The historic 7th March Speech of Bangabandhu is a speech delivered by the founding father of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, at the then Ramna Racecourse ground (now Suhrawardy Udyan) in Dhaka to a gathering of over twenty thousand people on 7 March 1971. It was the core inspiration of our liberation war. During the speech, Bangabandhu declared in a thunderous voice that "The struggle, this time, is for our freedom; the fight, this time, is for our independence." It was delivered during a period of escalating tensions between East (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan. Pakistani military rulers refused to transfer the power to Bangabandhu, whose party Awami League gained the majority by winning 167 of the 169 seats allotted to East Pakistan and a majority of the 313 seats in the National Assembly in the general election of 1970. The Bangalees were already in destitute due to the economic favoritism practiced by the West Pakistani rulers for 23 years. The speech inspired them to prepare for a war of independence amid widespread reports of armed mobilisation by West Pakistan. The Bangladesh Liberation War began 18 days later, when the Pakistan Army launched Operation Scarchlight against Bengali civilians, intellectuals, students and politicians. On 30 October 2017, UNESCO recognized the speech as a part of world's documentary heritage.