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Songs of Liberation War
Dr. Karunamaya Goswami
In the backdrop of the Bangladesh War of Liberation, the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (the Independent Bangladesh Radio Station) was established. Historically speaking, the genesis of that radio station is traced from temporarily set up Kalurghat radio station in Chittagong on 26 March, 1971 although it took up full-scale on-air programme from Mujibnagar on May 25, 1971. Persons associated with the operation of Kalurghat radio station were soon joined by a host of people from different disciplines to successfully carry on the broadcasting events from the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra.
Almost all the broadcasting items were covered to inspiring the freedom fighters as well as the people of Bangladesh about armed counteractions against the occupation forces of Pakistan who had been perpetrating one of the world’s worst genocides in Bangladesh and to inform the rest of the world about what had been happening there.
We can broadly categorise the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra programmes into two sections, namely, information section and the music section. The information section proved effective in making the people at home and abroad aware of the extent of brutalities being perpetrated by the Pakistan army and their local collaborators and song section proved extremely effective about inspiring the freedom fighters and the freedom loving people of Bangladesh about achieving the target of the fight: independence of Bangladesh.
Goal was to boost morale: Those were extremely difficult days. Pakistan posted a very strong army which went absolutely wild about perpetrating all types of barbarities. Besides, they were helped by a few local collaborators. It was the dire necessity of the day to keep the morale of the freedom loving people high. Songs broadcast from that radio station were dedicated to this great morale boosting goal. I will not even slightly hesitate to say that Bengali patriotic songs never proved as valuable and useful as they did during the War of Liberation of Bangladesh. It was a different kind of war on the broadcasting front and the performance by the lyricists, composers and performers were superb. Once again they proved the truth that a genuine inspiration overcomes all limitations and brings about a miraculous success.
As I look back to the total course of development related to the War of Liberation of Bangladesh after three decades, the role played by the patriotic songs, old and new, and particularly by the great one: Tagore’s “My golden Bengal, I love you” appears as it were like a heroic legend which could only be read or heard of in a dream.
Source of inspiration: Any nation which passes through a critical crisis requires some dream or vision as a source of inspiration to overcome it. Bangladesh as a nation had to pass through a terrible crisis during 1971 following the outbreak of the armed campaign against the Pakistani forces and needed and acquired a dream of independence whose spirit was upheld by the freedom fighters on the battle fronts and by the performers in the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. They sang patriotic songs each of which was inseparably related to the great national dream of achieving Bangladesh’s sovereign entity. We know of the proverbial truth that ideas are sharper than weapons. We found the truth in proven shape ever since the Betar Kendra put on air its broadcasts. Ideas disseminated from there worked instantaneously and sharpened the patriotic zeal and enthusiasm of the people. The most effective role in this regard was played by songs urging the people of Bangladesh to stand united in the face of any eventuality and confront the Pakistani army with indomitable will force.
The Betar Kendra organised its music section which, by any standard, was an remarkably enriched one, in a short time. People belonging to various departments of the music section joined the Radio as soon as the on-air schedule was planned.
Samar Das (1925-2001), who is regarded as one of the great builders of post-1947 Dhaka centric modern Bangla music, joined the Radio Station as the Chief Music Composer. He rose true to his fame and offered brilliant leadership in respect of organizing the music programmes. I may here refer to names of some of the persons who took part in the music programmes of the Radio in different capacities. There has not yet been any concerted effort on our part to put in writing the authentic details of the action plans related to music broadcast over the Radio. We don’t have the complete anthology of songs, of at least the new ones, not to speak of the old and renowned compositions. When the condition of the song texts is like this, we can’t expect that there could be a complete anthology of notations. Without being on proper record some of the names of the lyricists, composers, singers and accompanists have been lost.
Here I put on record chapter wise the names of persons who contributed to make possible the music broadcasts from the Radio.
The key people: Music producers, composers and directors: Samar Das, Ajit Roy, Apel Mahmud, Abdul Jabbar, Manna Huq, Mohammed Shah Bangali, Haralal Roy, Moksed Ali Sain, Sadhan Sarkar and Sujeya Shyam.
Performers were: Ajit Roy, Apel Mahmud, Abdul Jabbar, Mohammad Shah Bangali, Haralal Roy, Manna Huq, Maksed Ali Sain, Anup Kumar Bhattacharya, Arup Ratan Choudhury, Anil Chandra Dey, Abu Nawsher, Amitabha Sengupta, Ajay Kishore Roy, Abdul Gani Bokhari, Iqbal Mahmood, Indramohan Rajbangshi, Indu Bikash Roy, M.A. Mannan, M.A.Khaleq, Kaderi Kibria, Kamaluddin Ahmed, Kanchan Talukdar, Kalachand Ghosh, Gouranga Sarkar, Gopalkrishna Dutta, Chittaranjan Bhuiyan, Jagadish Karmaker, Jiban Krishna Roy, Tapan Kumar Saha, Timir Nandi, Tapan Bhattacharya, Namita Ghosh, Torab Ail Shah, Dilip Dasgupta, Dilip Ghosh, Nitai Chandra Sarkar, Nikhil Ranjan Das, Prabal Chowdhury, Pradip Ghosh, Pranab Chandra Ghosh, Paritosh Shil, Fakir Alamgir, Basudev Das, ManjurAhmed, Mafiz Angur, Moshad Ali, Monowar Hassain Khan, Mosharraf Hossain, Mahiuddin Khoka, Mukul Chowdhury, Mamun Al Choudhury, Mustafa Tanaj, Mujibur Rahman, Mrinal Bhattacharya, Malay Kumar Ganguli, Mihir Lala, Mihir Karmaker, Mihir Nandi, Manoranjan Ghoshal, Malay Ghosh Dastidar, Rathindranath Roy, Ranjan Ghatak, Rafiqul Alam, Rezaul Karim, Sakina Begum, Shah Ali Sarkar, Shafaunnabi, Shahid Hasan, Shiva Shankar Roy, Subrata Sengupta, Sardar Alauddin, Syed Alamgir, Sheikh Jamiruddin, Syedur Rahman, Sadhan Kumar Sarkar, Sushil Kumar Chakrabarty, Samir Chanda, Sukumar Biswas, Harendra Chandra Lahiri, Anita Basu, Archana Basu, Aruna Saha, Arati Ghosh, Arati Dhar, Uma Choudhury, Kalyani Ghosh, Kana, Queen Mahjabin, Kanika Roy, Gita Banarjee, Gitashri Sen, Jayanti Bhuiyan, Jharna Banerjee, Naila Zaman, Flora Ahmed, Bulbul Mahalanabish, Manjula Das Gupta, Manjushri Neogi, Minu Roy, Mita Chatterjee, Malina Das, Mitali Mukherjee, Bhakti Roy, Madhuri Acharya, Mala Khan, Rehana Begum, Rizia Saifuddin, Rupa Khan, Rama Bhowmik, Lina Das, Shefali Ghosh, Shahin Mahmud, Shanti Mukherjee, Shefali Sanyal, Shakti Shikha Das, Shukti Mahalanabish, Shukla Bhadra, Sanjida Khatun, Swapna Roy, Hena Begum, Afroza Mamun, Dipa Banerjee, Rita Chatterjee, Kishore Roy, Shatadal Sen, Rana Hayder, Prabal Choudhury, Hazrat Ali, Torab Ali Shah, Abdul Gani Bukhari, Mohammad Shah Bangali, Mafiz Bangali, Shahid Hasan Khan, Tarun Roy, K.C. Roy, Nasrin Ahmed, Syeda Naznin, Jayanti Lala, Dalia Nawshin and Madan Mohan Das.
From among the members of the department of musical instruments we get the names of Subal Datta, Subal Das, Babul Datta, Abinash Chandra Shil, Gopi Ballabha Biswas, Arun Kumar Goswami, Sunil Kumar Goswami, Anil Kumar Dey, Kalachand Ghosh, Pranab Das, Swapan Kumar Saha, Paritosh Kumar Saha, Tarit Hossain Khan, Jhunu Khan, Runu Khan, Hiren Lahiri and Lucky Akhanda.
As for the song texts, there was a huge old stock, song texts written in the then East Pakistan during the waves of political movements which stood for values like Bengali nationalism, democracy, right to self-determination, regard for human rights and end to exploitation of the weak by the strong. The spirit of such songs was amply supported by some great songs written decades ago by the great Bengali poets and performed on many patriotic occasions. Some excellent new songs were written which upheld the spirit of the War of Liberation.
Magnificent repertoire: Taking the old and new songs together the Betar Kendra could utilise a wonderful song repertoire which enabled the station to make every on-air music programme transmission vitalising and invigorating.
In this light the song text writers for the Radio may be divided into three groups. The first group comprises of poets who wrote patriotic songs long ago. The second group accommodates poets who did not take part in the War of Liberation but wrote song texts in contemporary times or some time ago ventilating such spirit as may correspond to the spirit of the War of Liberation. The third and the most notable group is made of poets who took part in the War of Liberation and wrote songs for the radio programme.
I may mention here the names of some of the lyricists from group two and group three. They are: Sikandar Abu Jafar, Abdul Latif, Gauriprasanna Majumder, Salil Choudhury, Shyamal Gupta, Azizur Rahman, Mahammad Maniruzzaman, Haralal Roy, Gazi Mazharul Anwar, Govinda Haldar, T.H. Shikdar, Abdul Gani Bukhari, Hafizur Rahman, Muksed Ali Sain, Mohammad Shah Bangali, Saroar Jahan, Syed Shamsul Huda, Fazal-e-Khoda, Shahidul Islam, Abu Bakar Siddique, Najim Mahmud, Nayeem Gawhar and Newajish Hussain.
Brilliant lyrics: Govinda Haldar and Gauriprasanna Majumder wrote some brilliant lyrics, which as songs drove the freedom loving people of Bangladesh throbbing in emotion. Angshuman Roy who died a tragic premature death from hanging composed the music for the song ‘Listen, the voice of one Mujibur”; he was himself the performer of the song. Apel Mahmud had also done a wonderful job as a composer and performer. On the top of all these was Samar Das with his overwhelming power as a composer and conductor.
Raga-based urban genre: Of the freshly written songs, some turned out to be landmark works. I would like to present some of the song texts in English translation:
We fight to make safe a flower
We take up guns to guard a happy smile.
We fight for the whole of our life for the land
Whose soil we anoint on our body with infinite love
With whose rivers and flowers we draw our dreams
In whose blue sky we like birds spread out our wings.
We fight for the right to write a new poem
We fight for the right to sing a new song
We fight for the right to do a new piece of painting
We fight to make safe peace around the world.
I take a vow to fight for my home
Which is heaven on earth, an abode of peace
Where lives the lady of my love
And my child who offers an all-conquering smile.
Apel Mahmud, who sang the song over the Independent Bangladesh Radio, himself composed music for it. It was what we call a hit song. The song received an instant response from freedom loving people of Bangladesh. The song text writer, Govinda Haldar, earned tremendous fame for this amazing song. One more song by Govinda Haldar, whose English translation is furnished here, turned out to be extremely popular with the freedom loving people of Bangladesh. Sung in chorus, the enchanting music for the song was composed by Apel Mahmud. The song:
We will not forget you
Who have achieved
The independence of Bangladesh
We will not forget you
Who have torn off the shackle of exploitation
Wading through an inaccessible thorny way.
We will not forget you
Who have brought the message of Liberation
By breaking loose the cruellest bondage of captivity.
Your names will reverberate
In the songs of the peasants and their spouses
And in those of the dancing Bauls
And in the murmuring waves of the rivers:
The Padma and the Meghna.
In our efforts to rebuild the motherland
Your memory will act as perpetual
source of inspiration.
Let one more song text be cited here in English :
The sun has risen in the eastern horizon
As red as blood, as red as blood, as red as blood.
Our mind is overtaken by a tide
As red as blood, as red as blood, as red as blood.
Time is ripe, time is ripe, time is ripe
to tear off shackles.
Days of exploitation are over
The despotic ruler trembles in fear
Fire in blood creates resistance
In funeral pyres of the new Bangladesh.
Don’t kill time, let us raise the flag
Let love and journey for love have a
Thunderous play in the flow of blood
Let adventures be electrifying
Let the enemy strongholds be razed to dust.
Music for the lyric written by Govinda Haldar was composed by Samar Das. It was sung in chorus. Composition was simply outstanding. Communication of heroic sentiment was exhilarating. It should be regarded as a monumental composition by Samar Das. The song had a profound enthusing impact on all the freedom loving people of Bangladesh.
Three songs quoted above belong to the urban music genre. Melodic formation created for them derive from the Raga music tradition. By the compositional character they should be grouped as modern because although Raga-based, the songs do not reflect any typical raga music form; they rather touch the traits of raga forms here and there and flourish like free-form modern ones.
Folk forms: There were also songs modelled after folk forms, Baul or Bhatiali. Most of the people of Bangladesh are villagers. In matters of appeal, folk forms would have been the best to suit their temperament. So the Bangladesh Radio had to pay a great deal of attention to broadcasting patriotic songs of folk genres and such songs proved very effective in mobilizing the popular emotion in favour of the War of Liberation.
I present here a song text in English translation which was set to Bhatiali tune, a genre popular among the boatmen community. The song is:
My brothers, my boatmen of Bangladesh
Let us set the colourful sail of our boat
and raise the slogan of Jay Bangla:
Victory to Bangladesh.
Brother, listen, our boat is driven by six oars.
With Allah’s name on their lips.
And our boat is steered by the boatman from Gopalganj.
O boatmen, he is not the steersman from Gopalganj alone
He is the steersman from Bangladesh at large
And helps people cross the river and sing
The Jay Bangla song.
The song text has been written in allegorical language. The word boat has been used to mean something more than a water transport made of wood. Boat was and yet is the election symbol of Awami League, the political party which under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman mobilised and led the popular opinion in the then East Pakistan in favour of the War of Liberation. Boat also stands for East Pakistan as a land fighting for sovereign status. By six oars the lyricist means the six-point programme of Awami League. The boatman from Gopalganj is none but Sheikh Mujibur Rahman himself. By “reaching the golden village” the lyricist refers to achieving the independence of Bangladesh. The song recognises the great role of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman even in his physical absence because he was arrested by the Pakistani army on 26 March, 1971, and of his party in matters of winning in the war for independence. In another song put to Bhatiali music form the poet pays tribute to the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman:
Mujib ply on your boat
The people’s boat in a land thrown into persecution
Mujib ply on, O Mujib.
They sucked our blood for twenty-four years
through tricks and deceptions
You tried to save the nation
And for that, what an irony, they adjudge you guilty.
Mujib ply on your boat.
O Mujib,
We are hungry, our faces are pale,
They indiscriminately shoot at Bengalis
When they speak of their rightful claims.
Mujib ply on your boat.
O Mujib,
Wailing reverberates in sky and in wind
Bengalis cry aloud.
Exploited people wail all around
And say ‘Mujib where you are’
Mujib ply on your boat.
O Mujib,
The darkness of sorrow engulfs the sky
of Bengalis’ existence.
You are the undisputed sovereign of Bangladesh
The perpetual moon is in the dark.
Mujib ply on your boat.
O Mujib,
We know they are inflicting heart-rending
torture on you
But you know,
Seventy million Bengalis carry in their heart
Your image as their leader.
Mujib ply on your boat.
The text of this song refers to Sheikh Mujib being arrested and put into imprisonment by the Pakistani rulers. The poet believes that Mujib will lead the War of Liberation even from the custody. By urging Mujib to ply on his boat, the poet invokes Mujib to carry on the Liberation War.
The image of boat and boatman are found everywhere. As I have mentioned earlier, the image of boat became synonymous with many things. Boat symbolise d Bangladesh, boat stood for the War of Liberation and boatmen meant the freedom fighters. When the lyricist writes “we are some new boatmen” he refers to some young men who are fresh as fighters. By ‘roaring storm’ the poet meant the terrible battle in which the freedom fighters and the Pakistani army were often locked.
Nationalism and universalism: It was imperative on the part of the Independent Bangladesh Radio to take up broadcasting such songs as would underscore the unity of the people of Bangladesh formed on the basis of Bengali nationalism which is supported by secular values. It was very important for the sake of forging people’s unity. Pakistan was created on the basis of the two-nation theory. The very basis of the Pakistan concept was communal. Ever since the political movements on the basis of Bengali nationalism began to take shape in East Pakistan, the communal concept of the basis of statehood was discarded and it became the declared policy of the political parties believing in progressive ideas to propagate the idea of Bangladesh as state founded on non-communal ideas.
Pakistan believed in dividing the people of its eastern wing on the question of religion. But the political parties fighting for progress believed in uniting people strictly sticking to the idea that every citizen belongs to the state equally and state belongs to every citizen equally irrespective of religion she or he professes or adheres to. Bengali nationalism covered this idea of universalism: Bangladesh for all and all for Bangladesh. Yes, the citizens are Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Christians by virtue of religions they profess, but state should not differentiate them on those questions. Unity of people was very important when people’s war was waged. The broadcasters in the Independent Bangladesh Radio rose to the occasion to propagate through songs the idea that Bangladesh belonged to all its citizens and all the citizens belonged to Bangladesh. This idea of unity formed on the basis of secularism was idealized through several songs which became extremely popular. One of the most popular songs of this genre may be cited here in English translation:
This is my country which belongs
to all universally
Equally to the young and
Old, the poor and the beggars.
There is no disunity amid peasants and cobblers
No disunion between coolies and blacksmiths;
Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Christians
are equally treated children of the motherland.
The plough and the wheel move
in the same rhythm
We all are one, one in one mind
The mosque, the temple, the church
resound the same message
For the labourers, the poor and beggars.
This is my country which belongs to all
Equally to the young and the old,
The poor and the beggars.
People’s united struggle: The declaration that Bangladesh belonged to all and all belonged to Bangladesh was very important. It reiterated the spirit of the united struggle by the people. This reiteration of people’s unity was very much necessary when the electronic and the print media in Pakistan and the collaborating forces in East Pakistan were playing divisive tricks to disturb and upset the sense of unity which the freedom fighters and the freedom loving people arrived at through the nationalist movements. Reference to the message of universal good as preached by the religions was very effective. Cunningly enough, the Pakistan rulers had always used religion as a ploy. They misinterpreted the message of religion to misguide people on questions related to fundamentals of living. The Independent Bangladesh Radio had to keep watch on these emotional areas and constantly harp on unity and universalism to counter the forces of disunity and sectarianism.
Here I present the text of a very popular song broadcast from the Independent Bangladesh Radio which beautifully harped on the theme of unity of the people of Bangladesh despite differences in faiths they profess. As I mentioned earlier, emphasising people’s unity was very important for continuing the War of Liberation to a successful end.
The song text written by Gouriprasanna Majumder alludes to the Language Movement and 1952 Martyrdom. By saying ‘mother tongue is truth, mother tongue is pride’ he refers to the language based nationalism which was the abiding spirit of the war. The song declares that Hindus, Buddhists, Christians and Muslims of Bangladesh are all Bengalis and people of Bangladesh inherit a common stream of heritage created by the great personalities of the past from the different walks of life:
Hindus of Bangladesh, Buddhists
of Bangladesh, Christians of Bangladesh
And Muslims of Bangladesh —
We are all Bengalis.
Titumir, Isha Khan, Siraj
Are great sons of Bangladesh
Kshudiram, Surya Sen, Netaji
Are the sons of Bangladesh.
Whose voice is it that
Struck the world with wonder.
While speaking about Bangladesh
It is Mujibur, it is Mujibur.
Six sons of Bangladesh laid down
their lives for Language
They said, Mother Tongue is Truth,
Mother Tongue is Pride.
Michael, Tagore, Nazrul
Are the children of Bangladesh
Kaykobad, Jibanananda, Arabinda
Are the sons of Bangladesh.
Whose voce is it that has
Struck the world with wonder
while speaking about Bangladesh?
It is Mujibur, it is Mujibur.
‘Bangladesh, my Bangladesh’: Again Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as the theme. Gauriprasanna Majumdar wrote a remarkable song which put forth the idea that in spite of Mujib’s being captive in the custody of Pakistani army, the great leader was everywhere on the battlefronts. The voice of one Mujibur reverberates in the voices of a million Mujiburs who were the freedom fighters. Mujib as raising the endearing slogan of the freedom loving people, Jay Bangla was being heard in the ‘Jay Bangla’ slogan raised by the freedom fighters. Whether Sheikh Mujib was present or absent, he played the key role in continuing unarmed or armed struggle against the Pakistani junta. The song text in English translation is:
Listen, the voice of one Mujibur echoes
In the voices of a million Mujiburs
And the slogan that rises up to the sky is:
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh.
Along the narrow path through the green fields
I shall again reach my Bangla, the Bangla I lost
Nowhere there is a golden land like Bangladesh
Nowhere in any work of art or poetry.
This is the golden Bengal of Tagore
Bangladesh of Nazrul
‘Beautiful Bengal’ of Jivanananda
A land of infinite charms:
Bangladesh, my Bangladesh.
My mind, why do you hesitate to raise
the slogan, Jay Bangla: Victory to Bangladesh
I will certainly get Bengal I lost
The dark night will certainly come to an end
At the rising of the sun in the east.
The signature tune of the Independent Bangladesh Radio was made of the tune of a song, Jay Bangla Banglar jay: Victory to Bangladesh. The song text was written by Gazi Mazharul Anwar and music for the song was composed by Anwar Parvez. The song was originally done for a film, Jay Bangla: Victory to Bangladesh which went under production in 1969 but could never be released. Jay Bangla was the popular slogan of the political movement which through the mass upsurge of 1969 and general election of 1970 led to the War of Liberation in 1971. It was a song which presented the dream that worked behind the popular political movement. The text of the heroic song was put to an equally heroic composition for which it turned out to be an outstanding piece of art.The text of the song in English translation is:
Victory to Bangla, Victory to Bangla
Bangladesh will be victorious indeed.
Millions of people
Have now awaken at the dead of night
It is time for the new sun to rise.
We would like to fill every home in Bangladesh with food
We have taken an unflinching vow to liberate Bangladesh.
There is nothing to fear, nothing at all.
There will be bloodshed endless bloodshed will be there
Even then there is nothing to be afraid of, nothing.
The pipe of the cowboy under the banyan tree is silenced
Heart rending wailings prevail all around
Only wailings everywhere.
Administration works like a cruel machine of exploitation
The struggling masses are united
To break off the shackles with thunderous uproar
The struggling people are alert.
No more.
Never will our heroic people accept defeat
Because today they are afraid of none, of none for sure.
Amar sonar Bangla: On top of all these, there was the song ‘My golden Bengal I love you’. This song was written by Rabindranath Tagore some time before August 1905. It was first sung in public on 7 August 1905 at a meeting held in Kolkata Town Hall premises to raise protest against the British Government’s decision to partition Bengal. The song text was first published under Tagore’s signature in the 7 September 1905 issue of the journal Sanjivani. A month later the song was also published in the monthly literary journal Bangadarshan. A little later it was collected in an anthology of songs titled as Baul. Tagore set the song text to traditional Baul music derived from a preceding composition by the 19th century Baul poet of Shilaidaha in Kushtia, Bangladesh where he first went to visit his ancestral zamindari at the close of the 19th century. Gagan Harkara was the Baul poet. He was called Harkara because he did the job of a Harkara or a runner: postal mail courier. Tagore adopted the Baul melodic pattern of Gagan Harkara’s song ‘Ami kothay pabo tare amar maner manush je re’ [where shall I get him who is the man of my love] for his Amar sonar Bangla ami tomay bhalobasi: ‘My golden Bengal I love you’. This based patriotic song of Baul genre ran in high popularity during the Swadeshi movements, particularly during the movement opposing the partition of Bengal (1905-1911). For the next thirty-five years or so, the song was only occasionally sung and treated as a beautiful piece of poem.
The song began to assume a socio-political role during the nationalist movements in East Bengal following the Language Movement, particularly during the movement following the 1952 martyrdom. It was first sung, we don’t know after how may years, in Dhaka to mark the first anniversary of the 1952 language martyrdom. Pakistan government took exception to the performance of this song and punishment measure was taken against at least one student who organized the recital. This very action from the side of the government added some extra musical content to the song and the content was obviously associated with Bengali nationalism in contrast to Pakistani nationalism. The song was largely sung during Tagore’s birth centenary in 1961. The East Pakistan wide movement by the students on the basis of eleven-point demand which helped flourish the idea of Bengali nationalism even further added to the popularity of the song to an amazing scale. The six-point programme floated by Awami League through a countrywide tough movement made the song even more popular. During the mass upsurge in 1969 and the general election in 1970 the song was sung everywhere as the theme song of the difficult struggle by the people of East Pakistan to achieve their popular rights. By the close of 1970, ‘My golden Bengal I love you’ turned out to be the indispensable inaugural song of every socio-political programme. During the tense days of mass upsurge eminent writer and film maker Jahir Raihan directed a film called Jiban Theke Newa: Taken From Life, The story was symbolic of the popular nationalist movement in East Pakistan. This film included the song ‘My Golden Bengal I Love You’ to symbolically communicate the message of freedom. The film for its effectively presented political message ran in high popularity throughout East Pakistan and the song got the largest welcome circulation. There was therefore step by step upbeat movement of the song in the scale of popularity and indispensability. On March 3, 1971, the song was sung at a meeting organized in Dhaka’s Paltan Maidan by the Students’ League and the Workers’ League. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s historic speech on 7 March, 1971 at a huge meeting held at Racecourse Maidan, now Suhrawardy Udyan, Dhaka was preceded by this song. On 23 march 1971 this song was sung when Swadhin Bangla Kendriya Chatra Sangram Parishad: Independent Bangladesh Central Students’ Struggle Forum held ceremonial parade in Dhaka marking independence. The Bangladesh Government in exile adopted this song as the national anthem of Bangladesh and was accordingly broadcast by Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra: Independent Bangladesh Radio through out the period of War of Liberation. When upon the surrender by Pakistan army Bangladesh emerged as an independent, sovereign country ‘My Golden Bengal I love you’ song was made the national anthem. The constitution of Bangladesh in Article 4.1 adopted the song as the national anthem of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. The first ten lines of the song have been specified to make the anthem for vocal rendering and the first four lines for instrumental presentation.
[Educationist and scholar Professor Karunamaya Goswami is an eminent musicologist who has done extensive research on Bengali music. He has published over fifty books on music that include research publications on Tagore Songs, Nazrul Songs, and History of Bengali Lyrics. His articles appeared in international journals and Encyclopaedias.]
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