M Mahfuzur Rahman: Bangladesh is now an independent country. Although it has internal political conflicts and various other problems, the country is going forward day by day successfully facing many challenges.
During December, all Bengali nationals of home and abroad recall the sceneries of the War of Liberation revising the bloody history of this month. The Pakistani butchers killed almost all of the golden sons of this soil during the month as they were near to surrender to allied forces on December 16, 1971.
So questions are there- Why do we have to fight against the then-West Pakistan? What were the disparities between the West and East? Let’s discuss this once again with the historical viewpoints although it is known to all.
Historic Six-Points:
Actually, the Language Movement of 1952 to recognize Bangla as a state language was the first step towards independence.
Political and economic deprivation of the Bengalis prompted Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to put forward in 1966 his historic six points, the "Magna Carta" which in effect structured the foundation for East Pakistan`s future independence.
By 1958, Pakistan went under military dictatorship blocking normal avenues for a political resolution of the constitutional issue. In September 1965, Field Marshal Ayub Khan fought his country`s second costly war with India, exposing the military vulnerability of the eastern wing, and also made a costly experiment with democracy in getting himself elected as President through a ridiculously limited franchise of 80,000 `basic democrats` It was against this background that Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in 1966m put forward his historic six points, which, in effect, structured the foundation for East Pakistan`s future independence.
The historic six-point demands are as follows at a glance:
1. The constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense based on the Lahore Resolution and the parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected based on universal adult franchise.
2. The federal government should deal with only two subjects: Defence and Foreign Affairs, and all other residual subjects should be vested in the federating states.
3. Two separate, but freely convertible currencies for two wings should be introduced; or if this is not feasible, there should be one currency for the whole country, but effective constitutional provisions should be introduced to stop the flight of capital from East to West Pakistan. Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.
4. The power of taxation and revenue collection should be vested in the federating units and the federal centre would have no such power. The federation would be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures.
5. There should be two separate accounts for the foreign exchange earnings of the two wings; the foreign exchange requirements of the federal government should be met by the two wings equally or in a ratio to be fixed; Indigenous products should move free of duty between the two wings, and the constitution should empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
6. East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.
In January 1968, Sheikh Mujib and 34 Bengali civil and military officials were arrested on charges of their involvement in the so-called Agartala conspiracy to declare independence of East Pakistan. Their trial proved that the charges were baseless and the case had to be withdrawn by February 1969 amidst angry protests by the Bengalis. Sheikh Mujib and the other co-accused were released on 22 February 1969.
Operation Searchlight was a planned military operation carried out by the Pakistan Army to curb the Bengali nationalist movement in the erstwhile East Pakistan in March 1971.
When the Pakistani butchers were confirmed that the Bengalis were still to their six-point demands and won in a landslide victory in the 1970 election they planned to culminate the nation forever.
President Yahya Khan at the February conference said, “Kill three million of them (Bangladeshis) and the rest will eat out of our hands.”
The violence resulting from Operation Searchlight led to the war of liberation by the Mukti Bahini against Pakistani "occupation" forces in Bangladesh.
The disparities between East and West in economic relations:
Besides political oppression by West Pakistan, there were a lot of disparities between the two Pakistan in their economic relations. Although East Pakistan had a larger population, West Pakistan dominated the divided country politically and received more money from the common budget. An example of this kind of oppression in the economic sector is shown in the chart below.
Year | Spending on West Pakistan (in millions of Pakistani rupees) | Spending on East Pakistan (in millions of Pakistani rupees) | Amount spent on East as a percentage of West |
1950–55 | 11,290 | 5,240 | 46.4 |
1955–60 | 16,550 | 5,240 | 31.7 |
1960–65 | 33,550 | 14,040 | 41.8 |
1965–70 | 51,950 | 21,410 | 41.2 |
Total | 113,340 | 45,930 | 40.5 |
Source: Reports of the Advisory Panels for the Fourth Five Year Plan 1970–75, Vol. I, | |||
Inequalities in government services:
Bengalis were under-represented in the Pakistan military. Officers of Bengali origin in the different wings of the armed forces made up just 5% of the overall force by 1965; of these, only a few were in command positions, with the majority in technical or administrative posts. West Pakistanis believed that Bengalis were not "martially inclined" unlike Pashtuns and Punjabis; the "Martial Races" notion was dismissed as ridiculous and humiliating by Bengalis.
Moreover, despite huge defence spending, East Pakistan received none of the benefits, such as contracts, purchasing and military support jobs. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 over Kashmir also highlighted the sense of military insecurity among Bengalis, as only an under-strength infantry division and 15 combat aircraft without tank support were in East Pakistan to thwart any Indian retaliations during the conflict.
West Pakistan had four provinces: Punjab, Sindh, Balochistan, and the North-West Frontier. The fifth province was East Pakistan. Having control over the provinces, the West used up more resources than the East. Between 1948 and 1960, East Pakistan made 70% of all of Pakistan`s exports, while it only received 25% of imported money.
In 1948, East Pakistan had 11 fabric mills while the West had nine. In 1971, the number of fabric mills in the West grew to 150 while the number in the East went down to 26. About 2.6 billion dollars of resources were also shifted over time from East Pakistan to West Pakistan.
Although East Pakistan had the largest population among all the provinces, it had much less political power than West Pakistan. This eventually made the people of East Pakistan feel deprived. Sheik Mujibur Rahman, the leader of the Awami League in East Pakistan, explicitly demanded more economic and political powers. The struggle finally culminated in the war of Independence.
However, there were several significant reasons that caused the East Pakistani people to fight for their independence.
If you know a comment of Pakistan General Niazi about the Bengali nation, it will be clear to you to understand how the Bengali origins were treated by Pakistanis at that time.
In one comment General Niazi narrated Bengalis as “Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. It was a low-lying land of low-lying people…. And the soldiers were free to kill at will.”
The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Punjabi captain as telling him, ‘We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one.’ This is the arrogance of Power.”
A Pakistani Soldier was saying during the liberation war - “…… we were told to kill the Hindus and Kafirs (non-believers in God). One day in June, we cordoned off a village and were ordered to kill the Kafirs in that area. We found all the village women reciting from the Holy Quran, and the men holding special congregational prayers seeking God’s mercy. But they were unlucky. Our commanding officer ordered us not to waste any time.”
The writer is a journalist and he can be reached at mahfuzjnu21@yahoo.com.
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