``In the then East Pakistan, four things went hand in hand -- Mussalman, the Muslim League, Mohammad Ali Jinnah and Pakistan. Hence the name of the new party,'' says Amir Hossain Amu, member of the League's Presidium and Chairman of the Golden Jubliee Celebrations Committee. In 1955, the new party changed its name to Awami League, dropping ``Muslim''. ``Itwas a bold step but our party espoused the cause of secularism even in those early days,'' Amu adds.

At Dhaka's Paltan Maidan, the scene of countless historic rallies, the Awami League began its golden jubilee celebartions on Wednesday, presided over by Sheikh Mujib's daughter and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

In half a century of the League's existence, the Padma has turned into a river of blood again and again. Wave after wave of popular movements against the former Pakistan rulers left hundreds killed until 1971, when the Mukti Yuddha (liberation war) resulted in one of the worst genocides of modern history. It all began with the language movement of 1952 in protest against the government's decision to make Urdu the official language even in Bengali-speaking East Pakistan.

The League itself was bloodied time and again. While the Mukti Yuddha claimed thousands of its cadre, Sheikh Mujib, father of the new nation, and several other top leaders were slain in the army coup of 15th August, 1975.Like theCongress in India, the Muslim League in Pakistan and, more recently, the African National Congress in South Africa, the Awami League is accepted in Bangladesh as the party of the liberation movement. But, unlike the other parties, it has remained mostly out of power in the country it created. Only in June 1996, the League returned to power in what were believed to be the country's first truly democratic elections since 1973 and Sheikh Hasina became Prime Minister.

``We stayed out of power for 21 years not because we lost elections or faced the people's wrath,'' points out Amu. ``We stayed out because of Army coups, followed by Army rule and rigged elections.'' After 1975, Ziaur Rahman's Bangladesh Nationalist Party ruled the country for 11 years -- Zia, who took power in a military coup in November 1975, ruled for six years and his wife, Begum Khaleda Zia, for five after his death. The BNP rule was followed by H.M. Ershad's nine years, first as Martial Law Administrator and then as President.

The truth,however, is that the League's popularity seemed to have suffered even during Mujib's brief rule. The 1974 famine and the Mujib government's inept handling of the situation led to the country being placed under Emergency. Shaken by a breakdown in law and order, Mujib switched to the presidential form of government in early 1975, imposed a one-party system and banned the publication of all newspapers except government-controlled ones. Mujib the liberator had, to many even in his own party, become Mujib the dictator.

The next 15 years were difficult times for the League. Dissensions led to different factions breaking away from the party. In the beginning too, there were two disinct groups within the party -- one led by Sheikh Mujib and Hussain Shahid Suhrawardy with their liberal, pro-Western policies, and the other a Leftist group led by Maulana Bhasani. The Bhasani group broke away early in 1957 to form the pro-Communist National Awami Party (NAP).

It was basically to save the party from furtherdisintegration that leaders like Dr Kamal Hossain persuded Sheikh Hasina, then living in India, to return home and take up the party president's post in 1981. Ironically, Dr Hossain himself left the party in the early 1990s to form the Gana Forum (Peoples' Forum). The resurgence of the League in the early 1990s, though, saw many leaders who had left it return to the party. But the factional tensions continue even after three years of Hasina's government.

As the party began its 50th year celebrations, Hasina's government too entered its third year this month. Its achievements include the December 1996 Ganga water-sharing agreement with India, the January 1998 Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord, which ended the 22-year-old insurgency in the Chakma-dominated area, and now the opening of a direct bus service between Calcutta and Dhaka.

But Hasina's problems are myriad as well. The country's law and order is in a shambles and the economy downbeat. The Awami League had been a huge success as an Oppositionparty but it has been a different ball game in government. No one knows this better than Hasina who would like to use the year-long golden jubilee celebrations as organisational preparation for the next elections in 2001.