On the 7th of March, at the historic Suhrawardy Udyan in Dhaka, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the Awami League, delivered a momentous speech before a sea of impassioned supporters, issuing directives for final preparations for the struggle for independence. This speech marked the beginning of a decisive shift in power, as the Bengali people began to wrest administrative control from the Pakistani regime and ready themselves for the forthcoming Liberation War.
Subsequently, on the night of 25th March, when the Pakistan Army launched a brutal assault upon unarmed civilians using advanced weaponry, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in the early hours of 26th March, formally declared the independence of Bangladesh. In truth, through the 7th March speech, Bangabandhu had already conveyed the implicit message of freedom to the nation. Hence, the patriotic people of Bengal, prepared for supreme sacrifice, had long been awaiting this formal call to arms. As soon as the brief official declaration was made on 26th March, Bengalis across the land took up arms to engage in the war for liberation.
However, certain conspiratorial factions, historically aligned against the spirit of the Liberation War, have continually spread misinformation about the 7th March speech and the declaration of independence. The very forces that opposed Bangladesh’s liberation in 1971 later imposed a ban on the dissemination of the 7th March speech within the country. Following the brutal assassination of Bangabandhu and his family in 1975, the people of Bengal were denied the opportunity to hear this speech for 21 long years. This suppression is highly telling and psychologically revealing: those who stood against the Liberation War were acutely aware that this speech contained the life force of the independence movement and the philosophical bedrock of national emancipation.
During the war itself, the speech was regularly broadcast from the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Independent Bengal Radio Station) and served as a vital source of inspiration for freedom fighters on the battlefield. The thunderous voice of Bangabandhu, echoing through that address, filled the hearts of the people with a resolve that ultimately led them to victory. Even after independence, his initiatives for the nation’s reconstruction were guided by the promises and vision enshrined in that speech.
It is therefore no surprise that those who opposed the war continue to resist the dissemination of this speech. It reminds them — and their ideological descendants — of their defeat in 1971. The courage of the fearless Bengalis who, inspired by a single speech, risked their lives and rose to fight, remains a haunting memory for these defeated forces. The electrifying resonance of Bangabandhu’s voice, capable of mobilising an entire nation to embrace death for freedom, is something they have never been able to forget — nor forgive. The speech remains a recurring nightmare for them because they fear its enduring influence and visionary message.
These anti-liberation elements knew that the speech not only proclaimed political independence, but also outlined the economic liberation of the people. Thus, they attempted from the outset to suppress it, knowing its unique power to awaken the people’s aspirations for national emancipation. Their aim was to obstruct the path to social and economic freedom, which they feared would be driven by the ideals contained in the 7th March address.
Had this speech not been suppressed for 21 years in post-independence Bangladesh, every citizen might have become more acutely aware of their rights to social and economic emancipation. The country may then have been governed by grassroots voices, and a self-sustaining rural economy could have flourished. Yet, due to conspiracies orchestrated by extremist groups, this vision was stalled.
To Understand 7th March, One Must Understand the Significance of the 1970 London Visit
The 7th March speech was entirely extemporaneous — not a single word had been written in advance. Contemporary student leaders have confirmed this in numerous interviews. Indeed, Bangabandhu was the sole speaker on the dais that day. The context of a spontaneous speech delivered before over a million people was no accident. It was the culmination of over two decades of political experience and a profound expression of the Bengali people’s yearning for liberation. For this reason, the United Nations has since recognised the speech as one of the greatest of the century and has included it in the Memory of the World Register.
To grasp the full significance of the 7th March speech, one must also understand the preceding political developments. In 1966, when Bangabandhu announced the Six-Point Movement — the charter of Bengali emancipation — and began campaigning door to door, a nationwide awakening took root. The Pakistani junta attempted to suppress this by imprisoning him and, in 1968, implicating him in the Agartala Conspiracy Case, a fabricated charge of treason designed to sentence him to death. However, faced with a massive public uprising, the government was compelled to release him on 22nd February 1969.
Soon afterwards, Bangabandhu intensified his demand for general elections, firmly believing that democratic victory was the only legitimate path to Bengali self-determination. To bolster preparations, he undertook a significant visit to London on 22 or 23 October 1970. There, he met with pro-democracy representatives and several groups representing the nearly 100,000-strong Bengali diaspora. After a series of meetings and engagements, he returned to Dhaka on 8th November. During his time in London, he gave several interviews to the BBC, expressing confidence in winning the upcoming elections and pledging to draft a constitution thereafter.
By chance, his eldest daughter, the current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, was in London at the time, as her husband, the renowned nuclear scientist Dr Wazed Miah, was then employed there. During this extended stay, Bangabandhu discussed Bangladesh’s independence with her. At a commemorative event on 7th March 2022, Sheikh Hasina recalled how her father had anticipated independence and understood the movements of the Pakistani regime all too well. That is why he made strategic preparations during his London trip, through trusted international contacts, to deal with the potential outcomes of the elections.
Sheikh Hasina noted that her father meticulously planned every contingency: refugee shelters, war logistics, arms supplies, training — even post-independence village-level development. Through such methodical preparations, he gradually led the Bengali nation to the battlefield, via a constitutional and democratic process. Following the elections on 7th December 1970, the Awami League achieved a sweeping victory. A National Assembly session was scheduled for 3rd March, but was abruptly postponed on 1st March. Protests erupted, and in a public rally on 3rd March, Bangabandhu announced that he would deliver a decisive address on 7th March at the Racecourse Ground (now Suhrawardy Udyan). From that point onward, plans were made by the Pakistanis to assassinate him — intelligence suggested that he was to be shot dead in a hail of bullets so that no one would dare utter the word “independence” again.
The 7th March Speech: A Strategic Declaration of Independence and a Blueprint for War
From the beginning of March 1971, Bangabandhu had already launched a non-cooperation movement across the country. Simultaneously, Pakistani authorities plotted to assassinate him. Against this volatile backdrop, Bangabandhu prepared to deliver his 7th March speech. Student leaders had implored him to declare outright independence, but the Pakistani military threatened that, should he do so, they would turn the massive civilian gathering into a bloodbath. Pakistani helicopters and fighter planes circled over Suhrawardy Udyan that morning, while tanks stood ready nearby.
In such dire circumstances, Bangabandhu rose to speak — and in the space of a few electrifying minutes, without explicitly uttering the word “independence,” he masterfully conveyed its essence. He mobilised a nation, prepared it for war, and laid the groundwork for what would become a successful liberation movement. In both substance and strategy, it was a speech that shaped the destiny of Bangladesh.