In 2017, UNESCO announced Bangabandhu's March 7 speech as one of

the most historic speeches in the world, worthy of being enlisted in the
"Memory of the World Register". The significance of the speech could not
be clearer -- as a nation, Bangalees received a united purpose, a call-to-
arms for self-determination, and a pledge to never surrender. In this
piece, however, we will try to decipher the mechanics of the speech,
delivered by a man who was poised to become Pakistan's next Prime
Minister yet simultaneously personifying a nation's popular rebellion
against the rulers. Fifty years on, the March 7 speech remains one of the
most honest political speeches that provided an overarching narrative of
self-determination, and found a common ground for all. 

THE CENTRAL IDEA

Written statements are allowed to be complex. As readers, we enjoy --
rather vigorously exercise -- the liberty to re-read certain sections of a
written statement for clarity. Speeches divulge from the written prose in
that the live audience cannot press rewind and listen to certain parts
again. The purpose of political speeches has always been to serve one
central idea for the audience to take home, and the March 7 speech
delivered its purpose of creating an acute feeling of unity in the most
tumultuous of times in erstwhile East Pakistan. 

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"We accepted that, agreed to join the deliberations. I even went to the
extent of saying that we, despite our majority, would still listen to any
sound ideas from the minority, even if it were a lone voice. I committed
myself to the support of anything to bolster the restoration of a
constitutional government."

The speech revealed its key elements very early: East Pakistan does not
have self-determination, every attempt to seek proper governance has
been thwarted by authoritarian and military violence, and it needs to stop.
Bangabandhu effortlessly simplified the complex political back-and-forth
exchanges with West Pakistan. There was a build-up full of tense