JBS Vol 20. Num 1. 2018 - Philosophy of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

This paper is essentially an examination of some salient aspects of the political thoughts and commitments that became associated with Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s life and work. These become obvious through the positions and decisions that he had taken in the course of his life, and clearly suggested in the biographical narratives he has left behind. This paper draws on two of these accounts published recently, and using his own language and rhetorical constructions, it tries to derive the broad framework of the ideological or philosophical world-view that defined him. As a “man of the people” who had dedicated his life to the betterment of the masses, he eventually came to embrace the four principles of nationalism, democracy, socialism and secularism which later served as the guiding “pillars” of state policy, and were enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh. These did not come about suddenly or casually but through a long process of maturation and experience. This paper situates that evolution within a historical and textual context.