Session 9
The creation of Pakistan was based on the rhetoric of religious nationalism but it changed to a
rhetoric that included all communities soon after the partition was declared. India, initially a
secular republic, got stuck in majoritarian politics that led to communal/religious riots.
India wasn’t declared as an enemy in the beginning. Jinnah’s testimony – that all citizens are
equal - became the basis of the Constituent Assembly.
Ethnicity was the major reason behind the conflicts that arose between East Pakistan and West
Pakistan. Pakistan was divided into two wings territorially. Punjabi factor soon established its
prominence with the support from Urdu speaking Muhajirs; Punjabis and Bengalis strived for
power.
The state’s attitude favored Punjabis more than any other ethnic group. Urdu was declared the
national language. Bengalis did not want to accept this because they were cognizant of the fact
that fluency in the state language meant greater access to power. The state’s discriminatory
attitude towards non Urdu speakers and the Bengalis’ outrage led to riots in the 1950s.
Inequitable distribution of resources, restriction on speaking Bengali publically and lack of
political representation in the assembly were amongst the many reasons why Bengalis’ demand
for separation took a more solid form by the 1960s. Rulers from 1958-1971 refused to
accommodate any of the demands made by Bengalis.
During Ayub Khan’s tenure, the ethnic superiority of West Pakistani Punjabi was evident.
Ayub Khan proposed dropping “Islamic” while describing Pakistan. Established West Pakistan
as a single unit. Bengalis were greater in population than Punjabis and introducing this change
meant that Bengalis and West Pakistanis would now have equal electoral weightage which put
the former at a disadvantage.
This, along with having dropped the Muslim political rhetoric, caused inconvenience.
“Hindu/India/Indian” was made synonymous with enemy in the 60s. Because the Bengalis were
viewed as “Hindu-like”, the stance that Hindus are/were our enemies became a tool for the army
to use against Bengalis.
In the 1970 general elections, in EP, Mujib ur Rehman won 160/162 seats while in WP, Zulfiqar
Ali Bhutto won the majority. Some of the political parties refused to attend the inaugural session
in Dhaka National Assembly. Failure to reach consensus or accepting Mujib ur Rehman as the
prime minister led to unrest and Yahya Khan deployed the national army to control the situation.
The AL and Mujib ur Rehman were declared rebels.
The state declared war against East Pakistanis in 1971 and statements like “Thank God, Pakistan
has been saved” coming from Bhutto were a clear indication of the animosity with which East
Pakitanis were viewed.
India got involved in the war and helped East Pakistanis out. An international war and a civil war
were going on simultaneously. The Indians used religion to convince Hindu minorities in EP to
migrate back (?) to India.
During the war Biharis were targeted as the enemies of Bengalis. Being Urdu speakers, Biharis
had an edge in Pakistani administration. Unlike the Bengalis, they weren’t involved in
agriculture and had public sector jobs and lived in confined communities. Differences in
language and livelihood led them to be seen as outcasts.
Other than the civil and international war, there was a gender war too. Men brutalized women of
the enemies to create fear among them.
Women and Biharis and other vulnerable groups were attacked in the nine months that the war
lasted. The war settled down until Mukti Bahini guerillas installed landmines destroying
Pakistani army tanks.
People started migrating and there was a question of whether to extend the support since the
communities that these groups were migrating to had limited resources.
Using the word genocide to describe the events of 1971 is kind of questionable because no single
group had the monopoly on committing violence. All groups that engaged in any kind of
inhuman activity were driven by their political or religious beliefs or were told by their superiors
to do what they did.
Calling it politicide makes more sense but there was not a single perpetrator because of whom
the war turned out to be the way it did.
The traumas that women experienced during the war was somewhat silenced because of the
stigma attached to discourse on rape and sexual violence in Muslim+Hindu communities.
Mujib ur Rehman implemented an order for abortion for all women who were impregnated
during the war.
Even now, all the countries that were involved in the war point fingers at each other, not
addressing the root of the problem. Some accounts and events are silenced but that doesn’t
change the fact that they did happen and the violence that spread rendering so many people
without families and home still shapes how these countries see each other and themselves.
