March 26: Bangladesh National Day

Ingrid Nováková, international specialist, March 26, 2025

History of Bangladesh's independence

Bangladesh's National Day, celebrated on March 26, marks the country's declaration of independence in 1971. Before that date, Bangladesh was called "East Pakistan," forming the eastern part of Pakistan since the partition of British India in 1947. Despite having a Bengali ethnic majority, East Pakistan was subject to the dominance of West Pakistan, located more than 1,600 kilometers to the west. The independence movement accelerated from March 25, 1971, when the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight, a military offensive targeting mainly Bengali civilians, which caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and forced nearly 10 million refugees to flee to neighboring India. The following day, Bengali leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman officially issued the declaration of independence, marking the beginning of the war of liberation that lasted nine months.

The conflict ended with the joint victory of Bangladeshi and Indian forces in the Battle of Dhaka in December 1971, resulting in the surrender of Pakistani General A.A.K. Niazi to Indian Army General Jagjit Singh Aurora and Mukti Bahini General Abdul Kader Siddiqui, on December 16, 1971. This victory marked the birth of Bangladesh as a sovereign nation, recognized in the following months by many countries, notably the USSR in January 1972 and the United States in April 1972.

Challenges after independence

The war caused the destruction of much of the country's infrastructure, leading to food shortages and a famine in 1974, which claimed about one million lives. The country also had to manage the reintegration of nearly ten million refugees returning from India. Politically, Bangladesh went through a period of instability after independence, marked by the assassination of leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the military coup of August 15, 1975. This instability opened a long period dominated by authoritarian regimes, notably those of Generals Ziaur Rahman and then Hussain Muhammad Ershad, which lasted until the gradual restoration of democracy in the early 1990s. The country also faced environmental challenges such as the floods of 1988 and 1998, forcing millions of residents to migrate to major cities such as Dhaka and Chittagong.