US and Australia were colonial states that seeked independence from their mother homelands. East Pakistan in comparison was equal part of Federation of Pakistan. The reason East Pakistanis went for separation was due to non democratic treatment they faced from West Pakistan establishment
I have to agree with
@Norwegian Bhai here - I have heard 1st hand accounts from my grandfather before he passed (when I was a teen ager) that even in East Pakistani civil service and at every level of corporate employment in East Pakistan, there was preference for West Pakistanis (especially related to nepotism issues). Since the administrative center was in West Pakistan,
the perception was (however true or not) that foreign scholarships, allocation of development projects all went to West Pakistani locations.
West Pakistani administrators of the time did nothing to allay these concerns - which I'd say stemmed largely from feudal attitudes which is sort of alien to East Pakistani or Bangladeshi attitudes.
Well I'll take that back, they did write names of PIA airline, airports. money, postage stamps, official forms and large civil installations (like State Bank of Pakistan) in Bangla on the side of documents, buildings and aircraft. But that was the token extent of pandering to Bengali ethnicity (which Bengalis are very sensitive about), and which I may argue that was so different from most of West Pakistan.
There was no hands of outreach to close the cultural gap, whether perceived, or real.
Combined with "Bangal ka Kaley, bhookhey, Nangey aadmi" attitude from feudally minded administrators from West Pakistan, problems starting with 1952 Language Movement was a major political milestone which Indian agents in East Pakistan took full advantage of. Nehru had planned such a thing from the get-go, and events played right into RAW's hands until 1971 occurred.
Killing of the Bengali Language Movement students in Feb. 21, 1952 in Dhaka (concerning demand for Bengali as a National language of Pakistan) turned them into martyrs (echoed to this day by AL as political ammunition). The top administrators (mostly West Pakistani) again did little to allay these concerns, 'handle' Sheikh Mujib or placate the masses.
Please read the following for timeline of demands and events.
The Language Movement The Language Movement is a unique event in the history of the political Movement of Bangladesh. Bengali was the mother tongue of about 56 percent of the people of Pakistan. On the other hand, Urdu was the mother tongue of only 6 percent people of the whole of Pakistan...
www.topperbd.com
So when you had perception on Bengali side like this, there arose a few issues.
- Special quarters in EP utilized these events to convert minor issues and gave them a communal tone and narrative, West Pakistanis in EP suddenly turned into 'those interlopers and faida uthanewaala outsiders'
- If your family has money you didn't care - but for educated middle class in EP this roti-ruji issue (of Bengalis not getting hired in EP itself) became a special grievance with a popular negative mandate.
- The Bengali Nationalist Movement (as I said above) gained massive political momentum in EP and the administrators in Islamabad paid little heed.
Ultimately - my take on this is that feudal sort of civilian rule and attitudes back in those days (like that used in ruling the military and Civilian administration in WP since Ayub Khan's rule) backfired in EP.
People in EP/Bangladesh have a very strong sense of ethnocentricity and generally believe in inclusive society and development (the level of class divide is not as wide as that in India), which is at complete odds with feudal land-owner cultural values in North India and Pakistan - which is still true today (look at the difference of baseline education, hygiene and health HDI figures between us and India).
That is just how it is, we are a homogenous group with our strong history, traditions and culture. To ask them to abandon it, and to not have an equal seat at the table (especially after Ayub Khan took over as MLA) was the final nail in the coffin.
To explain why 1971 happened to Pakistan - you have to look at the postscript to that event.
Since 1971 - this trend of providing democratic inclusive and developmental growth to the most underprivileged in Bangladesh has snowballed here, it is home to two of the world's largest NGO's, Grameen and BRAC, along with many, many others dedicated to alleviating poverty and engaged in micro-finance and social non-profit business ventures that employ a lot of upper middle class educated young Bangladeshi folks who are honored to serve at these global organizations training the world on how to alleviate poverty at a global level. My understanding is that Grameen and BRAC are also present in Pakistan and work the EDHI foundation in Karachi's largest destitute neighborhoods.
Today our population growth and
female fertility level is almost at replacement rate at 2.1 child per woman (lower than India), we have more girls than boys at primary, secondary and high-school levels, and our rate of female employment is higher than that of the US.
These are demonstrations of what can happen when civil society and corporate interests work together for the greater good.
Our GDP per capita as we all know has exceeded that of India and we have more inclusive development compared to India (which is where sustainable GDP growth comes in). We were not surprised to see this development.
All this thanks to the NGO's, our civil society movement and of course some policy help from the govt. (but not much, they could do way better).
Awami League could easily dismiss LFO after getting landslide victory in 1970 elections. Voice of the people (democracy) is much stronger than any martial law administrators Ordinance.
They had people's backing after wining more than half of all national seats
By legality alone - Sheikh could demand Prime Minister-ship of all of Pakistan, but he was just fishing for some self-rule economics wise.
