Bangladesh Memories

Dear Siddiqui,

I believe the bridges are already there in the hearts of the people, those who fought against the Pakistan army in 1971 and those born afterwards and for whom Pakistan holds a special place in their hearts.

Extremely moving, with haunting imagery that made me shiver (`the memories of eating fresh ``Cham Cham`` sweets in Savar / Mingle with the smell of death and gunpowder`).

I wonder how the modern-day Bangladesh citizen sees Pakistan. An official apology from (West) Pakistan is the least that can be done.

Saad

Very moving. Very brave of you too, because most Pakistanis are inable to fathom the misery and pain suffered by the Bengalis. The best thing to do in my opinion is to hand over Gen Tikka Khan, Gen Rao Farman Ali, Gen Niazi and others who were the mast planners of Bengali genocide, to the Bengali authorities. Or try all of them in an international court for genocide and crimes against humanity.

In fact, all the army personels who were responsible (again Tikka Khan being one of them)for genocide in Balochistan during the later part of the 70s should also be tried in a court.

Ras:

Very moving-- one can sense that it comes from the heart. But the discussion is already moving tangentially.

As Wasiq pointed out, the government should apologise, we should apologise. But why?

Nothing in our attitude has changed. We have not reformed our errant ways: we have hardly shown any remorse. In fact the sharpness acquired by our swords of superiority in East Pakistan has gone on to become even more sharper. Now we are more refined and arrogant in our practices. We show it in our dealings with smaller provinces, with ethnic groups, with religious sectarianism.

I wish I had the tools to show how we have become worse than before.

sadly

Stirred something within me and I was not even completely aware of the events you described. Excellently written and moving.

Sadly, I fear that most ``West`` Pakistanis still don`t really respect their former eastern counterparts. Even to this day, people look down on Bangladeshis and their achievements. One day Bangladesh may have the last laugh.

What is still amazing to me is to actually consider the results of that fated election in 1971: The Awami League won. West Pakistan`s did not have the political will to accept it. [correct me if I`m wrong].

Pakistan is still not ready to face the reality of the Dhaka tragedy. The major criminals in this are either revered (ZAB) or still alive and influential. I remember some time ago when Jang decided to hold an open court and try Gen. Niazi to see who was responsible for the fall of Dhaka. Everyone found him guilty and blamed him for the debacle. The thought did not even cross the mind of many that maybe the crime was communal, and that there was something basically wrong with the way East Pakistanis were viewed by the West Pakistanis.

What happened had to happen because one group considered itself to be absolutely superior to the other --they did not want to be fellow citizens but new colonial rulers.

I have personally apologized many times to Bangladeshis for a crime that was committed before my time. And everytime I have done so, I have seen their faces light up. I hope that Pakistan, as a state, has enough courage and self-esteem to recognize its repugnant role in this tragedy and deliver an apology to the Bangladeshi nation.

A highly reflective piece.

Coincidence? I, too, was enrolled in Karachi Grammar School, or as we refered to it, Karachi Gutter Supply, in the fateful year of 1971.

I remember hiding under the stairwell of our apartment flat as the dull bass of falling Indian bombs could be heard, everynight, in the distence. I still remember my late father angrily denouncing the government, and he always blamed Islamabad, for the loss of East Pakistan and my mother telling him to be careful of what he said! I still remember infuriating my father by badgering him to take me to Clifton, so I could see the US Seventh Fleet!

PS: Just out of curiosity, how many Grammarians are hiding out and lounging about at Chowk?

Simply brilliant work here.

Even though at a personal level I cannot relate to 71. I dont have the fantastic memories of Bangladesh that others do here, but it has bothered me for along time why so-called white Pakistanis have this distate for Bengalis. For one reason or other I have heard many put-downs of Bengalis in our social circles.

The reasons revolve around poverty and colour/size.

An apology is very much needed for 1971. It was truly shameful.

I think its amazing that its literacy rate and female development ratios are better than ours.

Pat Shah writes: ``Sadly, I fear that most ``West`` Pakistanis still don`t really respect their former eastern counterparts``

I think a reasonable policy is to give people the benefit of doubt. Sweeping accusations like the one above achieve little other than fomenting dissent. Let us give modern Pakistanis a chance. A generation has passed and people are now not only more educated and enlightened, but also chastened by history. Let us talk of friendship and peace and the promise of an intelligent future.

Saad

Basically Pakistani Army is an army of mercenaries. And they haven`t just committed crimes against humanity domestically but internationally as well. Is anyone familiar with the Black Friday which palestinians observer? This is the day when hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugess were entering Jordan. And the Jordanians hired Pak Army (rather NaPak) to stop the influx, who in the process killed hundreds (or may be thousands) of Palestinians. And guess who was the leading the army? Yes, our beloved Gen Zia (or rather Kanra Dajjal). That`s why Palestinians hated him.

Found an interesting and related letter to the Daily Dawn`s editor:

``Black December



DECEMBER 16 is a very important date in the history of Pakistan. In our endeavour to get rid of the bad memory of this day, when our country was torn asunder by a mixture of our collective follies, namely ambitions of unscrupulous politicians, ineptness of our military leadership, the opportunism of our enemy, the nightmarish memory of the surrender of our troops at Dhaka, we keep on making attempts to distort history. Of particular significance are the writings of the actual participants culminating in the Tiger Niazi`s books, Mein Nay Hathiar Nahin Dalay and Betrayal of East Pakistan. Certain other politicians simplify the whole problem into reluctance of Yahya Khan to part with power to Mr Bhutto`s wish to acquire power.

It is tragic to lose half your country but it will be a greater tragedy not to learn the correct lessons from the events preceding `Black December`. This is a chain of events, which should be acknowledged.

The East Pakistani disaffection started with West Pakistani (Punjabi) civil servants` colonial attitude towards our Bengali citizens starting with Mr. Aziz Ahmad, the then Chief Secretary of East Pakistan, personifying the Raj, as if they were still the `Resident Bahadur` of a foreign colonial power. Coupled with that, the military top-brass made no secret of their `contempt` for the so-called non-martial people of that region. Alas! the history of Bengal during Mughal and English rule tell us an entirely different story.

The second part of our fudging is the thesis that Muslim Bengalis could never have continued as part of Pakistan, because of a strong streak of `Bangla nationalism`. This flies in the face of history. Partition of Bengal, the establishment of Muslim League in Dhaka, the success of that party in elections in the united Bengal nullifies it. If Bengali nationalism was such a coherent force, a united Bengal would have resulted, when Kiran Shankar Roy and H.S. Suhrawardy mooted it.

Six points surfaced in the Ayubian era. Quite a number of people believe that a `Punjabi` intellectual was its author. Whatever the truth, the fact is that absence of political process and Ayubian attempt to prolong his rule led the Bengalis to believe their permanent ouster from representative offices.

The free-est elections of 1970 were not free at all. First armed forces leadership distributed cash amongst rightist politicians (just as a later-day general did many years afterwards) to obtain a fragmented result. Worse, the civil administration was allowed to be totally over-awed by strong-armed Awami Leaguers and thus ensured the lop-sided result. The rest following a logical pattern.

The army`s operations in East Pakistan are steeped in controversy. Finally, the defence of East Pakistan against Indian onslaught is a sad story of the High Command being totally bewildered, out of touch with reality, living on false bravado and bombast. The doctrine of defence of every inch of East Pakistan was impractical and that the defence of East Pakistan can be assured by a determined panzer push from West Pakistan was not tested. The generalship throughout was very poor. Apart from some brilliant and courageous battles at Hilli and Brahmanbaria, the Indians advanced rapidly. The only two governments who had a realistic appraisal of the outcome were USA and India.

Footnote: Generals participating in military operations make poor historians. The victorious side exaggerates their exploits and the losing side lays the blame elsewhere. Personally I find Brig. Saadullah Khan`s (an Infantry Brigadier) modest book, East Pakistan into Bangladesh a sober, realistic and poignant account. The moral of the story is simple. You can only keep a country together through equality, equity and justice - not through armed legions and formidable fire-power.

H.N. AKHTAR

Karachi ``

Very well said, Ras. The more people talk and reveal about that dark chapter of history the more likely it is for others to learn from past blunders.

In the late `80s, over 90% of all Pak fauj officers were Punjabi. A staggering 60% were domiciles of Lahore city. This could have serious implications. The rump, post-Zia, Pakiland has some frightening similarities with post-Tito Yougoslavia. Yougoslav federal army was largly a Serb army (Serbia being their largest `province`). The post-Tito decade saw increasing internal power struggle, corruption, ethnic and linguistic strife, ecnomic stagnation, infra structure degradation and institutional decay. Sounds familiar?

Those who don`t learn from history are demned to repeat it.

...SR

thanks. enjoyed reading it.

Expressive, is the word. Much has been written on the subject and yet, in our traditional fashion, we do not have an official version of history as to what happened in `71, or for that matter before and after that. This ignorance of our ruling class is not uncommon. What better way to keep the status quo and keep people under control than to keep a criminal silence about the past: who did what, where, when and why? The answers to these questions are so painful that our ruling establishment would much rather forget about it all than to embarrass itself in front of the country and the world and perhaps cause the beginning of its end. Why would they want to do that?

There`s another chapter in the story of East/West Pakistan. Bengalis had this notion well entrenched in their psyche that they were in the majority therefore they should have been the rulers of Pakistan and Dhaka should`ve been the capital. They also believed that ALL the prosperity of West Pakistan was ONLY due to the Bengalis and their export of jute. Pictures of old buildings in Karachi, built well before Pakistan were printed in the Bengali papers with the caption that your jute income is spent on these extravagant buildings.

My father, who first migrated to Bengal after the partition, describes the hatred that Bengalis showed towards all non-Bengalis at the time. When he asked for directions he would be sent into the opposite directions by the very resident of that neighborhood. When he would ask for the price of bananas, he was told one for five anaas, when other Bengalis were buying them five for one ana right in front of him. One rickshaw driver told him one price before the ride and upon getting there said it was four times as much. When my father disputed that, all the Bengalis gathered around him angrily and almost beat him up when another non-Bengali who could speak Bangla interrupted and saved him.

And that was another thing. ``Urdu Jaane Na, Bangla bolay`` was what he was told repeatedly when he would ask someone something in Urdu. Even educated Bengalis who did speak Urdu would do the same. When he got his papers certified by a well-respected principal of a large public school, the judge tore his application and rudely said in English that he would not accept any application in Urdu. Quaid-e-Azam had to rush to Dhaka non-stop to stop the mini-revolt that resulted when he proclaimed Urdu as the official language of Pakistan.

It was this hatred and resentment towards West Pakistan and non-Bengalis, mainly due to misguided feelings about Begal`s right to dominate, that resulted in the sweeping victory of Mujib in the elections held just a couple of years after Muslim League had done the same. ML won only one seat in the entire Bengal. And this was just the beginning.

I`m not trying to blame it all on the Bengalis, but merely stating that had they been more mature about their majority, history would have been a lot different.

What the Pakistan army did was wrong. It was shameful and evil. It should not have happened no matter what. As Saima said, racism was also a factor. Still, if we apply the current criteria for army recruitment in Pakistan, most of the Chinese and Vietnamese soldiers would not qualify. And we all know what that means.

BUT, the point I must stress is that had Bengalis and their leadership been a little less hostile towards non-Bengalish, things could`ve been different today. They must share a little bit of the blame in why things didn`t work out the way they were supposed to. All I`m saying is that Pakistan should apologize to Bangladesh but Bengalish must also do some soul-searching of it`s own. And more importantly, we must try and cooperate with each other in the future, while not forgetting the past. If the US could do that with Japan and Germany, we can do it too.

Rehan.

Ras,

Incredibly evocative!

Anita

Nice and reflective!

I read all the comments by various chowkees.

We can today blame army for all we want, and i condemn what happened in East P., but it was a game of punjabi dominated politics, that did not want power and autonomy vested in the east. Poor Army soldiers don`t have thinking power, they just kill on orders, similiar to Americans in Vietnam, where they could not not tell b/w vietcong and ordinary civilians, Army was insensitive b/e peacesul bengalis and Mukti bahaini liberation movement. The genocide that followed is not a surprise, as it has happened before in history. The irony was Muslims killing Muslims, in my opinion. I believe it was West Pakistanis who turned our brothers in the East from autonomous to seccesionist!