There is a handful of opinions laid down by individuals when questioned whether the creation of Bangladesh was valid or not. Some state that it wasn’t because they view the East Pakistanis as rebels, others state it be utterly justified. But what is the truth and why?
If we trace back the history of British-India, the notion of Bangladesh originated on 23rd March 1940 when the premier of Bengal, Maulvi Fazal-ul-Haq put forward the ‘Lahore Resolution’ which was later referred as the ‘Pakistan Resolution’ by the Indian press. According to this resolution, the Muslims demanded that the north-western and eastern portions of British-India should be grouped into two separate ‘states’ as these were a couple of regions which possessed Muslim majority. But on the occasion of the ‘War of Independence’ in 1947, such turbulent and agitated was the situation that the British sidelined the idea of any other states than Pakistan and India. Even the plea to recognize Kashmir as an independent zone was given turned down. Therefore, notwithstanding the efforts made by the East Indians, they faced a debacle in gaining their own state and the word ‘states’ turned into ‘state’, thus the East Indians ended up as East Pakistanis.
Although, both the East and the West Pakistanis were natives of one country, there were plenty of things which brought them asunder.
Firstly, soon after the division of British-India, there was a linguistic disagreement amid the two wings of Pakistan. East Pakistanis favored Bengali as the national language while the West Pakistanis opted for Urdu. But finally the ball went into latter’s court. Whereas, if we highlight the facts, only 6% of the entire population spoke Urdu, while 56% spoke Bengali. Despite the call of a ‘State Language Day’ on 21st February 1952 by the Bengali students, Urdu remained the national language of Pakistan. This manifestly depicted that East Pakistanis were receiving unfair treatment and the initial step towards creation of Bangladesh was seemed to be taken.
Thereafter came economic disparity which created gulf between the two wings. The economy of West Pakistan was experiencing a swift increment whereas East Pakistan’s economy was faltering and tarnishing, as the latter’s per-capita income dropped from 305 rupees to 288 rupees and the other’s rose sharply from 330 rupees to 373 rupees. East Pakistan was further exploited when the income from its Jute, which was in that stint the major export of Pakistan, was spent on the West wing. Along with all this, the West Pakistanis were 15% rich than the East Pakistanis and till 1970 the gap jumped to 40%. Moreover, the toll of doctors and hospital beds in the East Wing a year after independence was 200 and 3000 respectively. Furthermore, the numbers in primary education a decade following the liberty increased by 38% in the East and by 163% in the West. This irked the East Pakistanis and thus added to their desire to clinch Bangladesh.
Adding on, social and cultural issues further disgruntled the East Pakistanis. Both the wings had distinct dress-codes, cultures, music and art and traditions. Most of all, the factor that caused drastic division within the two parts was the thousand mile Indian Territory in-between. This made national trade difficult and hence developmental projects had to be curtailed, especially in East Pakistan.
Then occurred political differences, the East Pakistanis were looked down upon even in this aspect. Most of the high government officials came from the West, whereas the majority of population was in the East. Additionally, the latter were given less significant a role in armed forces as less than 20% of the Pakistan Army consisted of East Pakistanis. This multiplied their wrath and hostility persisted
A major blow to their relations came on 12 November 1970 when the deadliest ever recorded cyclone hit East Pakistan. The aftermaths of this calamity were intensely terrific as half a million residents lost their lives and many became nomads. The region’s position reached rock-bottom and dire aid was required. India was the first one to offer aid by air, but the West Pakistan refused and instead sent assistance by road which was comparatively much slower. This frustrated the victims of the disaster and their wish for an independent land boosted
The East Pakistanis always demanded for majority seats in the National Assembly as they made up the majority of population, but they were not granted the seats until 1970 elections. In these elections, Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman contested from the East while Pakistan People’s Pakistan headed by Zulfikar Ali Bhutto contested from the West. Albeit, there were other parties too which participated in the electoral process, but these two parties were the major ones. So considering the Eastern Wing’s plea, the West Pakistan was allocated 138 seats while the East was handed over with 162 seats. Prior to the elections, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rahman presented his Six Points which he claimed were the basis of his party. Such eye-catching and jaw-dropping the points proved to be, that the Awami League won 160 of 162 seats. This was a mammoth triumph for the League as it could now, not only form a sole government in East Pakistan, but even in West Pakistan. So the West Pakistanis were dumbfounded with the result as they considered East Pakistanis as underdogs and this outcome was way beyond their expectations. Therefore, the West wing prevented Awami League from forming a lone government and favored coalition instead. This clearly portrayed that the West Pakistanis didn’t want a government from the eastern part and thence didn’t consider East Pakistanis as their uniform partners.
The Awami League denied the notion of a coalition government and thus the political figures in West Pakistan abstained from attending any assembly or meeting, this added to the unrest. Resentment further grew when there are casualties, strikes and demonstrations in East Pakistan. People refused to pay taxes and a civil war begun. Therefore Martial Law was imposed on East Pakistan by General Yahya Khan to maintain law and order, and the Pakistan Army carried out an operation known as the ‘Operation Searchlight’ against the East Pakistanis.
India, therefore eyeing the opportunity, initiated to train the East Pakistanis on the border. The Pakistan Army thought that India was trying to trigger them for a war and thus fell into conflict with India India, therefore eyeing the opportunity, initiated to train the East Pakistanis on the border. The Pakistan Army thought that India was trying to trigger them for a war and thus fell into conflict with India. Consequently, a tussle sprang out. Now the Pakistan Army was fighting at two fronts; with East Pakistan in the shape of a civil war and with India in the form an international war. Prior to all this chaos, the Bengalis had announced the formation of Bangladesh on a secret radio broadcast in Dhaka. Therefore, the Pakistan Army could not maintain stability and so it costed it a defeat at the hands of the Indian underdogs. Such unfortunate the battle proved to be, that 90000 Pakistani armed men surrendered in to the Indians and East Wing slipped off their grip. More importantly, the Indians conquered more than five thousand kilometre squares of West Pakistan’s land. Consequently, this led to the separation of Bengalis from Pakistan and thus led to the creation of Bangladesh.
So the actual date of liberty for the eastern part of British-India, where there was a Muslim majority, subsequently became 26 March 1971 instead of 14 August 1947.
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