The crisis that led to Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan began as a mass civil disobedience campaign that included tax resistance. The following quotes come from Zillur R. Khan’s “March Movement of Bangladesh: Bengali Struggle for Political Power” (The Indian Journal of Political Science, volume 33, number 3, ):
The climax of Martial Law disobedience was reached when the TV news said that Sheikh Mujib [Mujibur Rahman] in the Public Meeting [on ] had asked the 75 million Bengalis to refrain from paying taxes, cooperating with the government, and obeying government rules until their demands were met and their rightful place given.”
Sheikh Mujib reiterated this call to tax resistance in his famed speech.
The no-tax directive of the Sheikh was followed so vigorously by both individuals and organizations that no one gave any taxes and no organization dared charge any. Even the two posh hotels of Dacca became accessible to middle income people when food prices were drastically reduced for non-collection of taxes. [A newly imposed ‘Hotel Tax’ of 23 percent was not charged for a few days…] The whole Income Tax Department was closed down making it quite impossible for the central government to assess and collect direct taxes from individuals and corporations.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman subsequently revised his no-tax directive and made the taxes payable not to any central government, but to two Bengali banks of Bangladesh and Bengali manufacturers, sellers, and importers followed this directive.
