Bangladesh has introduced new textbooks for the 2025 academic session, which credit Ziaur Rahman, the deceased husband of Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia, with declaring the country’s independence in 1971. These textbooks will replace the existing ones that credited Awami League founder Sheikh Mujibur Rahman with the declaration, according to The Daily Star.
Since 2010, under Sheikh Hasina’s government, textbooks had stated that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence via wireless message before being arrested by the Pakistan Army on February 26, 1971.
The new textbooks have also removed the title “Father of the Nation” from Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Prof AKM Reazul Hassan, chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, explained that the new books will state that “on March 26, 1971, Ziaur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh, and on March 27, he made another declaration of independence on behalf of Bangabandhu.”
The information has been included in the free textbooks where the matter of the declaration was mentioned, he added.
Writer and researcher Rakhal Raha, who was involved in the textbook revisions, said they aimed to remove “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.”
According to the paper, the content regarding the Declaration of Independence has been altered in textbooks for classes one to 10 based on the government in power at the time.
Supporters of the Awami League believe that Sheikh Mujibur Rahman made the announcement, and that Ziaur Rahman, who was an Army major and later a sector commander during the Liberation War, “merely read out the declaration upon Mujib’s instructions.”
Bangladesh trying to remove Mujib’s legacy
After Sheikh Hasina left Bangladesh on August 5, protesters against her regime targeted statues and murals associated with her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had long been revered as ‘Bangabandhu.’
Earlier, Bangladesh initiated the process of removing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s image from its currency notes as part of phasing out the old currency, PTI reported.
Additionally, the interim government canceled the national holiday on August 15, which commemorates the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
