7th March Speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

7th March Speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is the declaration of independence of a nation in 1971. Its historical importance is no less immense than other renowned speeches.

The Gettysburg speech of Abraham Lincoln and the “I Have a Dream” speech of Martin Luther King Junior are masterpieces in the oratorical tradition. The speech of Bangabandhu is not merely an oratorical art. Concerning Bengali nationhood and the achievement of a sovereign identity, it stands equal to the Magna Carta.

The historical background of that phenomenal speech is relevant to this discussion. After the birth of Pakistan in 1947, the hope of the exploited Bengalis was dashed, molested, and ignored. Gradually the Bengalis of that part who played a pivotal role in the Pakistan Movement were sharply disenchanted. This frustration gave vent to cultural, political, and economic protest.

In 1952 the Language Movement was both a cultural and political Movement that fomented Bengali nationhood quite conspicuously. It was not a matter of coincidence that Bangabandhu was one of the participants of this movement. The historic election of 1954 was an outcome of Bengali nationhood's strong assertion of its rights where along with Bhasani, Fazlul Haq, and Suhrawardy, Sheikh Mujib was an instrumental factor.

The Six Point Movement in 1966, the Agartala Conspiracy in 1969, and finally the election of 1970 were the progressions of the Bengali road to freedom, and in every layer, it was Bangabandhu who directly led and achieved freedom. The Seventh March Speech was the culmination of Bengali aspiration of liberty, equality, and an exploitation free society. So when Mujib rose on the podium, held the dais, and began to deliver his speech all those things cropped in his mind and the poem of freedom was revealed before a spellbound audience of around 1 million exploited, downtrodden, ignored Bengalis of East Pakistan.

7th March Speech of Bangabandhu  MP3 speech video

The address of the 7th March 1971 was very effective. It entered into the very core of a whole nation irrespective of creed, color, and religion. What makes this speech so marvelous are its directness, lucidity, and authenticity. Unlike political demagogy, this speech. While delivering the speech, Mujib was under various groups and lobbies. The Pakistani regime led by the army juntas was not willing to give him the due right to govern the state. Bhutto, another villain of this plot, was hatching evil design to deny Mujib his place. The young Turks in the student fronts were for an outright declaration of independence. The mass leader came, without any written speech, and addressed the mammoth audience coming from all flanks on an issue that linked directly with their fate without any duplicity and verbosity. Simple words, coined with natural metaphors and delivered in profound tenor created a permanent impact on the spectators witnessing the historic moment. The afternoon at Racecourse ground seemed to be an ocean of Bengali existence. The message delivered by the tall leader made him taller than all other leaders of yesterday and tomorrow. The leader with natural spontaneity addressed the people as Brothers. This was not a mere ploy of politics that we find now. Mujib was really a leader of the ordinary folk. He never delinked himself from the mass.

The speech made it clear that here a leader is speaking who experienced betrayals, treachery, deviousness from the rulers and felt as deeply as his fellow listeners. This sympathy immediately connected him with the audience on the same level and drove his message home. Bangabandhu as Mujib is popularly known said in a grave voice that he had expected to stop the exploitation carried out by Punjabi oligarchy but as the plotters of the Military West Pakistan hegemony wanted to deny Bengalis any rights the whole semblance of democracy went wrong. The speech made it clear that there was little chance of freedom and justice in the hands of the Pakistanis. The leader speaking on the podium was unequivocal in his condemnation of the atrocities of the army and like a real national leader he articulated the warnings without any fear,  We will punish you depriving food, water..” Certainly, only a leader of the stature of Bangabandhu could warn the brutal army in that stage. Mujib, the great orator, exploited all means in the historic seventh March speech. He used persuasive skills when he exhorted the aggrieved listeners. In other cases, he used rhetorical questions to emphasize his message. He sounded optimistic when he assured the listeners. “ You (the West Pakistani rulers) can not oppress us any longer. He was also cautious when he warned the troublemakers who wanted to orchestrate communal riots, “ In this Bengal Hindu, Musalmans, Bengali, and non-Bengalis would live peacefully..” Mujib, the de facto head of the state urged all to carry out his dictums when he said not to give taxes to the rulers.”

Emotion of 7th March Speech

7th March Speech was emotionally appealing and mesmerizing. The leader who was delivering the speech could assess the pulse of the people. So, the images were almost unornamented, and colloquial Bengali was used in many cases. The message was simple. The large audience was asked to be disillusioned of the Pakistanis, be united, and be prepared for all steps for achieving independence as the oppressors were not ready for any compromises. Mujib, the leader, was speaking as a statesman, not as an Awami League leader. He envisioned the birth of a new nation at the end of the tunnel. His voice in that speech was obviously confident. Some evil-minded plotters want still to play in the troubled water questioning Mujib's role in the War of Independence and trying to equal him with a petty army major of 1971. The moot point is the historic Seventh March Speech is a testimony of Mujib's declaration of the independence of Bangladesh. Hamlet is incomplete without the Prince of Denmark. The Ramayana is meaningless without Ram, and the Independence of Bangladesh was impossible without Mujib who fathered our nationhood in the historical juncture of time. His bold utterances emboldened an oppressed nation when he said, “ Be prepared even if I am unavailable to give you order…. The struggle, this time, is the fight for freedom, the struggle, this time, is the struggle for independence…”

After that unequivocal declaration of independence, the whole nation required no more announcements. The historic speech steeled the nation, and the rest was an epic. Both in style and content the Speech of Seventh March stands taller than all other orations in the history of humanity. The Gettysburg Speech and Martin Luther King's Speech though great could not bring a new birth to a nation, the Bangabandhu speech did it. Bangladesh today is the document of the authenticity, effectiveness, and poignancy of the historic speech of the Seventh March. A speech of nearly 40 minutes sealed the fate of the Bengalis for all time to come. The great 7th March Speech was uttered in words dressed in a political tone but a manifesto of Bengali identity, freedom, and justice dreamt by millions of downtrodden. Never before that day, had a leader of Bengal could sense the heartthrob of a nation so perfectly. On March 7 Bangladesh witnessed the greatest drama of its destiny.

• 21 February Bengali Language Movement Day
• Independence day of Bangladesh 1971