MD. Mahbubur Rahman (Jalal)
A Devoted 1971 Archivist
Mohammad Mahbubur Rahman Jalal (MMR Jalal), a Bangladeshi American currently living in Texas, for many years has been playing an instrumental role in collecting the documents on the independence war of Bangladesh. He actively got involved in our freedom fight with his distressed family from his native Rajbari district as a young man along with his three elder brothers who also joined the independence war. In his young age he started collecting the valuable 1971 war related books, journals, reference documents, and paper clippings to know about our glorious freedom fight. He finished his B.Sc.Ag (Hons.) from the Bangladesh Agricultural University Mymensingh in 1978 and joined the civil service Agricultural Cadre. He served there until he immigrated to the USA in 1988.
Since his immigration to the USA, he started exploring Bangladesh independence war documents from the US Libraries and the National Archives. His desire to know the history of our independence turned into a passionate hobby to collect documents, journals, and news clips. He did not stop only in collection he also started sharing his invaluable collections with readers and writers electronically. He always felt that our history of independence and sacrifice is our national treasure and it should be accessible to all of us.
During the course of time, he collected 1971 related documents from the New York Times, Washington Posts, Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun, L A Times, News Week, Far Eastern Economic Review, Time and so on. He collected all US Declassified Documents and Congressional Records on 1971. He has already enriched his collection with hundreds of Books, Magazines, Journals, news clips, audio and video files related to 1971, War Crimes, and atrocities committed by Rajakars and other collaborators of the Pakistan occupation army.
Recently, he has established a non-profit organization in the USA called "Center for Bangladesh Genocide Research" to advance our collective interest and knowledge about 1971. He thinks we always need to know our past to realize who our friends and enemies were. His devotion to archive our liberation war history with documentation and references has already immensely inspired our new generation to know Bangladesh and furthermore, to reunite all of us as a nation to bring the war criminals to justice.
MMR Jalal has been awarded the Shuchinta Shadhinota Podok in 2006 from Shuchinta Foundation for his unparalleled work in researching 1971. Additionally, he has been highlighted in the leading national dailies of Bangladesh. The following are three reports from the dailies Kaler Kantho, Prothom Alo, and The Daily Star.
Jalal has a huge fan base amoung the Bangladeshi youth all over the world. He is lovingly called "Pita Ekattor" by some of them for his amazing knowledge about the history of 1971. Others refer to him as the living encyclopedia of Bangladesh's Liberation War.
You can reach him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..