Exactly lesson has been learned, look how Army handled Balochistan issue, there had been violence but generally the situation had always been under control and now we actually have an active reconciliatory process and working provisional government. Are some people upset? Of course.
Look how Army handled FATA situation. Look at Karachi. How can you say we haven't learned from 1971? For how long can you use this rhetoric to spit venom against Army?
The thing is some people still see 1971 as only Pakistan Army's defeat. It's got nothing to do with them. To them Pak Army is an alien villainous entity, not part of Pakistan. They don't see as their country's defeat, if they did, they wouldn't so casually throwing 1971 tragedy to rub salt in people's wounds.
India deems your CEPC 'unacceptable'. Her PM openly boast about breaking your country and he celebrates your defeat in front of the whole world, their Army chief threatens to start a short war against you, their defence minister threatens to use proxies against you. India media is busy creating war hysteria. People's houses, animals and children are getting killed at LoC by Indian firing, RAW funded terrorists are being captured in Balochistan, Karachi, Lahore. The main political parties that controls your economic hub was receiving aid from RAW....and these people have problem calling India 'enemy'? They would much rather belittle and defame their own army?
Perhaps admit the bitter fact that if Army had taken wrong steps, but it also has the supreme and staggering ability to redeem itself. If Army can make such a comeback and win public's utmost respect, how desperate and venomous you have to be to actually turn people of Pakistan against their own Army? You have clearly missed the bus. If you had failed to achieve this feat in last 40 years, chances you won't ever achieve it.
Couldn't have said it better myself, mind if I use this quote of yours on any social media of mine? :D
Go through Hamood u Rehman commission report. I read some where that as per the report, ‘only 26000 Bnegalis were killed and Mujib was not able to prove 200,000 rapes’. But why then this report remained a forbidden tree in Pakistan for decades. Lets have a look at summary:
just few extracts:
Isn’t that quite familiar? saare raqbe tumhare liye hain… To hell with Ayesha Siddiqa for blaming our heroes in her book ‘Military Inc.’.
How dare bhooke nange bengalis to not provide ration?
O bhai mere Yahya ke taranon pe konsi pabandi lagi thi, jo Niazi ke nazranon pe court martial ho? pabandi to Tagore ke naghmon per thi.
Pak miltary - PAF is an excellent professional force respected internationally.
Pak Army has become a corrupt political party.
They got thrashed in 71 war, and if it was not for the nuclear programme of civlians like ZAB, AQ Khan, the Army would have been thrashed many times since then.
Pak miltary - PAF is an excellent professional force respected internationally.
Pak Army has become a corrupt political party.
.
Agree 100 % specially considering the resources they have compare to the airforce equipment prices now adyas. Reason may be they are focused on the job rather than looking for otehr adventures . Now adays they looking to make some fazaiah scheme etc ?? which wil not be good in long run. Jub extra money ka nasha lug jata hey to priorities change hona shorooo ho jati hain ( I write this in Urdu as my english is very bad as mentioned by some oen rightly )
I am not an expert on Bangladesh, there were excesses committed from both sides. My only issue is with the number quoted by Bangladeshis which seems to be highly exaggerated. Like I mentioned earlier Pakistan army would have killed 12000 people every day to reach Bangladeshi figures. Has any one from Pakistan done any research on how many people were killed from the other side.
Let's not forget some of the heroics of the '71 war such as the sinking of the INS Kukhri by our Daphne Class submarine PNS Hangor (now sitting proudly at the maritime museum in Karachi). Again, this was the first submarine kill since WW2, and the 2nd in history.
India is still feeling the pain for the loss of Kukri and some of their wild conspiracy theorists are now suggesting it was actually shot down by an unidentified US submarine (LOL).
Exactly lesson has been learned, look how Army handled Balochistan issue, there had been violence but generally the situation had always been under control and now we actually have an active reconciliatory process and working provisional government. Are some people upset? Of course.
Look how Army handled FATA situation. Look at Karachi. How can you say we haven't learned from 1971? For how long can you use this rhetoric to spit venom against Army?
The thing is some people still see 1971 as only Pakistan Army's defeat. It's got nothing to do with them. To them Pak Army is an alien villainous entity, not part of Pakistan. They don't see as their country's defeat, if they did, they wouldn't so casually throwing 1971 tragedy to rub salt in people's wounds.
India deems your CEPC 'unacceptable'. Her PM openly boast about breaking your country and he celebrates your defeat in front of the whole world, their Army chief threatens to start a short war against you, their defence minister threatens to use proxies against you. India media is busy creating war hysteria. People's houses, animals and children are getting killed at LoC by Indian firing, RAW funded terrorists are being captured in Balochistan, Karachi, Lahore. The main political parties that controls your economic hub was receiving aid from RAW....and these people have problem calling India 'enemy'? They would much rather belittle and defame their own army?
Perhaps admit the bitter fact that if Army had taken wrong steps, but it also has the supreme and staggering ability to redeem itself. If Army can make such a comeback and win public's utmost respect, how desperate and venomous you have to be to actually turn people of Pakistan against their own Army? You have clearly missed the bus. If you had failed to achieve this feat in last 40 years, chances you won't ever achieve it.
Jolie and Shak, excellent posts. I am glad we still have people who have moral courage to look at the picture from all angles and who do not have a tunnel vision. We need to have more people like you.
Mujib ur Rehman went as far as asking for separate Army/para-military forces for East Pakistan in his Six Point agenda, but he did not make any demands in regards to the language which has always propagated as the core factor behind the conflict.
Sindhi nationalists and the self styled intellectuals have always piggyback on Bengali language issues to further their very own similar agenda and dissent with Urdu language. They have exploited the lingual aspect to such an extent that it almost appears to be the main cause of a colossal tragedy if you read their views. Such self designed simplification is the unfortunate mindset of people who loves to champion so called true and alternate 'history' as long it fits with their agenda.
Yes there were tensions over the issue of language, but to say that language became the reason for conflict is absurdity and brazen face lying of the highest order. Unfortunately, some people really want to sell such half baked narratives in the name of history.
3 million is the number that bangladeshis claim were killed, the 71 war I believe continued for 9-10 months. In Syria during the past four years considering the brutalities commited by both sides around 2-2.5 lac people have been killed. The weaponry we have now is much more advanced as compared to 71...
Errrrr....there were tensions over the issue of language, but it did not become the cause why East Pakistan separated. As lied by some self styled culture romantics. The nationalists who had their own scores to settle with Urdu language always manipulated, exploited and exaggerated this aspect in the name 'history' and 'learning from the past' to distort the narrative, and achieve their own agendas.
Mujib Rehman's movement which became the absolute manifestation of Bengali grievances did not include the issue of language. None of his final bargains included the issue of Bangladesh. None of his proposed comprises included the issue of language. None of his final revolts were on the basis of language. The situation escalated to the point of no return on all issues, but on the issue of language.
Again, the communities with chip on the shoulder mentality always manipulated, used and abused the whole language issue or hatred for Army to either dilute the role of Bhutto in bringing the war, or opportunistically propagate their own dissent against Urdu language. Bangladeshi struggle and grievances were much bigger and deep rooted than their desire to see promotion of bit of dance and music in their language. Such simplification is an insult to their case.
I agree, there were genuine grievances of Bengalis which were not addressed.
There were economic grievances which were not addressed, but again the issue that boosted bengali nationalism from the earlier days was language issue. How much we try to say that the issue was resolved 15 years before 1971, the bitter memories remained in minds of Bengali leaders. Even they had monuments like Shuhda Yadgar at Dhaka university to remind that what was done to them during language movement.
So to say that language issue did not play any role in coming years is naive enough and only supported by those who have no respect for others languages.
There were economic grievances which were not addressed, but again the issue that boosted bengali nationalism from the earlier days was language issue. How much we try to say that the issue was resolved 15 years before 1971, the bitter memories remained in minds of Bengali leaders. Even they had monuments like Shuhda Yadgar at Dhaka university to remind that what was done to them during language movement.
So to say that language issue did not play any role in coming years is naive enough and only supported by those who have no respect for others languages.
There were many reasons, they were more politically aware. After all Punjabi was also sacrificed which at that time was the second largest language. Their population was larger than west Pakistan, there was no land link. When the majority would have decided they would have seceded. I have never supported the high handed tactics by Pakistani army in that conflict. However I feel that we look at the conflict only from one direction, we don't know what happened from the other side. The figures of casualties like I mentioned are highly inflated.
For some people - the ones the love to moan and groan the loudest about alternate history - the history of East Pakistan begins and ends at isolating, manipulating, exaggerating the language issue because it suits their agenda, but those who actually care about history, this is just a half cooked, used and abused narrative which prevents people from doing any serious interrogation of the deep rooted economic and electoral injustices which only recently pushed the country on a brink of civil war. The issues that actually became the cause behind the point of no return are always seen as after thought, because nationalists are not interested in debating and 'learning' about those issues because it does not suit their agenda.
There is a difference between Bengali nationalism that existed, and the issues and real injustices that turned it into Bengali separatism. Nationalism does not always equal to separatism, or even leads to that. I hope some people get that.
No emotional twist and turns can change evidence and facts which is:
*Mujib Rehman's movement which became the absolute manifestation of Bengali grievances did not include the issue of language. None of his final bargains included the issue of Bangladesh. None of his proposed comprises included the issue of language. None of his final revolts were on the basis of language. The situation escalated to the point of no return on all issues, but on the issue of language. *
Isolating, emotionalism, manipulating, exaggerating the language tension between East and West Pakistan has always been tool to propagate some people's own dissent and chip on the shoulder mentality against Urdu. Somehow the language issue always made to bear the huge chunk of the blame whereas the final battle happened on every issue but on the issue of language.
Some people had always hoped that maybe, just maybe the language lollipop would have shut down the Bengalis forever, and this is due to their crippling inability to comprehend just how deeply detrimental economic and structural inequalities were that they were never going to go away or be overlooked simply on the basis of Bengali receiving the language lollipop to shut them up. Bengali were always going to revolt against those injustices and imbalances that no one really bothered fixing.
Why did Muhajirs of Sindh revolted since their language was the national language of the country? Maybe in the name of 'history', it is about time to assess the structural socio-economic issues, political power struggles that had always a played pivotal role in isolating communities and making them feel vulnerable against powerful groups.
Punjabi was not sacrificed after partition, it was the case during British era. if Punjabis did not take a stand on this, this does not mean that other people will also accept this in same way. Reaction of every community and its affection with the language vary from the other community. Even within Punjab (East and west), the situation is different. Indian Punjab did promoted their language and used it for academic purposes.
No one got right to suppress people’s right to use their mother tongue as medium of instruction or using that as communication purposes within the province. There should be common languages for lingua franca between different provinces and I don’t think that Bengalis had any issue with that. They did not have any issue for using English / Urdu as medium of communication during Muslim league sessions before partition. They had Urdu department in Dhaka university till 1971 (They might have continued the same after 1971).
But alas pseudo intellectual who are damn bent to through insults on others who respect people’s right to use their languages, can’t understand all this. For them Bengalis / Sindhis who want to use their language are actually haters of Urdu.
Sindhis or other people who are of the view that language issue created differences and bitter memories between the two parts don’t deny that there were other discriminatory policies against Bengalis. Even when we talk about movement against One-Unit, we see Sindh and East Pakistan working together. Whom Mujib wanted to meet after he got released from jail in December 1971?
Pseudo intellectuals can respect their languages all they want, and they can wear their language card on their chest. But those pseudo intellectuals should not butcher history to further their respective grievances and agenda. East Pakistan history has been a victim of such pseudo intellectualism where language issues are unnecessarily isolated and inflated to take attention from other issues.
Bengali nationalism would have remained Bengali nationalism with or without them getting the desired status for their language. Nationalism is not a genie that you can take it out and put it back back in whenever you feel like. But Bengali nationalism did turn into hostile and uncontrollable. movement of **separatism **when electoral and economic justice was denied to them. Why these issues are nothing more than side notes or afterthought for pseudo intellectuals? Bengalis did not care about language when they had the opportunity to strike a bargain and reach compromises. The language was not part of the hour and the ideas that came to epitomise Bengali struggle before the final revolt. Those without an agenda can make a conclusion that which issues ultimately ended up playing a bigger role in separation of East Pakistan.
Enough of dumb down history where everything is blamed on language grievances. For pseudo intellectuals, nothing else really happens in history other than Bengalis asking for a status for their language. History just beings and ends at this tunnel view.
We keep on hearing about the surrender of 90000 Pakistani troops in 71. The population of East Pakistan in 71 was roughly 7 crores, so one lac versus 7 crore. No army can win a contest of this sort if the majority is hell bent on separating, the sheer distance between the east and west wings, with hostile neighbour in between did not help the matters.