Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s economic policies were guided by his vision of establishing a democratic state with a just and equitable social order. He perceived the Bengali nationalist movement as a struggle not only for independence from the rule of an external colonial power but also for the economic and political emancipation of the downtrodden masses from oppression. On 7 March 1971, he called on the people to launch simultaneously the struggle for independence and liberation: ‘Ebarer sangram amader muktir sangram, ebarer sangram shadhinatar sangram’.