Abstract
What is the new problem of the so called “Bangla Desh”? Is it a real revolt of the East Pakistanis against the West Pakistanis or is It rather a strife between India and Pakistan? These are some of the questions arising from the Indo-Pakistan conflict.
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It may be mentioned here that the Mussulmans of East Pakistan (formerly East Bengal) suffered most at the hands of the Hindus. One prominent Hindu politician, B. R. Madhok, writes that at the time of the partition, the Hindus “owned nearly 80 p.c. of the national wealth of East Bengal. The majority of buildings and properties in each town of Bengal, in some cases more than 85 p.c. of town buildings, were owned by Hindus; 95 p.c. of the 1,290 high schools and 47 colleges in East Bengal were privately organised and financed by them.” The Hindus were, however, no more than 25 p.c. of the population of East Bengal. See S. M. I k ram, “Modern Muslim India and Birth of Pakistan”, Lahore: Ashraf, 1970, p. 327. See also K. Sarwar Hasan, Political Background of The East Pakistan Crisis, “Pakistan Horizon”, Vol. XXIV, No. 2, Second Quarter, 1971, p. 5.
See particularly, Presidential Address of Dr Iqbal delivered at the Annual Session of the All-India Muslim League, held at Ahmedabad, in 1930, published in “Struggle for Independence 1857–1947”, Karachi, March 1958, pp. 12–24.
Clifford Geertz, Myrdal’s Mythology, “Modernism” and the Third World, “Encounter”, London, July 1969, p. 28.
Planning Commission, Islamabad, July 1970, p. 13.
According to a recent article published in the German weekly “Die Zeit”, an Indian journalist estimated open unemployment in India at 17 million and underemployment as much as 200 million. Jagdish Joshi, Die Zeit, No. 38, Sept. 17, 1971, p. 35.
The report “Poverty in India” states “The gains of development have remained largely confined to the upper middle and the richer sections constituting the top 40 p.c. of the population … The per capita consumption of the lower middle and poorer sections constituting the bottom 40 p.c. of the urban population declined and the consumption of the poorest 10 p.c. declined by as much as 15 to 20 p.c. (during 1960–68). “Indian School of Political Economy, Poona, 1971, pp. 30–31.
A. K. Brohi, Pakistan’s leading lawyer and at one time ambassador in India recently wrote: “Judged by the past experience of Indian intransigence, no one can blame Pakistanis for regarding India’s response to their domestic matters in the ‘negative way’ they have been doing.” Rationale of India’s Hostility to Pakistan, Impact International, London, September 10-23, p. 5.
Fritz aade , Weltweiter Wohlstand, Oldenburg and Hamburg, 1970, p. 193 ff.
This factor is recognised even by Zulflkar Ali Bhutto, dubbed so often by Indian writers and politicians as one of the greatest war hawks of Pakistan. He wrote in his book “The Myth of Independence”: “Relations between India and Pakistan should resemble those between Sweden and Norway, countries which had to break apart in order to come closer to each other. India and Pakistan have so much in common . ..” London, 1969, p. 162.
There are conflicting estimates about the exact number of refugees. While Indian sources seem to inflate to as much as 8.2 mn, the Pakistan Government puts it at around 2.0 mn. Even here there seems to be lot of national politics involved (cf. “Die Zeit”, No. 36, September 3, 1971, p. 12; see also “Dawn”, Karachi, September 2, 1971, p. 1). Jagdish Joshi estimates the number of refugees at 6 mn (op. cit.). Another source estimates the number of refugees between 2 to 2.5 mn (see statement made by the Special Assistant to the Secretary General of the League of the Red Cross, Mr P. M. Stanissis, “Dawn”, Karachi, September 13,1971.
White Paper on the Crisis in East Pakistan, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad, August 5, 1971, p. 4.
The Guardian, Manchester, September 10, 1971. Another source estimates the need of food imports for the crisis-ridden East Pakistan at 4 mn tons of foodgrains: Drohende Hungersnot in Ostpakistan, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zürich, September 19,1971. See also “Krisenherde der Woche”, Pakistan, Die Zeit, No. 39, September 24, 1971, p. 12.
It is almost barbaric for anybody to agree with the guerillas when they say: “. . . the relief supplies are being used as a political weapon by the army to win the loyalty of the population” (The Times, London, September 14, 1971, see Neue Zürcher Zeitung, op. cit.).
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Mullick, M.A.H. Indo-Pakistan strife at the poor man’s cost. Intereconomics 6, 383–386 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02926314
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02926314