The liberation war of Bangladesh was not merely a war for independence fought by Bangladeshi nationalists - one of its main triggers was religion. Following the devastating effects of the Second World War, the British colonialists gave up their control over the Indian subcontinent and the 1947 partition outlined two independent nations - India and Pakistan. The Pakistani government wanted to turn Bangladeshis into exemplary Muslims by alienating them from their Hindu background. This concept of religious division was also used as a root cause for the creation of Pakistan in the first place following British colonialism of the subcontinent which led to adopt the Lahore Resolution.
The outcry for a Muslim state started long before the partition. The demand for a Muslim state by the Muslim leaders of British India was strongly expressed in 1940 through the Lahore Resolution, also known as the Pakistan Demand or Pakistan Resolution. The Pakistan Demand was born out of fear of Muslims becoming a minority in predominantly Hindu India. Muslim leaders were worried that in a Hindu-majority democratic State, Muslims would have a difficult time protecting their rights. During a three-day long (March 22 - 24, 1940) annual session of the political group of British India called the All India Muslim League, the Lahore Resolution was crafted as a political demand to create a separate state for the Muslims of British India. It was a joint effort of the Muslim authorities from present-day Pakistan and the Bengal state of British India. According to them, Muslims, on their own, were a distinct nation. Their philosophy regarding life was significantly different compared to that of Hindus. Even though the demand was based on religious differences, the Lahore Resolution did not imply a desire for an Islamic State. It suggested the creation of a self-determined Muslim region where they could exercise their rights without being subject to any racial or religious discrimination.
The Lahore Resolution gained popularity among the Muslim majority of British India, especially in those provinces that perceived discrimination from Hindu leaders. Their social and political grievances found expression in the Lahore resolution. The phrasing of the latter did not mention Pakistan, however, it was labelled as the Pakistan demand by the Hindu-dominated media, which described it as a conspiracy aiming to divide the Indian subcontinent. Even though the text of the resolution mentioned the creation of “Independent States” instead of only one single State, the leader of the Muslim League, Jinnah, diverged from this statement later on.
The dream of creating a separate Muslim state came into being when the partition of the subcontinent finally happened in 1947. Unfortunately, this partition was a tragic one. It led to the migration of millions of people. Muslims left India for Pakistan and Hindus left Pakistan for India. Massive communal violence took place during the process. Millions of lives were lost. Many became homeless, abandoning everything they had behind for their new homeland. Bangladesh, being a Muslim-majority area was incorporated in Pakistan as East Pakistan. Religious affinity was given priority over geographical distance and cultural and linguistic differences.
The Muslims of Bengal hoped that in the new Muslim state they would finally achieve a better standard of life. Given their past inferiority to Hindu landlords, Bengal Muslims were looking forward to the West Pakistani government to ensure their fundamental rights. However, events did not unfold as the Bengali people had hoped. The West-Pakistani government proved even more discriminatory towards the people of East Pakistan in all spheres of life - social, political and economic.
The government’s headquarters were established in the Western Wing. Besides, the political representation of the different ethnic groups was not equal in the Central Government. It was dominated by elite groups of West Pakistan, mainly the Punjabis. Minority ethnic groups, such as the Bengali population, did not have significant representation in the government. Consequently, control over state-owned organizations, governmental mechanisms and the armed forces were in the hands of the dominant ethnic group. During the years 1947 - 1971, Pakistan experienced prolonged phases of military rule, which made it more difficult for ethnic minorities to gain access to political power. The Bengali population did not even have satisfactory political representation in their own province. Even for higher government posts such as “Governor-General,” Bengalis were not considered good enough.
Such positions were awarded to people from West Pakistan or migrants from India who assumed Pakistani citizenship. At the initial stages of the government’s creation, the West Pakistanis sought various mechanisms to avoid handing over power to East Bengal, which harboured the majority in terms of population size. The elites of West Pakistan tried several ways to capture control and succeeded in their attempts to dominate East Bengal through the central government in West Pakistan. However, the power struggle continued between different political parties and the Western elites were forced to accept the role of Bengalis in politics, through the process of creating and abandoning several drafts of the National Assembly, that gave Bengalis a satisfactory share of representation in the constitution of 1956.
During the reign of the military General Ayub Khan, the Eastern Wing suffered immeasurable losses. Political parties were not allowed to participate in the 1962 elections and many politicians of East-Pakistan were prevented from propagating their ideologies. The Ayub Khan Government was exclusively in favour of the Western Wing and kept power highly concentrated there. East-Pakistan’s discontent against the West-Pakistani Government was exacerbated when security measures adopted to defend the Eastern Wing were neglected during the war between India and Pakistan in 1965. Following the fall of General Ayub Khan, the next General, Yahya Khan attained dominance over Pakistan. Yahya Khan promised to hold the first General Elections in Pakistan and eventually fulfilled his pledge in 1970.
Yahya’s hope to restore peace and mutual cooperation between the Eastern and Western wing were soon banished. The results of the 1970 elections were fatal for the political elites of the Western Wing because Awami League, a dominant political party from the Eastern Wing, won the elections. They were able to secure 160 seats out of 300 seats despite failing to secure any seats in the Western Wing. Similarly, no political party from the Western Wing was able to obtain a seat in the Eastern Wing. Following the victory of Sheikh Mujib, leader of Awami League, and his demands for East-Pakistan’s development, General Yahya Khan declared that a meeting of the National Assembly will be held on the 3rd of March 1971. Dominant political leaders of the political parties in the Western Wing including Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan’s Peoples Party and other army officials convinced Yahya Khan to cancel the National Assembly, which was supposed to be held in Dhaka in March. The cancellation announcement came on the 1st of March 1971. Immediately after this notice civil unrest spread over East Pakistan and mass demonstrations flooded the streets. Protests were held and calls for independence were chanted. The spark of the Liberation War of Bangladesh was ignited.
The misery of East Pakistan was not only due to the political hegemony of the Western Wing. Although political power was concentrated in West Pakistan, in theory, the authorities were capable of pacifying the people of East Pakistan if only economic claims were satisfied. East Pakistan faced severe economic exploitation and the relation between the two wings was analogous to the ruthless economic abuse of the British colonial power over the subcontinent. Alike the British, the West-Pakistani government profited from the Eastern Wing but did not invest adequately in its development. Even though the population size of West Pakistan was smaller compared to that of East Pakistan after the partition, a major share of the national budget (75%) was spent on West Pakistan, leaving a negligible portion for East Pakistan. The latter was financially deprived although it was responsible for the generation of 62% of the revenue income. Gross negligence towards the region was evident in the distribution of other resources as well. The Western Wing had 25 times higher military personnel compared to the Eastern Wing.
The indifference of the West-Pakistan government towards the development of East Pakistan was visible through the per capita income of that period, which was 32% higher for West Pakistan during the period of 1959-60 and 61% during 1969-1970. In response to the war of 1965 between Pakistan and India, during which East Pakistan was left with a meagre military defence, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman drew up the Six Point Demand (known as the Six Point Movement or Charter of Freedom) to express the demands for economic development for the East Wing.
Social Exploitation
Since the very formation of Pakistan, the Western part branded the Eastern as inferior, because it considered the Muslims in the Eastern Wing subordinate due to their social and cultural affiliation with the Hindu population, which was powerful, rich and dominating in East-Pakistan before the partition of the subcontinent. As a result of the partition, many influential Hindus left East-Pakistan to join India. Nonetheless, the Hindu population still counted as one of the major ethnic groups present in the Eastern Wing. Historically, people from various religions had always co-existed peacefully in the East Wing, as they were naturally adopting practices and customs from one another while tolerating everyone’s traditions and beliefs. Even today, Muslim communities celebrate programs that hold a Hindu foundation and have barely any roots or relevance to Islam. The West-Pakistani government was critical of the intimacy between the Muslim and the Hindu population.
Denying Bengali its status as a State language and its intended extinction were unacceptable to the Bengali people. They realized that their mother tongue would not survive the aggression of the West-Pakistani government if this decision was not protested. At that time, the abolition of the Bengali language was already felt by means of how it was being corrupted. The West-Pakistani elites administered modifications to the language by replacing Sanskrit (the basis of the language) words with Urdu words. Working-class altogether the elite of East Pakistan took several initiatives to ensure the acknowledgement of Bengali as an official State language of Pakistan besides Urdu and English. The most prominent one was the demonstration on the 21st of February 1952. The procession sought to express defiance against the order under section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code. This order issued on the 20th of February 1952, prohibited any kind of demonstration or protest aimed at altering the State language. When a large group of students from Dhaka University alongside numerous political activists brought out a procession in front of the Provincial Assembly appealing for the right of Bengali to be accepted as an official language, the armed forces opened fire at the students. Five people were killed and since then the 21st of February is celebrated in Bangladesh as Language Martyrs Day. In 1999, UNESCO proclaimed 21st February as the International Mother Tongue Day in recognition of the sacrifices rendered by Bengalis. After two years, on the 7th of May 1954, Bengali was finally granted official status.
Continuous political, economic and social exploitation took part before Bangladesh could achieve its Independence. Following are certain major events that have contributed to the resolution of this national struggle and the creation of Bangladesh as an Independent country.
The popularity of the Six Points Demand of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman instilled fear into the West-Pakistani government during the reign of General Ayub Khan. On the 19th of June 1968, the Ayub Khan government arrested Sheikh Mujibur Rahman altogether with 34 other Bengali civil and military officers, charging them with conspiracy against Pakistan. The case is popularly known as the Agartala conspiracy case because General Ayub Khan claimed that Sheikh Mujib and his political associates were conspiring with the Indian Government in the city of Agartala (Tripura, India) to create an Independent Bangladesh. This case is also known as “State versus Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and others”. Ayub Khan’s intention to dismiss Sheikh Mujib while underestimating his popularity, failed. People of East-Pakistan were convinced that the affair itself was a conspiracy against Sheikh Mujib and against East-Pakistan, and started a movement demanding the unconditional release of Sheikh Mujib.
Operation Searchlight
Operation Searchlight is the planned genocide that took place on the 25th of March 1971 and was undertaken by the West-Pakistani government against its own citizens of the Eastern Wing. This plan was the result of the victory of Sheikh Mujib’s party in the General Election of Pakistan in 1970. The West-Pakistani rulers had no intention to convey the power to Sheikh Mujib and finally their National Assembly was dismissed. The dismissal brought fierce reactions among the people of East-Pakistan and Sheikh Mujib summoned a five day long strike and protests for an indefinite period. Following the five-day strike, he exhorted the East-Pakistani people to embark on an Independence struggle. Law and order collapsed as people broke curfews imposed by the West-Pakistani Government. The Bengalis occupied the streets demanding freedom and self-determination for Bangladesh. During this period, in a meeting of Awami League, the National Anthem of Bangladesh was chosen.
The objective of Operation Searchlight was to eradicate all Bengali Nationalists including political and military oppositions within a month. The intention was to take absolute control over all major cities dominated by the Nationalist rebels. Before his arrest, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared that East Pakistan was to become Bangladesh - an independent sovereign country. The declaration of independence was transmitted throughout East Pakistan via an E.P.R. transmitter. Although the declaration was made on the 25th of March, its transmission took place after midnight. Since then, the 26th of March is celebrated as the Independence Day of Bangladesh. A journalist named Simon John Dring stayed secretly and disseminated information to the world about the genocide and the Liberation War that lasted 9 months and in which 3 million Bengali people died. In return for his bravery, Simon Dring won several awards for his contribution and was later solemnly recognized as a citizen of Bangladesh.
Following the massacre of the 25th of March 1971, Bengalis started fighting against the Pakistani military with every resource they had. Ordinary Bengalis, especially young people, who had no knowledge or training to fight in a war, risked their lives and the lives of their family members for the sake of making Bangladesh an independent country. Following the “Black Night” of 25th of March, the atrocities of the Pakistani military aggravated. The operation was extended to the entire region of East Pakistan.
The Bengali Nationalists assembled a shallow novice armed force called “Mukti Bahini” (The Force of Independence). The Bengali military officers of East Pakistan took charge of the military operations of the Bengali nationalists. They divided East Pakistan in 11 sectors in order to conduct their guerrilla operations against the West-Pakistani military. In the meantime, the Provisional Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was created in Mujibnagar by some political leaders of East Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was a prisoner of the West-Pakistan government during that time was made the President and Tajuddin Ahmed was made the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. This event led to the official declaration of Bangladesh as an independent state.
When West-Pakistan launched attacks against India on the 3rd of December 1971, the Indian military forces joined Bangladeshi guerrilla forces to fight against the West-Pakistani military. The latter did not receive any support during this crucial period of the war although they were expecting military aid from the United States and China. West-Pakistani military camps were attacked and they lost control over their previously captured territories. Consequently, they had to accept defeat and capitulate to the joint forces. Finally, in the afternoon of the 16th of December 1971, General Niazi of West-Pakistan signed the agreement of surrender. After a bloodbath of 9 months, Bangladesh was finally an Independent State. Today Bangladesh, celebrates 16th December as Victory Day.
