Liberation War Museum
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The Liberation War Museum ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ জাদুঘর ''Muktijuddho Jadughôr'') is a museum at
Agargaon Agargaon is a borough in the Bangladeshi city of Dhaka. Education Sher-e-Bangla Nagar Government Boys' High School is a public secondary school, established in 1969. In addition to its high school curriculum, the school started college level educ ...
in
Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...
, the capital of Bangladesh, which commemorates the
Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...
that led to the independence of Bangladesh from
Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
.


History

The Liberation War Museum began under the initiative of an eight-person board of trustees as a means of preserving the memory of the 1971
Liberation War Wars of national liberation or national liberation revolutions are conflicts fought by nations to gain independence. The term is used in conjunction with wars against foreign powers (or at least those perceived as foreign) to establish separat ...
. The trustees sought donations from the general public to fund the museum and for the general public to come forward with artifacts to be displayed artifacts from the war, including personal belongings, weapons and human remains, as well as creating an archive of documents and personal histories related to the war. Over the years the museum collected more than 21,000 artifacts (as of 2016), with some as exhibits on display in the museum and many more stored in its archives. The museum describes itself as "the outcome of a citizens' effort" due to the crowd-funded nature of the museum (which is independent of the Govt. of Bangladesh) and the collective contribution of the general public to the museum's collection.


Relocation

Due to a lack of space it was only possible to display a fraction of the collected artifacts at the original premises, so it was decided that a bigger, more modern premises was required. In 2009, an architectural contest was held for the new design of the museum, with architects Tanzim Hasan Salim and Naheed Farzana winning the first prize for their designs. In 2013 land was acquired in Agargaon for the new building and construction began. The new premises of the Liberation War Museum were officially opened on 16 April 2017. The new building provided much more space with 3500 square meters of gallery space.


Galleries

''Note:'' These paragraphs relate specifically to the galleries of the older (pre-2017) premises. The galleries begin with coverage of the early history of Bangladesh and the
Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged ...
against
British Raj The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
in
Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
. A major section records the events of the Language Movement for the recognition of the
Bengali language Bengali ( ), generally known by its endonym Bangla (, ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language native to the Bengal region of South Asia. It is the official, national, and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh and the second m ...
in Pakistan, which is regarded as the beginning of the movement for Bangladesh's independence. Several galleries highlight the building sectional conflict between
West Pakistan West Pakistan ( ur, , translit=Mag̱ẖribī Pākistān, ; bn, পশ্চিম পাকিস্তান, translit=Pôścim Pakistan) was one of the two Provincial exclaves created during the One Unit Scheme in 1955 in Pakistan. It was d ...
and Bangladesh (then
East Pakistan East Pakistan was a Pakistani province established in 1955 by the One Unit Scheme, One Unit Policy, renaming the province as such from East Bengal, which, in modern times, is split between India and Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India ...
), the rise of Bengali nationalist leader
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ( bn, শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান; 17 March 1920 – 15 August 1975), often shortened as Sheikh Mujib or Mujib and widely known as Bangabandhu (meaning ''Friend of Bengal''), was a Bengalis, Beng ...
and the events of 1971, when the postponement by Pakistan's military ruler Gen.
Yahya Khan General Agha Muhammad Yahya Khan , (Urdu: ; 4 February 1917 – 10 August 1980); commonly known as Yahya Khan, was a Pakistani military general who served as the third President of Pakistan and Chief Martial Law Administrator following his pr ...
of the convening of the
National Assembly of Pakistan The National Assembly ( ur, , translit=Aiwān-e-Zairīñ, , or ur, قومی اسمبلی, Romanization, romanized: ''Qaumi Assembly'') is the lower house, lower legislative house of the bicameralism, bicameral Parliament of Pakistan, which al ...
, in which Sheikh Mujib's
Awami League In Urdu language, Awami is the adjectival form for '' Awam'', the Urdu language word for common people. The adjective appears in the following proper names: *Awami Colony, a neighbourhood of Landhi Town in Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan *Awami Front, wa ...
had won a majority, led to the call for the independence of Bangladesh. The coverage of the liberation war includes the training and operations of the
Mukti Bahini The Mukti Bahini ( bn, মুক্তিবাহিনী, translates as 'freedom fighters', or liberation army), also known as the Bangladesh Forces, was the guerrilla resistance movement consisting of the Bangladeshi military, paramilitary ...
, the guerrilla army built by the Awami League to resist Pakistani forces. Several galleries focus on the
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
carried out by the Pakistani army against the Bengali population, with
Operation Searchlight Operation Searchlight was the codename for a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army in an effort to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in former East Pakistan in March 1971. Pakistan retrospectively justified the opera ...
targeting Bengali intellectuals, students,
Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...
s and Awami League leaders, and the humanitarian crisis created with the pouring of an estimated ten million refugees into neighbouring
India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. The coverage of the war continues to India's support for the Mukti Bahini and its subsequent direct intervention with the outbreak of the
Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 until the Pakistani capitulation in Dhaka on 16 Decem ...
, which led to the surrender of all Pakistani forces in Bangladesh on 16 December 1971. The galleries display the weapons used by the Mukti Bahini, personal effects of many Mukti Bahini fighters and civilian victims of the atrocities committed by Pakistani forces, many donated by their families after the conflict. Also displayed are remains of human skulls and bones retrieved from
mass grave A mass grave is a grave containing multiple human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. The United Nations has defined a criminal mass grave as a burial site containing three or more victims of execution, although an exact ...
s of civilians killed by Pakistani forces.


Activities

The museum is involved in a number of outreach and reachout programs. These includes programs working with schools to educate the youth about the Liberation War as well as regular conferences and seminars within the museum premises. The museum also supported for varied art and cultural events. Commissioned artworks and collaborated artist art projects. Under the patronage of the museum, it had several art exhibitions including a Photographic exhibition on the "Liberation War : Towards 25th Anniversary" held at ‘ La Galerie' in Dhaka arch, 1995 published a Photographic album containing 100 historic photographs portraying the Liberation struggle of Bangali people from the beginning (British Period) ending with the establishment of Bangladesh. The format of this album was such that it could be mounted anywhere for an exhibition ecember, 1994 commissioned and collaborated (along with EMK center Dhaka) the war related art project of artist
Firoz Mahmud Firoz Mahmud ( bn, ফিরোজ মাহমুদ) is a Bangladeshi visual artist based in Japan. He was the first Bangladeshi fellow artist in research at Rijksakademie Van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam. Mahmud's work has been exhibited at t ...
's ''Sucker wfp21'' project arch, 2016among many others.


International links

In 2006 the museum was fitted with modern audiovisual and exhibition equipment as a donation from the Japanese government to help preserve the culture and heritage of Bangladesh's independence movement. The museum is an institutional member of the
American Alliance of Museums American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
. It is also a founder member of the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums of Conscience.


Board of Trustees

The eight person board of trustees of the museum include:
Aly Zaker Aly Zaker (6 November 1944 – 27 November 2020) was a Bangladeshi actor, businessman, director and writer. He was the owner of Asiatic Marketing Communications Limited (Asiatic 3 Sixty). Zaker served as a freedom fighter during the 1971 Bangl ...
,
Asaduzzaman Noor Asaduzzaman Noor (born 31 October 1946) is a Bangladeshi actor, politician and activist. He has been a Jatiya Sangsad member from Nilphamari-2 constituency since 2001 and served as the Cultural Affairs Minister during 2014–2019. Noor worke ...
,
Sara Zaker Sara Zaker is a Bangladeshi theatre and television actor, director, business entrepreneur and social activist. She was awarded Ekushey Padak by the Government of Bangladesh in 2017. Early life and education Zaker was born to Major Salauddin M ...
, Dr. Sarwar Ali, Mofidul Hoque,
Ziauddin Tariq Ali The name Ziauddin is a common transliteration of the male Muslim given name more correctly written Ḍiya ad-Dīn ( ar, ضياء الدين). It means the “Shine of the Religion” It may refer to: *Diya al-din Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi, (1097 ...
, Rabiul Hussain and
H. Akku Chowdhury H is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet. H may also refer to: Musical symbols * H number, Harry Halbreich reference mechanism for music by Honegger and Martinů * H, B (musical note) * H, B major People * H. (noble) (died after 127 ...
.


See also

* Muktijuddho e-Archive, a Digital Library, working to 'preserve and publicly distribute' the historical documents regarding the Liberation War of Bangladesh and Genocide of Innocent Bengali People in 1971.


References

{{Authority control History museums in Bangladesh Museums in Dhaka Aftermath of the Bangladesh Liberation War