What has been the Impact of the Creation of Bangladesh after 50 years?

[leonblack08]

Yet, even if the Burmese Army marches up to Dhaka not a single Bangal would fire a single shot from a single air gun to protest…..

Sure sure.

Keep paying for Israel's war machine with your hard earned tax money, sachcha imandar.

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

Why don't you change your flag to India?

he is a false flagger.

Yet, even if the Burmese Army marches up to Dhaka not a single Bangal would fire a single shot from a single air gun to protest…..

we are making sure the Burmese army cant leave their hiding hole in naypidaw. Mukti bahini style
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they will end up just like your own troops did in 71. Last time Burmese tried , well it didn't end well for them.

I know you understand bangla so i wont make the effort of translating

 

[PoondolotoPandalum]

Pakistan: The kid you've perhaps had a run-in with at school once. Unlike all the other kids who have moved on, he will spend his entire life trying to slap you back. By any means possible, even if it means his children skip meals. He will brag about being the smartest kid in elementary school. While all his classmates ended up in University and professional jobs, he ended up driving a taxi cab around the west midlands. He's the sort of bloke that'll finance a really expensive 2nd hand BMW or Merc, just to appear richer than he is. As a teenager, his main preoccupation was chasing the most expensive mobile phones, buying a Beemer, and chasing women around. Because he wasn't taught any better. And then he gets to a point in life where he's all of a sudden pious, even militantly so. Sometimes vulnerable to extremism, but always a believer of sketchy conspiracy theories. Overall, not a bad guy, but he's no role model for anyone, even his own children. A product of his cultural mindset more than anything. Which hasn't evolved all that much ever since Babur conquered the subcontinent.

Bangladesh: The poorest kid in school going to the poorest school in town. Both his parents work undignified jobs to put food on the table. He probably got bullied a lot in school for being so poor. Instead of holding a grudge, and acting like some 1-dimensional low fidelity video game NPC hell-bent on revenge, he gets his head down and works his arse off. His main aspiration in life is to go to Uni, get a respectable job, and produce a stable environment for his children, so they don't have to suffer as much as he did. He was always religious but kept religion to himself because he wasn't insecure in his belief. Overall, a highly resilient chap who can overcome just about anything. Used as a role model by some, though his children won't immediately appreciate it,m until they become parents themselves.

Different geographies, different cultures, different mindsets, different values, different interpretations of reality, and different destinies.

 

[Michael Corleone]

Yet, even if the Burmese Army marches up to Dhaka not a single Bangal would fire a single shot from a single air gun to protest…..

Like the Turks in demolition of the khalifat?

I am serious. Try it. Go into an outlet and demand chickens fresh off the fryer.

Aye aye boss. Next time when I’m back

Pakistan: The kid you've perhaps had a run-in with at school once. Unlike all the other kids who have moved on, he will spend his entire life trying to slap you back. By any means possible, even if it means his children skip meals. He will brag about being the smartest kid in elementary school. While all his classmates ended up in University and professional jobs, he ended up driving a taxi cab around the west midlands. He's the sort of bloke that'll finance a really expensive 2nd hand BMW or Merc, just to appear richer than he is. As a teenager, his main preoccupation was chasing the most expensive mobile phones, buying a Beemer, and chasing women around. Because he wasn't taught any better. And then he gets to a point in life where he's all of a sudden pious, even militantly so. Sometimes vulnerable to extremism, but always a believer of sketchy conspiracy theories. Overall, not a bad guy, but he's no role model for anyone, even his own children. A product of his cultural mindset more than anything. Which hasn't evolved all that much ever since Babur conquered the subcontinent.

Bangladesh: The poorest kid in school going to the poorest school in town. Both his parents work undignified jobs to put food on the table. He probably got bullied a lot in school for being so poor. Instead of holding a grudge, and acting like some 1-dimensional low fidelity video game NPC hell-bent on revenge, he gets his head down and works his arse off. His main aspiration in life is to go to Uni, get a respectable job, and produce a stable environment for his children, so they don't have to suffer as much as he did. He was always religious but kept religion to himself because he wasn't insecure in his belief. Overall, a highly resilient chap who can overcome just about anything. Used as a role model by some, though his children won't immediately appreciate it,m until they become parents themselves.

Different geographies, different cultures, different mindsets, different values, different interpretations of reality, and different destinies.

@DalalErMaNodi i think he described us Bengali kids in Kuwait pretty well.
Apart from the undignified job, every nigga gotta start from zero. Like the vice city stories mission “from zero to hero”

 

[F-6 enthusiast]

Sure sure.

Keep paying for Israel's war machine with your hard earned tax money, sachcha imandar.

If we can beat Pak Army , then surely we can beat the burmese ? Surely our friend @Hakikat ve Hikmet isn't suggesting that Myanmar army is more capable

i mean look at this
Burma Army Uses Farmers As Human Shields In Pekon Township - Shan Herald Agency for News (shannews.org)

Yes human shields

 

[Rusty2]

Pakistan: The kid you've perhaps had a run-in with at school once. Unlike all the other kids who have moved on, he will spend his entire life trying to slap you back. By any means possible, even if it means his children skip meals. He will brag about being the smartest kid in elementary school. While all his classmates ended up in University and professional jobs, he ended up driving a taxi cab around the west midlands. He's the sort of bloke that'll finance a really expensive 2nd hand BMW or Merc, just to appear richer than he is. As a teenager, his main preoccupation was chasing the most expensive mobile phones, buying a Beemer, and chasing women around. Because he wasn't taught any better. And then he gets to a point in life where he's all of a sudden pious, even militantly so. Sometimes vulnerable to extremism, but always a believer of sketchy conspiracy theories. Overall, not a bad guy, but he's no role model for anyone, even his own children. A product of his cultural mindset more than anything. Which hasn't evolved all that much ever since Babur conquered the subcontinent.

Bangladesh: The poorest kid in school going to the poorest school in town. Both his parents work undignified jobs to put food on the table. He probably got bullied a lot in school for being so poor. Instead of holding a grudge, and acting like some 1-dimensional low fidelity video game NPC hell-bent on revenge, he gets his head down and works his arse off. His main aspiration in life is to go to Uni, get a respectable job, and produce a stable environment for his children, so they don't have to suffer as much as he did. He was always religious but kept religion to himself because he wasn't insecure in his belief. Overall, a highly resilient chap who can overcome just about anything. Used as a role model by some, though his children won't immediately appreciate it,m until they become parents themselves.

Different geographies, different cultures, different mindsets, different values, different interpretations of reality, and different destinies.

Clearly your poor education is showing in your creative writing abilities.
Funny how you are on a Pakistani forum yet claim Pakistanis are the obsessed ones.

I don't want go further then this, but now that you are super power GDPDESH you might want to invest in some real education.

 

[Avicenna]

Pakistan: The kid you've perhaps had a run-in with at school once. Unlike all the other kids who have moved on, he will spend his entire life trying to slap you back. By any means possible, even if it means his children skip meals. He will brag about being the smartest kid in elementary school. While all his classmates ended up in University and professional jobs, he ended up driving a taxi cab around the west midlands. He's the sort of bloke that'll finance a really expensive 2nd hand BMW or Merc, just to appear richer than he is. As a teenager, his main preoccupation was chasing the most expensive mobile phones, buying a Beemer, and chasing women around. Because he wasn't taught any better. And then he gets to a point in life where he's all of a sudden pious, even militantly so. Sometimes vulnerable to extremism, but always a believer of sketchy conspiracy theories. Overall, not a bad guy, but he's no role model for anyone, even his own children. A product of his cultural mindset more than anything. Which hasn't evolved all that much ever since Babur conquered the subcontinent.

Bangladesh: The poorest kid in school going to the poorest school in town. Both his parents work undignified jobs to put food on the table. He probably got bullied a lot in school for being so poor. Instead of holding a grudge, and acting like some 1-dimensional low fidelity video game NPC hell-bent on revenge, he gets his head down and works his arse off. His main aspiration in life is to go to Uni, get a respectable job, and produce a stable environment for his children, so they don't have to suffer as much as he did. He was always religious but kept religion to himself because he wasn't insecure in his belief. Overall, a highly resilient chap who can overcome just about anything. Used as a role model by some, though his children won't immediately appreciate it,m until they become parents themselves.

Different geographies, different cultures, different mindsets, different values, different interpretations of reality, and different destinies.

Nice analogy actually.

 

[Rusty2]

Nice analogy actually.

It really isn't
He describing Pakistan spending frivolously, while in reality Pakistan has been every smart in its spending to the point where we are the only country in South Asia who are not an Indian colony.

Bangladesh's situation and Pakistan's situation are completely different. Bangladesh has submitted itself to India so that means you don't have to worry about spending for your military and you turn a blind eye when India shoots your people at the border, or calls you cockroaches or what not. On the bright side, you have a chance to re-funnel those resources into making underwear and what not.

Pakistan on the other hand, has been in an active war for the past 20 years, has had to deal with a Super power and two hostile neighbors and yet we are still standing and still serving fantastic tea and still defeating super powers. But the price for this has been the civil society.

A more apt analogy would be one side not submitting and spending their resources on becoming stronger at the expense of other aspects of his life, while the other side has just accepted that they will be a punching bag for India and instead invested their resources in making underwear.

 

[Avicenna]

It really isn't
He describing Pakistan spending frivolously, while in reality Pakistan has been every smart in its spending to the point where we are the only country in South Asia who are not an Indian colony.

Bangladesh's situation and Pakistan's situation are completely different. Bangladesh has submitted itself to India so that means you don't have to worry about spending for your military and you turn a blind eye when India shoots your people at the border, or calls you cockroaches or what not. On the bright side, you have a chance to re-funnel those resources into making underwear and what not.

Pakistan on the other hand, has been in an active war for the past 20 years, has had to deal with a Super power and two hostile neighbors and yet we are still standing and still serving fantastic tea and still defeating super powers. But the price for this has been the civil society.

A more apt analogy would be one side not submitting and spending their resources on becoming stronger at the expense of other aspects of his life, while the other side has just accepted that they will be a punching bag for India and instead invested their resources in making underwear.

Ok.

 

[Shahzaz ud din]

excelled in cricket

What happened when Bhutto arrived n Dhaka in July 1974?.A page from the history.
.A quote from J.N. Dixit, the first Head of the Indian Mission (Ambassador) in Dhaka after the establishment of Bangladesh. In his book, Dixit who later became India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, and his country’s Foreign Secretary and then the National Security Adviser of India, discusses the first-ever visit to Bangladesh by the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) in 1974, as under *(‘Liberation and Beyond – Indo- Bangladesh Relations’, J. N. Dixit, pages 189-190, published in 1999 by Konark Publishers Pvt, Delhi):

*Quote*

_Bhutto arrived in Dhaka in July 1974. I drove to the airport through dense crowds lining both sides of the streets all the way from the Tejgaon airport to Banga Bhavan, resounding with slogans like ‘Bangladesh-Pakistani Maitri (friendship) Zindabad’ and ‘Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zindabad.’ This was a far cry from the massive anti-Bhutto demonstrations held in Dhaka in the second fortnight of March 1971. All the heads of the diplomatic missions were lined up at the tarmac. Bhutto descended from a special air force aircraft in the uniform of the supreme leader of the People’s Party of Pakistan. I was introduced when he reached me in the reception line. Shaking me by the hand, he turned to Mujibur Rahman and said: “So, he represents the country which re-arranged the map of the sub-continent in 1971.†Then, addressing me, he said: “May be, he (would) help us a second time in re-arranging the map by resolving the Kashmir problem which has been pending for such a long time.â€_

It was the journey back from the airport which was a politically and emotionally disturbing experience for me. As the motorcade moved out, the frenzied enthusiasm of the mass of the people lining the route reached a high pitch, with slogans and shouting in favor of Bhutto and Pakistan. The new and striking feature of this show was the many slogans very critical of the Awami League and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I was told later that people threw garlands of shoes at Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s car on his journey back to the President’s House. My flag car was vandalized and the Indian flag was tampered with by the crowds as it slowed down near the road crossing at the InterContinental Hotel. Abusive slogans were shouted against the Indian High Commission and the Government of India._

_I have to confess that I had tears of anger in my eyes when I returned to my office and sat down to draft my telegram reporting on the arrival ceremonies and attendant political events."


*The question is, if Pakistan and its army were as monstrous as has been alleged in Bangladesh today, why was the Prime Minister of Pakistan given such a tumultuous welcome in Dhaka in 1974, just a little more than two years after the establishment of Bangladesh? If the common man in Bangladesh considered India as the benefactor of the people of Bangladesh, why was the Indian Ambassador™s official car garlanded with shoes? If Pakistan has been such a hated country in Bangladesh, why is it so that so many Bangladeshis came to the airport to welcome Zulfikar Ali Bhutto? They should have raised full-throated slogans against the Prime Minister of Pakistan, rather than shouting ‘Bhutto Zindabad (Long live Bhutto).’*.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

It really isn't
He describing Pakistan spending frivolously, while in reality Pakistan has been every smart in its spending to the point where we are the only country in South Asia who are not an Indian colony.

Bangladesh's situation and Pakistan's situation are completely different. Bangladesh has submitted itself to India so that means you don't have to worry about spending for your military and you turn a blind eye when India shoots your people at the border, or calls you cockroaches or what not. On the bright side, you have a chance to re-funnel those resources into making underwear and what not.

Pakistan on the other hand, has been in an active war for the past 20 years, has had to deal with a Super power and two hostile neighbors and yet we are still standing and still serving fantastic tea and still defeating super powers. But the price for this has been the civil society.

A more apt analogy would be one side not submitting and spending their resources on becoming stronger at the expense of other aspects of his life, while the other side has just accepted that they will be a punching bag for India and instead invested their resources in making underwear.

Great points! My only reservation: Pak's been in war since 1947....

Lord Mountbatten gave a time-line of 25 years for the break-up of Pak in 1947! It took place at the 24th year!!! When Imperialists provide a policy statement it means the executions to realize it have already been activated...

 

[Pak Nationalist]

Hmm.. we are brothers. Not husband and wife.

Your brother calls you a termite. There are many self-hating Pakistanis in Pakistan. I guess there are many self-hating Bengali Muslims in erstwhile East Pakistan and present-day Bangladesh as well. Pity!

OP is from Kolkata..

Sarmila Bose is or was on Islamabad's payroll, nobody cares what she has to say..


Tarek Fatah on the other hand is a good honest man.

Tarek Fatah is a good and honest man. Addendum, in an alternative reality where traitors and intellectual pygmies are good and honest men.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

What happened when Bhutto arrived n Dhaka in July 1974?.A page from the history.
.A quote from J.N. Dixit, the first Head of the Indian Mission (Ambassador) in Dhaka after the establishment of Bangladesh. In his book, Dixit who later became India’s High Commissioner to Pakistan, and his country’s Foreign Secretary and then the National Security Adviser of India, discusses the first-ever visit to Bangladesh by the Prime Minister of Pakistan (Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) in 1974, as under *(‘Liberation and Beyond – Indo- Bangladesh Relations’, J. N. Dixit, pages 189-190, published in 1999 by Konark Publishers Pvt, Delhi):

*Quote*

_Bhutto arrived in Dhaka in July 1974. I drove to the airport through dense crowds lining both sides of the streets all the way from the Tejgaon airport to Banga Bhavan, resounding with slogans like ‘Bangladesh-Pakistani Maitri (friendship) Zindabad’ and ‘Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Zindabad.’ This was a far cry from the massive anti-Bhutto demonstrations held in Dhaka in the second fortnight of March 1971. All the heads of the diplomatic missions were lined up at the tarmac. Bhutto descended from a special air force aircraft in the uniform of the supreme leader of the People’s Party of Pakistan. I was introduced when he reached me in the reception line. Shaking me by the hand, he turned to Mujibur Rahman and said: “So, he represents the country which re-arranged the map of the sub-continent in 1971.†Then, addressing me, he said: “May be, he (would) help us a second time in re-arranging the map by resolving the Kashmir problem which has been pending for such a long time.â€_

It was the journey back from the airport which was a politically and emotionally disturbing experience for me. As the motorcade moved out, the frenzied enthusiasm of the mass of the people lining the route reached a high pitch, with slogans and shouting in favor of Bhutto and Pakistan. The new and striking feature of this show was the many slogans very critical of the Awami League and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. I was told later that people threw garlands of shoes at Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s car on his journey back to the President’s House. My flag car was vandalized and the Indian flag was tampered with by the crowds as it slowed down near the road crossing at the InterContinental Hotel. Abusive slogans were shouted against the Indian High Commission and the Government of India._

_I have to confess that I had tears of anger in my eyes when I returned to my office and sat down to draft my telegram reporting on the arrival ceremonies and attendant political events."


*The question is, if Pakistan and its army were as monstrous as has been alleged in Bangladesh today, why was the Prime Minister of Pakistan given such a tumultuous welcome in Dhaka in 1974, just a little more than two years after the establishment of Bangladesh? If the common man in Bangladesh considered India as the benefactor of the people of Bangladesh, why was the Indian Ambassador™s official car garlanded with shoes? If Pakistan has been such a hated country in Bangladesh, why is it so that so many Bangladeshis came to the airport to welcome Zulfikar Ali Bhutto? They should have raised full-throated slogans against the Prime Minister of Pakistan, rather than shouting ‘Bhutto Zindabad (Long live Bhutto).’*.

Mujib's one-party autocratic family based Baas style rule, where opposition folks were brutally suppressed, was 100x worse than that during Pak! Mujib conducted an election where only 2 opposition members were allowed to be elected in the parliament!!! Mujib killed 40K ex-Mukti young folks for they opposed to his corrupt-to-the-womb misrule which created a man-made famine* that killed 2 million common folks!!! According to Mujib regime's own investigation 200K Bangal folks were killed during 1971. Mujib was almost there to reconcile this number of 3 million he originally declared without any surveys...

*According to the Nobel laureate Indian origin economist Armatya Sen (himself a Bengali), 1974 famine in BD was man made due to wrong policies, wide spread corruption, collapse of the supply chain of the essential commodities (due to the wanton killing and driving away of the Muhajir businessmen), and humongous smuggling of the relief materials, sent from the entire world, to India.
**After the elimination of the Mujib regime his own party's stalwarts admitted it was a Firaunic regime

 

[xyx007]

What has been the Impact of the Creation of Bangladesh?

Beginning in March 1971, the Bangladesh War of Independence led to East Pakistan becoming a new nation state. On the 50th anniversary of its outbreak, four experts assess the war’s legacy.

History Today | Published in History
Today Volume 71 Issue 3 March 2021

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman mural at Cumilla Pourosova Park, Dharmasagar, Cumilla.

The creation of Bangladesh was a missed opportunity for India to reverse the British partition of Bengal. It was an error of judgement due to India’s tendency to think in terms of how to damage Pakistan, rather than what might benefit India.

At the end of the 1971 war, Pakistan was in disarray and the Indian army was in control of the territory of East Pakistan. Had Indira Gandhi annexed it as the new state of East Bengal within the Union of India and offered Sheikh Mujib the chief ministership, evidence suggests he would have accepted. He had few options. India has responded with an iron fist to any secessionist tendencies within the boundaries it was bequeathed by the British, holding large swathes of territory under military occupation, without Constitutional protections. By 1975 Indira Gandhi had annexed Sikkim and broken the ‘Lion of Kashmir’, Sheikh Abdullah, who agreed to be chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir.

The creation of Bangladesh also reinforced the concept of the ‘nation state’, the poisonous gift of European colonisation, rather than stimulating thinking about alternative forms of political organisation. Worse, it reinforced the fallacious notion that nationhood and state formation could be based on a singular identity – ‘Bengali’ in this case, rather than ‘Muslim’, which was the basis for Pakistan. Pakistan ceased to exist in 1971, as the creation of Bangladesh destroyed its raison d’etre. But Bangladesh was no more a land for Bengalis than Pakistan was a homeland for South Asia’s Muslims. Nearly half of the world’s Bengalis did not live in East Pakistan and had no desire to become Bangladeshis, nor did Bangladesh want them. The continuing precarious position of Hindus in Bangladesh showed that being Bengali was not enough.

In 1947 many Bengali Hindus backed Partition to avoid Muslim majority rule in a democratic India. The continuation of Partition in the form of Bangladesh by a professedly secular Indian government has ultimately contributed to the political space for the rise of Hindu nationalism in India.

‘The Pakistani government has never apologised for the genocide it committed’.

Nahid Afrose Kabir, Professor of History at BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

As we celebrate 50 years since Bangladesh’s independence, I feel proud of my Bangladeshi identity. Yet, when I (with my parents) lived in Karachi in what was then West Pakistan from 1964 to 1970, I observed first-hand how the West Pakistani government deprived the people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) of their economic, cultural and political rights. Then from 25 March to 16 December 1971, the Pakistani military government resorted to genocide against Bangladeshis, while many Bangladeshis joined the Liberation War. India offered help to the Bangladeshis by giving them refuge and training their freedom fighters. India finally defeated Pakistan’s forces in early December 1971.

The Bangladeshis have been resilient in nation building and have made advances in many areas. Bangladesh now has a female prime minister, Sheikh Hasina. It has made progress in the field of education and excelled in cricket and the garment industry. The late Sir Fazle Abed founded the world’s largest non government organisation, BRAC, in Bangladesh. Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank’s microcredit system assists the poor, mostly women, to get out of poverty. Bangladesh has also accommodated about 1.3 million Rohingya refugees.

Amid the positive developments, however, there are issues to be addressed. In 1997 a peace accord was signed between the government of Bangladesh and the Chittagong Hill Tracts people. Yet there is still a heavy presence of Bangladeshi military in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and land disputes continue. The 2016 terrorist attacks on the Holey Artisan Café in Dhaka revealed that Bangladesh is vulnerable to the rise of Islamic radicalisation.

Through Bangladesh’s foreign policy of ‘friendship to all, malice to none’, Bangladesh and Pakistan are trying to improve their bilateral relations. But we should never forget the genocide committed by the Pakistani military government against the people of Bangladesh in 1971. As of February 2021, the Pakistani government has not apologised for the genocide. On the war’s 50th anniversary, it is time for it to do so.

‘Refugees from the war have struggled to find a foothold in Pakistan’

Samira Shackle, Author of Karachi Vice: Life and Death in a Contested City (Granta, 2021).
*
The Bangladesh War of Independence has cast a long shadow across all the countries borne out of Partition and each has its own way of viewing that war and its aftermath. In Bangladesh, of course, the 1971 war is a story of liberation from an oppressor. In India, it is seen as a moment of victory. In Pakistan, it is felt as a deep loss; even today, 50 years later, it is not unusual to hear people refer to Bangladesh by its old name, ‘East Pakistan’. Yet despite that sense of loss, refugees from the 1971 war have struggled to find a foothold in Pakistan; instead they are rejected by both sides.
At the time of Partition, many Muslims from the Indian state of Bihar moved to East Pakistan. They were working class but educated and many found work on the railways or in other government jobs. The Biharis spoke Urdu and, over time, tension escalated with the local Bangla-speaking population. When war broke out, the Bihari community sided with West Pakistan. Their side lost the war, meaning that thousands were displaced for a second time. Having already left their homes in India in 1947, many migrated once again. Despite these sacrifices in the name of nation-building, in Pakistan they found a country less than willing to welcome them. Even today, many Biharis do not have full Pakistani citizenship. Thousands more have been left stranded in camps in Bangladesh; until the Supreme Court ruled in 2008 that they had the right to Bangladeshi citizenship, they were rendered stateless. Many of those who did make it to Pakistan still are.
This is echoed on the other side of the border. Millions of ethnic Bengalis sought refuge in the Indian state of Assam, but, 50 years later, they are still considered ‘foreigners’. In recent years, under a Hindu majority government, efforts in Assam to deport or detain some ethnic Bengalis have stepped up.
In both India and Pakistan, these marginalised communities are the ultimate living evidence of the communal tensions that have simmered since 1947 – tensions which have erupted into war several times and which continue to shape people’s lives profoundly.

‘Independence has not necessarily brought freedom or democracy’

Mubashar Hasan, Adjunct Fellow at Western Sydney University and author of Islam and Politics in Bangladesh: The Followers of Ummah (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).

Though it is 50 years since the country’s creation, the momentum behind the quest for freedom and democracy for Bangladeshis had been building throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Systematic exclusionary policies imposed by West Pakistan had resulted in arrested development in the country’s East, leading to poverty, lower literacy and limited access to civil and military positions for the citizens of East Pakistan.

Added to this, restricted press freedom and the imprisonment and extra-judicial killings of activists and critics funnelled mass resentment. When the Awami League (AL), which was founded by Bengali nationalists in Dhaka in 1949, won 167 of the 169 East Pakistan seats in the 1970 national election, Pakistan’s military ruler Yahya Khan repeatedly postponed the meeting of the national assembly. On 7 March 1971, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the charismatic leader of the AL, said ‘the people of Bangla want to have their rights’. It seemed the issue could not be resolved peacefully and what followed was a nine-month-long war.

In the early years of independence, the Bangladeshi economy was ruined by the war and remained underdeveloped. Yet today, 50 years after the war’s conclusion, progress has been remarkable. The government, with support from NGOs, has lifted millions out of severe poverty, increased mass literacy and reduced child mortality. Its multi-billion-dollar textile industry employs hundreds of thousands of women. Huge infrastructure projects have been completed.

Yet severe economic inequality is on the rise and Bangladeshi democracy is grossly undermined by regular state attacks on freedom of speech, academic freedom and allegations of grave human rights violations against the opposition and critics. Since 2014, the country has, in practice, been under the one-party rule of AL. Citizens, including AL supporters, are denied voting rights. It is a state of affairs, in terms of civil liberties and democracy, that might remind onlookers of the situation which first prompted unrest in East Pakistan. Independence has not necessarily brought real freedom or real democracy.

These stories are padded and embellished to portray the Banglies as the only victim of the Pakistani military to the world. As you look back through your history lens, you can see that the biggest victims were the Biharis and the West Pakistanis who settled with their families, as well as the Bangles who wanted to be called Pakistanis. As a result of the history of traitors associated with Bengal since the Mughal era, Quaid Azam was told not to include Mujeeb. Quaid Azam is used by Mujeeb to achieve freedom and later for the purpose of declaring a separate nation, he requires Indian assistance. In addition, we also treated the Bangli people as second-class citizens, for which Allah punished us in 1971 with this act, creating a perfect storm that ultimately benefited India, which meant Mujeeb and they absolutely won.

 

[Shahzaz ud din]

we also treated the Bangli people as second-class citizens,

Could you explain when did we treat Bengali peoples as second-class citizens,?