Heather Huber
03/10/2017
The War for Bangladesh
The War for Bangladesh, 1971 was a conflict over land between India and East Pakistan over West Pakistan. The war resulted in a massive defeat of West Pakistan and commandeering of East Pakistan which is now known as Bangladesh. In November of 1971, the war began. East and West Pakistan initially engaged and later, in December, India joined after West Pakistan was attacked on the Indian Air Bases. In late December, the war ended.
There were a few main reasons for this swift war. It all began in 1947 when India and Pakistan were separated by the British when they received freedom. Britain took in no account for the religious differences, the cultural separation, and the language disputation between East and West Pakistan. “In 1971 two wars broke out in East Pakistan. One was a civil war fought between West and East Pakistan, and the other an international war fought between West Pakistan and India. In the wars, ethnicity colluded with national interests and state politics, and the armies of West Pakistan and India became involved in violence, mainly targeted against the civilian population of East Pakistan, particularly women. Both the Pakistan and Indian armies were occupying forces and were assisted in their activities by local supporters,” (Saikia, 2004). East Pakistan didn’t agree with the policies of the Pakistani government and began protesting. They wanted a self-governing system and when this didn’t happen it led to deep separatism in East Pakistan. This was followed by ”Operation Searchlight” which was initiated by West Pakistan to stop it.
Sadly, East Pakistan was attacked, the result: a genocide of millions of their people. Large masses of Hindi people were forced to convert or die to Islam, yet not even this could keep the Bengels from the slaughter that awaited. “Kamala Prasad, a business man, was one of many taken into an execution field called Balar Khal. Somehow, he escaped from the spot and was detained for the second time. That time he was forced to convert into Muslim. The eye witness Kamala Prasad said, With my own eyes, I saw the Pakistani militaries taking people in two trucks among which I recognized Tulsiram Agarwala and Harihor Prasad (his close friends). They took the trucks to Balar Khal (canal of sands). Beforehand, they took me there with another truck. My hands and legs were bound. When they opened our hands and legs and told to stand on queues, I ran away and could save my life,” (Reza, 2013). Roughly ten million refugees poured out of East Pakistan into India.
India’s economy was in a crisis and ten million refugees were something they could not handle. When this happened India realized the importance of making East Pakistan independent and aided the Liberation Army or "Mukti Bahini” in having a home to send all of these people back to. West Pakistani retaliated during the night of December 3, 1971, by attacking Indian Air Bases. This ignited India's fight in the war.
The strike by the Pakistani Air Force was pre-emptive, intending to eliminate the Indian’s Air Force, but ended up being futile. They had stolen the strategy from the Indian Air Force and therefore they knew what was coming and what to do. The Indian Air Force had disbanded all of their planes from the bases far out of range from the bombs dropped. They also parked the planes in hidden barns and structures, and most of the Indians bases were safe.
The next day, December 4, 1971, the Indian Air Force retaliated against Pakistan bombing all of West Pakistan’s bases in just under 5 hours, seriously decimating the Eastern Pakistani Air Force. Two days later the Indian Air Force hit Eastern Pakistan with a ground attack, bombing their refinery and bombing eight railroads and making routes inaccessible. They also destroyed much of their military supplies and weapons. This was followed by the Indian Air Force demolishing endless infrastructure in Eastern Pakistan. The war lasted about two weeks. The Indian Air Force was not messing around and shut things down very quickly. They also helped troops who were fighting on the ground in combat.
Then came the Indian Navy. “Operation Trident” was an event that changed the course of everything. During the events that occurred in the Western Theater, a commander, Vice Admiral Kohl, besieged a port town, Karachi, on December 4, 1971. Pakistan's whole navel armada and naval headquarters were kept in Karachi so after this conquest the Indian Navy advanced on Pakistan during the middle of the night. Still miles away from land the Indian Navy realized a Pakistani ship was moving to attack them, so they fired a missile at the ship. Thinking that the missile was an aircraft the Pakistani ship fired at it and consequently, their ship blew up.
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he Indian Army, far superior in numbers and equipment to that of Pakistan, executed a 3-pronged pincer movement on Dhaka launched from the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, and Tripura, taking only 12 days to defeat the 90,000 Pakistani defenders. The Pakistan Army was weakened by having to operate so far away from its source of supply. The Indian Army, on the other hand, was aided by East Pakistan's Mukti Bahini (Liberation Force), the freedom fighters who managed to keep the Pakistan Army at bay in many areas.
The current historiography on the Liberation War is focused solely on the investigation and discussion of conflicts between the armies and militias of West Pakistan, East Pakistan, and India, and the external contexts of battles between the different ethnic groups of Bengalis, Biharis, and Pakistanis. The inner conflicts within the communities that led to rampant violence against women in the wars are overlooked and women's voices are actively silenced. As a result women's experiences and memories of the war are rendered invisible in the official history of 1971.
Md. Mohoshin Reza. "Genocide at Rangpur City in the Liberation War of Bangladesh, 1971: Fire, Fury and Fragrance." Epiphany 6, no. 1 (2013): 219-37.
Saikia, Yasmin. "Beyond the Archive of Silence: Narratives of Violence of the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh." History Workshop Journal 58, no. 1 (2004): 275-87.