The 1971 war and the role of ‘Just an Ally’
By Dr. S. Chakraborty
On 16th
December, 2024, on the eve of celebrating the Victory Day or ‘Vijay Diwas’, Prime Minister Modi, took on
social media and paid tribute to the sacrifices of Indian armed forces
during the 1971 India- Pakistan war, which consequently liberated the former
East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. In reply, one of the Bangladeshi ministers wrote
in social media that, India was ‘just any ally, and nothing more’. In this
context, it became necessary to recall the role of ‘Just an ally’ in the
liberation of East Pakistan and birth of Bangladesh.
Just after
partition and establishment of West Pakistan and East Pakistan, the two differed
on several issues, for example, forceful implementation of Urdu as official
language, lack of representation in higher official level in administration
etc. But the situation started getting worse from the late 1960s. The then West
Pakistan administration’s trust on military action resulted in genocide,
rampant torture and murder of a large number of innocent people to subdue
agitations. As a consequence, a large number of East Pakistani, had begun to
flee their country and reached India, as refugee, for life – a reason, which
influenced India to become ‘Just an ally’ to liberate Bangladesh from that
hell.
On March 25, 1971,
then West Pakistan imposed martial law in then East Pakistan. As a result, by
June 1971, more than sixty thousnad people had begun to enter India per day.
According to the official records, by the second week of December 1971, more
than 6.8 million people were housed in refugee camps in India, and other
several millions found shelter in the house of their Indian friends and
relatives. During those one of the darkest days of the history of the human
civilization, the people of India stood whole heartedly besides innocent,
tortured, helpless East Pakistani migrants.
To accommodate one
of the largest migrant movements in history, the government of India
established more than eight hundred state camps, several central camps and had
become overburdened to maintain food, medicine, hygiene etc. of this large
amount of people. Considering the horrifying atrocities of then West Pakistan
militia on then East Pakistani people and growing exodus of innocent people in
India, the government of India had begun to support, guerrilla warfare of
Muktibahini.
On 3rd
December 1971, then West Pakistan launched a surprise attack on Indian air bases.
In the next, 13 days, Indian Army, Navy and Air Force overpowered Pakistani
militia in their respective fields and within a short period offered a
humiliated defeat to Pakistan. During the war, Indian armed forces risked and
sacrificed their lives to defend the mother India and to defend the honor of
millions of innocents, helpless East Pakistani people, who failed to receive
sincere sympathy and active concern from any other ‘ally’.
In its course to
protect millions of East Pakistani people from the shocking and dehumanize
atrocities of Pakistani militia, India was threatened by China, received
nuclear threat from the US (the famous USS Enterprise episode) and received no
help, against ongoing brutalities in East Pakistan, from civilized Western
countries. In fact, all these countries, indirectly assisted Pakistan to continue
its vicious treatment towards East Pakistan.
After 53 years of
that courageous effort of the people of India to establish democracy and civilized
political environment in its neighbourhood, the remark of ‘just an ally’ is an
insult to the people of India and their unparalleled support. The remark of the
Bangladeshi minister could be a reflection of their failure in domestic
administration, which often led aggressive foreign policy to hide the failure,
not an acceptable tendency, though. As an independent country, this kind of
immature remark from a Bangladeshi minister level authority could create
misunderstanding between India and Bangladesh.
For more detail
The numerical data
and historical records, which this article included are used and reused by
several million books and articles written to remember one of the most sincere
and courageous humanitarian assistance by India to rescue the innocent people
of then East Pakistan from the horrifying brutalities of then West Pakistan. Availability
of those numerical data and historical records are very easy for any
ministerial level authority.
'Bangladesh Law Adviser slams PM Modi's Vijay Diwas post, says India was merely an ally in 1971 victory'. The Hindu. December 17, 2024.
Partha, N. Mukherjee. 1974. ‘The Great Migration of 1971: II Reception’. Economic and Political Weekly. Vol-9, no-10, pp-399-408
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