Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra

Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra ( _bn. স্বাধীন বাংলা বেতার কেন্দ্র) was a radio broadcasting centre in the Indian city of Kolkata (then Calcutta) during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. This station played a vital role in increasing mental state of Bangladeshis during the war. In 1971, radio was the only media reaching to the far ends of Bangladesh. It ran a propaganda campaign through the war.

Background

The end of British rule in India in August 1947, accompanied by the Partition of India, gave birth to a new country named Pakistan which constituted Muslim-majority areas in the far east and far west of the Indian subcontinent. The Western zone was popularly (and for a period of time, also officially) termed West Pakistan and the Eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan. The two zones were separated by over thousand miles of Indian territory in the middle, and had vastly different culture. It was widely perceived that the west zone dominated the country, leading to the effective marginalization of the east zone. Growing disenchantment among the people of East Pakistan finally led to civil disobedience followed by Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.

During the period of Civil Disobedience Movement, media supported mass sentiments. They aired patriotic songs and talk shows. Audience pressed officials to relay the speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 7 March 1971 and Dhaka centre was ready to broadcast it. The government refused and stopped the program. Officials and Clerks left Radio building as a protest. Defying threats from army backed Pakistani government, Dhaka, Rajshahi and Chittagong stations continued to support the movement. It changed after the army invasion at 26 March known as the Operation Searchlight. Newspapers stopped providing news for the support of movers. Pakistan army also controlled Radio Pakistan.Citation
last=Abul Maksud
first=Syed
title=স্বাধীন বাংলা বিপ্লবী বেতারকেন্দ্র
newspaper=Eid Edition 2006, Prothom Alo
pages=121–140
year=2006
date=October 2006
url=] An opposing war known as Bangladesh Liberation War started which was aided by India and later by Soviet Union besides regular armies of Bangladesh and Mukti Bahini

Formation

On 25 May 1971, the Mujibnagar government formed "Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra" in Kolkata with two recording machines. Prior to that 10 engineers and officers of Chittagong Radio Center formed "Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Betar Kendra" on 26 March. It was aired with a 10 kilowatt transmitter.cite web
last = Lohani | first = Kamal | title = স্বাধীন বাংলা বেতার কেন্দ্র
url= http://www.swadhinbangla-betar.org/english/index.html | accessdate = 2007-10-15 ] On 27 March Ziaur Rahman made two announcements of independence from the station. In his first speech he declared himself as the president of a provincial government of Bangladesh and in the second, he mentioned the declaration on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.cite news
last =Syed Badrul | first =Ahsan | title =The war Swadhin Bangla Betar waged... and won
work =New Age | language =English | date =16 December 2005
url =http://www.newagebd.com/2005/dec/16/vd/10.html | accessdate =2007-10-15] It ran for 5 days as Pakistan Air Force bombed and damaged it on 30 March. Ten founding members broke up into two groups and went to Agartala and other parts of Tripura in India.cite news
last =Rosan | first =Robab | title =The war Swadhin Bangla Betar waged... and won
work =New Age | language =English | date =16 December 2005
url =http://www.newagebd.com/2005/dec/16/vd/08.html | accessdate =2007-10-15] Radio officials managed to carry a 1 kilowatt transmitter to Bagapha of Tripura and restarted their broadcasting on 3 April. The center was initially established in a forest occupied by Border Security Force and later moved to Agartala at Shalbagan and Bagafa-Belonia.cite web
last =Rahman | first =M Siddiqur | title =Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra
work = Banglapedia - The National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh
publisher = Asiatic Society of Bangladesh
url =http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/S_0629.htm
format = PHP | accessdate =2007-10-12 ] The name was changed to Bangladesh Betar on 6 December 1971 after India gave recognition to Bangladesh as a sovereign country. Bangladesh Betar started broadcasting in independent country on 22 December 1971.

Declaration of Independence

In his declaration of independence Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called upon the people to resist the occupation forces through a message on 26 March 1971. [ [http://www.thedailystar.net/2005/03/26/index.htm The Daily Star, March 26, 2005] Article not specified] Mujib was arrested on the night of March 25-26, 1971 at about 1:30 a.m. (as per Radio Pakistan’s news on March 29, 1971).

A telegram containing the text of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's declaration reached some students in Chittagong. The message was translated to Bangla by Dr. Manjula Anwar. The students failed to secure permission from higher authorities to broadcast the message from the nearby Agrabad Station of Radio Pakistan. They crossed Kalurghat Bridge into an area controlled by an East Bengal Regiment under Major Ziaur Rahman. Bengali soldiers guarded the station as engineers prepared for transmission. At 19:45 hrs on 27 March, 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast another announcement of the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur which is as follows.

: "This is Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu sheikh Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that the independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken command as the temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalis to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our Motherland. By the grace of Allah, victory is ours. Joy Bangla." [http://www.library.shuchinta.com/germanRadio.mp3 Audio of Zia's announcement (interview - Belal Mohammed)]

The Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission capability was limited. The message was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal. It was then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

M A Hannan, an Awami League leader from Chittagong, is said to have made the first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971 [ [http://www.virtualbangladesh.com/history/declaration.html Virtual Bangladesh] ] . There is controversy now as to when Major Zia gave his speech. BNP sources maintain that it was the 26th of March, and there was no message regarding declaration of independence from Mujibur Rahman. Pakistani sources, like Siddiq Salik in "Witness to Surrender" had written that he heard about Mujibor Rahman's message on the Radio while Operation Searchlight was going on, and Maj. Gen. Hakeem A. Qureshi in his book "The 1971 Indo-Pak War: A Soldier's Narrative", gives the date of Zia's speech as 27 March 1971 in Annex M (Oxford University Press, 2002 ISBN 0-19-579778-7).

Regular features

Chorompotro was the most popular program hosted by M. R. Akhtar Mukul. Here, he used to describe the uncomfortable position of Pak army in a funny voice and made his dialogues in Old Dhaka dialect. "Chorompotro" was planned by Abdul Mannan. Another popular program "Jallader Darbar" was run by Kalyan Mitra where approaches of Yahya Khan, known in the program as "Kella Fateh Khan" were described in a funny manner. "Bojro Kontho" was the program where speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were presented. A group of young singers used to sing inspiring songs. Many poems and songs were written for this broadcasting. One of those songs "Joy Bangla Banglar Joy" (Victory of Bengal) was the signature tune of the radio. Many songs of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra like "Purbo Digante Surjo Uthechhe, Ekti Phoolke Bachabo Bole, Salam Salam Hajar Salam," became immensely popular. Singers of the station raised funds singing their songs in different parts of West Bengal. [cite news
last =Khan
first =Showkot Marcel
title =Abdul Jabbar remembers Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra
work =New Age
language =English
date =16 December 2005
url =http://www.newagebd.com/2005/dec/16/vd/09.html
accessdate =2007-10-15] News broadcasts were made in Bengali, English and Urdu. Secretary of the Swadhin Bangla Betar Convener Committee Kamal Lohani recalled, For us at the radio, it was a psychological warfare so we could say things to boost up people’s morale.

Performers

Apart from M.R. Akhtar Mukul, the other prominent performers of the Radio were:
*Kamal Lohani-Head of the News
*Rokeya Haider-News in English
*Babul Akhtar-News in Bengali
*Ajit Roy-Music Director & Composer
*Sujeo Sham-Music Director & Singer
*Apel Mahmud-Singer
*Abdul Jabbar-Singer
*Mohammad Shah Bangali-Recitation from puthi(Bengali folk rhymes)

References

ee also

External links

* [http://banglapedia.search.com.bd/HT/S_0629.htm Banglapedia article]