Carving up a British Colony
It was a condition of being granted independence from the British Empire that the Indian subcontinent be divided into two states: Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan. When the British drew up the borders of Pakistan in 1947, they created an inherently divided nation. East Pakistan* and West Pakistan were not only culturally dissimilar, they were separated by over 1,500 kilometres of Indian territory.
*East Bengal was officially renamed East Pakistan in 1955.
East Pakistan’s Marginalisation
By the late 1960s, East Pakistan was a “virtual colony” of the West. With the government based in West Pakistan and politics dominated by the region’s Muhajir and Punjabi elite, the political interests of Bengalis in the East were neglected throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Urdu was imposed as the official language of the state even though 55% of all Pakistanis were Bengali-speakers. Despite East Pakistan having a larger population, the West received the lion’s share of national funding and this economic disparity only grew worse under Ayub Khan’s military regime (1958-1969).
The Rise of the Awami League
Bengalis in the East, including many student groups, protested against their oppression and the East Pakistan Awami Muslim League, founded in 1949, became more and more popular at a provincial level. In 1966, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Mujib), the Awami League produced a six-point plan that demanded greater autonomy for East Pakistan. This plan incited months of protests and strikes that were brutally suppressed by the police and resulted in Mujib’s arrest. Nevertheless, the Awami League’s popularity continued to grow and Mujib gained more followers after his release from prison in 1968.
Bengali Nationalism
In 1969, widespread protests in East Pakistan led Ayub Khan to resign as president, but Bengali nationalist feeling reached even greater heights after his successor, Yahya Khan (1969-1971), failed to swiftly respond to the Bhola Cyclone that struck East Pakistan and India’s West Bengal in November 1970, killing over 300,000 people.
In the nation-wide elections held in December 1970, the Awami League won 160 out of 162 of the Assembly seats for East Pakistan. However, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, leader of the Pakistani People’s Party, refused to reach agreement over the constitution and Khan abruptly called for the National Assembly inaugural session to be postponed. In response, thousands of Bengalis rallied in Dhaka and Chittagong.
“Operation Searchlight”
Yahya Khan’s government responded to the Bengali demand for greater autonomy with ruthless military suppression. On 25 March 1971, Khan launched “Operation Searchlight”, which was his plan to take control of all of East Pakistan’s major cities and eliminate all opposition within 30 days. Reportedly, Khan stated: “Kill three million of them and the rest will eat out of our hands.” US President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger actively supported Pakistan’s terror campaign, including illegally supplying them with arms.
The Mukhti Bahini
In the early hours of 26 March 1971, moments before his arrest, Mujib sent a message to East Pakistan Radio declaring the country’s independence and calling for its citizens to fight for their freedom, marking the beginning of nine months of civil war.
The Awami League’s guerilla forces, known as the Mukhti Bahnini (“Liberation Fighters”), were made up of civilians and mutineers from the East Bengal Regiment and received aid from the Indian region of West Bengal. Using tactics of ambush they were able to secure control over large parts of the countryside. The Mukhti Bahini had its own female battalions and relied on women’s assistance in the camps, yet women’s sacrifices and contributions to Bangladesh’s liberation remain largely unacknowledged.
Ethnic Cleansing
The West Pakistani military, who recruited East Pakistani collaborators known as the Razakars, Al-Shams, and Al-Badr, systematically massacred Dhaka’s intelligentsia (including 4.2% of all university professors) and terrorised villages where they slaughtered entire families, tortured supporters of the liberation movement, and raped hundreds of thousands of women. Approximately 40 million Bengalis were displaced.
Violence was enacted on both sides, but upwards of 50,000* men, women, and children were slaughtered in East Pakistan, whilst casualties within the Pakistan Army are estimated at 2,300.
*Estimates for the number of Bengalis killed vary greatly, ranging from 50,000 to 3 million.
The Foundation of Bangladesh
In response to Pakistan carrying out pre-emptive airstrikes on India’s airfields, India joined the war on 3 December 1971. Unable to fight off the united Bangladesh-India Allied Forces, Pakistan surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December 1971. In the final days of the war, the Pakistan Army slaughtered many more intellectuals and professionals in Dhaka.
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, released from prison once more, became the first Prime Minister of independent Bangladesh, albeit inheriting a postcolonial nation struggling with poverty and ravaged by war. In 1975, Mujib was assassinated in a military coup.
Further Information on the Bangladesh Liberation War
- Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “RECOGNISING THE 1971 BANGLADESH GENOCIDE: AN APPEAL FOR RENDERING JUSTICE,” 2022: https://issuu.com/faruqul/docs/bd_genocide_interactive.
- Amin, Aasha Mehreen, Lavina Ambreen Ahmed, and Shamim Ahsan. “The Women in Our Liberation War,” The Daily Star, 16 December 2016: https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/victory-day-2016-special/the-women-our-liberation-war-1330396.
- Bass, Gary J. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide. Alfred A. Knopf, 2013.
- Saikia, Yasmin. Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Duke University Press, 2011.
- van Schendel, Willem. A History of Bangladesh. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
- Sisson, Richard and Leo E. Rose. War and Secession: Pakistan, India and the Creation of Bangladesh. University of California Press, 1990.
Histories of Colour 