Birth of Bangladesh


THE BIRTH OF BANGLADESH


 After winning the 1970 elections, the Awami League was not in a position to compromise its political program without being regarded as a traitor to the Bangali cause. Since the Awami League did not compromise, the negotiations with the regime broke down although the talks produced a semblance of agreement. As planned, the Pakistani army launched an attack on the Bangalis without warning, with a view to weaken and demolish Bangali nationalism.

 The military arrested Sheik Mujib, the leader of the Awami League. He had earlier sent a message declaring independence. The military launched a systematic attack on the Bangali people. The military shelled the Dhaka University, killing the university teachers and students; the soldiers broke into women's dormitories and raped the women. They buried the dead in mass graves that were bull-dozed over by the tanks. The military used artillery and heavy machine gun fire to crush the Bangali civilians, the local police, and the Bangali troops. The military set up strongholds in Dhaka and in other parts of East Bengal. The Pakistani soldiers set ablaze working class parts of the shanty towns, markets, houses of political workers, and newspaper offices; and they shot civilians indiscriminantly. The military specially targeted the Hindu minority in East Bengal because they blamed "Hindu" India and the Hindu community in East Bengal as the master-mind behind Bangali secession plans.

 The Bangalis tried their best to escape the wrath of the Pakistan army. The crackdown was intended to demolish Bangali nationalism by inflicting cruelty and to prevent the Bangalis from exercising their right to self-determination. A Pakistani officer rationalized the military action thus:

    "We will kill them [Bangalis]---they have spoken enough---they are traitors, and we are not. We are fighting in the name of God and a united Pakistan."

 After the first morning of military attack on the Bangalis, the leader of West Pakistan's dominant party, Bhutto, was flown to West Pakistan, where he declared: "Pakistan has been saved by the grace of the Almighty."

 The military attack on the Bangalis transformed the movement for attaining political self-rule into a national struggle of the Bangalis, irrespective of their political affiliation, religious preference, or class background. For the Bangalis, the military attack on the unarmed civilians proved that the West Pakistani ruling elite and the Pakistani army would not seek a negotiated settlement with the Bangali political leadership. The military attack upon the Bangalis was a campaign to destroy what the Bangalis were poised to achieve if the constitutional process were allowed to function.

 The Bangalis resisted the military action spontaneously with primitive arms, by building barricades, and by creating obstacles. In some places, particularly in the rural areas, where the military could not reach immediately, the public under the action committees set up by the Awami League proclaimed the formation of liberated zones. Bangali troops rebelled against the Pakistani army. Widely supported by the populace, the Bangali troops resisted, fought the Pakistan army, and initiated the liberation struggle.

 Some of the Awami League leaders had gone underground and escaped to India. Some Bangali employees of the state Radio escaped and set up a clandestine radio station, which urged the Bangalis to resist Pakistani rule and repression. Meanwhile, the elected Bangali members of the National Assembly and the Provincial Assembly gathered in a liberated zone of East Bengal and proclaimed independence of the state of Bangladesh from Pakistan.

 The Awami League was able to retain control of the main thrust of the movement for the national liberation of Bangladesh. The Awami League established a interim government led by Tajuddin. Tajuddin was extremely efficient and successful in the management of the government in exile. The Bangladesh government in exile established contact with the Indian authorities. The Awami League established guerrilla training camps and retained control over the guerrilla movement. The Bangladesh government-in-exile launched an international campaign using non-resident Bangalis abroad as the spokespersons for the Bangali cause. Several Bangalis in the Pakistani civil and diplomatic services defected in favor of the government of Bangladesh. The government-in-exile was able to build a reliable bureaucratic machinery in Calcutta, which functioned well for a government outside the parameters of the state.

 The Awami League was able to convince the Indian authorities of the need to support the struggle for the national liberation of Bangladesh. The profound international sympathy for the Bangalis was a result of the massacre of the Bangalis and the influx into India of 10 million refugees who escaped from the Pakistani army brutality. In West Bengal, the Indian Bangalis were extremely generous although they themselves possessed few resources. The Bangalis received substantial support from the Indian authorities in the form of guerrilla training, facilities, arms and ammunition to fight the military regime.

 The dynamics of the international situation altered with the signing of the Indo-Soviet treaty, which guaranteed the security of India. The government of India recognized Bangladesh on December 6, 1971. With Indians allying with Bangalis in the National Liberation of Bangladesh, the joint forces of Bangladesh and India was able to overcome the Pakistani army easily. The Bangali guerrillas had penetrated into East Bengal and had expert knowledge of the terrain and the activities of the Pakistan army. The Indian forces possessed superior fire-power and better troops. The Indians cutoff the air links between East Bengal and West Pakistan. The Pakistan army could not receive new supplies or further troop support. With the introduction of Indian forces, the Pakistan army was being defeated in all the battles. Realizing the possibility of total annihilation, the Pakistan army surrendered to the joint command of Bangladesh and Indian forces on December 16, 1971. With the unconditional surrender of the Pakistani army, Bangladesh was finally liberated.

 The National Liberation of Bangladesh was the result of the transformation of the political struggle of the Bangali bourgeoisie to attain power into the national struggle of the Bangalis to resist the genocidal actions of the Pakistani army. The economic exploitation of East Bengal stimulated the radicalization of Bangali politics. As a result, the Awami League thrived on the Bangali bourgeois demand for political autonomy. Even after the tremendous victory of the Awami League in 1970 elections, the Pakistani ruling elite failed to recognize the Bangali demands. The Pakistani ruling elite could not visualize that the conditions in East Bengal had reached the point where the masses would not accept West Pakistani hegemony and, in the event of military crackdown, the masses would risk their lives to challenge West Pakistani hegemony. The indiscriminate attacks, killings, and rapes and the very attempt to retain East Bengal by military means, further escalated the Bangalis' bid to independence. The qualitative change of the autonomy movement into a liberation struggle led to the independence of Bangladesh.