplanned manner on the night of March 25 1971, the Pakistan Army embarked on what may be termed as one of the worst genocides in history. It was in this backdrop that Shaheed Ziaur Rahman (then a Major in the army) revolted and made the declaration of independence from Kalurghat Radio Station of Chattogram on 27 March 1971.
The Pakistani Army went for indiscriminate killings of innocent people, large-scale destruction of villages, raping of women, looting and plunder. On 17 April 1971, a provisional revolutionary government-in-exile of Bangladesh based in India was formed at Mujibnagar. Acting President Syed Nazrul Islam and Prime Minister Tajuddin Ahmad directed the war efforts with the aid of Bangladesh Liberation Forces Commander General M A G Osmani.
At the end of nine months of war, the Pakistani occupation forces surrendered in Dhaka to the Indo-Bangladesh Allied Forces on 16 December 1971. Due to the heroic resistance of the Bangladeshi people and the supreme sacrifices of the valiant freedom fighters, Bangladesh finally became an independent and sovereign nation.
After independence, it was Shaheed President Ziaur Rahman (1936-45) who laid the edifice of Bangladeshi nationalism during his brief rule between 1975 and 1981. It encapsulated the Bangladeshi people’s pride in a common history, provided them with a national identity, recognised the contribution of their forefathers, the glory of their language, culture, ethnic identities, and religious ideologies. The victory of the Bangladeshi people on December 16 1971 therefore remained incomplete until this concept got a firm foothold in the soil of Bangladesh.
Dr Helal Uddin Ahmed is a retired Additional Secretary and former Editor of Bangladesh Quarterly. hahmed1960@gmail.com