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The Liberation War Museum - an overview
THE Muktijuddho Jadughar embarked upon its journey on a rain-swept afternoon in March, 1996. Rain is supposed to be a good omen for embarking upon a journey in these parts of the world and judging from the endorsement which the museum has received from people from all walks of life over the past 13 years, it must be said that mothernature did indeed make the correct choice that afternoon when bestowing her blessings Over the years, the common people of Bangladesh have taken great pride in claiming ownership of the museum and the founders of the museum feel honoured and humbled that 12 years later it has truly become a people's museum.
Conceptually, the museum is cut a bit differently from the run-of-the-mill museums. Although the exhibits do bring forth the glory and the sacrifices of millions in the long road to our economic and cultural emancipation, it does not stop as merely a display, frozen in time, of objects and artifacts relating to
our Glorious War. It keeps itself active in the public domain, through the activities and the programmes that it sponsors. The activity aspect of the museum will be further elaborated after the description of the exhibits in the various galleries. At the entrance to the six galleries stands an eternal flame and a stone-tablet reminding the visitor in a few lines suggestive of our folk-literature traditions— and calls to witness, the earth, moon and stars that we have not forgotten and shall not forget the sacrifices of the countless Shaheeds.
Gallery 1 talks about the land, its history, the syncretistic traditions of its people and in particular about the political and intellectual developments taking place in the land during the British Period and ends with the partition of India. Gallery 2 depicts the economic and cultural deprivations which the Pakistani rulers subjected the people of its Eastern Province constituting the majority of its population. It shows the 1952 language movement, the
Kagmari Conference, the struggles in 1966 and 1969 and finally the mandate which the people of Bengal gave to the Awami League in the elections of 1970. Gallery 3 depicts the treachery of the Pakistani rulers in making preparations for the Genocide that was to be perpetrated upon the population starting March 25. It also shows the March 7 call for freedom by Bangabandhu and the preparations which the entire nation was making for armed resistance. The gallery ends with the formation of the provisional government on April 17 at Mujibnagar. The fourth gallery lays down in poignant tones the aspirations of some of prominent people--- political, civil and military--- who were brutally killed during the 9 months and includes the blood stained vest of a girl of 4 who was crushed under the boots of the Pakistan army. While Gallery 5 depicts the gradual build-up of various pockets of resistance all over the country, it also shows all of them ultimately coming under the mantle of a unified command of the Muktibahini. Gallery 6 depicts
the final thrust to victory, when the Joint Forces of the Muktibahini and the Indian Army overpowers the Pakistani forces and frees the land from their clutches.
It is an interactive museum in that all its programmes strive to establish a linkage between the contemporary world around us and history. The museum tries to design its programmes with special attention to how the younger generation can be encouraged to establish connectivity between history and the lessons that we may draw from that history. One of the most successful programmes therefore, has been the school outreach programme. This programme, with the assistance of the Manushcr Jonnyo Foundation, brought to the museum school students from Dhaka city and in a more ambitious extension of this project, took a small fraction of the museum to school students located in the remotest Upazillas of the country. The most rewarding prize which the school programme has given to the nation is an archive---13,000 pieces of eye-witness accounts of days of 1971. Each of these unique pieces of writing demon -strates how deeply did the war touch the lives of the entire population and reinforces the fact that the Bangladesh war was a people's war in the truest sense.
Other on-going efforts of the museum include collection and preservation of artifacts and documents relating to the Liberation War, digital recording and preservation of stories of the victims and other people connected with the War, an International Film Festival of Documentaries on Human
Rights and Liberation, Hiroshima Day etc.
The museum has recently acquired a plot of land in Agargaon. Dhaka, where it will move permanently. A nationwide competition for a befitting building design, articulating the aspirations of the people of Bengal will be held and we hope that a few years hence this new museum will befittingly be able speak about the glory, traditions and sacrifices of the people of Bangladesh which are articulated in the few lines of poetry which lie inscribed in the tablet in front of the eternal flame.