Bangladesh at 50: A country created in violence but still bearing scars of a good troubled birth

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March 26 marks 50 years because the start of Bangladesh’s liberation war, a bloody nine-month campaign that culminated found in the nation’s independence on Dec. 16, 1971.

It had been a violent birth, with a few of its roots found in the 1947 partition of India - when Pakistan was made as a separate nation.

As the British Empire kept the subcontinent, an estimated 200,000 to at least one 1.5 million persons were killed in sectarian violence associated with the partition and 10 million to 15 million were forcibly displaced.

Recently independent Pakistan comprised two separate geographical areas separated by simply over a thousand miles of Indian terrain. While both areas included significant Muslim populations, West Pakistan was built up mainly of Punjabi, Pashtuns, Sindhis, Baloch and other smaller ethnic teams. In contrast, the population of East Pakistan, which started to be modern-day time Bangladesh, was predominantly ethnically Bengali, as the territory was formerly the main Indian region of Bengal.

As a scholar of conflict, I argue that each of these factors - specially the differences in language and political and financial inequities - laid the groundwork for Bangladesh’s independence struggle. This record continues with an impact today.

Deepening fault lines
From early on, the issue of language was a difficult one. In 1948, the founding innovator of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, emphasized that only Urdu, spoken by Muslims in the north and northwest in British India, ought to be the express language of the country. Bangla, spoken overwhelmingly by East Pakistanis, was considered by West Pakistani leadership as a “non-Muslim” language.

The Urdu-only policy aimed to make a single identity out of two culturally unique regions united by a common religion - Islam. Extra broadly, it aimed to consolidate the countrywide identity of the recently independent Pakistan.

In East Pakistan, the declaration was followed by the banning of Bengali books, songs and poetry by Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore. Bangla language as the channel of education and primary method of instruction was also banned.

All currency and official files, including postal stamps and railway tickets, were printed on Urdu.

The terminology ban deepened tensions that had already emerged between West and East Pakistan. A major reason for this was significant economic disparities between the two regions. West Pakistan controlled the country’s sector and commerce while East Pakistan was predominantly the supplier for recycleables, setting up a situation of unequal exchange.

In 1959-60 the per capita income in West Pakistan was 32% greater than in East Pakistan. By 1969-70, it was 81% bigger in West Pakistan. Investment plans including in educational infrastructure constantly favored West Pakistan.

East Pakistanis had little access to the central government, that was found in the West Pakistani metropolis of Islamabad. These were severely underrepresented in politics. West Pakistani political leadership did not see Bengalis as “serious” Muslims. Both in political circles and socially, Bengali cultural procedures were considered of a lesser social status.

Mass uprising
The efforts to “Islamize” East Pakistanis through Urdu and “purify” Bengali culture from “Hindu influences” led to massive nonviolent demonstrations and strikes.

On Feb. 21, 1952, pupils and various other activists launched a language movements named the “Bhasha Andolon,” which demanded Bangla be recognized as the state dialect for East Pakistan. Thousands of school and college students protested, defying Section 144 of the Criminal Procedural Code, which prohibited assembly of five or even more people and holding of open public meetings.

The crackdown that followed claimed several lives. From 1950 to 1969 in addition, it galvanized a growing movement for autonomy across East Pakistan.

A mass uprising in 1969 was brutally deposit by police and resulted in the imposition of martial legislation.

In 1970, a devastating cyclone called “Bhola” in East Pakistan claimed 300,000 to 500,000 lives. The indifferent response of the West Pakistan federal government further inflamed tensions.

A big turning level came the same year when the sole majority political get together in East Pakistan, led by Bengali politician Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide success in national elections. The Pakistani leadership was reluctant to accept the results because it did not desire an East Pakistani political get together heading the federal government.

This resulted in the beginning of a civil disobedience movement in East Pakistan.

As the demand for Bengali autonomy grew, the Pakistani government launched Operation Searchlight,“ a military procedure to crush the emerging activity. Regarding to journalist Robert Payne, it killed at least 7,000 Bengali civilians - both Hindus and Muslims - in a single night.

On March 26, Bangladesh was declared independent and the liberation war began.

The violent birth of Bangladesh
The liberation war was fought mostly by civilians - males and females, Muslims, Hindus and non-Bengali Indigenous people.

Bangladesh’s independence struggle occurred on the broader context of the Wintry War, which meant exterior actors were mixed up in conflict. During the Cold Battle, India allied with the Soviet Union, while the U.S. allied with Pakistan to counter Soviet effect in South Asia and protect its geostrategic pursuits vis-a-vis Afghanistan and China.

When the Pakistani military intensified its campaign to quell the independence movement, it did hence with the data and support of the Nixon administration.

The Pakistani military and its local collaborators especially targeted Hindus, who in the 1961 census represented 18% of East Pakistan’s population of 50 million.

An estimated 10 million Bengalis became refugees in India. An additional 20 million had been internally displaced. Around 200,000 to 400,000 Bengali women of all ages were systematically raped.

Independent research estimates 500,000 to at least one 1 million people were killed on the genocidal plan. The Bangladesh government keeps that 3 million Bengalis had been killed in the war.

On Dec. 3, India officially entered the war privately of Bangladesh.

Ten days later, in one of the last military operations, more than 300 Bengali academics, doctors, engineers, journalists, performers and teachers - Hindus and Muslims alike - were massacred by Pakistani soldiers and their regional collaborators.

On Dec. 16, 1971, the Pakistani military surrendered to the Indian Army, marking it as Bangladesh’s Success Day.

Challenges today
Immediately after its independence, in a meeting between officials of america Agency for International Advancement and Secretary of Point out Henry Kissinger, Bangladesh was first labeled a "basket circumstance.” Years of economic inequities, the 1970 cyclone and the war had left 70% of its populace living below the poverty brand.

However, in the 50 years since its independence, Bangladesh has produced some significant strides. It features aggressively tackled baby mortality,gender inequity and financial production. Today, with a booming economy, it is on the right track to graduate from the United Nation’s least developed region category.

Nevertheless, Bangladesh still faces tremendous challenges. Violence against women and girls, corruption and insufficient press freedoms remain serious considerations.

Founded on the concepts of secularism, the country today faces a growth of Islamists.

The divide between those that participated in the independence struggle and the ones who collaborated with the Pakistani armed service continues to shape Bangladesh’s political landscape today. 
Source: https://theconversation.com

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