History of Dhaka University: Sheikh Hasina, who served as Prime Minister four times, had to resign due to anti-government protests in Bangladesh. For the last one month, students in the country have been fighting against reservation in government jobs. Nahid Islam and his colleagues from Dhaka University are the main faces of this movement. This protest has started from Dhaka University itself, although this is not the first time, this university has always been revolutionary in the matter of movement. You will be surprised to know that the foundation of Dhaka University of Bangladesh was laid in India 103 years ago.
The foundation of Dhaka University was laid in India
Dhaka University is the largest and main university of Bangladesh, but its history is linked to India. The story of this university dates back to the time when Bangladesh and Bengal were united. Dhaka University was started in the year 1921 under the Dhaka University Act 1920 of the Indian Legislative Council. At that time this university was in Bengal, India, that is, it was an Indian university. To please the majority Muslim people of East Bengal, Lord Curzon had agreed to build a university in Dhaka. Nawab Bahadur Sir Khwaja Salimullah had donated 600 acres of land from his property for this university. This university was being run in India at that time, where most of the teachers were Hindus.
After this, along with the independence of India, Dhaka University was also divided. The Bengal province of British India was divided into East Pakistan and the Indian state of West Bengal, and the Punjab province of British India was divided into the Punjab province of West Pakistan and the Punjab state of India. When Bengal was divided, the capital Dhaka came to Pakistan and with this Dhaka University also became Pakistan’s. Now this university came to be known as University of Pakistan. After partition, Pakistani students and teachers started studying and teaching in this school but it did not last long.
Real place found in partition of Pakistan
After a few years of independence, there was talk of partition in Pakistan also. In March 1971, Pakistan President Yahya Khan held long talks with Mujib in Dhaka, while government troops were arriving from West Pakistan. After this, the army attacked on 25 March, in this attack many students were also killed. After this, Mujib of Dhaka was arrested and taken to West Pakistan. After this incident, East Pakistan was declared an independent state of Bangladesh. As soon as Dhaka became independent, Dhaka University became Bangladeshi. Since then, Dhaka University is in Bangladesh and is considered the biggest university there.
Dhaka University is known for revolutionary movement
Dhaka University not only produced promising students but many movements started from this university. The movement for intellectual freedom started from this university in 1926. The university campus has always been the center of revolutionary progressive movements, nationalist movements and movements against British rule. Apart from this, from the language movement of 1952 to the education movement of 1962, the anti-Ayub movement of 1967-69 and the liberation war of 1971, the roles played by Dhaka University can be considered unique in the world.
Movement against Sheikh Hasine started from Dhaka University
Even after the independence of Bangladesh, the anti-Ershad movement of the 1990s was led by the students of Dhaka University. Dhaka University students staged a protest again in 2013, demanding the death penalty for Abdul Qadir Mulla, assistant general secretary of Bangladesh’s Jamaat-e-Islami party. Mulla was convicted of beheading a poet, raping an 11-year-old girl and shooting 344 people during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War, earning him the nickname ‘The Butcher of Mirpur’. And now the fight against reservation has also been fought by the student organizations of Dhaka University, the result of which was that PM Hasina Sheikh had to leave the country.
Currently Dhaka University currently has 13 faculties in the university, 83 department There are 13 institutes, 20 residential halls, 3 hostels and more than 56 research centres. There are approximately 39,496 students enrolled in this university and approximately 1999 teachers teach them.