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Tajuddin Ahmad

Tajuddin Ahmad (তাজউদ্দীন আহমদ; ; 23 July 1925 – 3 November 1975) was a Bangladeshi politician. He led the Provisional Government of Bangladesh as its prime minister during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971 and is regarded as one of the most instrumental figures in the birth of Bangladesh.

Tajuddin began as a Muslim League youth worker in British India. He belonged to the Dhaka-based pro-democracy, secular Muslim League faction, which broke with the Muslim League's reactionary party line after the partition of India and the birth of Pakistan. As a member of the short-lived youth organisation the Jubo League, he actively participated in the Language Movement in 1952. In 1953, he joined the Awami Muslim League (later the Awami League), a dissident offshoot of the Muslim League. The following year, he was elected a member of the East Pakistan Provincial Assembly. As a close confidante, he assisted Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in revitalising the Awami League into a secular political party during Ayub Khan's regime in the late 1960s.

As the General Secretary of the Awami League from 1966, Tajuddin coordinated the party during the tumultuous late 1960s and early 1970s, suffering imprisonment on several occasions. He formulated the early draft of the historic six-points demand that would eventually lead to the birth of Bangladesh. He coordinated the Awami League's election campaign for the 1970 Pakistani general election, in which the League gained a historic parliamentary majority. He also coordinated the non-cooperation movement of March 1971 precipitated by President Yahya Khan's delay in transferring power to the elected legislators. Tajuddin was among Sheikh Mujib's delegation in the Mujib-Yahya talks to settle the constitutional disputes between East and West Pakistan and transfer power to the elected National Assembly. Following the Pakistani army's crackdown on the Bangladeshi population on 25 March 1971, Tajudddin escaped to India. In the absence of Sheikh Mujib, he initiated the set up of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh in 1971 and headed it, operating in exile in India, as its prime minister.

In independent Bangladesh, Tajuddin served as the Minister of Finance and Planning in Sheikh Mujib's Cabinet from 1972 to 1974. He was also a member of the committee drafting the Constitution of Bangladesh. He resigned from the cabinet in 1974 to live a quiet life. Following Sheikh Mujib's assassination in a coup d'état, Tajuddin was arrested and assassinated on 3 November 1975, along with three senior Awami League leaders in prison.

Early life
Tajuddin Ahmad Khan was born on 23 July 1925 at Dardaria, a village in the Dhaka district of the Bengal Presidency, in British India (now Gazipur District in Bangladesh), to Maulavi Muhammad Yasin Khan and Meherunnesa Khanam in a conservative, middle class Muslim family. He was the eldest of nine siblings—three brothers and six sisters.

The Bengal province, the eastern frontier of India, consisted of two conceptual regions: the West Bengal had a Hindu majority population and housed the provincial capital Kolkata, a thriving centre of trade and culture; East Bengal, Tajuddin's home, was an impoverished hinterland of West Bengal, with a mostly poor Muslim peasant population. During Tajuddin's formative years, British rule in India was nearing its end and Bengal was battered by famines, communal tensions and other problems. It was a hotbed of anti-British activism. Against this backdrop, his political activism began at a very early age, sometimes interrupting his studies. The anti-British activists of Bengal were his earliest political inspiration.

After attending a few schools in Gazipur, Tajuddin moved to Dhaka, his district headquarter and the principal town in East Bengal, for further studies. In Dhaka, he went to Saint Gregory's High School, where he matriculated in 1944, securing 12th position in undivided Bengal. After matriculation, Tajuddin briefly lost interest in formal education because of his activism, pausing his studies for three years. At his mother's insistence, he resumed his studies and was admitted to Dhaka College. There he attended classes irregularly because of his activism. As a result, he could not take the Intermediate of Arts examination from there; instead, he took it from a private college as an irregular student in 1948 and passed, securing fourth position in East Bengal. He obtained a BA with honours in Economics from the University of Dhaka. He also took his law degree from University of Dhaka.

Tajuddin lost his father at age twenty-two and took over the family responsibilities.

Late British India
With British rule in India nearing its end and Hindu-Muslim tensions on the rise, in 1940 the political party All-India Muslim League brought about the Pakistan Movement, which demanded a separate state for the Muslims of India. Founded in 1906, in Dhaka, the Muslim League's leadership came mostly from the feudal elites. Headquartered in Kolkata, the Bengal Provincial Muslim League, had had little grassroots organisation or activity in Bengal for a long time. Abul Hashim succeeded Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy as the general secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League in 1943. Tajuddin, still a school student in Dhaka, joined the Muslim League in the same year. Hashim envisioned the creation of a 'leftist' faction within the Muslim League against the prevailing leadership. He set out to reform the Muslim League organisation in Bengal. As part of this reform, in 1944, Hashim helped found the Muslim League party office in Dhaka at 150 Moghultuli Lane. The office became a haunt for the party's progressive young dissidents, including Tajuddin, led by Kamruddin Ahmed, a schoolteacher and later a lawyer. As one of the four 'full-time' party workers, Tajuddin helped Kamruddin publish the party newspaper.

Traditionally, the Muslim League in Dhaka and East Bengal at large was dominated by the Nawab family of Dhaka; many of its members held high offices in the party. Their residential palace, Ahsan Manzil, served as the de facto party headquarters. A rift developed between the Ahsan Manzil group and the 150 Moghultuli (Muslim League) group. Khwaja Nazimuddin and his brother Khwaja Shahabuddin led the Ahsan Manzil group; both held high offices in the provincial government and in the party. Their propaganda, aided by The Azad newspaper, the Muslim League's mouthpiece, labelled Hashim and his followers as communists in disguise. Both groups contested elections in district party committees. In the 1944 Dhaka district committee elections, Tajuddin helped Kamruddin and the Moghultli group win a surprising victory against Shahabuddin's intrigues.

The Pakistan Movement intensified after the Second World War and the Hindu-Muslim communal riots in Bengal in 1946. In August 1947, India was partitioned, and Pakistan was born as a result, causing mass migration and violence. Pakistan consisted of two geographically non-contiguous wings, thousands of miles apart. The far larger West Wing (current Pakistan), adjacent to the western border of India, comprised four provinces, and only East Bengal constituted the much smaller East Wing (current Bangladesh), adjacent to the eastern edge of India. Abul Hashim and Shaheed Suhrawardy opposed the partition of Bengal and did not migrate to Pakistan immediately. Even though it was leading the Pakistan cause, the Muslim League's inadequacy to lead Pakistan as a nation was apparent to factions within it. A faction of the 150 Moghultuli Lane-based Muslim League skeptics, led by Kamruddin Ahmed, formed the Gano Azadi League, a civil rights organisation with a small following, in July 1947, a month before the partition of India. In contrast to the Muslim League, the organisation took progressive views on many issues, like the economy, culture, and education. Apart from Tajuddin, other founding members of the Gano Azadi League included Oli Ahad and Mohammad Toaha.

Early activism
In the newly independent Pakistan, Tajuddin was a resident student of Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall in Dhaka University. The political atmosphere was grim in East Bengal. From the beginning, tensions developed between East and West Pakistan over various issues. The ruling Muslim League provincial government, led by the chief minister Khwaja Nazimuddin, mostly sided with West Pakistan on various issues. The university became an important centre of political activism; as usual Tajuddin became an enthusiastic participant in them. Many Kolkata-based pro-Hashim workers migrated to Dhaka after the Partition and joined the 150 Moghultuli group. Among them Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, who had enrolled in Dhaka University and a few others, founded the East Pakistan Muslim Students' League (popularly called the Students' League) on 4 January 1948. Tajuddin joined the party as a founding member.

At the same time, as a frequenter of Dhaka's political circles, Tajuddin was drawn increasingly towards the national political arena. He witnessed the marginalization of his 150 Moghultuli faction of the Muslim League at their leader Hashim and Suhrawardy's absence in the political scene of East Bengal and the Ahsan Manzil group's rise. In 1949, the 150 Moghultuli faction cut ties with the Muslim League and founded the Awami Muslim League (later the Awami League) with Maulana Bhashani, a Muslim cleric turned politician, as its president. Tajuddin admired Maulana Bhashani but showed little interest in his party initially. He and his disillusioned former Muslim League fellows kept meeting regularly at their haunts, speculating on the characteristics and the future of Pakistan, envisioning new political parties. Members of that group, notably Oli Ahad and Mohammad Toaha, founded the Jubo League, a youth organisation, at a youth convention that took place in March 1951. Tajuddin was elected a member of the Jubo League executive committee at its first annual council later that year.

East and West Pakistan came into a major conflict over the state language question within a month of Pakistan's independence in 1947. West Pakistan leaders, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, advocated for Urdu as the only state language of multilingual Pakistan. In response to protests from various intellectual and political bodies of Bengali-speaking East Bengal, the state language decision was postponed for a while. However, as authorities continued efforts to push Urdu in various guises, the simmering dispute resurged in 1951. The ruling Muslim League provincial government, led by Nurul Amin, who succeeded Nazimuddin as the chief minister in 1948, again sided with West Pakistan. Tajuddin, as a Jubo League worker and an early participant of the movement, was elected a member of the University State Language Action Committee to advance Bengali as a state language, set up the in early 1951 by the students of the Dhaka University. The movement got its spark on 27 January 1952 as Prime Minister Khwaja Nazimudduin of Pakistan declared that 'the state language of Pakistan shall be Urdu and no other language'. On 21 February 1952, police opened fire on protest processions at various places, killing several protesters. Police raided the Jubo League's office on 21 and 22 February; Tajuddin, who was residing in the office at that time, barely avoided arrest. As a result of the movement, the government conceded and granted Bengali status as a state language.

Despite its critical role in the Language Movement, the Jubo League was unsuccessful as a mainstream political party. Its members made their way into other established political parties. Many of them joined the Awami Muslim League, which after the Language Movement of 1952, emerged as East Pakistan's most promising political party.

Awami League
Leaving his studies unfinished, Tajuddin left Dhaka in 1951 to work as a master at a school in Sreepur, close to his home in Gazipur. The school was in poor condition. During his visits to Dhaka at that time, besides taking part in political activism, he often lobbied for managing government aid for the school. After a year and three months, he returned to Dhaka and resumed his studies for his BA in economics in late 1952.

With the Provincial Assembly elections due next year, Tajuddin joined the Awami Muslim League in 1953, his Jubo League comrade Oli Ahad followed; the same year, he was elected as the general secretary of the Dhaka District chapter of the party. The Awami Muslim League participated in the election in a coalition with some other parties (called the Jukta Front), with their joint 21-point election manifesto, embodying many popular demands. Tajuddin, running on the Jukta Front ticket, was elected from his constituency, defeating the general secretary of the East Pakistan Muslim League, Fakir Abdul Mannan, by an overwhelming three to one proportion of the vote. At his twenty-nine, he became one of the youngest elected legislators of the assembly. The Jukta Front won a majority in the election, ending the Muslim League's dominance in East Pakistan. However, within months of taking office, the central government dissolved the Jukta Front cabinet on the pretext of conspiring to secede by its chief minister A. K. Fazlul Huq. Tajuddin was arrested following the dismissal of the cabinet. He took the law examination from prison and earned a BA degree in Law. After his return from prison, he was elected as the social welfare and cultural secretary of Awami League in 1955.

Pakistan framed its Constitution in 1956, more than eight years after its independence, under which a general election was supposed to be held in early 1958. In 1958, however, a military junta, led by General Ayub Khan, the then minister of defence, seized power in a coup d'état. Ayub Khan declared himself president and chief martial law administrator. Four years later, in 1962, he instituted a new constitution, abrogating the old one, legitimising his junta's rule. He also reformed the election process in his favour and brutally suppressed democratic activities. Tajuddin was arrested in 1958, just after Ayub Khan took over and was imprisoned for a year. Under Ayub's rule, the suffering and deprivation in East Pakistan increased. West Pakistan dominated politics, administration, commerce, industry, and education; West Pakistan's cities, like Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, became centres of decision making, thrived as centres of trade, commerce and opportunity. The East Pakistan capital, Dhaka, was relegated to near obscurity. West Pakistani business persons dominated major East Pakistan businesses involved in jute and tea, for example.

Since the mid-1950s, the Awami Muslim League had been turning towards secularism; it dropped 'Muslim' from its name in 1955, becoming known as the Awami League. It became vocal over the economic disparity between East and West Pakistan and began gaining popularity among the masses. In the Awami League, Tajuddin became close to Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, one of the founders of the party. Since 1962, following party President Suhrawardy's policy, the Awami League joined a front of democratic parties, called the National Democratic Front (NDF), against Ayub's military regime and ceased functioning as an individual party. In 1964, after Suhrawardy's death, Mujib, the general secretary of the Awami League, revived it as a party in the face of opposition by some senior leaders. Mujib's influence in the Awami League only increased with Tajuddin as his 'right-hand man'.

Six points and the 1969 uprising
The 1965 India-Pakistan War severely damaged the Ayub regime's prestige. The opposition parties of Pakistan sought to exploit the situation by negotiating with the junta for more democratisation; they called for a conference in Lahore on 3 February 1966 and invited rising Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to win the league's support. Meanwhile, just before the conference, President Ayub Khan visited Dhaka at the end of January 1966 and invited East Pakistani political leaders, including Sheikh Mujib, to a talk. Mujib wanted to seize the opportunity to put forward a few demands, highlighting East Pakistan's interests to the president. Prior to the meeting, Tajuddin, a close confidante of Mujib by then, drafted the demands as a number of specific points, a precursor of the historic six-points demand. However, the demands did not make it to Ayub Khan on that occasion.

Sheikh Mujib and Tajuddin attended the Lahore Conference and put forward the revised version of those points as the six-point demand to the committee. They called for a new constitution, ensuring autonomy of provinces on key matters like monetary policy and defence instead of the prevalent absolute central governance. West Pakistani leaders present there received the six points with absolute disappointment; they viewed it as a secessionist proposal and refused to raise it in the conference.

In the party council of the Awami League on 14–15 March 1966, Sheikh Mujib was elected president and Tajuddin its general secretary. Promulgated by the Awami League, six points became the voice of the East Pakistani people, their charter of emancipation, while getting little support in West Pakistan. The military junta and the West Pakistani political parties viewed six points as a threat to Pakistan's unity. The Ayub Administration was determined to suppress six points by any means. Awami League workers, already being brutally oppressed, came under even greater persecution. Tajuddin himself was arrested in 1966, as were many other senior Awami League leaders. In 1968, while Tajuddin was still in prison, Sheikh Mujib and some others, mostly East Pakistani military officials, were arrested on charges of high treason in the infamous Agartala Conspiracy Case.

In the face of the mass popular uprising of 1969, the Ayub regime began showing signs of compromise. On 1 February 1969, Ayub Khan announced a conference (popularly known as the Round Table Conference or RTC), in Rawalpindi, on 17 February 1969 with the opposition parties, including the Awami League. The Awami League declared the RTC would not gain credibility with their president, Mujib, imprisoned and refused to attend the conference. Ayub Khan rejected the opposition party forum's plea for Mujib's release citing legal difficulties. A legal battle ensued between the Awami League and the junta over Mujib's release. Faced with popular pressure, the conference was postponed. On 17 February 1969, Tajuddin, just released from imprisonment, joined his two Awami League comrades, lawyers Kamal Hossain and Amir-ul Islam, who were already leading the legal proceedings, on their flight to Rawalpindi to negotiate Mujib's release. Despite its initial objections, the Ayub government eventually conceded and agreed to release Mujib unconditionally so that he could attend the Round Table Conference. Finally, authorities released Sheikh Mujib, the unanimous leader of East Pakistan, from prison on 23 February 1969.

Tajuddin attended the Round Table Conference as part of the Awami League delegation led by Mujib. At this conference, the Awami League's six points again came under strong opposition from the West Pakistani politicians. On 13 March, in the concluding session, Ayub Khan approved the federation proposal, however, he refused to comment on the autonomy of the provinces as the six points demanded, citing it as a matter that only elected legislators could decide. This effectively postponed it until a general election could take place.

President Ayub Khan resigned shortly after the conference, ending his 11-year rule; his commander-in-chief of the army, General Yahya Khan, who reportedly had been pulling the strings of the Round Table Conference from behind the scenes, took over as president. Yahya immediately abrogated the Constitution, imposed martial law, and promised a general election.

The 1970 general election
The 1970 general election, the first of its kind in Pakistan after years of military rule, was held on 7 December 1970. Of the 300 parliamentary seats of the National Assembly, East Pakistan and West Pakistan constituted 162 and 138 seats respectively. The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, secured 160 out of 162 seats in East Pakistan and none in West Pakistan, still becoming the majority. Its closest contender, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), led by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, won 81 seats in West Pakistan and appointed no candidates in East Pakistan. Tajuddin ran and was elected from his constituency. With the elections concluded, the president was to inaugurate the National Assembly, and the elected legislators were to draft a new constitution. With the Awami League being in the majority in the assembly, there remained no obstacle to writing a constitution that complied with the six points demand. The Awami League quickly embarked on drafting a constitution proposal accordingly before the assembly is inaugurated. Sheikh Mujib and the senior Awami League leaders, including Tajuddin, met intensely with a group of legal and economic experts for about a month at a house on the banks of the river Buriganga on which Dhaka stands. From those discussions, in which Tajuddin played a key role, an unofficial constitution draft came out.

Meanwhile, the Awami League's victory soared the anxiety among the West Pakistani opposition parties and the military junta alike. The PPP desired for a coalition between the two. After the election, on 20 December in Lahore the PPP leader Bhutto described Punjab and Sindh as 'bastions of power in Pakistan', two states where his party had won a sweeping majority. So, he asserted, no central government can function without his party's support. To which Tajuddin, as the general secretary of the Awami League, replied in an official statement:

"The Awami League is quite competent to frame a constitution and form the Central Government. That would be done with or without the support of any party... The Punjab and Sind can no longer aspire to be the 'bastion of power'. If we are to move towards a better future, such claims should be avoided as they generate unnecessary and harmful controversy."

Unable to secure any compromise on six-points from the Awami League leadership in the previous months, on 1 March, Yahya Khan postponed the inaugural session of the National Assembly on 3 March, indefinitely. Sheikh Mujib immediately called for non-cooperation by his people, effectively taking control of East Pakistan. Mujib kept issuing regular directives to people and party workers. Tajuddin, Kamal Hossain, and Amir-ul Islam were put in charge of drafting the directives. Non-cooperation was an immediate success; people spontaneously defied a curfew imposed by the Army. On 7 March 1971, however, in a historical speech in front of a massive gathering, Sheikh Mujib called for an indefinite general strike, asking his people to be prepared for any emergency and issued an ultimatum to the military junta. On 15 March, Tajuddin, as the general secretary of Awami League, issued 35 directives to the people. On the same day, Yahya Khan arrived in Dhaka and a series of meetings took place between them until late March. Mujib assured Yahya that his party would not harm West Pakistan's interests. He also pressed Yahya to withdraw the declaration of martial law immediately; Yahya refused, claiming legal difficulties with that. Mujib offered his assistants, Tajuddin and Kamal Hossain, to meet Khan's legal experts to sort out the difficulties. Yahya accepted the offer, and Kamal Hossain and Tajuddin met his experts and made some progress. Troops and arms were being concentrated from West Pakistan. Mujib urged Yahya to stop the reinforcements, warning him of the consequences. The Awami League leadership expected that on 24 March final negotiations would take place, however, that day passed with no meeting. On 25 March they learned that Yahya's delegation had secretly left Dhaka, leaving the discussions unfinished, killing any hope for a peaceful settlement.

Bangladesh Liberation War
Though Yahya Khan promised to resume talks on 25 March, everybody was apprehensive that an armed conflict was imminent. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman kept ordering his workers to escape to safety. Despite Tajuddin's and others' repeated insistence, Mujib refused to escape until 25 March, fearing it would be used as a pretext to massacre innocent Pakistanis. Tajuddin also remained in Dhaka until 25 March, the night Yahya secretly left Dhaka and the Pakistan Army cracked down on the Bangladeshi population there, killing thousands of people. Like the entire nation, the Awami League's leadership was taken by surprise; they scattered, each busy finding their own path to safety, and losing contact with one another for a few days. On the night of 25 March, Tajuddin and his trusted long-time comrade Amir-ul Islam left their homes and families and went into hiding. They secretly left Dhaka on 27 March for neighbouring India.

Tajuddin came to learn days later that Sheikh Mujib had been arrested on the night of 25 March. Before his arrest, he broadcast the independence of Bangladesh in a radio message.

After a perilous journey, mostly on foot through Kushtia and Chuadanga, Tajuddin and Amir-ul Islam crossed the Indian border on 30 March. At the border outpost the regional head of the Indian border security force (BSF), Golok Majumdar received them. Majudmar immediately transported them to Kolkata with him. There, on the night of 30 March and the next day, Tajuddin and Islam had discussions with BSF chief Rustamji, who had come from Delhi after learning of their arrival. On 1 April, Tajuddin and Islam, accompanied by Majumdar, left for Delhi aboard a military cargo plane.

Formation of Bangladesh Government in Exile
In Delhi, Tajuddin met with India's Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, on 4 April. At their second meeting the following day, Gandhi informed him that Sheikh Mujib had been arrested and transported to Pakistan though Pakistan had not made this official yet. Asked about the Bangladesh government, he replied, having consulted with Amir-ul Islam the day before, that a provisional government had been formed with Sheikh Mujib as its president with the senior Awami League leaders who had attended the Mujib-Yahya talks as cabinet members. Tajuddin presented himself as the prime minister. Except for Sheikh Mujib, the whereabouts of the other members was unknown. Two crucial resolutions were reached in that meeting: India opened its borders to Bangladeshi refugees saving millions of lives in the upcoming days when Pakistani aggression reached outside major cities, and India allowed the Bangladesh Government to operate within Indian territory. The Indian government also promised to help the Bangladeshi liberation war by any means possible.

While Tajuddin was in Delhi, part of the Awami League leadership congregated in Kolkata. Many of them, notably the youth and student leaders, viewed Tajuddin's meeting with the Indian prime minister as an outrageous act sidelining them. On returning to Kolkata, on 8 April, Tajuddin found and met the group of leaders, including A H M Qamaruzzaman, and informed them of the Delhi meeting's outcomes, including the provisional government. Some of the leadership present there questioned Tajuddin's legitimacy as prime minister. The youth leader Sheikh Mani rejected the idea of the cabinet outright. Instead, he proposed setting up a revolutionary council dedicated to conducting armed resistance only. Amir-ul Islam explained the inadequacy of the revolutionary council and the necessity of a legal government. After this, and following Qamaruzzaman's mediation, most of the leadership at the meeting accepted Tajuddin's proposal.

Tajuddin remained committed to the idea of a provisional government, believing only a legitimate government could muster the international support necessary for the liberation war. On 10 April, accompanied by Amir-ul Islam, Sheikh Mani and others, he boarded an old Dakota plane borrowed from the Indian government and set off in search of other cabinet members scattered around the borders. Flying at low altitudes, the plane stopped at various airstrips at the borders, most of them built by the British Army during the Second World War. After picking up cabinet members Muhammad Mansur Ali, Abdul Mannan, and Syed Nazrul Islam from various places on the way, on 11 April, the entourage arrived in Agartala, capital of the Indian state of Tripura, where many other Awami League leaders had taken refuge, including Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and Colonel M A G Osmani.

Before reaching Agartala, during Tajuddin and his group's stop in Shiliguri on 10 April, Golok Majumdar arranged the broadcast of Tajuddin's first radio speech as the prime minister of Bangladesh from a clandestine radio station. The speech was recorded in Delhi from a draft prepared by Islam and Rehman Sobhan, an Awami League economist who also escaped Dhaka after the 25 March crackdown and made it to Delhi. In his speech, Tajuddin informed the people of Bangladesh of the formation of the government and the war's progress. He praised the spontaneous armed resistances taking place at the various parts of the country and recognized their leaders. He also gave instructions to the people on the conduct of the war. Describing the Pakistani army's onslaught, Tajuddin asked the international community to express solidarity with the freedom struggle of Bangladesh. The speech was broadcast again the next day on Akashvani Kolkata, the regional service of the Indian state radio, for a broader audience.

Reunited in Agartala, the Awami League leadership pondered the cabinet agenda and distributing cabinet offices. In the absence of President Sheikh Mujib, Syed Nazrul Islam served as acting president, Khondaker Mostaq took the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qamarauzzaman was given the State Minister's office, Mansur Ali the Finance Minister's, and Colonel Osmani, a retired veteran of the Pakistan army turned Awami League politician, was appointed commander-in-chief of the armed forces. The entire cabinet returned to Kolkata on 13 April, set to take oath at some yet unoccupied place in Bangladesh.

The oath taking ceremony took place on 17 April 1971, at a village along the India-Bangladesh border, called Baidyanathtala, in Kushtia district (currently Meherpur district), on Bangladeshi soil. Professor Yusuf Ali read the proclamation of independence, drafted by Amir-ul Islam and reviewed by Subrata Roy Chowdhury, a lawyer at the Calcutta High Court, retroactively in effect from 10 April. Answering a journalist during the ceremony, Tajuddin named the place Mujibnagar, after Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Later the government-in-exile came to be popularly known as the Mujibnagar Government. Mujibnagar was abandoned quickly after the oath ceremony as participants feared a raid by Pakistani forces. The government settled in Kolkata, in exile, for the rest of the war—briefly at a house on Ballyganj Circular Road and then at 8 Theatre Road.

On 15 April, Tajuddin secretly met Hossain Ali, the deputy high commissioner of Pakistan, in Kolkata. Tajuddin persuaded Ali, along with his Bengali staff, to switch allegiance to the Bangladesh government the day after the cabinet took their oaths. As promised, Ali and 70 employees at the Deputy High Commission swore allegiance to the Bangladesh Government, turning the Pakistan High Commission on 9 Circus Avenue into the Bangladesh Mission in Kolkata for good. The mission came to house part of the government's offices, most importantly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Organising the Liberation War
Starting in Dhaka and other major cities on 25 March, Pakistani forces occupied most of Bangladesh by late April, creating an influx of refugees into the bordering states of India, most notably in West Bengal and Tripura. The number of refugees would eventually reach ten million. As the war broke out, Bengali soldiers serving in various Pakistani battalions revolted and put up armed resistance against Pakistani forces all over Bangladesh. Rebel commanders of these battalions, unaware of the establishment of a provisional government, met along with Colonel M A G Osmani on 4 April. At that meeting, the Bangladesh Forces (BDF, popularly called Mukti Bahini) was formed, with Osmani as its commander-in-chief. Young people at various locations put up armed resistance. Unable to overcome the Pakistani forces' onslaught, owing mainly to lack of heavy arms and manpower, both soon retreated into Indian territory. As Pakistani forces spread around the country, thousands of youths from occupied Bangladesh crossed the border into India, seeking arms and training to join the fight against the Pakistani occupation force. Among the Tajuddin Government's top priorities was coordinating those ongoing war efforts. In mid-July (10 to 15) the sector commanders of the BDF met at a conference at the Bangladesh Government's headquarters on Theatre Road in Kolkata. The conference set a course for the conduct of the war in the coming months. The irregular guerrilla warriors were named Gono Bahini (popularly called Muktijoddha or "Freedom Fighter") and the regular force was named "Regular Force" (popularly called Mukti Fouj).

Under Tajuddin's premiership, many Bengali bureaucrats, diplomats and military officers serving Pakistan defected to the new Government of Bangladesh. The Government soon established a capable civil administration. On 27 July, Tajuddin, as the prime minister, issued an order (GA/810/345) that divided occupied Bangladesh into nine administrative zones, called Zonal Administrative Councils, for administrative convenience. On another order, issued on 18 September, the number was increased to eleven. Each zonal council was chaired by an elected legislator and several administrative officers were appointed by the Government under him. Amidst occasional pressures from within his party, Tajuddin played a key role in keeping the administration from becoming politicised.

Tajuddin employed a number of capable diplomats in his government. In early April, he commissioned economist Rehman Sobhan to stop the economic advisor to Pakistani president Yahya Khan, economist M M Ahmad, from acquiring fresh foreign aid for Pakistan and persuade Bangladeshi officials serving at Pakistani foreign missions to switch allegiance to Bangladesh.

Apart from organising the liberation war, over the nine months, Tajuddin had to deal with various problems originating from within his party. As Sheikh Mujib did not explicitly name his successor in his absence, a faction within the Awami League denounced his premiership from the beginning; they continued with their relentless efforts to discredit him. A lack of coordination among various government bodies arose on occasion.

The Chhatra League, the student wing of the Awami League, workers united under a separate force, initially called the Bangladesh Liberation Force (BLF) and later Mujib Bahini. Though initially commissioned by Osmani to recruit youths for the regular Bangladesh Forces, they eventually emerged as an independent armed force, under the auspices of the Indian intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Mujib Bahini clashed with the regular forces at various places. Sector Commanders of the regular forces and Osmani urged the government to bring them under the same command. Tajuddin himself expressed his concern about Mujib Bahini to Indian officials on occasion and to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi at their meeting on 22 October. The situation, however, never improved.

By August, Minister of Foreign Affairs Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad and his cohorts at his ministry secretly established a liaison with the United States, a key ally of Pakistan, without the Government's knowledge. With Sheikh Mujib on trial in Pakistan for high treason, the same group was also spreading the 'either freedom or Mujib' doctrine. Indian intelligence agencies had discovered the fact just before Mostaq was scheduled to lead the Bangladesh delegation to the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Tajuddin removed Mostaq from the UN delegation and sacked him later in December, after the war.

In September, 40 members of the national and provincial assemblies of the South Zone, issued a statement expressing dissatisfaction on Tajuddin's performance as prime minister and demanded his resignation from the cabinet and Awami League.

Post-independence career
After nine months of war, the Pakistani forces in Bangladesh surrendered at Dhaka on 16 December 1971. Tajuddin and his cabinet returned from Kolkata to Dhaka, now the capital of the newly independent Bangladesh, on 22 December 1971. In an address at the Dhaka airport that day and at the Dhaka Secretariate the following day, Tajuddin declared Bangladesh would be built upon the principles of socialism, democracy and secularism. On 23 December, recognising the sacrifice of the freedom fighters and their tremendous potential in building the newborn nation, the Tajuddin government declared that all enlisted and non-enlisted freedom fighters would be inducted into a National Militia. His administration quickly embarked on the immediate task of restoring law and order in the newly independent country.

Released from nine months of imprisonment in Pakistan, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman returned to Dhaka on 10 January 1972. Tajuddin and Mujib met privately on 11 January to decide the future leadership. As was the popular wish, Tajuddin happily agreed to transfer the prime minister's office to Mujib. Though Mujib initially proposed a presidential government, at Tajuddin's insistence, he accepted a parliamentary system. In the reformed cabinet, with Sheikh Mujib as prime minister, Tajuddin was put in charge of the Ministry of Finance and Planning. He was also appointed a member of the committee in charge of drafting the Constitution of Bangladesh.

As minister of finance, Tajuddin strongly resented foreign aid, particularly from the United States. He regarded the World Bank as an instrument of United States' domination. During World Bank president Robert McNamara's visit to Bangladesh in 1972, Tajuddin's response was cold, and their meeting ended bearing no fruit. According to the 1970 election manifesto spirit, in the first Bangladesh National Budget in 1972, Tajuddin declared the nationalisation of industries. This came under strong criticism. One of the major arguments against it was that nationalised industries would be unable to find enough skilled manpower to run them. Tajuddin and his fellow planning commission member Nurul Islam argued that if private enterprises can find manpower within the country the same must be the case for public enterprises and imposed their policies accordingly.

In the newly independent country, Mujib government struggled to address numerous problems. A dissident group of Chhatra League, Awami League's student wing, emerged as a political party called Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD) in late 1972. The ongoing economic crisis led to a famine in 1974. Anti-Awami League sentiment was on the rise.

In the new Awami League, and in the new cabinet, Tajuddin found himself increasingly cornered by rival factions. His was growing distant from Mujib; they differed on a number of issues: the National Militia scheme, consisting of freedom fighters, proposed by Tajuddin was abandoned; instead a paramilitary force called the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini, dominated by the members of the Mujib Bahini, was formed. His frustration with government and his party was rising quickly; rumours of Tajuddin's desire to resign from the cabinet were circulating. Sensing his frustration, the burgeoning, newly formed political party Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, desperately in search of a prominent face, approached him. He declined their offer. By September 1974, he had resolved to resign from cabinet after a month-long state tour. However, his intention to resign somehow reached the top of the government before he could act, and within days of his return from the tour in October, the prime minister ordered him to resign. On 26 October 1974, Tajuddin resigned from the cabinet. After his resignation, he remained largely inactive in politics.

From early 1975, Sheikh Mujib began a radical reform of the government and its administration. The Constitution was amended on 25 January 1975 to introduce a presidential form of government, declaring Mujib president. On 24 February 1975 President Mujib banned all political parties except one national party, called the Bangladesh Krishak Sromik Awami League (BAKSAL). Tajuddin declined to join it and fell out with Mujib.

Despite their political differences, Tajuddin remained loyal to Mujib and in July 1975, having heard rumours of plots against Mujib rushed to warn him. Mujib did not take the threat seriously.

Death
Capitalising on the growing unpopularity of the Sheikh Mujib government, a faction of the army staged a coup and killed Sheikh Mujib and a large part of his extended family on 15 August 1975. Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad, who held office in Sheikh Mujib's cabinet and was complicit in the conspiracy, immediately ascended to the presidency and imposed martial law.

Following these assassinations, Tajuddin was immediately placed under house arrest. On 22 August, he was arrested along with fellow Awami League leaders Syed Nazrul Islam, A H M Qamaruzzaman, and Muhammad Mansur Ali and imprisoned at the Dhaka Central Jail. On 3 November, amidst the chaos of a second coup staged by another faction of the army to overthrow the Mostaq regime, in what became infamously known as the "Jail Killing Day", Tajuddin along with the other three imprisoned Awami League leaders was killed inside the jail by a group of army officers on the instruction of President Mostaq.

Family
On 26 April 1959, Tajuddin married Syeda Zohra Khatun (died 20 December 2013) ) a daughter of a professor. They had four children, three daughters—Sharmin Ahmad (Reepi), Simeen Hussain Rimi, and Mahjabin Ahmad (Mimi), and one son, Tanjim Ahmad Sohel Taj.

Zohra was highly supportive of Tajuddin's political activism but had no involvement in politics during his lifetime. After the assassinations of Sheikh Mujib and Tajuddin, she reorganised and led the Awami League from 1975 to 1981.

Tajuddin's first daughter Sharmin Ahmad is an author and activist. His son Sohel Taj is a health and fitness activist and was minister of state for Home Affairs in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's cabinet in 2009. His second daughter Simeen Hussain was elected as a member of parliament for the Awami League in 2012.

Historical evaluation
Though Tajuddin and Sheikh Mujib were men of different dispositions, they developed a highly fruitful political rapport between themselves, which proved to be crucial for the birth of Bangladesh. Mujib's biographer S A Karim contrasts between the two:

"Mujib and Tajuddin were complete opposites in many ways. Mujib was a powerful orator and had an uncommon ability to win the trust and loyalty of the people by voicing in simple language their inner thoughts and longings ... Tajuddin was a man of different temperament and talents. He had a lively intellect and an orderly mind. He was no demagogue and he was most persuasive in smaller circles. He had a strong sense of duty and was extremely hard-working."

Mujib deferred to Tajuddin on many critical matters. As the PPP leader Zulfikar Ali Bhutto called for a public debate on the six points, which never took place, Mujib nominated Tajuddin to defend his case. During the constitution drafting discussions, after the 1970 elections, Mujib considered sending Tajuddin or Syed Nazrul Islam to lead the central government if such necessity would arise.

Sheikh Mujib used to be the key figure in the Awami League; most major decisions came from him. His arrest in the beginning of the liberation war created a critical leadership void that put Tajuddin in a difficult position. However, Tajuddin quickly earned Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi and her officials' trust. P N Haksar, Gandhi's secretary and adviser to her on Bangladesh affair in the early months of the war, explains the reason behind Indian government's preference to Tajuddin over other Awami League leaders as prime minister:

"Tajuddin was found to be the only person who had right political ideas for the task Bangladesh had set before itself. The Government of India also realised that Tajuddin was irreplaceable in the sense that things have been even more chaotic if somebody else other than him took over. These two considerations decided the issue of continued Indian support to Tajuddin despite numerous representations from his opponents within Awami League."

India's unwillingness in recognising Bangladesh as a state and no direct military intervention in the early months caused frustration among the Awami League leadership; Tajuddin appreciated the difficulties involved in the matter. D P Dhar, who later replaced Haksar, remarks that Tajuddin was the only capable leader to lead the war:

"Only Tajuddin was mentally equipped to lead Awami League out of a situation like this (liberation struggle). That was his biggest strength. He displayed all the initiatives, while his rivals (within Awami League) failed to formulate that else to look for apart from Indian recognition, followed by military attacks."

Tajuddin's initiative for a joint front of political parties, training the leftist youths as guerrillas, refusals to politicise the administration made him unpopular in his party. His vocal stance against the Mujib Bahini made him unpopular among the youths.

The split between Mujib and Tajuddin started just after Mujib's return to Bangladesh after independence. S A Karim maintains that the enemies Tajuddin had earned during the war caused his downfall. Tajuddin's distance with Mujib frustrated him deeply. Economist Nurul Islam who had been the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission of Bangladesh with Tajuddin as its chairman describes their split as 'a great tragedy and bode ill for the future'. He observes:

"It seemed to me that Tajuddin was frequently too outspoken in public. He was deeply frustrated that he had lost the full confidence of Sheikh Mujib, which he had enjoyed in the pre-1971 days. He occasionally gave expression to his frustration in public and was not very tactful."

Legacy
After his rise to the senior ranks of the Awami League leadership, Tajuddin had been involved in most major party and government policy decisions. He was an important bridge between the political leadership and the technocrats supporting them. His prominent collaborators include economists Nurul Islam and Rehman Sobhan; lawyers Kamal Hossain and Amir-ul Islam; author Anisuzzaman and journalist Muyeedul Hasan.

Economist Nurul Islam said of him:

"I had known and worked closely with Tajuddin before and after independence. He was not only a patriot but also in my view the most serious minded, conscientious and competent as well as the most hardworking among the Ministers. Tajuddin usually took the views of the Planning Commission seriously and, if convinced, strongly supported them during Cabinet discussions. The entire Planning Commission had great respect for him."

Economist professor Rehman Sobhan, recalls his experience of working with Tajuddin in drafting the constitution after the 1970 election:

"... Tajuddin Ahmad was quite as fertile in his contributions as any of the academics demonstration deep political insight dialectical skill and an extraordinary capacity to absorb and break down complicated technical issues to their basic essentials."

Just after independence, Time described him:

"Tajuddin Ahmed, 46. Prime Minister, a lawyer who has been a chief organizer in the Awami League since its founding in 1949. He is an expert in economics and is considered one of the party’s leading intellectuals."

Tajuddin used to be a regular and meticulous diarist. An active participant of the Bengali language movement, his diaries during the late 1940s and early 1950s chronicled first-hand accounts of the political activities and events of that time. Those diaries provided material for later researchers on the movement.

The documentary film Tajuddin Ahmad: An Unsung Hero, directed by Tanvir Mokammel, released on 25 March 2007, features Tajuddin's life and work.

Shahid Tajuddin Ahmad Medical College in Gazipur is named after Tajuddin.

title: Tajuddin Ahmad


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Benjamin Mays

Benjamin Elijah Mays (August 1, 1894 – March 28, 1984) was an American Baptist minister and American rights leader who is credited with laying the intellectual foundations of the American civil rights movement. Mays taught and mentored many influential activists, including Martin Luther King Jr, Julian Bond, Maynard Jackson, and Donn Clendenon, among others. His rhetoric and intellectual pursuits focused on Black self-determination. Mays' commitment to social justice through nonviolence and civil resistance were cultivated from his youth through the lessons imbibed from his parents and eldest sister. The peak of his public influence coincided with his nearly three-decade tenure as the sixth president of Morehouse College, a historically black institution of higher learning, in Atlanta, Georgia.

Mays was born in the Jim Crow South on a repurposed cotton plantation to freed sharecroppers. He traveled North to attend Bates College and the University of Chicago from where he began his career in activism as a pastor in Georgia's Shiloh Baptist Church. After a brief career as a professor, he was appointed the founding Dean of the School of Religion at Howard University in 1934 which elevated him to national prominence as a proponent of the New Negro movement. Six years later, Mays was tapped to lead Morehouse out of its financial insecurity. Over his tenure from 1940 to 1967, the college's financial endowment doubled, enrollment quadrupled, and it became academically competitive. By the 1960s, Mays established the college as a feeder school for "African-American firsts" in the United States.

Due to the college's small student body, Mays personally mentored many students, most notably King; the two first met in 1944. King was known as Mays' "spiritual son" and Mays his "intellectual father." After King's "I Have A Dream" speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, Mays gave the benediction. Five years later, upon King's assassination and death, Mays delivered the eulogy where he described King in his "No Man is Ahead of His Time" speech. Mays stepped down from the Morehouse presidency in 1967 continuing to work as a leader in the African American community through national social tours. He presided over the Atlanta Board of Education from 1969 to 1978, where he initiated the racial desegregation of Atlanta.

Mays' contributions to the civil rights movement have had him credited as the "movement's intellectual conscience" or alternatively the "Dean [or Schoolmaster] of the Movement". Historian Lawrence Carter described Mays as "one of the most significant figures in American history". Memorials include hundreds of streets, buildings, statues, awards, scholarships, grants, and fellowships named in his honor. Numerous efforts have been brought forward to posthumously award Mays the Presidential Medal of Freedom as well as feature him on a U.S. postage stamp. Mays has, since 1995, been entombed on the campus of Morehouse, with his wife, Sadie Gray, after an initial burial in Augusta.

Early life and ancestry
Benjamin Elijah Mays was born on August 1, 1894, in Epworth, South Carolina, in the small county of Greenwood, South Carolina, the youngest of eight children. His mother, Louvenia Carter Mays, and father, Hezekiah Mays, were born into slavery on Virginia and South Carolina plantations, respectively. Both were freed in their later lives with the passage of the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Mays' father often hit him, his siblings and Louvenia growing up, expressing anger about how he was treated by his master. The "Mays" family name was derived from their slaver and owner's name, Henry Hazel Mays; he owned 14 slaves in the same area. Hezekiah worked as a cotton sharecropper to generate income for his family.

Mays was told to be cautious of white people and exhibit black pride whenever possible growing up. Mays' older sister, Susie, began to teach him how to read before his formal schooling commenced, which gave him a year's growth in reading compared to the other students in his primary schools. School officials cited him as "destined for greatness." Growing up, he went by the nickname "Bennie" and was inspired by Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and Thomas E. Miller. The Bible was influential to young Mays because he could see his name (of Biblical origins) mentioned frequently, instilling a feeling of empowerment within. During this time, Benjamin Tillman rose to power in South Carolina which saw to the redoubling of lynching and segregation in Mays' neighborhood. Throughout his tenure as governor, 18 black men were lynched and dozens were hurt in the 1876 shoot-off. On November 8, 1898, members of the Phoenix Riot–a white supremacist mob–rode up on horses to the Mays household, a repurposed cotton plantation. They drew their guns at Mays' father and told him to remove his hat and bow down to them. The event would stay with Mays throughout his life. A year later, white mobs and Ku Klux Klan members searched his house in search of relatives after local newspapers announced that cotton prices had plummeted.

Early education
In 1911, he was enrolled at the Brick House School in Epworth, a Baptist-sponsored school. He then transferred to the High School Department of South Carolina State College in Orangeburg. He graduated in 1916, aged 22 as its valedictorian. In high school, teachers often let Mays instruct parts of the mathematics curriculum to students in exchange for extra credit. He won awards for debate and mathematics. A teacher at the school had told Mays to seek graduate school at the University of Chicago as he thought the school would best nurture Mays' intellect. However, before attending graduate school Mays needed to seek an undergraduate education. His relatives and teachers forced him to attend a Baptist university–the Virginia Union University. He grew weary of the violence against blacks in Virginia so he sought the guidance of his academic advisors at Virginia Union. They advised him to look into schools in the North as they were typically seen as more prestigious, challenging, and prominent than those of the South.

Four professors at the university had attended Bates College in Lewiston, Maine and urged Mays to apply. However, its exacting standards prohibited him from attending. After a year more in Richmond, Mays elevated his grades to the top of his class and wrote personally to Bates president George Colby Chase. Chase granted him a full financial aid package and boarding upon hearing his story and reviewing his academic background. Virginia Union's president warned him that studies at Bates would be "too hard for a colored boy" and that he should stay in Virginia. Mays ignored his warnings and enrolled in 1917, aged 23. While at Bates he felt pressure to compete with "Yankees at the Yankee level" which drove him to dedicate him to his studies. He would write in a diary: "Yankee superiority was the gauntlet thrown down. I had to pick it up." Working to midnight weekly and arising at 4 AM, Mays excelled at Greek, mathematics, and speech. Although he would experience little racism in college, upon seeing The Birth of a Nation in a local cinema, the crowd cheered for the white slaver which frightened Mays. In college, he was captain of the debate team, played on the football team and served as the Class Day Speaker. He graduated with departmental honors with a B.A. in 1920. Contrary to popular writing and official college records, Mays never received Phi Beta Kappa; his attendance of a "high school school from the South" disqualified him.

Marriages
Shortly after graduation, he married his first wife, Ellen Edith Harvin, in August 1920 in Newport News, Virginia. The two met when Mays was still in South Carolina and wrote to each other frequently. She was a home economics teacher at a local college before she died after a brief illness two years after they married at age 28. He met his second wife, Sadie Gray, while working at South Carolina State College. After months of courtship, they married on August 9, 1926. Mays kept private the details of his relationship with his second wife; he burned the majority of letters and correspondence between them.

Early academic career
On January 3, 1921, he then entered the University of Chicago as a graduate student, earning an M.A. in 1925. Early on in his academic career he decided to join Omega Psi Phi, a national fraternity for colored men. This organization was known for pooling resources and information among its members so Mays viewed it with great interest. Mays viewed it as "a mountain top from which he could see above and beyond". In 1924, upon hearing news that there was to be a fraternity meeting in St. Louis, Missouri, Mays traveled by train. However, his decision to travel first class from Birmingham to St. Louis was indirectly against the Jim Crow laws. The ticket salesman only sold Mays a ticket when he lied about who it was for. While riding to St. Louis, the Pullman warned Mays that he was risking his life by sitting in first class and that he should get off at the next stop. Shortly after, three white men, guns drawn, escorted Mays into a car in the back known as the "Jim Crow car". He eventually made it to the Omega Psi Phi meeting, where he spoke of his experience.

To finance his time in university, Mays worked as a Pullman Porter, a railway assistant. Much of the money he had earned growing up was spent financing his time at Bates, on Christmas Day 1921, Mays held only 45 dollars. Mays began labor organizing to increase his wage, which was seen negatively by the Porter managers. Although he legally established a labor group for Pullman Porters, he was fired from his job for "attracting too much attention to labor rights." His time at the University of Chicago was marked by segregation. He was asked to sit at the colored area in the dining halls and was only allowed to use certain rooms for reading. Mays tolerated the segregation with the mindset that he was "only there to get a degree, to convince another brilliant set of Yankees that he could do their work." Although he was licensed to preach in 1919, he was officially ordained a Baptist minister in 1921. During this time he encountered John Hope, the current president of Morehouse College. Hope spoke to Mays about the lack of "a fine education for the colored in Atlanta". Mays traveled to Atlanta in 1921 and served as a pastor at the Shiloh Baptist Church until 1923. In March 1925, Mays was award an M.A. in religious studies from the university. Upon receiving his master's degree, he wrote to the pastorate with his intention of resigning to pursue a doctorate in the coming years. However, due to his financial status, he took up a teaching position instructing English at South Carolina State College from 1925 to 1926. Mays left his teaching position after routinely clashing with other faculty over grade inflation and academic standards.

In 1926, he moved to Tampa, Florida, to serve as the director of the Tampa Urban League. While there, the Urban League produced what became known as the "Mays Report", which detailed the growth of Tampa's African-American communities and the difficulties they experienced living in segregated neighborhoods. Though he did not stay in the area for long, Mays made enough of an impact on the nascent push for civil rights in the region that he has been honored with a bust on the Tampa Riverwalk Historical Monument Trail. From 1928 to 1930, he lived in Atlanta and served as the national student secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). A couple of months later, he was asked to serve as the director of Study of Black Churches in the United States by the Institute of Social and Religious Research of New York. In 1932, Mays returned to the University of Chicago with the intent of completing a Ph.D. in line with what was asked by the Institute of Social and Religious Research of New York. After some deliberation between fields of studies he could pursue a doctorate in, he eventually decided to study religion and not mathematics or philosophy. Mays also worked as a student assistant to Dr. Lacey Kirk Williams, pastor of Olivet Baptist Church in Chicago and President of the National Baptist Convention. In 1933, he wrote his first book with Joseph Nicholson, The Negro's Church. It was the first sociological study of the black church in the United States and was submitted to the university faculty as his dissertation in 1935. Historian John Herbert Roper estimates that Mays was one of 20 African Americans to earn a doctorate during that year.

Howard University
Shortly after receiving his doctorate, he was called by the presidents of multiple universities to lead their religion departments. Mays chose to accept a position at Howard University in Washington as its dean of religious studies. He was instructed to build up the department and establish a reputation for well-trained ministers. Mays first renovated its library and secured loans from the federal government to expand it. His second objective was to separate the federally-funded portions of Howard University from the new school of religion. At the time, the university was partially funded by the U.S. Department of the Interior which prohibited funding to religious enterprises. After he successfully removed the School of Religion from the auspices of the federal government he was tasked with securing funding from wealthy donors from the North.

Mays secured a multi-million dollar package from donors by 1930, and was averaging yearly contributions of $750,000 during the Great Depression. The expanding Department of the Interior under Franklin D. Roosevelt, coupled with Mays' fundraising led to unprecedented growth at the university. Salaries for professors increased, new dorms were built and refurbished, the library Mays had been developing was completed, and new lecture halls were established. In 1938, he published his second book, The Negro's God as Reflected in His Literature. In 1939, he secured a large collection of theology books for his new library which prompted the American Association of Theological Schools to accredit the new School of Religion. During this time Mays developed a reputation for exacting standards and elitism. He was a vocal opponent of the notion that black men are inherently more violent than their white counterparts in universities. He was a vocal proponent of the New Negro movement and frequently lectured about its foundlings and applications.

In January 1940, Mays was secretly approached by John Hervey Wheeler, a trustee of Morehouse College, to see if he was interested in an upcoming search for the college's next president. Wheeler told Mays that the school had a tough time with getting tuition payments out of the students, growing their endowment, and establishing national prominence. Mays expressed interest in the position but Wheeler cautioned him about the odds of him actually being offered the job. On March 10, 1940, Mays was offered the presidency of Morehouse by its trustees; he moved to Atlanta shortly after. When Mays left Howard University, he was honored with the renaming of the newly constructed home of the divinity school to "Benjamin Mays Hall."

Meeting with Gandhi
In 1936–37, Mays traveled to Mysore, India, where, at the urging of Howard Thurman, a fellow professor at Howard, he spoke at some length with Mahatma Gandhi. The two spoke for an hour and a half about the realities and powers of militant pacifism which he used to shape his civil rights ideology and practice. Mays asked Gandhi about the influence nonviolence had in his life and what his personal thoughts were on the caste system in India. Gandhi told Mays that there was never an instance where violence was acceptable especially that which was undertaken in retaliation. He was told that "one must pay the price for protest, even with one's life". In response to the caste system. Gandhi believed that there those with darker skin were not inherently untouchable but labeled it a "necessary economic injustice".

Early years
Mays was offered the presidency on March 10 and inaugurated the sixth president on August 1, 1940. Upon his assumption of the presidency, the school was in severe financial distress. In his first speech to an incoming freshman class in 1940, he said, "If Morehouse is to continue to be great; it must continue to produce outstanding personalities." Mays set out to improve the training of Morehouse men, increase enrollment, grow its endowment, and collect tuition payments.

Many associated with the college referenced him as a "builder of men." To improve the training of Morehouse men, Mays set out to advance a new curriculum based on the New Negro movement. He specifically wished to increase the training of black physicians, ministers and lawyers. Although Morehouse College was not a medical, law, or ministry school, it was a feeder institution into them so Mays took the preparation of his students into these schools seriously.

Financial planning
During his first three months nothing was planned to be or currently being constructed on campus. Mays had inherited "mountains of uncollected student bills" which served as a threat to the liquidity of the college. In 1933, Morehouse was doing so poorly financially that it had allowed Atlanta University to take over its financial direction and budget. He earned a reputation for being a penny-pincher and demanded tuition fees on time, which earned him the nickname "Buck Bennie;" the student newspaper occasionally ran headlines such as "Buck Bennie Rides Again," during the first couple of years of his Morehouse presidency. However, he often helped students pay their bills by offering work or finding it around campus. He would write to the employers of the college's graduates to ask them how the recent grads were doing as a way to measure the Morehouse education. Within two years of his presidency, Mays was so successful that he was able to regain control of Morehouse's finances.

Effects of World War II
Soon after primary advancements were made with the college, World War II broke out and many students were drafted for military service. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Morehouse approached Mays and requested the school be shut down for the remainder of the war, which prompted Mays to lash out and reject his proposition publicly. Mays counter-proposal was to open the school to younger students who were ineligible to be drafted. He moved to improve the academic quality of the students by lowering admissions rates, and reforming the academic platform. College faculty were often encouraged to befriend students and provided them with guidance in a tumultuous social scene at the time.

Recognition
The introduction to his speech compilation at Morehouse notes him with the following:

"In physical stature Mays stood six feet tall, but appeared taller because of his erect posture--a habit he developed during his youth to walk around with dignity and pride; he weighed approximately 180 pounds and had a full head of iron-grey air with a contrasting dark complexion. His distinctive physical appearance commented his towering intellectual stature. When Mays walked into a room, eyes were likely to focus in his direction. His mere physical presence attracted attention."

He received an honorary doctorate and the "Alumnus of the Year" Award from Bates College in 1947 and the University of Chicago in 1949, respectively. Although he was a college president, he was not allowed to vote in the 1950s until he was 52 years old. Pulpit, a magazine focusing on black religious preachers, ranked him among the top 20 preachers in America in 1954. The same year he was one of the "Top Ten Most Powerful Negros" in the nation according to black magazine, Our World.

Jackie Robinson
In 1966, as president, Mays was invited to sit at an Atlanta Braves baseball game as a guest-of-honor by Jackie Robinson when the sports franchise moved from Milwaukee to Atlanta. Robinson invited Mays because of his efforts to integrate the baseball team in Atlanta. Robinson said of Mays: "When we first moved here it was the first team of major league caliber to ever move this far south to play baseball. And of course [Mays] was one of the guys, one of the persons really that made things a lot easier for myself and some of the other black ball players."

Roles in the White House
As president he was in great demand as a public speaker. He met hundreds of national and international leaders and served as a trusted advisor to Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Carter. He was appointed by President Truman to the Mid-Century White House Conference on Children and Youth. When Pope John XXIII died in 1963, President Kennedy sent Mays and his Vice President to represent the United States at the funeral in Rome, Italy. During the Kennedy administration, southern members of the Senate blocked Mays' appointment to the United States Civil Rights Commission by accusing him of being a Communist. Mays denied the charges. His relationship with President Jimmy Carter was marked with "warmth" and "hospitality." Carter visited Mays' home in Atlanta, and Mays in turn campaigned for Carter during his 1976 and 1980 presidential runs. Carter wrote to Mays on a monthly basis during his presidency asking him about "human rights, international affairs, and discrimination."

Final years
Mays wanted to hire more teachers, and to pay those teachers a better salary. To do that, Mays sought to be more strict in the collection of student fees, and wanted to increase Morehouse's endowment from $1,114,000. He more than quadrupled the endowment that he inherited by the end of his 27-year tenure. Over Mays' twenty-seven years leading Morehouse, the enrollment increased 169%, from 238 to almost a thousand students and furthered the motivation for graduates to pursue graduate studies.

Connection to Martin Luther King Jr.
Mays first became associated with Martin Luther King Jr. during his time as a student at Morehouse College. While King was a student from 1944 to 1948 he often went to Morehouse's chapel to hear Mays preach. After the sermons, King would run up to Mays and engage with him about the ideas he presented often following him into his office, hours after the sermon ended. He was also a friend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s father, Martin Luther King Sr. and often participated with him in religious organizations in Atlanta. Mays dined at the King's homes from time to time and spoke with the young Martin Luther King Jr. about his career prospects and ambitions. His mother, Alberta Williams King said Mays was a "great influence on Martin Luther King Jr.," "[an] example of what kind of minister Martin could become," and "possessor of great moral principles."

While King was only in his 20s, Mays helped him assume the responsibility of his actions in the civil rights rallies in which he participated. King needed Mays "for spiritual support as he faced the burden of being perceived as the personification of black America's hopes and dreams, it was Mays who held the job as King's consigliere over the next fourteen years as the death threats against him grew more ominous and the public battles more dangerous."

After King gained national attention as a consequence of his 1955 Montgomery bus boycott, he began to refer to Mays as his "spiritual and intellectual mentor", which enhanced the friendship they had and prompted Mays to be more involved with King's civil rights endeavors. Mays revered him as his "spiritual son". Mays gave the benediction at the close of the official program of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, where King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963.

"No man is ahead of his time" speech
The two developed a close relationship that continued until King's assassination by James Earl Ray on April 4, 1968. King and Mays promised each other that whoever outlived the other would deliver the eulogy at the other's funeral.

On April 9, 1968, Mays delivered a eulogy that would later be known as the "No Man is Ahead of His Time" speech. He noted King's time in history to an estimated 150,000 mourners by stating in his most famous passage:

"If Jesus was called to preach the Gospel to the poor, Martin Luther was called to give dignity to the common man. If a prophet is one who interprets in clear and intelligible language the will of God, Martin Luther King Jr. fits that designation. If a prophet is one who does not seek popular causes to espouse, but rather the causes he thinks are right, Martin Luther qualified on that score.

No! He was not ahead of his time. No man is ahead of his time. Every man is within his star, each in his time. Each man must respond to the call of God in his lifetime and not in somebody else's time. Jesus had to respond to the call of God in the first century A.D., and not in the 20th century. He had but one life to live. He couldn't wait."

The speech was well received by the attendants of the funeral and the American public. It was later hailed as "a masterpiece of twentieth century oratory." After the death of King, Mays drew controversy when his sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church urged an audience of mostly white people "not to dishonor [King's] name by trying to solve our problems through rioting in the streets. If they could turn their sorrow into hope for the future and use their outrage to invigorate a peaceful climb to the mountaintop, Martin Luther King Jr. will have died a redemptive death from which all mankind will benefit."

Social tours and advocacy
Mays began teaching again, and served as a private advisor to the president of Michigan State University and went on to publish Disturbed About Man, a collection of his sermons at Morehouse College. His publications described his early life in South Carolina and the racial tensions he had to overcome. During this time he began to give speeches and commencement addresses at various institutions to spread both religious and racial tolerance. He ended his social tours in the early 1980s, giving a total of 250 commencement addresses at colleges, universities, and schools. In 1978, the U.S. Department of Education granted him the Distinguished Educator Award and the South Carolina State House hung a commissioned portrait of him in its chamber. These awards from South Carolina were deeply appreciated by Mays as he left the state in fear of his life and this he loved. During the social transformation of the South in the 1970s, Mays' legacy in his birthplace was solidified and he took on the title of "native son".

Atlanta board presidency
At age seventy-five, Mays was elected president of the Atlanta Public Schools Board of Education, where he supervised the peaceful desegregation of Atlanta's public schools as a consequence of the 1970 federal court order. Members of the board argued that since the bussing was not a part of their system they did not have to create one for desegregation; however, the idea was shot down by Mays, who cited the Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education Supreme Court decision. It was during this time that Mays ordered the city to create bus routes to cater to African-American neighborhoods. The board did not support the decision and asked Georgia's Attorney General, Arthur K. Bolton, for a review of the case. Bolton brought the city government together with the board and with Mays created what was known as the Atlanta Compromise Plan.

His "commanding and demanding personality" was largely credited for the exponential levels of desegregation in Atlanta. The Atlanta Compromise Plan prompted Mays to advocate for the administration of the plan to be "colorless", that is to say, black and white students were transported on the same routes, in the same buses. This was named the "Majority to Minority" volunteer plan, better known as the "M to M" plan. The plan also allowed each student whose race was in the majority at a school to transfer to a school where they would be in the minority race; this was advantageous to the black populace of Atlanta. The program was later known as the "Volunteer Transfer Program" or VTP, and was ministered by the federal courts and the board. On July 28, 1974, Mays signed the alignment order declaring that the Atlanta School System was unitary.

On July 1, 1973, Mays appointed Alonzo Crim as the first African-American superintendent of schools, which was met with backlash from the other board members and city officials. He used his power and influence in Atlanta to shield Crim from the criticism and allowed him the opportunity to run the school system. During the later part of his tenure he greatly expanded the jurisdiction of the board, and upon his retirement in 1981 Mays was honored by the naming of a street. Near the end of his tenure, the board voted to name a newly constructed school after Mays; Mays High School was constructed on February 10, 1985, and was open to students of all races. He retired from the board in 1981. The Atlanta Board of Education had a rule against naming buildings after people unless they had been deceased for two years; they waived it for Mays; he visited the school frequently when it was being built. He is widely credited as the most influential figure in the desegregation of Atlanta, Georgia.

Death and legacy
Benjamin Mays died on March 28, 1984, in Atlanta, Georgia. He was initially buried at South-View Cemetery, but in May 1995 his body was entombed on the campus of Morehouse College along with his wife Sadie. Morehouse College established the Benjamin E. Mays Scholarship shortly after his death.

Boston University professor Lawrence Carter described Mays as "one of the most significant figures in American history." Andrew Young said of Mays: "if there hadn't of been [sic] a Benjamin Mays there would not have been a Martin Luther King Jr. He was very much a product of Dr. Mays religious thinking." He was known to Dillard University president Samuel DuBois Cook as "[one of the] great architects of the civil rights movement. Not only in training individuals but in writing his books, leadership in churches, as a pastor, college president. He set the standard. And he was uncompromising." In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Benjamin Mays on his list of 100 Greatest African Americans.

Sites and honors
In his home state of South Carolina a portrait of Mayes, painted by artist Larry Francis Lebby, was placed in the gallery of the South Carolina House chambers in 1981. Mayes was inducted into the South Carolina Hall of Fame in 1984. His childhood home was relocated from Epworth to Greenwood, SC and is listed as a State Historic Site by the government of South Carolina, being referred to as an "education icon" by the South Carolina Radio Network in 2011. Upon his death Mays was designated Phi Beta Kappa, Delta Sigma Rho, Delta Theta Chi, Omega Psi Phi.

Nationally, he was awarded the Spingarn Medal from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1982. He was elected to the Schomburg Honor Roll of Race Relations along with "only a dozen major leaders to be so honored." In 2011, Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, introduced the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship at Williams College. The National School Boards Association created the Benjamin Elijah Mays Lifetime Achievement Award for "an individual who—during his or her lifetime—has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to the educational needs of urban school children through his or her service as a local school board member." Due to his stature in academia he was frequently awarded honorary degrees from universities. He was awarded 40 of them during his lifetime and as of February 2018, he has received 56 honorary degrees.

Bates College's highest alumni distinction is known as the Benjamin E. Mays Medal and is reserved for "the alumna or alumnus who has performed distinguished service to the larger (worldwide) community and been deemed a graduate of outstanding accomplishment." The inaugural winner was Mays himself. The college established the Benjamin E. Mays Distinguished Professorship in 1985.

Mays has been the subject or inspiration of memorials, and the eponym of hundreds of buildings, schools, streets, halls, awards, grants, scholarships, fellowships, and statues. Although he through his life had been appreciative of all of them, he "[was] reported to have said he was moved most deeply when a small black church in Ninety Six, South Carolina, renamed itself Mays United Methodist Church. There are numerous memorials to Mays in the United States, including:
 * Benjamin Elijah Mays High School, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
 * Benjamin E. Mays Drive in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
 * Benjamin E. Mays Archives in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
 * Benjamin E. Mays National Memorial in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
 * The Statue of Benjamin E. Mays at Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
 * Benjamin Mays Hall of Howard University, in Washington, D.C., U.S.
 * Benjamin Mays Center of Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine, U.S.
 * Benjamin E. Mays International Magnet School, in St. Paul, Minnesota, U.S.
 * Mays House Museum, in Greenwood, South Carolina, U.S.
 * Benjamin Mays Historic Site, in Greenwood, South Carolina, U.S.
 * Dr Benjamin E. Mays Elementary School in Greenwood, South Carolina, U.S.
 * Mays United Methodist Church, in Ninety Six, South Carolina, U.S.
 * Mays Crossroads on Highway 171 in Ninety Six, South Carolina, U.S.
 * Benjamin E. Mays Elementary Academy, in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
 * Benjamin E. Mays High School in Pacolet, South Carolina, U.S.

Medal of Freedom effort
After Mays stepped down from the Atlanta Board of Education presidency in 1981, a petition was sent to the desk of U.S. President Ronald Reagan requesting that Mays be given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, but it was turned down. Georgian representative John Lewis proposed a bill in January 1993 that would commemorate Mays on a federal stamp and requested that Mays be given the Medal of Freedom posthumously. The request was sent to U.S. President Bill Clinton but his time as president ended before he could address the request. A request was sent once again to U.S. President George W. Bush by Georgian representatives Max Cleland and Zell Miller which passed both houses of Congress but has yet to be signed by a U.S. president. The petition was sent once more in 2012 to U.S. President Barack Obama, yet failed to be awarded.

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

title: Benjamin Mays


text:
Primrose syndrome

Primrose syndrome is a rare, slowly progressive genetic disorder that can vary symptomatically between individual cases, but is generally characterised by ossification of the external ears, learning difficulties, and facial abnormalities. It was first described in 1982 in Scotland's Royal National Larbert Institution by Dr D.A.A. Primrose.

Primrose syndrome appears to occur spontaneously, regardless of family history. The cause is currently unknown and there are no known treatments.

Signs and symptoms
The common symptoms in all reported cases of primrose syndrome include ossified pinnae, learning disabilities or intellectual disability, hearing problems, movement disorders (ataxia, paralysis, and parkinsonism among others—likely due, in part, to calcification of the basal ganglia), a torus palatinus (a neoplasm on the mouth's hard palate), muscle atrophy, and distorted facial features. Other symptoms usually occur, different in each case, but it is unknown whether or not these symptoms are caused by the same disease.

Pathophysiology
The cause of Primrose syndrome is currently unknown. This condition is extremely rare and seems to spontaneously occur, regardless of family history.

In the case studied by Dalai et al. in 2010, it was found that an abnormally high amount of calcitonin, a hormone secreted by the thyroid gland to stabilize blood calcium levels, was present in the blood serum. This suggests that the thyroid gland is releasing an abnormal amount of calcitonin, resulting in the disruption of calcium level homeostasis. No molecular cause was found, but an expanded microarray analysis of the patient found a 225.5 kb deletion on chromosome 11p between rs12275693 and rs1442927. Whether or not this deletion is related to the syndrome or is a harmless mutation is unknown. The deletion was not present in the patient's mother's DNA sample, but the father's DNA was unavailable.

Management
Currently there are no known treatments.

History
There have been very few reported cases of Primrose syndrome worldwide. The first known case was described by D.A. Primrose in 1982. The patient was a 33-year-old intellectually disabled male whose outer ears had ossified. Additional symptoms included muscle atrophy in the legs and hands, deafness, cataracts, and a tissue mass covering the roof of his mouth.

In 1986, Calacott et al. described a mentally disabled patient whose pinnae had ossified. The patient also experienced deafness, cataracts, skeletal deformities, and muscle atrophy. As the second reported case of such symptoms, it suggested that these symptoms were part of one entity, named "Primrose syndrome"

In 1996, Lindor et al. reported a 43-year-old male patient with schizophrenia, as well as other neurological disorders, and severe pinnae calcification. Additional symptoms included hearing loss, stiffened joints, and facial deformities.

In 2006, Mathijssen et al. described an adult male intellectually disabled patient who had calcified pinnae and a neoplasm of the palate. The patient also had extensive hearing loss, little to no body hair, distorted facial features, and joint contractures. The patient also developed testicular cancer, but it is unknown whether or not it is related to the syndrome. The patient experienced cryptorchidism, a birth defect where one of the testes is not present at birth, that may have played a part in the formation of the tumor.

In 2010, another similar case was studied extensively by Dalal et al. The patient was an intellectual disabled 43-year-old woman who had hearing impairment, distorted facial features, muscle atrophy, cataracts, and ossification of cartilage. Additionally, she was born with Ebstein malformation, a congenital heart defect, agenesis of the corpus callosum, and hip dysplasia. Other symptoms included hypothyroidism, diabetes, and muscle control problems. A brain MRI showed that her basal ganglia had partially calcified, which may have contributed to her paraparesis and motor tics.

title: Primrose syndrome


text:
GNU Zebra

Zebra is a routing software package that provides TCP/IP based routing services with routing protocols support such as RIP, OSPF and BGP. Zebra also supports BGP Route Reflector and Route Server behavior. In addition to IPv4 routing protocols, Zebra also supports IPv6 routing protocols.

Zebra provided a high quality, multi server routing engine. Zebra has an interactive user interface for each routing protocol and supports common client commands. Due to this design, new protocol daemons can be easily added. Zebra library can also be used as a program's client user interface.

Zebra is distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Background
The idea for Zebra originally came from Kunihiro Ishiguro, after he realized the need for quality routing software. While working at an ISP joint venture between British Telecom and Marubeni, Ishiguro encountered venture capitalist Yoshinari Yoshikawa.

Yoshinari Yoshikawa shared Ishiguro's vision for a new routing engine and they combined resources to create the world's first routing engine software. The resulting entity, known as the Zebra Project, was started in 1996.

Ishiguro and Yoshikawa led the IP Infusion company and market a commercial version of Zebra, known as "ZebOS". This ZebOS is being used in networking products, such as FortiOS and the Citrix NetScaler.

The official website announced that "Zebra has been decommissioned".

Since its last release (version 0.95) in 2005-09-08, development of Zebra stopped. A new project emerged as the unofficial successor of Zebra: Quagga.

title: GNU Zebra