December 16: Bangladesh’s day of liberation
Exclamations of freedom in 1971 as Dhaka is 'liberated'
The newspaper headlines in Dhaka on December 16 gave me pause: “day of liberation”, “victory day” they proclaimed in big black letters emblazoned across the masthead of the papers. In Pakistan, isn’t this day perceived as a somber occasion where Pakistan was rent asunder by the forces of evil? The answer that was evading me while scanning the newspapers came to me when I saw these words of a Bangladeshi columnist.
“The 16th of December 1971 was a day of transformation. It turned caged birds into free birds. On a single day, our life changed for the rest of our life. It was like a knife blade, which severed the past from the future. It forever erased the ignominy of being ruled by others and brought us the resplendent dawn of freedom.”
While travelling to Bangladesh, it would not be remiss to say that I was apprehensive about the feelings of the people there towards Pakistanis. After all, we had fought a war and we had lost half of Pakistan while they had gained a new country, although this chapter had been skimmed over in my school history books. We had not only been unjust towards our own people, but had also been racist and contemptuous. My father’s Bengali batchmates in Chittagong were ridiculed in public by visiting officers from West Pakistan. The drawing rooms in Karachi and Lahore at that time were full of people running down Bengalis with gusto. They were not only Hindus, but were also black, puny, scared and stupid while West Pakistanis, of course, ticked all the right boxes being tall, fair, handsome and smart.
A warm welcome in ex-Pakistan
But my misgivings proved unfounded as I was overwhelmed by the generosity of spirit displayed by Bangladeshis. Far from being hostile, people went out of their way to welcome Pakistanis. Smiling waiters said that their wish was that “our countries should not have been torn apart, because together we would have been so much stronger!” Since most Bangladeshis are great supporters of the Pakistani cricket team, every single victory would be met with unabashed joy and high spirits. When the Pakistani team lost, they would sink into depression and pepper Pakistanis with questions as to why our cricketers were playing so badly. Our shalwar kameezes elicited great admiration while exhibitions by Pakistani retailers like Bareeze were a knockout success.
The memories of war
But it would be unrealistic to expect that the ghosts of the war do not make their presence felt at times. When my father visited Dhaka, he was feted at dinner by his Bengali batchmates who he had not met for decades. Between hugs, news of long lost friends and a sumptuous dinner, I noticed a book in the drawing room which contained graphic images of the murders of intellectuals at Dhaka University during the war. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and these pictures took on a surreal quality as I compared the blood and gore on the pages with the bonhomie between my father and his batch mates.
A Pakistani visitor remembered how she told a Bangladeshi fruit seller “Bangladesh Pakistan bhai bhai” (or Bangladesh and Pakistan are like brothers) to which he replied,
“Yes, we are brothers, but you people did not treat us right in 1971.”
An elegant Bangladeshi lady told me how her father and uncle were taken away from home in Dhaka in 1971, never to be seen again. She said she knew they were dead, but she wished that they had got their bodies back so the family could have buried them and got some kind of closure. When I said I was so sorry about what had happened to her family, she smiled, touched my hand and replied:
”It’s all right. These things happen in war time, don’t they?”
The land of Tagore
Hospitable and articulate, the Bengalis are such a multifaceted people. Their song recitals of great poets like Rabrindranath Tagore and Nazrul Islam are so melodious that one cannot help sinking into a reverie even as the unfamiliar lyrics throb in the air. The colourful dances and the joie de vire of the rhythmic dancers tend to cast it’s own spell on Bengalis and non Bengalis alike. Almost every home has a harmonium and tabla, as young and old play and sing and captivate. It is said that there is music in the soil of Bangladesh: even their monsoons have a lyrical quality about them as the trees sway, clouds gather and rain pours forth. Some argue that East Pakistan was an unnatural addition to Pakistan. How could a people so steeped in the love of their rich culture have gelled with a clueless country which has no identity, and which survives on a national security narrative which does not leave much room for anything as frivolous as music, dance and poetry?
Bangladesh: In retrospect
Instead of playing the blame game since time immemorial, and accusing our leaders or institutions or India for leading us to the unbridgeable chasm of December 16, 1971, why don’t we take a good look at ourselves? Are we all also not to blame for not speaking up for our fellow citizens as they were being bludgeoned into submission? To their credit, the Bengalis refused to bow their heads and take such discriminatory treatment. As for India, it took advantage of our disunity and overweening arrogance, but we ourselves opened the door of opportunity to usher Mrs Indira Gandhi in and hand her Bangladesh on a platter. The irony is that some of the very architects of our ignominious surrender appear in today’s talk shows tut tutting over the oppression of East Pakistanis. The faces are the same, but the tune has undergone such a drastic change. Surprisingly, not one anchor has had the guts to expose these spineless guests and their crocodile tears
The tolerance shown by the Bangladeshis towards us, despite the bad blood of 1971, makes me wonder whether we could have displayed this level of understanding towards them if the shoe had been on the other foot? The answer is no, judging by the kind of rabble rousing bigotry and hatred on display against our own people even today. As George Santayana said:
“Those who cannot learn from their history are doomed to repeat it.”
The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of The Express Tribune.
Well written Maheen…………..I am the first one to comment,,,,,,,being half Bangla myself, its hurts so much when the term “eating like a hungry Bengali” is used…….by many people…….
The last para is so touching……………:(Recommend
Excellent article, Im a British Bangladeshi and I aint read anything like this in a long time. I think alot of Pakistani’s do cry their heart out for their long lost blood from the former East.
Yes and Sadaffayyaz alot of West Pakistanis have Bengali blood but here in London they cannot any longer brush that bit under the carpet anymore they are all opening up and learning the history that was diplomatically written off for 40 years.Recommend
Reading this brought tears to my eyes….how unfortunate we ppl are that a Land(Pakistan) that was designed and made including East/West Pakistan by Quaid,was teared up into pieces in 1971 and we couldn’t do much to stop this division….and the tragic thing is the remaining “Land” is still in the process of dividing its 4 provinces by some forces,whether its Balochistan which has been always mistreated in many ways or Sindh,where we often hear voices of “seperation” by some extremists!
I can just wish if we were still united as one nation and Bangladeshies were called as Pakistanies……Recommend
Just try raising this topic with even a lot of literate Pakistanis, despite knowing all about the misery we brought on the Bengali’s they will still try to convince you that it was required and we did the right thing. The same thing is already happening in Balochistan, FATA, KPK, Gilgit and we are using the exact same words about it that we did for Bangladesh , that its all an Indian Conspiracy. Shouldnt be too long when it happens again.Recommend
Dear, again, india did not take advantage, it was problem for india with influx of refugees……..
millions escaping from bangladesh massacre coming in to inida …….
India had to intervene to stop this………..so that part u change……will you for ur own good….
how ever this is still happening…….Recommend
To be honest as a Bangladeshi I dont care about India, India wanted Bangladesh as their sattelite state and guess what Amoghavarsha we the only South Asian country to have a peice of Land only for Muslim Bengalis and the rest of South Asian country’s share it with different race and creed with different language and its not working out for people in India soon India will break too.
786 Bangladesh ZindabaadRecommend
At least somebody is remembering this significant part of our history.
“makes me wonder whether we could have displayed this level of understanding towards them if the shoe had been on the other foot”?
I think the author has got it totally right, the Pakistanis that I know would never forgive the perpetrators of such crimes if it had been Bengalis killing and raping in West Pakistan. I think slowly even the Punjabi culture is becoming more and more like the Pushtoon culture.
But maybe Sindhi or Balochi people might be willing to forgive and let live.I dont know enough about them though to be sure though.Recommend
Very well written Maheen, your words have touched me, we as a nation must never
Forget that dark day in our history, that day of shame and tragedy. I agree with the other thing your saying, being a former diaspora Pakistani and having lived with Bangladeshis, many have mixed feelings about what happened in 71. Some say, both wings should not have parted ways, while some are pakophobic to the extent they wont tell their families they have Pakistani friends. Makes u wonder, the scars left on a generation.Recommend
@Simon Khan:
You got your Bangladesh,good for you.But why hatred against India.Do you really believe India is breaking down?????.I tell you dear,i feel immense proud of India being a multicultural,multiethinical,multilingual and multireligious country.You rest assured your dream will never come true.Recommend
Pakistan wouldnt have been possible without the Bengalis. Actually its good that they parted ways with us, they were much more politically aware than us. It was one the rarest moments in history that a majority seeked independence from a minority. The sad part is that we have learnt nothing from the Dhaka fall, majority believe that it was a global conspiracy against the citadel of islam. Similar conspiracy theories are now being applied to the nationalist movement of Balochistan. When will we learn from history?Recommend
Nicely written, sensitive article.
Logically Bangladesh should have happened in 1947. Its birth years later only traumatised both countries.Recommend
@Sonu,
Trust me love dont forget, (All India Muslim League was found in Dhaka 1906) which was the driving force of the creation of Pakistan and then Bangladesh, this league chopped India into three pieces, thats an example how the dreams have come true lolRecommend
The author is endowed with great imagination.Recommend
Simon khan, You are right, It is All India Muslim League which was driving force for creation of Pakistan and India chopping India. That is the habit of AIML and its members. Cant co exist with anyone.Recommend
Well done Maheen … great article.
It’s shameful what we did to our Bangladeshi brothers and sisters and in fact it’s even more shameful to realise we’re still moving on that path of destruction within Pakistan today. We haven’t really learnt much from our past mistakes … have we? I was lucky enough to experience life in Dhaka for a few years … loved every minute of it and loved the people I met.Recommend
@Simon Khan
Why do Muslims bring religion in all their arguments. And yes we Indians can take care of ourselves inspite of people like you who wish otherwise. Don’t worry India is here to stay as it is inspite of your evil aspirations.Recommend
As an indian muslim I am proud of India . I am part of southern Indian state Tamil Nad .. We are all very patriotic about India . Please forget about your dreams of conquer and animosity towards india and try to develop bangladesh . Pakistan is in doldrums of having this animosity rather than trade relationship to become richer !! .I would like to hear saner bangladeshi voice for good neighbourly thoughts!Recommend
@Vasan,
To be honest I am proud of my country and I am glad it has happened, Bangladesh all the way even though I was born in the UK.Recommend
lol.. the hatred of hindus (am a proud one here) are keeping the muslims of Pak and Bang united. The horrors of 71 (a generation ago) are forgotten.. thats good. but sadly the horrors of 47 (two or possibly three generations ago) are still fresh in our memory.. what a pitiful state all the three of us are in.Recommend
To find such a brilliantly written blog post on the tribune is rare. Great great read.Recommend
Heart rending article. Perhaps we could learn from Bangladesh fiasco and voice up for the other regions of Pakistan which are being discriminated.Recommend
The worst part is how this chapter in our history is skimmed over, I swear my ninth grade teacher told us about how “aurtay apnay haathon se sonay ke bhari zewar utaar kar deti thi jang k funds k liye” and blamed it all on India’s conspiracies. Bull. Crap. She never said anything about what we did to Bangladesh, about the 1971 atrocities, about women and younbg girls raped, and men murdered for no reason other than the fact that they were Bangladeshi! Why are all our consitutions, our failures of constitutions I should say, studied with such detail in our curriculum, but the Hamood-ur-Rahman commission report never even mentioned? Hell, I learned about it in my second semester at uni when my journalism teacher gave a reading assignment on it. Whatever involvement India had with the liberation of Bangladesh, I won’t condemn it, because the way I see it, they helped Bangladesh gain freedom from us. And that’s a good thing, the conditions back then seem to me like another version of the ‘angraiz and Hindu ghulami’ that we were scared of enough to demand a separate country. Another job well-done Maheen, this was truly a touching piece!Recommend
India should stop interferring in Muslim countrys such as Bangladesh and PakistanRecommend
Early in this year Jan 2010 I got a chance to visit Dhaka And Chittagong. I found some good & positive signs among Bangladeshi people. First of all these people love their’s Nation, Language & Relegion with true & staunch heart. Must say that they are Only One Nation.
And In Relegion they also stand under the only one Flag that is ISLAM. There are no any sectarian chaotic problems. Despite I got a language problem during my visit to Dhaka & Chittagong and being alone I never felt any signs of fearness or anxiety but I travelled every where & there with free & tentionless mind. According to era & time I found good & positive innovations & changes among people of Bangladesh in every respects.Recommend
after killing millions and raping thousands, its pathetic to see pakistanis and bangladeshis sniffing and shedding sentimental tears of nostalgia and joy.
where is the famed bengali pride?
or is it that bangladeshis are more muslim than bengali!Recommend
@Simon
The same can be applied to Pakistan and Bangladesh, the latter who migrate illegally in hoards enough to cause an explosion of migrant workers in the neighbouring states of Assam and West Bengal.Recommend
GREAT READ MAHEEN —STILL HURTS SO MUCH.Recommend
@Rajat,
Dude morally and technically Assam and West Bengal should be part of Bangladesh.
@ Bvindh I am Muslim first Bengali second and yeh I do love my country BangladeshRecommend
This write-up is genuinely an heart-felt piece and does leave one impressed for its sincerity!
Bangla Desh is coming to terms with its past with the ongoing prosecution of the war criminals amongst them. This is going to be the purifying process. After that only, it can be able to call itself free.
India could have stayed on in Bangla Desh if it had wanted to, “to make it a satellite”(as somebody has suggested) but it didn’t, for the same reasons that it could have entered and occupied Lahore in 1965( instead we stopped at the eastern bank of Ichhogil Canal); we have known the pain of occupation of our country by foreigners, the Muslim and the British for a thousand years. We wouldn’t wish that pain on any one. We did not interfere even when Bangla Desh was run by hostile forces up until recently. It is only now that Bangla Desh is coming into its own.
We do not expect any gratitude from Bangla Desh. India had to go in because Pakistani military chased nearly 10 million refugees across the border into India and we could not absorb such a population. If Bangla Desh should be grateful for any act to India at all, it is that it saved their BanghBandhu from being executed in a Pakistani prison. We understand that he was made to dig his own grave in anticipation of that execution. In this the surrender of nearly 100, 000 Pakistani soldiers in Bangla Desh was fortuitous to come in handy as a leverage.
Pakistan should introspect that even with America’s crude attempts at intimidation of India by ordering its Seventh Fleet into Bay of Bengal, no one can stop a nation from yearning to and then breaking free. A lesson to be learnt with the impending breakup of Bulochistan and possibly Sindh!
Dig that head of yours from out of the sand and look at the world around you as it is, not as you would like it to be!!! And then, try to live in harmony with it!
As far as the lone Bangla Deshi who is expecting India to disintegrate, I ask, is this how friends express their gratitude for a good deed for you? Don’t fall into the same hole that the Pakistanis are finding themselves in! Keep positive thoughts i.e wishing others what one would wish for yourself!Recommend
Nice one …. nice one once again. At times, we know everything but the media, the newspaper articles, the environment & the syllabus books around you doesn’t let you throw out those thoughts. they are like stuck in your subconsciouses forever.
Good that u brought this one out :)) Keep it up.Recommend
Brilliant article maheen…Recommend
A very touching article. Great work! It reminded me of the book Kartography by Kamila Shamsie.Of course I wasn’t around when the actual thing happened back in 1971.Recommend
We were silent then. We are silent today.
Now that when Aasia Bibi wil be publicly punished, none of the masses will even sweat on the fact that she was innocent.
We are an arrogant illiterate nation and histroy will repaet itself again.Recommend
Maulana Azad had predicted that Bengalis will break away if their identity was threatened, even before Pakistan was born.
Looking back Jinnah was ignorant thinking he can create a secular country by raising temperature in India about mistreatment of Muslims by ‘scheming’ Hindus. He underestimated the importance of Identity and Ethnicity which plays a major part in a person’s life, more so than one’s Religion. He created Bangladesh when he decided that Pakistan will have Urdu as a language, which was not even native to Pakistan.
Nehru was smart. He knew how divided India was and will be and respected those divisions. He played his cards smartly and made India a country and more importantly seamlessly moulded various identities into a Indian Identity.Recommend
Very well written piece Maheen. Touched and moved.Recommend
@Simon Khan:
technically and morally, east pak was the part of bengal that had muslim majority and thats it.
sheik mujibur rehman said that its the nature of bengalis that they are grateful to anyone who gives them a glass of water. and now we find bangladeshis like you conveniently forgetting the sacrifices of indian soldiers for your cause. on the other hand you now happily harbour anti-india elements as a part of pan islamic cooperation. now you even claim assam and wb! talk about stabbing a friend in the back.
yes i agree you bangladeshis are just ‘pure’ muslims. not the fiercely proud and loyal bengalis
remember…before india liberated you….you were slaves and just that….morally and technically.Recommend
@Simon Khan:
you don’t care about India but your whole post is about India.Recommend
Maheen, your narrative is a breath of fresh air! Nothing reads better than truthful expose and a geniune heart felt admission of wrong. That is the first step towards healing, initiating the process of learning from the past mistakes.
Bengalis were and will always be fiercely independent, bright and extremely creative people, rightfully proud of their identity and heritage. Pakistan owns its existence to the support of Bengalis. They are smart to quickly realize that religion is a personal matter. They have taken corrective steps to define the role that a state must play for the betterment of its citizens by separating it from religion. Kudos to the Bengalis for one more act of courage and integrity. God bless them.
Pakistan better learn from the Bengalis, if it is to exist as a viable, respected state among the polity of nations. It is only fair that all weavers of the web of wickedness that resulted in the 1971 break-up, share the blame and be held responsible for their evil crimes. So who will write about the role a religious party played in the genocide of Bengalis? Hint: it is the same party that opposed the creation of Pakistan, named it naPakistan and Kafiristan, only to jump right into the lap of a newborn Pakistan and claim its guardianship after millions laid down their lives for it. Once a hypocrite, always a hypocrite. They know who they are!
The real culprits who have turned the vision of Pakistan into a hellish nightmare must be exposed. Walking blindly on the same course holding hand of devil in disguise, the religiously intoxicated people are being lead to the edge of cliff. People must realize that the mullah-politicians who use Islam as a political tool for self perpetuation are the real enemies of Pakistan. People must realize that they own their faith and not the mullah. People must realize that only they empower the mullah to spread bigotry and to divide the nation by standing behind him and listening to his hate spewing nonsense.
It is your responsibility to take the matters of the state out of the hand of the semi-literate, hypocritical mullah. Instead of the mullah, people must believe in Allah to be the Judge of every one’s faith. People must demand unity on the principles of tolerance, equity, and justice. Don’t you see the blasphemy when the mullah steps into the divine realm by declaring every one other than his virulent faith to be kufr? Who gave him the authority to become God? That the state declares people who claim to be Muslims, is a colossal blasphemy against God!
The most important history lesson of Pakistan break-up is to prevent the blasphemy of using Islam as a political tool by disarming the mullah/politicians. If people fail to grasp this moral of a tragic story and if they refuse to address the problem, another break-up is eminent in not too distant future! After all, history does have the bad habit of repeating itself!Recommend
An excellent insight. If only we had learned to respect each other or have even learned from the great debacle :(Recommend
Wonderful article. Many truths. I believe we should write about Bangladesh very often and identify our mistakes to correct ourselves but I am afraid we Pakistanis are not learning from history. We are quick to remove pages from our history books which talk about our open bigotry which lead to such a massacre. The only way out will be the day we start speaking truth to ourselves and others.Recommend
A very well written article. Since my childhood, I had not been able to come out of the bad and tragic out comes of the breakup of Pakistan. I strongly believe that Pakistan would have been much stronger, stable, prosperous, and a developed country and nation, if it had been a united Pakistan. We had not look for foreign markets, as fifty percent trade was done between the two wings. Imagine, if we were united, a huge market belonging to East and West Pakistan, constituted a unique blend of market forces. We had worlds largest air line, traveling thousands of passengers from East to West and West to East daily We also had world’s largest shipping corporation, having nearly more than 450 commercial ships at the time of breakup. I believe, still we can become together, may be not as we were in 1971. Perhaps in a more realistic and pragmatic manner. For example, we can change a bit in our constitutions working independently living under the same two independent nations of Pakistan and Bangladesh (or may be rename of representing all the constituent provinces of both the parts and giving it a new name for one country). We can also change our flags. For example putting the ‘red circle’ in current Bangladeshi flag in the background of crescent and star in current Pakistani flag. This will reflect the identities of the two separate wings of one country. I have lot many other options.Recommend
Bengalis are afterall Bengalis – Punjabis have to come back home and become punjabis…it’s almost time – borrowed identity has not worked… Original identity might work…Recommend
Brilliant articel Maheen! As always, your article reflects sensitivity and indepth understanding.Recommend
title is painful…. picture is heart breaking…..
Pakistan is not a name of state but its an ideology. You can never put out that flame in the hearts of bangalis. May our generation finds that same understanding that our forefathers had at the time of partition.
As for the role of india… who is to blame the person who is throwing the stone or the one who is providing him the stones………………….Recommend
Someones arrogance another persons gain. we don’t hate any humans be it black or white or from any religious background. Disagree with ways n principles and everyone has the right to speak up.Recommend
Well done! Wonderful blog. I am a Pakistani and I love my Bangladeshi brothers. People behind massacre of our Bengali brothers were not known as good human beings/Muslims. They were not even democratically elected. We, the people, kept in dark through censorship/martial law.
Long live Bangldesh. Pakistan Bangladesh friendship ZindabadRecommend
Writer is gifted and has the ability of transforming her thoughts into words beautifully.
Being an agnostic, I must confess that religion cannot be separated from our everyday life. It is part of our culture. While I have many Hindu/Sikh friends and I find them to be very nice people like any other nation, I would naturally ask a Bangladeshi Muslim what’s the time for Iftar or Sehar or Eid Milad Nabi.
There is something called natural allies. A very gentle Nepali guy asked a Labenese ‘Where are you from?’. When he said Lebanon, Nepali guy said: ‘Haha.. Israel is bombing your country’. Nepali guy was not malicious. He was quite innocent to be honest. A Bangladeshi or Pakistani guy would never have laughed mentioning Israeli bombing. This is what I call natural allies.
Why some people expect Bangladeshis to leave their natural allies? If someone from your community harms you, would you leave your own community? I have seen many people turning racist after being mugged by some other race. Yet, they never turn against their own race when someone of their own ethnicity robs them.
Ideally, we should all be above any prejudices but sadly it is not the case. Till we have saints in this world who rise above everything, lets celebrate things we have in common!!!Recommend
It was an emotional read. You are lucky to have visited Bangladesh. I would love to visit that very soon. Major characters who were behind massacre or who separated two brothers (Indian, Pakistan or Bangladeshi), all met unnatural deaths.Recommend
Fall of Dhaka is an event which should be talked and discussed widely. Its ironic to see that still not many newspapers and TV channels find this event ‘news-worthy’ to give this a better space.
People call this worst event a part of our history, I would say its a part of our present. Insatiable racist tendencies through which we cut the East Pakistan away still to date are not addressed boldly anywhere at national level. We, rather than killing the seeds of racism, attempted to kill the race. Finally the race separated, but racism lingered, perhaps god for bid ready to repeat the same conclusion. In Pakistan, I haven’t seen any single movement by any of our politically active enlightened beings which could pressure and demand about including this chapter in our school history books. Rather, we always blamed ‘external hands’ as root of our problems. Perhaps, ours is the most unique way of solving the problem, we externalize them.
Its just now people have developed guts to point towards army or intelligence agencies for their misgivings but what they don’t understand is that these are just tools of main problem. The core problem is that we have kept theology, ethno-centricism and racism at the helm of our politics and country and people are minus out completely, hence the so called democracy have become limited to electoral processes only.
Even the political parties in our country are unable to grow over and above the primitive idea of regionalism and ethno-centricism, for example, PPP represents Sindh and Sindhis, MQM represents Mohajirs, PML(N)+(Q) represents Punjab and Punjabis, ANP represents Pushtoons and BNP and the likes represent Baluchis and Baluchistan. The provincial representation to one extent is needed but ‘provincialism’ is something for which there should be no room. There’s no single party which could represent ‘Pakistan’ as a whole, a party which should be an emblem of national unity. There’s no single party which is able to represent the hearts and minds of all Pakistanis, regardless of everything. These leaders of political parties have brought strong colors of ethnocentric provincialism rather than national unity which trickles down to their policies whether they are in the government or not. It was the result of same deep running fault lines due to which East Pakistan became Bangladesh.
In East Pakistan, Awami League of Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman, despite winning majority in National Assembly, was denied the right to form government, resulting in division of country. How far are we from the same repetition of history today? If today Sindh, Punjab, Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa or Baluchistan province is denied the same right of majority rule, how else will these provinces react?
I believe the panacea of Pakistan’s pain lie in ‘democratic constitutionalism’ which should be free from theological, ethnic, racist tinge. A democracy which should be based on idea where people are at the center of core, neither ethnocentricism nor theology. That is, rather than ‘Islamic Republic of Pakistan’ it has to be ‘Peoples’ Republic of Pakistan’, i.e, not theology but people should be at the center of everything and nation should be run by collective consciousness of people not the oligarchy of mindsets of some, be it religious institutions, military or judicial institution. From the lesson learned from fall of Dhaka to current militancy, religious, racist or ethnocentric expression of politics should be banned completely.Recommend
Brilliant piece.Recommend
Pakistan should officially apologise to Bangladesh.
Bengalis had a big hand increating Pakistan.Recommend
As expected, every one who read the write-up has praised it because it is based on genuine feelings.
However, I would like to point out an omission for the author. While you were in Bangla Desh did you even by chance happen to encounter any member of that much-suffering section of society – the stateless muhajirs who emigrated to Bangla Desh from our Bihar at the time of partition. They are about 350,000+ people who, I am told, still live in refugee camps there. They are fiercely loyal to Pakistan and therefore might have suffered a lot for their beliefs and loyalty. They want to be transferred to Pakistan, indeed they never renounced Pakistani citizenship or took Bangla citizenship. There were some half-hearted attempts made to bring them over but nothing panned out. Even Aga Khan offered to underwrite the expense of their transportation but there were no takers in Pakistan. After denying Banglas their rights in a united Pakistan, this continuing soar must count as the most disgraceful abdication of its responsibilities. It is still time for Pakistan to do the right thing by this most unfortunate group of people. Bring them over.
If Pakistan is reluctant to absorb just 360,000 of its own citizens, it should not be too difficult to understand why India could not have absorbed 10 million foreign citizens!!!!Recommend
I am from Bangladesh…n i would lie to point out some serious mistakes in this article….”smiling waiters said that their wish was that “our countries should not have been torn apart, because together we would have been so much stronger!”….this is an absurd statement…all people of our country says one common thing.there was nothing common between Bangladesh and pakistan..except religion..we shud have been part long long ago..and together how can we ever be strong???we present Bangladeshi people believe that Pakistan was never our brothers or whatever and never WILL BE…..my point is PAKISTAN never done any official apology to BANGLADESH…so as we understand your country still think they are better then us and we think we are lucky to get rid of you…writer mentioned about our cultural heritage and everything and thanks for that..some of people might say sometimes Bangladeshi and pakistani people stay together in peace..its probably true…but this is because BANGLADESHI people generally very welcoming to anyone…but as the writer try to show we have rather sympathy..its not true…still our generation cant forget what you had done…and all those people commenting here..PLZ STOP REFFERING BANGLADESH AS EAST PAKISTAN…its disturbing…despite everything i would to saty my deepest welcome to the writer..at least you tried to understand our pain..thanks for that..other then some disturbing information it was a well written article..thank you…Recommend
Simon
India does not want to interfere in any country’s affairs. I have read a brilliant piece somewhere that Indians have never invaded any country in the history. But if any other country, be it Muslim or otherwise, want to interfere in India thru Terrorism or by any other means, then India has a right to reciprocate. By the way,didnt u know that but for Indian interfering, Bangladesh wouldnt have been born and would have been a slave to Islamabad still.Recommend
Another well written and insighful piece. The 1971 war is a painful reminder for all of us….Pakistan lost an integral part of herself through what was at the end of the day gross mismanagement and an inherent bias towards the people of what was then East Pakistan. It is a black day in both our histories because of the gross human rights violations committed by both sides. I read somewhere that even after all these years, a feeling of pain and violation exist on both sides. What should have happened a long time ago should have been the formation of a Truth and Reconcilliation Committee as in South Africa, to apologise for the past and to forgive. Only then will we all ever be able to move on. What my heart breaks for is all those Biharis who still live in Pakistan. They are stateless, citizens of nowhere. It is time that this issue was addressed. Those who want to go back to Bangladesh should be allowed to and those who want to stay in Pakistan should be given citizenship.Recommend
@Simon Khan
Just do not add fuel to fire. You are sitting in UK and are a british citizen. Worry about that country. We the people of subcontinent have a larger stake and want to invest in peace. So stop warmongering and create friction where you do not have any economic, political or moral stake.Recommend
This is the true picture of our army. 90000 soldiers surrendered but could not fight till last bullet and last man. Lost Siacheen in the same way. Our army can only handle real estate business in a perfect way. The are always successful to conquer Islamabad while defeating democratic process. A day of shame and sorrow in the Muslim history.Recommend
Forgive n forget. That is the rule of being Muslim. Let Allah almighty handle the whole issue. Hatred takes away a lot of energy .Recommend
who is this Simon Khan????i am from Bangladesh…and i am in absolutely disagree whatever this person is mentioning about our beloved Bangladesh and about Bangladeshi peoples mentality….i would like to clearly mention we are first Bangladeshi and then Muslim…i dont think he is from Bangladesh(he already mentioned he is from UK)…probably some other country citizen who is trying to humiliate us by uttering rubbish…so plz refrain yourself…and people in this commenting section the name of our country is BANGLADESH..not East pakistan…we are proud to be bangladeshi..Recommend
Please note that because of British Bangladeshi’s, Bangladesh came on its feet due to remittance so I have every right to interfere in Bangladesh politics.
The whole world knows that Muslim Bengalis can live with out Indians and Pakistanis, we tend to live in our own community as we feel more safer and fee more independant.
Also whoever mentioned that we would have been slaves of Islamabad I think that is totally farce, the history dont apply to me but the interference of my nativeness does and also dont forget the original Islamabad was actually Chittagong untill it got shifted over to West Pakistan.
@Nadia,
India will be a Bengali spekaing country by 2020 thats a fact check the censusRecommend
@Simon Khan,
“India will be a Bengali spekaing country by 2020 thats a fact check the census”
–> Lol! Sure why not.Recommend
Get your diplomatic facts right mate, I might have been Born and raised British I also inherit a Bangladeshi passport too
Like I said 786 Bangladesh Zindabaad and Sylhet ZindabaadRecommend
A sensitive insight…well written, Maheen.Recommend
bd boy; I agree with you. Everybody should be a citizen of that country first and then only religious identity comes. I am an Indian and then only I am a hindu.The other kind of thinking comes out of indoctrinated minds. Similarly if citizens of country A remits money to Country B and then claim a right to interfere in country B’s politics, God save country A because people of Country A will interfere in every other country.Recommend
Hey Maheen……Lovely article!!! You have captured life in bangladesh so beautifully. Bangladesh is a very friendly country indeed and i enjoy living here.One has to tread carefully when mentioning the war as the bengalis are so sentimental about their history and bangla language.
I HAVE to tell u this….my daughter went to the national museum from school and was told about the bloodshed and massacare by the pakistanis. She came home and narrated it and said that pakistanis were very cruel and had killed thousands of bengalis…and when i told her she was a pakistani too…she was aghast and promptly replied “No Mom, I’m an Indian”….very conveniently changing her nationality to mine :)))
Looking forward to more of your articles…..best wishes!!!!Recommend
@Mahine
“…What should have happened a long time ago should have been the formation of a Truth and Reconcilliation Committee as in South Africa, to apologise for the past and to forgive”
There is nothing that prevents Pakistan from constituting one in Pakistan itself to cleanse out its conscience at the end of which it could issue a national apology to Bangla Desh.
@Simon Khan
You say that India should not interfere in the Muslim nations of Pakistan and Bangla Desh. Well, India has never interfered in any nation’s internal affairs. When two Muslim nations, Iran and Iraq, fought a 10 year war, did any one interfere? No! Muslims slaughtered Muslims. The end of the war came only because of exhaustion on both sides and by that time there were 10 million fewer Muslims in the world.
But you cannot stand on the side unconcerned when a predator victimizes a weak, beleaguered people, if you can help. We must intervene in the name of humanity. That is what happened when US and NATO intervened to save a beleaguered Muslim minority in Kosovo from the predatory Serbs. That is what happened when India intervened to save beleaguered Bengali Muslims from predatory West Pakistani Muslims. The fact that both were Muslims was merely incidental.
At another place, you aver that by 2020 India will be a Bengali speaking nation. Speaking for myself, Bengali is a sweet, lyrical language and if others in India feel the same way, we will have no problem at all in adopting Bengali as our lingua franca. If we could master English, we can do the same with Bengali. But, if there is an element of compulsion about it, forget it.
From the posts of Bangla Deshis, message to you is clear. Do not soil the good name of Bangla Desh!Recommend
I have to agree with Simon Khan. Living in the west, we realise that we can be neighbour with others but can never be same as them.
Even pro-Indian Awami league supporters became anti Indian after studying and living in the UK. Partly, it was due to over-confidence and arrogance of ‘shining India’. These ‘friends’ keep telling white people that they are better & different from Muslims but they don’t care about them. For white people, colour is more important.
Europe, for us, is like pre-partition India. Apparently we live peacefully with Indians but we don’t trust each other. 1947 partition was inevitable!!! 1971 was inevitable as well but we will remain closer to each other as we have a ‘big brother’ next door that is more of a big bully and is always ‘right’ and never made a mistake, judging from the comments above!Recommend
This blog is becoming very politicised it seems…….Recommend
@ Hamad Ali, Thanks for your support bro.
Anyways G.Din Assam and Mehgalaya are totally bengali speaking states now.
Also Being a Bengali I think its 40 years too late, why we all into this when the rest of South Asian continent classed Bangladesh as a basket case want to all know Bangladesh’s status now is it because its doing well with a good credit rating and is a very democratic country as all the population is registered with a perfect ID card.
Question is we all say what we want but guess what your and my own words can be dictated again in the very future as South Asians are a confused race mixed with so many different background. (Confused Identity)
The history is repeating itself again in Europe specially in UK as it did in Dhaka back in 1906 when All India Muslim League was found, the very same thing is happening in Tower Hamlets as the Muslim Bengalis have totally taken control of one of the Boroughs of London (Lutfur Rahman), again we see the Indians and Pakistani Muslims moving into a totally Muslim Bengali area to take credit again, due to the Bangladeshi community being educated now the history will not be repeated again. always remember All Europe Muslim League has already begun in Tower Hamlets.Recommend
Well Done Maheen.
Another great piece and some very vivid descriptions of your experiences in dhaka.
Thanks for this much needed piece.
The last two paragraphs were just amazing..
Keep on writingRecommend
@Simon Khan:
just because you inherit a Bangladeshi passport doesn’t make a Bangladeshi..as you mentioned you are more brit then Bangladeshi…and from your post its clearly understandable that you have very small idea what actually happened in 1971 and why did it happened…its so ridiculous that you are trying to make a point about India where its about Bangladesh and pakistan…do you know the no of Bangladeshi died in 1971..its more then 3000000 done by pakis…right now i cant agree with many political decision taken by indian government but that doesn’t necessarily erase the fact that it was India who helped us in 1971..all the refugee from our country went to India..all the training camp was set up there…n as you mentioned India wanted satellite state..honestly after living in Bangladesh for last 30 years i have no idea what satellite state India wanted..you probably dont have any idea what the pakis did to us before 71…thats why you are making up stories abt india..stop it..it was never abt India..it was between Bangladeshi and your paki muslim brother.we wanted freedom…plz first know your history and stop embarrassing us…
@G. Din
dude its not Bangla Desh…its Bangladesh…seriously man..its disrespectful…as you here writing in perfect english so you must be literate… pls dont misspell our country’s name…at least that much i can expect…..Recommend
@G. Din:
The whole of such a committee is for countries to come together, discuss the horrors of the past and forgive…and move on. Yes atrocities were committed by the Pakistani army but the Mukhtibahini were not some innocent bystanders either. It takes two to make war and two to make peace.Recommend
@Mahine,
Do you have any idea why and how the war started in the first place ? Even after winning the election, why Sheikh Mujib had to sit in the negotiation table? What was there to negotiate? Hatred against the bengalis were so deep rooted that the fear of being ruled by the bengalis made them to execute a campaign of murder and rape. It is painful to see that people compare the brutal genocide with the mob violence.Please do not compare the pre-planned massacre by Pakistan army with the atrocities committed by the bengalis. It is the only incident in south Asia’s history where a state owned trained army committed a genocide of massive scale. Before any reconciliation, there must be frank admission of truth.
Pakistan still deny the genocide and whenever they discuss the 1971 war, many pakistanis blame both sides equally. Islamic Republic of Pakistan must recognize the genocide and make a formal apology.Recommend
What is the difference between an Indain Bengali and a Bangladeshi Bengali?Recommend
As always Maheen is very sensitive and objective about human situationsRecommend
India may not deserve a Thanks for Bangladesh but do not abuse at least. India played a small part in your Independence. Also, India was out of Bangladesh within three weeks after handing over the (Mr.) Shaikh Muzib-ur-Rehman (i am not confident of the spelling friend, sorry).
Also, India took around 97,000 Pakistani army men along with their general out of Bangladesh to ensure their safety and later released them. This was indented to save them from probable backlash in Bangladesh.
Are you people aware of this fact too?
Thanks to the Bangladeshi bloggers for not showing dislike against India.Recommend
After the assassination of Indira Gandhi, along with the numerous leaders of the world, General Irshad of Bangladesh too was In New Delhi to be part of the funeral ceremony.
He in a press conference along with her son Rajeev Gandhi said that Mrs. Gandhi was as much the mother of Bangladesh as she was of Rajeev and the losses to Bangladesh was no less than that of India. This humbled every one present in the news conference. And this, according to me was one of the best tribute that Mrs. Gandhi received.Recommend
Sadness…. but well written Maheen.Recommend
@bd boy
My apologies! Never intended to be disrespectful! Noted for future and Bangladesh, it is.
@Mahine
It is not necessary for two (former) adversaries to get together to have a Truth & Reconciliation Commission. If Pakistan goes ahead, positive vibes created by such an act and the ensuing process will reverberate across South Asia. And, forgiveness will come. Even if it does not, everyone will understand that is the best you could have done. For starters, Pakistanis could demand that HumoodurRahman’s Report about the break-up be published.
@Simon Khan
Assam and Bengal may be totally Bengali-speaking according to you ( which may be some kind of wishful thinking on your part) but how do you think that is a calamity of sorts for India. We have several Hindi-speaking states in the Union, that does not threaten anyone in India. Remind yourself we are the largest Democracy in the world, howsoever imperfect it may be according to you. That is because everyone counts!
The way you are talking of Bangladeshis “taking control” and Indian and Pakistani Muslims trying to muscle in “to take credit” for presumably an Islamic movement started by All Europe Muslim League, bodes very ill for your future on your continent.Recommend
@bivindh
Sir Bengal was the biggest muslim state in India before partition.It includes todays West bengal,Orissa,Assam and Bangladesh.Hindus were less in number as compared to muslims.bengali hindus never gave muslim bengalis their rights although muslims were in majority.Hindus made negative propaganda when east bengal was created by british on demand by muslims.East bengal state lasted for few years and was again merged in greater bengal on demands of bengali hindus.All india muslim league was created in dacca,just beacause of bengali support Pakistan was created.Pakistan could never be created without the support of muslims of bengal.As a Pakistani I am thankfull to All muslims of Bangladesh and West bengal who voted for Pakistan in 1946 elections.All india muslim league gave an electoral lesson to Congress by winning 88% seats in bengal.Recommend
@ Simon Khan
Great to here ur thoughts.We Pakistanis are thankful to the muslims of Bangladesh,Assam and West Bengal who voted for Pakistan.Due to military intervention People of former East pakistan left us.I have met a few Bangladeshis in Australia and I tell u they hates India more then Pakistanis.Had Fatimah Jinnah Got elected as President of Pakistan in 1964 but she was denied the power by Ayub our contry would remain united,but having said that now Pakistan and Bangldesh are 2 seperate Muslim countries.We need to accept reality and move forward towards common defence,currency and foreign policy.Recommend
@Anoop:
You are right. I think the first revolt from the bengali side was realted to “bhasha andolan” (language movement), where they demanded bengali as a language for them.
I also appreciate the author for her constructive criticism. My grandfather was a hindu judge in Bangladesh and he was in the hitlist of the Pak army, but narrowly escaped. Imagine how would a person feel who had delivered justice all throughout his life, only to face gross injustice committed towards him by his own nation’s army ?Recommend
About time this nation starts accepting its faults. Great piece.Recommend
How come Indians are always right about everything? You must be ruled by PIOUS ANGELS since 1947.Recommend
@Kamran Iqbal
“…In East Pakistan, Awami League of Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman, despite winning majority in National Assembly, was denied the right to form government, resulting in division of country”
Wrong, Mr. Iqbal! I am sorry you have still not grasped the reason behind the separation. Mujib was NOT denied the right to form government in East Pakistan. In fact, Bhutto famously told him: “Hum Ither, Tom udher” meaning you form your government in East Pakistan and we shall do the same here.
Mujib was denied the right to head the Federal government which was his by virtue of having a majority in the National Assembly. Instead he was imprisoned and not allowed to return to his beloved East Bengal. The rest is history (which, sorry to say, Pakistanis are being allowed to learn about in bits and pieces from us Indians(Recommend
@Raqib Ali
“How come Indians are always right about everything? You must be ruled by PIOUS ANGELS since 1947.”
No, we don’t need any angels, pious or otherwise, to “rule” us; we are a democracy and govern ourselves. Looks like you are at a loss for words. At least you have character; others might have started using obscene language to denounce us. That has not stopped us, though!Recommend
@Simon Khan
India does not care about Bangladesh. Just keep your people inside your borders rather than letting them wander into West Bengal. Myanmar would be a better place for your people to tour.Recommend
@RhyMe:what are u talking about man to get back together ?Recommend
Writer has written a beautiful article that brings the reader to tears. Well Done.Recommend
Brilliant Article indeed !
@Simon Khan-
I’m an Indian and a Proud Bengali.
Banglai amar Prothom Porichoy!
Vai , apni bollen je West Bengal o Bangladeshes sathe hoile valo hoy, ami o ekmot,
kintu apni ki dhormo-nirpekho, apnar comment pore thik ta mone hoilo na.
jai hok, amar kichu bondhu ache apnar deshe, ora to Dhormo-nirpekho, tai voy nai jodi dui bangla abar kokhono ek hoye .
ses korci ek kothay:
BANGLAR HINDU-BANGLAR KRISTAN-BANGLAR BOUDDHO-BANGLAR MUSOLMAN——AMRA SHOBAI BANGALEE
Valo thaken:-)
Amar Notun Blog , dekhte paren.
Title: Promote Bangla
Link: http://www.promotebangla.blogspot.com
@Humanity- Love u man ! Gr8 comment.
@R. Querishi : True i agree to ur point, Yahya Khan and company kept the general public of Pakistan in the dark, as i’v read in many places and books , that the people of pakistan were never clearly told about the happenings in then East Pakistan(Bangladesh).
And its so sad to see Quite a lot of Pakistanis haven’t yet learned from history , about Co-Existance.
Finally we’r towards the beginnin of new year 2011 !
I would like to say -
“Moder Gorob, Moder Asha,
A-Mori Bangla Bhasha”
JOY BANGLA, BANGLAR JOY
India Zindabad, Pakistan Zindabad
Saurav Chatterjee
-saurav2006complex@gmail.comRecommend
@Milestogo
Hi dear, there’s no difference between Bengali from Bangladesh and West bengal.
Ma mom’s from east (Chottogram i guess now in east of Bangladesh) so the only difference i could figure out was she speaks a more softer accent, but thats not the case with every one basically All Bengali’s are same.
But not to forget The dialect of Sylhet- Its a dialect of Bangla with few modifications of words due to more Persian, Portugese indulence in earlier days,
mostly its Also understood by Other bengali’s too.Recommend
Great and honest write up Maheen.
Recently I read an article on war rapes and I was aghast to read that 1971 war has to its credits one of the worst war related rapes in the history of modern world.
I think we as Pakistanis need to revisit our attitudes towards those who we consider lesser beings be it any community within or outside Pakistan.It’s fine to have a good sense of humour and wit but to mock at others and laughing at their cost is pathetic.
Having lived in Gulf I personally witnessed the disdainful attitude of Pakistanis towards their Bangladeshi colleagues.
Even if there had not been the existent serious issues between East & West Pakistan ( eg the language, economic issues etc), just the mere intensity of mockery of the East Pakistanis was enough for them to ask for a separate homeland.
Even after having lost them we are not ashamed of poking fun at them.Recommend
@ G. Din
What I meant was that many Pakistanis accept their governments faults. They even admit the wrongdoings of parts of establishments. you can see that everywhere I don’t need to go much in detail.
While Indians are very bitter about their politicians, somehow they feel insecure to admit their mistakes to ‘foreigners’. They claim to be right on every issue when it comes to foreign policy. When you (and us too) have such corrupt politicians, there bound to be many wrongdoings. It requires a great deal of character to admit that your country might have been wrong! While Kashmir brings ‘secular’ and ‘Maharaja choice’ argument from our Indian friends, Hyderabad, Juna Garh brings ‘majority hindu’ and ‘public choice’ arguement.
My question remains: have u been ruled by Pious people at all times that your governments were always right throughout the history when it came to treatment to its neighbouring states?Recommend
Thank you for your posting the Bangladesh victory day article o f 16th December 2010. This year we celebrated gloriously our freedom from the misrule of Pakistan after an epic battle for freedom in December 1971.
You have rightly pointed out double faced Pakistanis who had the dubious distinction of hailing the bloody military genocide against the Bengali people in 1971 and now shedding crocodile tears and blaming others for their blunder..It was full of your positive
thoughts which will create better understanding between two different nations Bangladesh and Pakistan .
It is tragic that Pakistani rulers in 1971 tried and used most brutal way to eliminate the aspirations of Bengali Pakistanis ,those military rulers never learnt any lesson from history .W e Bangladeshis will never forget the torments, tortures, insults that were used on us by the entity called the Pakistan army . Today 40 yrs on we still find such liers and shamelessly likes of Zaid Hamid and company still posting video forcefully total distortion of 1971 true facts ,the exact reason the country Pakistan fell apart. It is high time for the present generation should rebuke those scoundrels likes of ZAID HAMID !!!!!!! who still commands sizeable support . Present generation of Pakistani columnists like Adil Najam Hamid Mir Najam Sethi and many more honest outspoken critics are playing a great role in exposing the despicable role of Pakistani civil society ( Elite class ) and the Pakistani media in 1971 ,their full support for the Pakistan armys killings in Bangladesh is unforgivable to the Bangladeshis!!!!!Maheen please don’t give the idea that Bangladeshi support for Pakistani cricket team does give the impression that Bangladeshis still has close feelings for the old Pakistan ??? absolutely not !!!!!! nothing could be more unreal than that,it is wishful thinking !!!!. How on earth there could be any such feeling after we Bangladeshis went through after the Pak army action un 1971 ?????
Today Bangladesh has the best intercommunal harmony in the subcontinent, Bangladesh has marched ahead and is making progress in many field s,our new generation Bangladeshis are marching ahead and the economic progress is online and if our corrupt politicians could stop their interparty rivalry then we will definitely will be one of the top economys of the Asia . This is not my assessment but the major world trade organizations !!! In the 70s I was a student and today I am in the late fiftys and my own children are now college going students and I constantly tell them history of our country, unfortunately the true history of Bangladesh and facts that led to the separation of the then East Pakistan is totally distorted in the Pakistani school textbooks. Total blame is put on India !!! instead of admitting their own blunders !!!! Pakistan has to acknowledge and apologise to the Bangladeshi people for their genocidal action in 1971 ,only then we people of Bangladesh and Pakistan can move ahead,and it will be the first step to the right direction .I must thank and appreciate the Pakistani friends who have posted very positive thought s on Bangladesh –Pakistan friendship and projected the present day sentiments of the Bangladeshi people . JOY BANGLA-LONG LIVE BANGLADESH .
Recommend
@Khalid:
“Bengal was the biggest muslim state in India before partition.It includes todays West bengal,Orissa,Assam and Bangladesh.”
–going by ancient history, parts of present day Iran and Afghanistan were ruled by Indian kings and some parts of South India weren’t!!
“Hindus made negative propaganda when east bengal was created by british on demand by muslims”
–the 1905 partition of Bengal under Lord Curzon was done with the motive of weakening of Indian independence movement that was mostly headed by Hindus. Not a high point of history for Muslim Bengalis. Not a point to be raised unless one wants to picture Bengali Muslims as perpetually subservient people who don’t care for freedom.Recommend
anyways to solve the confusion i would tell all of u that, earlier Hindus and Muslims lived peacefully , but that was the biggest threat to british so they adopted the policy of DIVIDE AND RULE ! Thats how feelings at those time became bitter.. And its not jus read in history books.. I’v heard from ma grand parents about such incidents !
Hindus and Muslims were made to Fight by the british with the help of few anti-social people of that era !
Anyways move on now.:)
Main problem now is Deep rooted corruption in Indian & Pakistani government !Recommend
Hey I am back after a weekend full of enjoynment.
Well guys you want the truth Pakistan and India can only solve their problems through Bangladesh and that is a god given fact, Bangladesh is back on its feet now so you can clearly see India uses Bangladesh’s influence with the Pakistan issue.Recommend
@SAMIR:
I am from Bangladesh.100% agree with your point of view.Recommend
@Simon Khan
Welcome back from “chop-chop Europe” vacation!
You say:”…Bangladesh is back on its feet now so you can clearly see India uses Bangladesh’s influence with the Pakistan issue.”
Curious! How does India use Bangladesh’s influence with the Pakistani issue. You don’t have any clout in Pakistan. How in the world could we use you for anything?
And what are those issues Bangladesh is helping us with?
Strange!
Muslims should stop bothering God for every little thing. I am sure, with the way Muslims are going on in the world, God seems to have washed His hands off of you! Who wants to be pestered ad nauseum ad infinitum!Recommend
@Raqib Ali
“…While Kashmir brings ‘secular’ and ‘Maharaja choice’ argument from our Indian friends, Hyderabad, Juna Garh brings ‘majority hindu’ and ‘public choice’ arguement.”
Please study the history of how partition was handled. You will see there was no inconsistency on the part of India. It was agreed that accession of states and principalities outside the British suzerainty would be handled by the sovereign of that entity, i.e state or principality like a Maharaja or Nizam. While in majority of the cases there was not expected, nor indeed there was, any conflict as to how the Maharaja would decide the accession of his territory to one or the other dominion, the conflict would be possible where the Maharaj (or Nizam) and majority of his people belonged to different religions. This was so in case of Kashmir, Junagarh and Hyderabad. In such cases, the sovereign was asked to go by the wishes of the majority of his people. In Junagarh, the ruler acceded to Pakistan but majority in his kingdom was Hindu. India cried foul and took over the state.
Both Kashmir and Hyderabad tried hard to remain independent which indeed was one of the available, though impractical, options. In Kashmir, while the Maharaja was procrastinating, Pakistan sent in its irregular forces, backed by the regular forces, in an attempt to annex it. Maharaja sent his army into the battle. However, a problem arose. Since his army was saggregated into Hindu and Muslim components, his Muslim army made contact with the “enemy”, joined them, turned around and marched on their own capital, Srinagar. Maharaja appealed to India for help. The governor General, Lord Mountbatten, decline to come to his aid unless he first acceeded to India. Maharaja sent in his Instrument of Accession. In Kashmir, even during Maharaja’s rule, there was a liberation movement led by Sheikh Abdullah. He was the sole leader. When the Instrument of Accession reached the Indian government, Nehru objected and insisted that Sheikh Abdullah must endorse it before Indian forces could be sent into the state. Sheikh endorsed the document and Indian forces were airlifted into srinagar. By this time pakistani irregulars had reached the outskirts of Srinagar. And, the rout began.
I gave this lengthy description to point out that Kashmir accession was exactly according to the terms agreed to in advance by all the three parties: the British, India and Pakistan.
In case of Hyderabad, Nizam tried all the tricks in his bag. Even razakaars from Soudi Arabia were flown into the capital to buttress the government. This created a very tricky situation because the people rose up against the Nizam. There was a brief police action by India and the whole matter was wrapped up. Here again, the view of the majority of citizens was upheld.
To your question:”have u been ruled by Pious people at all times that your governments were alwasys right throughout the history when it came to treatment to its neighbouring state?” I have this answer. We are a democracy. We are not ruled by anyone, pious or otherwise. If it seems odd to you that our government was “always right throughout the history when it came to treatment to its neighbouring state” perhaps not but it is for sure that our government has been as careful as possible to act within enlightened self-interest of India. Please understand the difference between enlightened and rabid self-interest. We have not tried to cheat any other people which must include our own. I am sure, some of those actions may not be to the LIKING of some of our neighours at times but it is not always possible to please all.Recommend