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Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan)

Mount Sinai Hospital, founded in 1852, is one of the oldest and largest teaching hospitals in the United States. It is located in East Harlem in the New York City borough of Manhattan, on the eastern border of Central Park stretching along Madison and Fifth Avenues, between East 98th Street and East 103rd Street. The entire Mount Sinai health system has over 7,400 physicians, as well as 3,919 beds, and delivers over 16,000 babies a year.

In March 2023, the hospital was ranked 23rd among over 2,300 hospitals in the world and the best hospital in New York state by Newsweek. Adjacent to the hospital is the Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital which provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region.

Early years
At the time of the founding of the hospital in 1852, other hospitals in New York City discriminated against Jewish people both by not hiring them to treat patients, and by prohibiting them from being treated in the hospitals' wards. Orthodox Jewish philanthropist Sampson Simson (1780–1857) founded the hospital to address the needs of New York City's rapidly growing Jewish immigrant community. It was the second Jewish hospital in the United States, after the Jewish Hospital, located in Cincinnati, Ohio, which was established in 1847.

, as it was called until adopting its current name in 1866, was built on West 28th Street in Manhattan, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, on land donated by Simson. It opened two years before Simson's death. Four years later, it was unexpectedly filled to capacity with soldiers injured in the American Civil War.

The Jews' Hospital felt the effects of the escalating Civil War in other ways, as staff doctors and board members were called into service. Dr. Israel Moses served four years as lieutenant colonel in the 72nd New York Infantry Regiment; Joseph Seligman had to resign as a member of the board of directors, as he was increasingly called upon by President Lincoln for advice on the country's growing financial crisis.

The New York Draft Riots of 1863 also strained the hospital's resources, as it struggled to tend to the many wounded.

More and more, the Jews' Hospital was finding itself an integral part of the general community. In 1866, to reflect this new-found role, it changed its name. In 1872, the hospital moved uptown to the east side of Lexington Avenue between East 66th and 67th streets.

20th century
Now called Mount Sinai Hospital, the institution forged relationships with many physicians who made contributions to medicine, including Henry N. Heineman, Frederick S. Mandelbaum, Bernard Sachs, Charles A. Elsberg, Emanuel Libman, and, most significantly, Abraham Jacobi, known as the father of American pediatrics and a champion of construction at the hospital's new site on Manhattan's Upper East Side in 1904. The hospital established a school of nursing in 1881. Created by Alma deLeon Hendricks and a small group of women, Mount Sinai Hospital Training School for Nurses was taken over by the hospital in 1895. In 1923, its name was changed to Mount Sinai Hospital School of Nursing. This school closed in 1971 after graduating 4,700 women and one man in the last class. An active alumnae association continues. Since 2013, the nursing school of the Mount Sinai Health System has been Mount Sinai Phillips School of Nursing (PSON).

The early 20th century saw the population of New York City explode. That, coupled with many new discoveries at Mount Sinai (including significant advances in blood transfusions and the first endotracheal anesthesia apparatus), meant that Mount Sinai's pool of doctors and experts was in increasing demand. A $1.35 million ($0 in current dollar terms) expansion of the 1904 hospital site raced to keep pace with demand. The opening of the new buildings was delayed by the advent of World War I. Mount Sinai responded to a request from the United States Army Medical Corps with the creation of Base Hospital No.3. This unit went to France in early 1918, and treated 9,127 patients with 172 deaths: 54 surgical and 118 medical, the latter due mainly to influenza and pneumonia.

World War II
Two decades later, with tensions in Europe escalating, a committee dedicated to finding placements for doctors fleeing Nazi Germany was founded in 1933. With the help of the National Committee for the Resettlement of Foreign Physicians, Mount Sinai Hospital became a new home for a large number of émigrés. When World War II broke out, Mount Sinai was the first hospital to throw open its doors to Red Cross nurses' aides; the hospital trained many in its effort to reduce the nursing shortage in the United States. Meanwhile, the president of the medical board, George Baehr, M.D., was called by President Roosevelt to serve as the nation's chief medical director of the Office of Civilian Defense.

These wartime roles were eclipsed, however, when the men and women of Mount Sinai's 3rd General Hospital set sail for Casablanca, Morocco, eventually setting up a 1,000-bed hospital in war-torn Tunisia. Before moving to tend to the needs of soldiers in Italy and France, the 3rd General Hospital had treated more than 5,000 wounded soldiers.

Postwar
In 1963, the hospital created a medical school, and in 1968, it welcomed the first students of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. The 1980s had a $500 million hospital expansion, including the construction of the Guggenheim Pavilion, the first medical facility designed by I.M. Pei. Its faculty has made significant contributions to gene therapy, cardiology, immunotherapy, organ transplants, cancer treatments, and minimally invasive surgery.

Among the innovations at Mount Sinai were performing the first blood transplant into the vein of a fetus in 1986, and the development of a technique for inserting radioactive seeds into the prostate to treat cancer in 1995.

21st century
At Mount Sinai the staff performed the first successful composite tracheal transplant, which was performed at the hospital in 2005.

Dr. Jack M. Gorman, formerly Department Chairman of Psychiatry at Mount Sinai, engaged in a long-term inappropriate sexual relationship with a patient prior to October 2005.

In January 2013 David L. Reich was the first openly gay medical doctor named interim president of Mount Sinai Hospital as reported by The New York Times. In October of the same year he was named president.

In August 2016 Dennis S. Charney, the dean of the medical school, was shot and wounded as he left a deli in his home town of Chappaqua, New York. Hengjun Chao, a former Mount Sinai medical researcher who had been fired by Charney for research misconduct in 2010, was convicted of attempted second degree murder and two other charges in 2017, and received a sentence of 28 years.

In 2017, Dr. David H. Newman, a former emergency room physician at Mount Sinai Hospital, was sentenced to two years in prison for sexually abusing four female patients in the emergency room between 2015 and 2016, including touching their breasts.

Three doctors were convicted of violating anti-kickback laws by accepting bribes disguised as speaker fees to write prescriptions to a highly addictive fentanyl opioid painkiller. Gordon Freedman, an anesthesiologist at Mount Sinai, was convicted in December 2019 in Manhattan federal court. Alexandru Burducea, a pain management doctor and anesthesiologist who previously worked at Mount Sinai, was sentenced in January 2020 to 57 months in prison. Dialecti Voudouris, who specialized in oncology and hematology at Lenox Hill Hospital and Mount Sinai, was sentenced in 2020 to time served.

In April 2019, a lawsuit was filed against Mount Sinai Health System and several employees of the hospital and the Icahn School's Arnhold Institute for Global Health. The suit was filed by eight current and former doctors and employees for alleged age and sex discrimination and based on a list of other allegations. The school denied the claims.

Dr. David Reich, president and COO of the hospital, announced in March 2020 that the hospital was converting its lobbies into extra patient rooms to "meet the growing volume of patients" with coronavirus.

Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital
Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital (KCH) at Mount Sinai is a nationally ranked pediatric acute care children's hospital located at the Mount Sinai campus in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The hospital has 102 pediatric beds. It is affiliated with The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and is a member of the Mount Sinai Health System. The hospital provides comprehensive pediatric specialties and subspecialties to infants, children, teens, and young adults aged 0–21 throughout the region.

Employment
, the entire Mount Sinai Health System had over 7,400 physicians, 2,000 residents and clinical fellows, and 42,000 employees, as well as 3,815 beds and 152 operating rooms, and delivered over 16,000 babies a year.

Affiliates
Mount Sinai has a number of hospital affiliates in the New York metropolitan area, including Brooklyn Hospital Center and an additional campus, Mount Sinai Hospital of Queens. The hospital is also affiliated with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, which opened in September 1968. In 2013, Mount Sinai Hospital joined with Continuum Health Partners in the creation of the Mount Sinai Health System. The system encompasses the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and seven hospital campuses in the New York metropolitan area, as well as a large, regional ambulatory footprint.

Rankings
In 2019–20, Mount Sinai Hospital was recognized on the U.S. News & World Report "Best Hospitals Honor Roll," ranking 14th among the nearly 5,000 hospitals in the US, with 9 nationally ranked adult specialties including cardiology & heart surgery (#6), diabetes & endocrinology (#7), ear, nose, & throat (#28), gastroenterology & GI surgery (#9), geriatrics (#3), gynecology (#18), nephrology (#11), neurology & neurosurgery (#14), and orthopedics (#18) as well as 4 high-performing adult specialties including cancer, pulmonology & lung surgery, rehabilitation, and urology. Regionally, it was ranked the #3 hospital in New York.

Benefactors

 * Leon Black donated $10 million in 2005 to create the Black Family Stem Cell Institute.
 * Emily and Len Blavatnik made a $10 million gift in 2018 to establish The Blavatnik Family Women's Health Research Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and The Blavatnik Family – Chelsea Medical Center at Mount Sinai.
 * Carl Icahn donated $25 million to Mount Sinai Medical Center for advanced medical research in 2004; a large building primarily devoted to research was renamed from the "East Building" to the "Icahn Medical Institute." In 2012, Icahn pledged $200 million to the institution. In exchange, the medical school was renamed the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the genomics institute led by Eric Schadt was renamed the Icahn Institute for Genomics and Multiscale Biology.
 * Frederick Klingenstein, former CEO of Wertheim & Co., and wife Sharon Klingenstein donated $75 million in 1999 to the medical school, the largest single gift in the history of Mount Sinai medical school at the time, to establish an institute for scientific research and create a scholarship fund.
 * Henry Kravis and wife Marie-Josée Kravis donated $15 million to establish the "Center for Cardiovascular Health" as well as funding a professorship.
 * Samuel A. Lewis, NYC political leader and philanthropist who served for 21 years (1852–1873) as the first director, then honorary secretary, and finally chairman of the executive committee.
 * Hermann Merkin gave $2 million in dedication of the kosher kitchen at the hospital.
 * Derald Ruttenberg donated $7 million in 1986 to establish the Ruttenberg Cancer Center at Mount Sinai and later contributed $8 million more.
 * Martha Stewart donated $5 million in 2007 to start the Martha Stewart Center for Living at Mount Sinai Hospital. The center promotes access to medical care and offers support to caregivers needing referrals or education.
 * James Tisch and wife Merryl Tisch donated $40 million in 2008 to establish The Tisch Cancer Institute, a state-of-the-art, patient-oriented comprehensive cancer care and research facility.

Staff

 * Jacob M. Appel (born 1973), bioethicist and liberal commentator
 * Mark Blumenthal (1831–1921), resident and attending physician of Mount Sinai Hospital from 1854 to 1859
 * Deepak L. Bhatt, first director of the Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital
 * Burrill Bernard Crohn (1884–1983), gastroenterologist and one of the first to describe the disease of which he is the namesake, Crohn's disease.
 * Sander S. Florman, director of Recanati/Miller Transplant Institute.
 * Valentín Fuster (born 1943), director of Mount Sinai Heart, The Zena and Michael A. Wiener Cardiovascular Institute, The Marie-Josée and Henry R. Kravis Center for Cardiovascular Health, The Richard Gorlin, MD/Heart Research Foundation Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
 * Eric M. Genden, Isidore Friesner Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, and Professor of Neurosurgery and Immunology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He is Chair of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Executive Vice President of Ambulatory Surgery, and Director of the Head and Neck Institute at the Mount Sinai Health System. Named one of the most innovative surgeons alive today, in 2006 he became the first surgeon ever to perform a successful jaw transplant.
 * Irving B. Goldman (1898–1975), first president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, 1964
 * Jonathan L. Halperin (born 1949), director of Clinical Cardiology in the Zena and Michael A. Wierner Cardiovascular Institute
 * Michael Heidelberger (1888–1991), immunologist regarded as the father of modern immunology
 * Abraham Jacobi (1830–1919), pediatrician and president of the American Medical Association. Pioneer of pediatrics In the US, devoted to women's and children's welfare.
 * I. Michael Leitman (born 1959), American surgeon and medical educator
 * Blair Lewis (born 1956), gastroenterologist who helped develop the American Gastroenterological Association's position statement on occult and obscure gastrointestinal bleeding
 * Helen S. Mayberg (born 1956), founding director of the Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics
 * John Puskas, performed the first totally thoracoscopic bilateral pulmonary vein isolation procedure
 * David L. Reich, academic anesthesiologist, president and chief operating officer of Mount Sinai, chair of the department of anesthesiology, Horace W. Goldsmith Professor of Anesthesiology.
 * Isidor Clinton Rubin (1883–1958), gynecologist and infertility specialist
 * Jonas Salk (1914–1995), inventor of the polio vaccine, worked as a staff physician at Mount Sinai after medical school
 * Milton Sapirstein (1914–1996), clinical psychiatrist. Sought "to mesh the advances being made in neurobiology in the 1940s with psychoanalytic concepts."
 * Samin Sharma (born 1955), interventional cardiologist,  co-founder of the Eternal Heart Care Centre and Research Institute, Jaipur, and director, Dr. Samin K. Sharma Family Foundation Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory
 * Larry J. Siever (1947–2021), psychiatrist known for his work in studying personality disorders.

title: Mount Sinai Hospital (Manhattan)


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Military Medal

The Military Medal (MM) was a military decoration awarded to personnel of the British Army and other arms of the armed forces, and to personnel of other Commonwealth countries, below commissioned rank, for bravery in battle on land. The award was established in 1916, with retrospective application to 1914, and was awarded to other ranks for "acts of gallantry and devotion to duty under fire". The award was discontinued in 1993, when it was replaced by the Military Cross, which was extended to all ranks, while other Commonwealth nations instituted their own award systems in the post war period.

History
The Military Medal was established on 25 March 1916. It was awarded to other ranks including non-commissioned officers and warrant officers, and ranked below the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM). Awards to British and Commonwealth forces were announced in the London Gazette, but not honorary awards to allied forces. (Lists of awards to allied forces were published by The National Archives in 2018 and are kept in country specific files within WO 388/6.)

When the medal was first introduced, it was unpopular among regular soldiers. MM and DCM recipient Frank Richards wrote that "the Military Medal without a shadow of a doubt had been introduced to save awarding too many DCMs. The old regular soldiers thought very little of the new decoration". Both the DCM and the MM attracted a gratuity and the decoration allowance of an extra sixpence a day to veterans with a disability pension. However, the allowance was only awarded once even if the recipient was awarded more than one gallantry award. The ratio in the First World War was approximately five MMs awarded for every DCM.

From September 1916 members of the Royal Naval Division, serving on Western Front alongside the Army, were made eligible for military decorations, including the Military Medal, for the war's duration. It could also be awarded to members of the Royal Air Force for gallant service on the ground.

Eligibility for the MM was extended, by a Royal Warrant dated 21 June 1916, to women whether British subjects or foreign, with the first awards gazetted on 1 September 1916. Although nurses of the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service (QAIMNS) and the Territorial Force Nursing Service (TFNS) and other women serving with the British Army often had the social status of officers, they did not hold an officer's commission and were therefore ineligible for the Military Cross, but could be and were awarded the MM. Louisa Nolan, a civilian during the Easter Rising in Dublin, was awarded the Military Medal for her courage under fire in providing humanitarian aid to the wounded.

Since 1918 recipients of the Military Medal have been entitled to the post-nominal letters "MM".

Eligibility was extended to soldiers of the Indian Army in 1944.

The Military Medal was discontinued in 1993, as part of the review of the British honours system, which recommended removing distinctions of rank in respect of awards for bravery. Since then the Military Cross, previously only open to Commissioned and Warrant Officers, has been awarded to all ranks. The MM had also been awarded by Commonwealth countries but by the 1990s most, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand, were establishing their own honours systems and no longer recommended British honours.

Description
The medal and ribbon had the following features:
 * A circular silver medal of 36 mm diameter.
 * The obverse bears the effigy of the reigning monarch and an appropriate inscription.
 * The reverse has the inscription "FOR BRAVERY IN THE FIELD" in four lines, surrounded by a laurel wreath, surmounted by the Royal Cypher and Imperial Crown.
 * The suspender is of an ornate scroll type.
 * The ribbon is dark blue, 1.25 inches wide with five equal centre stripes of white, red, white, red, and white, each 0.125 inches wide.
 * The name and service details of the recipient were impressed on the rim of the medal, although honorary awards to foreign recipients were issued unnamed.
 * Silver, laurelled bars were authorised for subsequent awards, with a silver rosette worn on the ribbon bar to indicate the award of each bar.

Obverse variations
The medal was awarded with one of six obverse designs:

Numbers of awards
Between 1916 and 1993 approximately 138,517 medals and 6,167 bars were awarded. The dates below reflect the relevant London Gazette entries: The above figures include awards to the Dominions:

In all, 13,654 Military Medals were awarded to those serving with Canadian forces, including 848 first bars and 38 second bars.

Australian Army members received 11,038 and 14 were to awarded Air Force personnel; 478 first bars were awarded, 15 second bars and one third bar.

Over 2,500 were awarded to New Zealanders, the last being for the Vietnam War.

The honorary MM awards were made to servicemen and women from eleven allied countries in the First World War, and nine in the Second World War.

During the First World War, 127 Military Medals were awarded to women, plus about a dozen honorary awards to foreign women.

There was one instance of a third bar being awarded, to Private Ernest Albert Corey, who served on the Western Front as a stretcher bearer in the 55th Australian Infantry Battalion.

The only recipient to receive two bars during the Second World War was Sergeant Fred Kite, Royal Tank Regiment.

Selected recipients of the Military Medal

Nearly 140,000 people have been awarded the Military Medal. Among the more notable recipients are:

World War I

 * Billy Bennett, British comedian.
 * Joe Cassidy, Scottish footballer.
 * Phoebe Chapple, Australian medical practitioner, first female doctor awarded the Military Medal
 * Mairi Chisholm, British volunteer ambulance driver.
 * Douglas Clark, British rugby league footballer and wrestler.
 * Jack Clough, British footballer.
 * Jack Cock, British footballer.
 * William Coltman, who was also awarded the Victoria Cross, and was the most highly decorated NCO of the First World War.
 * Ernest Albert Corey, the only person to be awarded the MM four times.
 * Lady Dorothie Feilding, first woman to be awarded the MM.
 * Elsie Knocker, British volunteer nurse and ambulance driver.
 * Norman Washington Manley, former First Minister of Jamaica, sergeant in the British Army during the First World War.
 * James McCudden, the most highly decorated British pilot of the First World War.
 * Richard McFadden, professional footballer with Clapton Orient, who was killed on the Somme on 23 October 1916.
 * Frank Nicklin, Premier of Queensland from 1957 to 1968, the first non Labor Party premier since 1932.
 * Francis Pegahmagabow, Canadian Expeditionary Force, Canada's most decorated indigenous soldier of the First World War, who was awarded 2 additional bars to his Military Medal.
 * Frank Richards, who wrote about his wartime experiences, and who received both the DCM and the MM.
 * Caleb James Shang, DCM & Bar, MM was the most highly decorated Chinese Australian soldier who served in the First World War
 * Charles Rutherford, awarded the Military Cross, Military Medal and Victoria Cross.
 * Violetta Thurstan, nurse in World War One, evacuated wounded soldiers while under fire.
 * Karl Vernon, Olympic medallist oarsman and coach.
 * Arthur Wesley Wheen, translator of All Quiet on the Western Front.
 * Arch Whitehouse, World War I RAF Officer.
 * Major-General F. F. Worthington was awarded the Military Medal for actions near Vimy Ridge.
 * Langford Wellman Colley-Priest, Australian stretcher-bearer
 * George Robb (MM) Service No 22822 Born in Aberdeen, later of Willesden Middlesex, Served in 18th & 20th Kings Liverpool Regiment, Awarded the Military Medal for bravery and escaping Munster III PoW camp in Westphalia Germany. Wounded & Survived the great war.

World War II

 * Geoffrey Bingham, Australian theologian and author.
 * Walter Bingham, Jewish refugee from Nazi Germany who served in Normandy and subsequently in Counter Intelligence.
 * Barney F. Hajiro, Japanese American soldier and Medal of Honor recipient, awarded for his actions in France in 1944.
 * Elspeth Candlish Henderson, a WAAF NCO during the Battle of Britain
 * William Hutt, Canadian actor.
 * Fred 'Buck' Kite, the only British soldier to be awarded the MM and two Bars in the Second World War.
 * Bob Lilley, founding member of the British Special Air Service, one of the "Tobruk Four".
 * Tommy Prince, Devil's Brigade, Canada's most decorated aboriginal soldier of the Second World War, who also received the US Silver Star.
 * Bob Quinn, leading Australian rules footballer.
 * Wilfred Sénéchal, New Brunswick, Canada lawyer, politician.
 * Karam Singh, Indian soldier later awarded the Param Vir Chakra, India's highest military decoration.
 * Randall Swingler, British poet.
 * Willie Thornton, Rangers and Scotland footballer.
 * Berry Gazi, first Black South African to be awarded the Military Medal.
 * Leslie "Bull" Allen, Australian stretcher bearer

Post 1945

 * Ian Bailey, The Parachute Regiment, for actions in the Falklands War

 * Corporal Stephen Newland, H.M. Royal Marines - Awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry during operations in the Falklands War

 * Corporal Michael Eccles, H.M. Royal Marines - Awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry during operations in the Falklands War

 * Corporal Chrystie Ward, H.M. Royal Marines - Awarded the Military Medal for his gallantry during operations in the Falklands War

 * Robert Gaspare Consiglio, Special Air Service, killed in action during Bravo Two Zero patrol, Iraq 1991.
 * Billy Hanna, Royal Ulster Rifles, for gallantry in the Korean War.
 * Steven John Lane, Special Air Service, died during Bravo Two Zero patrol, Iraq 1991.
 * John McAleese, British Special Air Service, for service in Ulster in 1987.
 * Andy McNab (pseudonym), Special Air Service, for service in Ulster in 1979.
 * Chris Ryan (pseudonym), Special Air Service, Bravo Two Zero patrol, Iraq 1991.
 * Al Slater, Special Air Service, for service in Ulster.

Popular culture
Jack Ford, a leading character in the BBC TV series When The Boat Comes In, is a World War I recipient of the Military Medal.

In the BBC series Peaky Blinders, the principal protagonist/antihero Thomas Michael Shelby is a recipient of the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal for his service in World War I, then post-war he was awarded the OBE by Winston Churchill.

In the Dad's Army episode "Branded", the platoon discover that the character Private Godfrey was a Conscientious Objector. He is then ostracized by the platoon, until they find that he was awarded the Military Medal in the First World War whilst serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps, for rescuing wounded men under enemy fire. The medal itself is central to the storyline in that it is higher than all the medals held by the rest of the platoon and is seen as a mark of true heroism which earns him great respect from them all.

In ANZAC Girls episode 6, "Courage", Sister Ross-King and three other nurses are awarded the Military Medal for bravery under fire.

In the video game Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege, the SAS character named Mike "Thatcher" Baker is seen wearing the Military Medal. The reason why it has been awarded to him is not mentioned.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Military Medal


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Independence of Bangladesh

Independence of Bangladesh was declared on 26 March 1971, celebrated as Independence Day, from Pakistan. The Independence Day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the independence of Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Liberation War started on 26 March and lasted till 16 December 1971 which is celebrated as Victory Day in Bangladesh. There is a dispute along partisan line on who declared the Independence of Bangladesh. The Awami League claim Sheikh Mujibur Rahman while the Bangladesh Nationalist Party claim it was Ziaur Rahman.

Background
In 1905, the British Raj partitioned Bengal Presidency into East Bengal and West Bengal. The British introduced the Morley-Minto Reforms in 1909 which made the electorate system based on religion and East Bengal was largely Muslim. The Bengal Provincial Muslim League was created to represent Bengali Muslims. The two Bengals were joined back together in 1912 in a decision by the British which was unpopular among the Muslims which feared it would harm the interests of their community. The 1946 Cabinet Mission to India decided to partition Bengal and in 1947 Bengal was partitioned again. West Bengal went to India and East Bengal went to Pakistan becoming East Pakistan. The Partition of India took place along religious lines with Muslim majority areas going to Pakistan.

Path to independence
An organization called "Inner Group" was formed in 1947 before the independence of Pakistan. It was active in the 1950s with Indian help to separate East Bengal from Pakistan and form a new state. Members of the organisations from Bengal Provincial Muslim League following the ideals of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were close to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. This organization based in Dhaka wanted to engage in armed struggle with the help of Great Britain under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. East Pakistan, where Bengali was the language spoken by the majority, opposed the move by the founder of Pakistan, Mohammed Ali Jinnah, to make Urdu the national language. The people of East Pakistan demanded Bengali be made a national language in the Bengali Language movement. Krishak Sramik Party demanded autonomy for East Bengal in 1953 and won the provincial election against the Pakistan Muslim League in 1954. A. K. Fazlul Huq, leader of the Krishak Sramik Party, becomes the chief minister of East Pakistan. On 31 May 1954, the Krishak Sramik Party was removed from power. Chief Minister A. K. Fazlul Huq and party general secretary Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were placed under house arrest on charges of separatism.

After Ayub Khan imposed military rule in Pakistan in 1958, some members of Awami League formed a separatist organization called "East Bengal Liberation Front" in Jamalpur, they asked Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru for help in the war of independence, but he refused because of the Nehru–Liaquat Pact. Later, when the government arrested the leaders of the organization, it became inactive. In 1961, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called upon the leaders of the East Pakistan Communist Party to jointly agitate with the Awami League for the independence of East Pakistan. When a group of Communist Party leaders led by Moni Singh sought permission from the Soviet Union to join the freedom movement, the party was reluctant to join as they did not receive a positive response. In 1962, a separatist organization called the "Provisional East Bengal Government" was formed which proposed the independence of East Pakistan. In 1963, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman wrote to prime minister Nehru to discuss the declaration of independence of East Pakistan and the formation of a government-in-exile in London. But Nehru did not want to talk to Mujib as the Sino-Indian war was going on. From 1963 to 1965, East Pakistan presented a case of economic deprivation with resources from the province benefitting West Pakistan at the cost of development in East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, now leader of the Awami League, was arrested in 1966 and charged in the Agartala conspiracy case, which accused prominent East Pakistanis of trying to separate the country with help from India, in 1968. The 1969 East Pakistan mass uprising saw the charges in the Agartala conspiracy case being dropped. In a party meeting on 5 December 1969, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proposed to name East Pakistan "Bangladesh" if it became independent. Sarbadalia Chhatra Sangram Parishad was created to press the government of Pakistan for the Independence of East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is released from prison on 22 February 1970 by President Ayub Khan. On 10 March 1970, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demanded autonomy for East Pakistan based on the Six Point program of the Awami League. Moulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani ends a public event with the slogan East Pakistan Zindabad on 23 November. 1970 Bhola cyclone killed 300 to 500 thousand people in East Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan found relief efforts by Pakistan government inadequate and felt neglected. Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won 288 seats out of 300 seats in the provincial assembly. It won 167 of 300 seats in the National Assembly of Pakistan. Despite the overwhelming victory, the Awami League was not allowed to form a government by the military administration of Pakistan led by General Yahya Khan. On 7 March 1971, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman gave a historic speech to resist the West Pakistan administration, through refusing to follow their orders and paying taxes. The crowd at the event chanted Jai Bangla (victory to Bengal). On 19 March, soldiers of Pakistan Army from East Pakistan and West Pakistan had a small skirmish at the Gazipur Ordnance Factory after the East Bengal Regiment refused to fire at crowds of protesting Bengalis. On 24 March, soldiers of East Pakistan Rifles raised the flag of independent Bangladesh in Jessore District.

Proclamation by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
On 26 March 1971, after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared independence on radio, Pakistan launched a crackdown on East Pakistan called Operation Searchlight and declared martial law, which was heard by only a limited number of people due to the broadcasting system used. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was detained by Pakistan Army soon after. On 27 March, Major Ziaur Rahman, officer of the East Bengal Regiment, declared the Independence of Bangladesh from Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and called the actions of Pakistan Army a massacre while asking for intervention of the United Nations. On 10 May Bengals members of provincial and national assembly gathered in Kolkata and created a government in exile. It created the Proclamation of Independence which was read from Baidyanathtala in Meherpur District.

Recognition
Bhutan recognized Bangladesh on 6 December and India a few hours later on the same day. They were the first two countries to recognize independent Bangladesh. East Germany recognized Bangladesh on 11 January 1972, becoming the third country to do so. On 7 February, Israel recognised Bangladesh following a request by the foreign minister of Bangladesh, Mostaq Ahmad.

Independence Day
The Independence Day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March on the day Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared the Independence of Bangladesh. Various programs are organised in the country to mark the occasion. The National Flag of Bangladesh is flown on all government buildings. The Independence Day Award was introduced by the Government of Bangladesh in 1977. The award is given on the Independence Day of Bangladesh on 26 March. The first Independence Day was celebrated on 26 March 1972. President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman addressed the nation.

Liberation War
The launch of Operation Searchlight and declaration of Independence marked the start of Bangladesh Liberation War on 26 March 1971. The war lasted nine months and ended on 16 December 1971. The Pakistan Army targeted religious minorities and political supporters of the Independence of Bangladesh. The actions culminated in what is known as the Bangladesh Genocide. During the war, 15 million refugees from East Pakistan moved to India.

Victory day
Victory Day is on 16 December and it commemorates the surrender of Pakistan to Bangladesh India joint forces at the end of Bangladesh Liberation War. It is celebrated as Vijay Diwas in India.

Cable 1971
Cable 1971, otherwise known as Priority Signal or File 1971 was a high profile and secret military signal communicated in December 1952 between the two main inter-services branches of Pakistan–the Pakistan Army and the Pakistan Navy. It is notable for the fact that it essentially predicted the separation of Pakistan and Bangladesh and by coincidence its title contained the year in which the separation actually happened, almost 20 years later.

The cable discussed the implication of One Unit and one culture policy, religious fanaticism, and the economic parity between the West and East Pakistan that will ultimately result in the division of Pakistan into two different groups.

The cable's message read as:
 * The creation of Committee of Ulema to veto the decisions taken in the House of People on religious matters, gives excess of powers to Ulema over the rights of elected representatives of the people. This gives an impression of Pakistan as being a theocratic state.
 * To recommend that the head of the state should be a Muslim will unnecessarily create suspicions in minds of the minorities in Pakistan. The choice to select the head of the state should be left entirely to the people, to select without prejudice to caste, colour and creed.
 * It is maintained by same officers that a single House elected on population basis should have been envisaged, and we should cease to think in terms of Bengalis, Pathans, Balochis, Sindhis, Punjabis etc. The parity between West & East Pakistan will ultimately result in the division of Pakistan into two different groups, therefore, it is the very negation of one people, one country and one culture.

The cable is notable for its highlighted title and many historians found strange that the cable was coincidentally numbered: Cable/File 1971.

Bengali language as national identity
Language played a key role in the independence movement of Bangladesh and became a key feature in nation-building after the Liberation War against Pakistan. Since the foundation and independence of Pakistan in 1947, language was a key dividing issue in the newly established state. The new Pakistani elite faced a difficult task of uniting all its citizens into a united Pakistani nation, and one immediate question that arose with the new state was about the language that would be used to conduct Pakistan’s state business. The Pakistan Educational Conference of November 1947 proposed Urdu as the national language even though it was spoken by only 3% of Pakistanis, compared to 56% who spoke Bengali. The first population census revealed that Pakistan had 78 million inhabitants, of whom 44 million (55%) lived in East Pakistan. However, the country’s rulers were concentrated in West Pakistan and used Islam to dismiss Bengali’s protests as un-Islamic or anti-Islamic. Students in East Pakistan held meetings and demonstrations and formed the Language Action Committee in December 1947 when they learned about the plans to make Urdu the national language.

The Bengali language movement, or Bhasha Andolon, was started by students at schools, colleges and universities. The success of this movement forced Pakistan to change its policies and fueled the emergence of Bengali ethno-nationalism, which led to the creation of Bangladesh as an independent state and the breakup of Pakistan in 1971. When the movement began to challenge West Pakistani domination in East Pakistan, the citizens and the press in West Pakistan thought that it was orchestrated by Hindus, communists and anti-state elements trying to destabilize the state. Thousands of young Bengali boys and girls from schools and universities in Dhaka assembled on the campus of Dhaka University marching and shouting slogans like “Bengali as a national language!” (rastrabhdsa bamla cai!). As soon as the students passed the campus gates, armed policemen baton-charged them; the students retaliated by throwing bricks before policemen fired tear gas into the crowd as a response. Many were injured while five people died; demonstrations, killings, and arrests would continue for a few more days. A memorial was then erected on the spot where the first killings had taken place. A 1984 textbook introduces the language movement with the following, “February 21 of 1952 was the first united expression of Bangladesh’s collective consciousness and a first bold step toward the independence movement”. The language movement became a symbol for Bengali nationalism; the claim by Bengali textbooks is that ‘Bengali’ became the primary marker of Bangladesh’s identity.

Sufia Kamal, a Bangladeshi poet, wrote the poem “Our Language: The Language of Bengal” in 1952, during the time of the language movement; the poem shows how strongly language played a role in the national identity of the new state.

For our language many have died,

drawn from the arms of our mother

but down the road, smeared with their blood

I hope freedom will come to this land:

the simple language of a simple people

Will meet the demands of this our land.

The independence of Bangladesh in December 1971 regarded the national identity as a regional one, rather than a religious one like Pakistan’s foundation. The new Bengali elite envisioned the society that was taking place in the delta as distinctly Bengali, where Bangladesh stood as a nation-state, a homeland to the Bengali community that had been unjustly treated in Pakistan. The main pillars of the new nation were language, a regional style, and a search for modernity.

The Bangla Academy was an institution established in the 1950s as a result of the language movement; after independence, it became a major publisher of textbooks, dictionaries, folk literature, etc. The written and the spoken language were two distinct languages, whose differences were greater than that of other languages. The language of books was distinct, and without a trace of the popular, based on Sanskrit. This fact took a turn with Tekchand Thakur’s “Alarer Ghorer Dulal”, which was written in the language that everyone understood. From that moment on, books began to be written in the learned and popular languages in Bangladesh.

Controversy
There is some dispute between the Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist party, founded by Ziaur Rahman, on who declared the Independence of Bangladesh. When a different party comes to power, they change the history books of Bangladesh to either prefer Sheikh Mujibur Rahman or Ziaur Rahman.

title: Independence of Bangladesh


text:
Steven Greenberg

Steve or Steven Greenberg may refer to:

 * Steve Greenberg (businessman) (born 1971), Illinois Congressional candidate, businessman, and former professional hockey player
 * Steve Greenberg (record producer), owner of S-Curve Records
 * Steve Greenberg (television personality) (born 1960), "Innovation Insider"
 * Steven Greenberg (musician) (born 1950), writer and producer of "Funkytown"; and owner of October Records
 * Steven Greenberg (rabbi) (born 1956), openly gay Orthodox rabbi

title: Steven Greenberg