The new government in Bangladesh is rewriting school textbooks, claiming it was Khaleda Zia's husband Ziaur Rahman and not ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who declared independence of the country in 1971.
The textbooks also removed the Father of the Nation title bestowed on Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
The old textbooks distributed from 2010 stated that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had declared independence. It claimed that Mujibur sent a wireless message declaring independence before his arrest by the Pakistan army on March 16, 1971.
However, the new textbooks that is being released for the 2025 academic year claims it was Khaleda Zia's husband Ziaur Rahman who declared Bangladesh independence on March 26, 1971, according to Daily Star.
National Curriculum and Textbook Board chairman AKM Reazul Hassan said Ziaur made another declaration of independence on March 27 on behalf of Mujibur.
Writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was part of the team preparing the new textbooks, said there was no evidence about Mujibur sending wireless message regarding the declaration of independence. He said now the textbooks are free from “exaggerated, imposed history”.
“Those who revised the textbooks found that it wasn’t fact-based information that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman sent the wireless message (declaring independence) while being arrested by the Pakistani army, and so they decided to remove it,” he was quoted as saying.
This is not the first time that the textbooks have been revised regarding the claim about who declared the Bangladesh independence.
During Awami League administration from 1996 to 2001, the textbooks claimed that Mujib declared independence while during the reign of the Bangladesh National Party from 2001 to 2006, the textbooks mentioned Ziaur's name.
