Bangladesh

Famous Bangladeshi People: Bangladeshi Artists, Scientists, Leaders, Musicians, Politicians and Athletes

Bangladesh may be a small nation but some of its citizens made quite a mark in this world, then and now. From their struggle to be independent to making their country part of the global community, notable Bangladeshis carved a niche in the arts, economics, politics and fashion. Some of them were born in India, others in Pakistan before the separation and the formation of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

:: List of Famous People from Bangladesh ::

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman

He was born on the 17th of March 1920. He was considered the founder of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh and Sheikh Mujib became the shortened version of his name. Bangabandhu was the honorary title given to him, which in Bengali means Friend of Bengal. Sheikh Mujib was the head of the Awami League, the short form of the more formal Bangladesh Awami League, a leading political party. He was a great orator and greatly opposed the military rule of Ayub Khan and the institutional and ethnic discrimination of the Bengalis. He championed provincial autonomy causing him to be accused of conspiring with India. It was proven that the allegation was wrong when he was tried in 1968.

Although he greatly helped his party win in the elections, he was not called to participate in the formation of a new government in 1970. He subsequently rose from the ranks and eventually came into power to declare East Pakistan’s independence on March 26, 1971, establishing the country as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh. It was met with resistance and political uprisings ensued and he had to flee to India together with thousands of Bangladeshis. The Indian Army joined forces with the Bangladesh Army to topple the opposition and installed Sheikh Mujib as the interim president. He was later proclaimed as the prime minister. Sheikh Mujib was able to draft a constitution but was faced with massive unemployment, poverty and corruption. When the great famine struck in 1974, Sheikh Mujib announced that there will only be one political party and banned most newspaper publishers except those owned by the government. He focused on national issues, industrial socialism and unification thus neglecting local government and its many issues. He and his cabinet were also not prepared for all the problems faced by the country, with scant funds and lack of qualified personnel, and massive unrest among the masses. He was able to stem some of the uprisings but did not foresee that the military would cause his downfall. A group of junior officers stole into his residence on August 15, 1975 and assassinated him, together with 23 assistants and family members. Only his two daughters, Sheikh Hasina and Sheikh Rehana who were visiting Germany at that time survived.

Khaleda Zia

Former Bangladeshi First Lady and later the first female prime minister in Bangladesh, Begum Khaleda Zia was born on August 10, 1945. She was one of the first two women prime ministers in Asia, after Benazir Bhutto of Pakistan. She was married to President Ziaur Rahman, one of the leaders of Bangladesh’s fight for independence until his assassination in 1981. Under the military rule of Chief of Army Staff H. M. Ershad who wrestled the power from Justice Sattar of the Bangladesh National Party, she was appointed by Justice Sattar as vice-chairperson of the party and then became its chairperson when Justice Sattar retired. Eventually she was officially elected to the post and formed a coalition with six other parties to oppose Ershad who eventually resigned. During the nine years that Ershad was in office, Khaleda was detained seven times. In the free elections, she became the prime minister of Bangladesh in 1991 up to 1996 and then again from 2001 to 2006. Education was one of her main focus during her reign and she made primary education compulsory, with the government subsidizing it. Khaleda Zia made it a point to give priority to girls by giving them free education up to grade ten, including stipend. She was also credited with raising the entry level age to 30 for those seeking work in the government.

Bibi Russell

People who follow international fashion will surely have heard of Bibi Russell, the pride of Bangladesh. Bibi was a former international model who worked with big fashion houses like Giorgio Armani, Kenzo, Yves San Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld until 1994. She was a graduate of London College of Fashion and upon her retirement from modeling returned to Bangladesh to open Bibi Productions. She’s tirelessly working to support the indigenous weavers in her country and using her own fashion house and her designs to incorporate their work. As of 2004, she has 35,000 weavers in her employ.

Kazi Nazrul Islam

He was a musician and poet from Bengal where he was born on May 24, 1899. He was also a revolutionary who used his works to raise the spirit of nationalism and putting forth his ideas on oppression and fascism. His activism earned him the title of Rebel Poet or Bidrohi Kobi. In his younger years he served as a muezzin at a mosque and got exposed to literature, drama and poetry when he worked with people from the theater. He worked as a journalist in Calcutta after serving in the army and made veiled attacks on the British Raj through his publications. He preached revolution through his various works, earning the ire of the British and landing him in prison. Some of his famous works include The Rebel; or Bidrohi, Bhangar Gaan or The Song of Destruction, Deposition of a Political Prisoner or Rajbandir Jabanbandi, a piece he wrote while in prison. He began to suffer memory and voice loss in 1942 which greatly affected his health. He and his family were invited by the Government of Bangladesh to live in Dhaka where he spent four short years before his death on August 29, 1976. He was hailed as the national poet of Bangladesh. His legacy included nearly 4,000 songs which are still popular to this day.

Ziaur Rahman

Born on January 19, 1936, Rahman was a freedom fighter, born to a chemist working in a government office in Calcutta. He spent his early childhood in Calcutta and Bagbari, Bogra where he was born. After India was divided, his father was transferred to Karachi and Rahman continued his education there. He eventually joined the Pakistan Military Academy. He rose from the ranks and established himself as a very able leader, receiving further training in Germany. When Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came under arrest on March 25, 1971 and their leadership was in disarray, Major Ziaur Rahman led the revolt against the Pakistan Army and raised the flag of Bangladesh a day after, declaring the independence of Bangladesh and started the War of Independence, which lasted for nine months. He served first as Deputy Chief of Staff in 1972 and became a Major General by the end of 1973. He served as Army Chief of Staff in August 1975 but was forced to resign and placed under house arrest during a coup led by Shafat Jamil on November 3, 1975. He was nevertheless installed to manage the country’s affairs four days later and named Chief Martial Law Administrator under three rulers, until the resignation of President Sayem in 1997 and Rahman became the president of Bangladesh. He instituted many government reforms and instilled the spirit of nationalism among the Bangladeshis. He lifted martial law in 1979 and planned a 19-point program for socio-economic development and established regional cooperation within South Asia and the outside world. Ziaur Rahman was however assassinated on May 30, 1981 in Chittagong before he can see the fulfillment of his dream for his country.

Shah Sultan Rumi

He is a saint from the Netrakona district in Bangladesh. The accounts of his life are culled from folklore but he is nevertheless a revered saint by the Muslims. According to legend he was a charismatic person that he attracted people wherever he went and that converts were created once they come in contact with the saint. His popularity was so widespread that even the king sought an audience with him to check on his activities. The king tested Shah Sultan Rumi by giving him a poisoned drink. Uttering Bismallah, which translates to “in the name of Allah” he drank the poison and survived, which impressed the king and gave the saint the village of Madanpur for free as a reward. The estate attached to the shrine has the necessary papers proving their ownership that even the British East India Company was not able to take it away from them.

Rabindranath Tagore

He was revered as a poet, artist, mystic and Nobel Prize recipient for Literature both in India and Bangladesh. The youngest of fourteen children, he was born on May 7, 1861 in Calcutta to a Sanskrit scholar father. He received home schooling at a young age and was considered a dreamer while in school but was able to write his first poem by age seven. At 17 he already had a book of poems published. Tagore went for further studies in England in 1878 but found that he was not that interested in learning and returned home. His 1912 collection of poems, Gitanjali or Song Offerings was what earned him his Nobel Prize. He later became the voice of spiritual heritage of India and Bangladesh. He left this world on August 7, 1941, leaving a legacy of more that fifty volumes of poetry, plays, short stories, novels, essays, musical and dance dramas and two autobiographies. He also left several songs, drawings and paintings.

Shamsur Rahman

From the many poets that came from Bangladesh, Shamsur Rahman was considered as one, if not the greatest poet this country has ever produced. Born on October 23, 1929 in Dhaka, he had written over 60 poetry books. He received his Bachelor of Arts and later his Master of Arts degree in Literature from Dhaka University. He started writing poetry at age 18 and during the 1980s was the editor of Dainik Bangla, a national daily newspaper and Bichitra, a weekly paper. He was inspired by one of Tagore’s books, Golpo Guccho. He became outspoken against the reactionary nationalism and religious fundamentalism in his country and became the target of attacks by the Islamists and other political conservatives. He was once physically attacked by members of the Harkut-ul-Jihad-al-Islami in 1999 and managed to survive. Shamsur Rahman became frail though and had two major cardiac surgeries. He eventually succumbed to heart and kidney failure in 2006 after being comatose for twelve days.

The most famous of his poems was Asader Shirt, a literary piece he wrote to show respect to the mass rebellion of 1969. He had special poems written that inspired and were recited by freedom fighters as well as poems that chronicle the history of his beloved country.

Iajuddin Ahmed

Iajuddin Ahmed was born on February 1, 1931 in the district of Munshiganj in Bengal. He received his university education from the University of Dhaka and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined the Department of Soil Science of the University of Dhaka as an assistant professor. Ahmed was promoted to full professor and later as the chair of the Soil Science Department of the university and the dean of his alma mater’s Faculty of Biological Science. He invented a timed-release system for providing nutrients to the soil. Ahmed had stints as a visiting professor at Cornell University in the US and in the University of Göttingen and German Technical University in 1984 before he got interested in politics. He had some exposure in politics being adviser in 1991 to the caretaker government; chaired the Public Service Commission from 1991 to 1993 and the University Grants Commission in 1995 up to 1999. In 2002 he decided to run for presidency and easily won since he was the only candidate to register during that election year. Iajuddin Ahmed served as the President of Bangladesh from September 2, 2002 to February 12, 2009.

Zillur Rahman

Zillur Rahman is the 19th and incumbent president of Bangladesh and a senior leader of the Awami League. He assumed the presidency on February 2, 2009, getting the seat without any opposition. He was born on March 9, 1929 in Bhairab, formerly a part of the British Raj. His father was a famous lawyer during that time. He received his law degree and his masters in history from the prestigious Dhaka University. His wife, Ivy Rahman, also an Awami League politician, was a victim of the terrorist violence that rocked Bangladesh in previous years. She was not able to survive the grenade attack launched by the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami members in 2004.

Zillur Rahman was involved in politics as early as 1952 when he participated in the Bengali language movement. In the 1970 national elections he was elected as a member of the parliament under the Awami League. He was also part of the Bangladesh Liberation War and was an active member of the government while they were in exile. In 1972, when the war ended he was chosen as the General Secretary of Awami League and again elected as a member of parliament the following year. Politics is a dirty business and no one seems to escape from its claws. Zillur Rahman was arrested by the army junta and sentenced to four years in prison when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, founding leader of the Awami League was assassinated in 1975.

:: References ::
http://asia-bangladesh.weebly.com/famous-people.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bangladeshi_people
http://www.mediabangladesh.net/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=33&Itemid=46
http://ethikana.com/bangladesh/greatpersonality/index.htm
http://www.topfamousbiography.com/country/1/famous_bangladeshi_biography.html