What kind of video is it?

[SekrutYakhni]

The only difference between the situation you described, and the one I am talking about is, Urdu was declared a 'National' language not an 'official' language neither was it 'enforced' in former East Pakistan. English was and still is the official language of Pakistan like perhaps it also is of many former British colonies. Jinnah declared Urdu as a national language because he thought Urdu being so widely spoken and understood in the United Pakistan would act as a bridge, as a glue that would bring different ethnicities close and form them into a nation, a Pakistani nation. It is unfortunate that East Pakistanis failed to see the reason behind or they saw the reason but Bengali nationalism was favored over Pakistani nationalism.

Language was not the only reason.
Was it?

 

[qsaark]

Language was not the only reason.
Was it?

It was the first reason that subsequently lead to a wider array of problems.

 

[sparklingway]

So we have had our fair share of trolls as always accusing everybody to be an "agent", "traitor", "anti-Pakistan" and on "payroll " if they do not agree with their myopic ideas and present something else than the distorted, adultered history that they read in their text books.

You can always tell, pre-hand, who will be posting such remarks and this depicts the level of intellectual freedom that these people want to grant their nation. Taliban style nations do not work. Stop imposing your tunnel vision on me. Go read a bunch of books on history and philosophy.

 

[desiman]

So we have had our fair share of trolls as always accusing everybody to be an "agent", "traitor", "anti-Pakistan" and on "payroll " if they do not agree with their myopic ideas and present something else than the distorted, adultered history that they read in their text books.

You can always tell, pre-hand, who will be posting such remarks and this depicts the level of intellectual freedom that these people want to grant their nation. Taliban style nations do not work. Stop imposing your tunnel vision on me. Go read a bunch of books on history and philosophy.

Your views are always nice to read and you actually talk sense unlike many here, keep up the good work

 

[qsaark]

So we have had our fair share of trolls as always accusing everybody to be an "agent", "traitor", "anti-Pakistan" and on "payroll " if they do not agree with their myopic ideas and present something else than the distorted, adultered history that they read in their text books.

You can always tell, pre-hand, who will be posting such remarks and this depicts the level of intellectual freedom that these people want to grant their nation. Taliban style nations do not work. Stop imposing your tunnel vision on me. Go read a bunch of books on history and philosophy.

This is some pretty strong statement; may I ask whom you are addressing? I can only hope that this is not in response to my post where I declared Mr. Sethi a liberal fascist.

 

[sparklingway]

This is some pretty strong statement; may I ask whom you are addressing? I can only hope that this is not in response to my post where I declared Mr. Sethi a liberal fascist.

This is not a response to you. It is a response to other people, who should come out of the belief that they are the only patriots alive and everybody else somehow is working on a "payroll".

Liberal Fascist is a very very acceptable word.

 

[xenia]

i thnk the shifting of capital to islamabad was another reason of the ultimate fall (yet another dream of a dictator)...it turned out to b an economic disaster for the then east pakistan as it increased transportation cost..others may disagree but i think having a country with two arms separated by an enemy country (m talking about partition era) was not an ideal situation ab initio..
the lingual issue, i feel, should have been addressed..i think these symbolic moves dont cost much but are ultimately beneficial..urdu was chosen to facilitate muhajirs n who says west pakistan took pains in proliferating urdu and its literature in east pak..
also bangldesh was ethnically more homogenous than west pakistan..so after partition they were more alike but pakistan remained equally heterogenous..

 

[SekrutYakhni]

What about economic depression?
I think that if West Pakistan had a strong economy than Bengalis had no reason to demand a separate country other than language issue. (keep politics aside for a sec)
^^ Am I right?

 

[xenia]

What about economic depression?
I think that if West Pakistan had a strong economy than Bengalis had no reason to demand a separate country other than language issue. (keep politics aside for a sec)
^^ Am I right?

i think rationality does not prevail at highest levels..say even if they were making fuss about language we should have chosen a symbolic move..they felt alienated from west pakistan..
n the economy qestion..they blamed that west pakistan was not giving their due share in economy n was eating their export revenues(international trade usually was done from west pakistan)..n that is true upto a considerable extent.

 

[sparklingway]

they blamed that west pakistan was not giving their due share in economy n was eating their export revenues(international trade usually was done from west pakistan)..n that is true upto a considerable extent.

Considerable is a lighter word. Your sentence should have been "that is completely true".

For an economic tale of the reasons of separation, please read "Making of a Nation: Bangladesh: An Economist's Tale" by Nurul Islam.

I'll just copy some words from the Dawn review of the book as I do not have the book in my collection right now.

"In 1955-60, the total development expenditure in the majority province of East Pakistan amounted to Rs3,700 million compared to Rs7,300 million in the west wing. Till then, against 690 senior civil servants of the rank of under secretary and above from the west in the Federal Secretariat, only 51 had an East Pakistani domicile. Not one serving federal secretary till 1955 hailed from the east."

The book has more than half of its pages dedicated to the performance of the Bangladeshi economy in the early years and Sheikh Mujib's failed nationalization and rising dissent but the early part of the book ('47 - '71) is worth the read.

For a West Pakistani view read "The Political Economy Of Pakistan 1947-85" by Omar Noman. The writer is extremely critical of many Pakistan Movement leaders, so some might find it offensive but this book is an excellent read on the economic policies of that day.

 

[SekrutYakhni]

There is no reply from some senior or think tank members...

 

[SekrutYakhni]

Sparklingview: I will read it this summers..

Thank you for posting.

 

[Pride]

The only difference between the situation you described, and the one I am talking about is, Urdu was declared a 'National' language not an 'official' language neither was it 'enforced' in former East Pakistan. English was and still is the official language of Pakistan like perhaps it also is of many former British colonies. Jinnah declared Urdu as a national language because he thought Urdu being so widely spoken and understood in the United Pakistan would act as a bridge, as a glue that would bring different ethnicities close and form them into a nation, a Pakistani nation. It is unfortunate that East Pakistanis failed to see the reason behind or they saw the reason but Bengali nationalism was favored over Pakistani nationalism.

May Be I lost somewhere in my ealrier post but exactly the same case was with GoI and Non-hindi speaking states. Nehru in 1955 proposed Hindi as 'National' language to connect a vast coutry with one language as vision and a period of 5 years given for touchpoint which was not enthusiastic and Non-Hindi states were in love with their language and same time afraid of losing job and higher position (Same as you are refering to East Pakistan)..

As they tried to enforced Hindi as National language.. many people burnt themselves in Non-hindi states and hence hindi/english were made only official languages..and others were included and given same respect as hindi in government organised exams..

 

[Abu Zolfiqar]

you guys should read Diaries of Field Marshal Ayub Khan

 

[Aamir Hussain]

It comes as a real surprise to me on some of the responses of some of the members on this forum on Mr. Sethi's video. It seems that they actually believed the everyday BS that was piled upon us by our leaders over the years.

The fact of the matter is:

1. We in our infinite wisdom and shortsightedness offered to be the sepoy of the region for U.S. back in early 50s'! Their only mistake was that they took our offer!

2. We went to war with India thinking the US is an idiot and that they will keep on taking our BS hook line and sinker. They were not in an alliance with us to advance our own little agenda but for a larger game with the Chicoms and the Soviets. War with India was not backed by US -- and sadly our leaders were clearly told by them time and time again but totally misread the possible response of US.

3. Once the war did not go our way, we blamed the US for the debacle. We never raised the possibility that not going to war and concentrating on our economy and leveraging the U.S. Aid would have made us the Korea of this region in the next five years if things would have not gone south.

4. Once again, we were sucked in by the Indians because of our lack of wisdom and vision. We could have handled the situation way before the debacle of 71' but our leadership failed us -- but we were led to believe that it was the US which failed to come to our rescue!!!! US tried to ease the situation for us but this time around India played the Soviet card (the same one we had in 65' but did not use it intelligently) to its advantage against US as counter balance. No where we were told that China was asked by US to deploy its troop on their southern border to ease the pressure on Pakistan while they pressurize India from the sea!!! China did not even move a battalion to the Tibetan border! The plan fell through. Our leaders conveniently blamed everyone else for the debacle.

5. In 75' we were already supporting insurgency in Afghanistan and was one of the (not the only one) catalyst for the Russians to step into Afghanistan!!! We then in our infinite wisdom manipulated the situation to get our quintessential ally US to come in and bankroll the war for a different reason. We wanted a pan-Islamic resurgence (along with our other quintessential ally KSA –who is extremely fond of using us our or should we say their created religious zealots for its proxy war with the Iranians). The US wanted to give a bloody nose to Russkies – in return for theirs in Vietnam. Convergent goals, but for different reasons. Once the US goals were met they started wrapping up – our goal was still a little far off so we did the next best thing – in our heady win – we started playing the regional manipulator – and failed miserably. Once again totally misread the reasons for our allies to be with us in this war. We today give “Lessons” of this region to the western powers but we were ourselves the victims of the same stupid notions not so long ago!!

We are again standing at the cross roads of destiny – God handed to us on a plate another chance. W need to this time around grow up and look at the future with a vision larger than the strategic depth, India, and the nuclear reserve of the Muslim world! A vision that places this country as an important regional powerhouse (economically) aligned with countries for trade, science, & technology. If we achieve this, we would not have a need for the “Strategic Depth” and misplaced Pan Islamism/alliances against India!

Food for thought, Who is behind?

a. IBA
b. Karachi Polytechnic
c. Punjab University – New Campus
d. Karachi University
e. NIPA
f. Faisalabad Agri University Expansion
g. Our first Nuclear experimental power-plant (PINSTECH)
h. Mangla/Terbela Dams
i. College of Home Economics, Karachi

It is up to us to utilize these and many more things to our advantage.

We need to grow up fast as a nation!!!! Pakistan Zindabad!!