Mass Rape and the Inscription of Gendered and Racial Domination during the Bangladesh War of 1971

Abstract

Bangladesh has undergone a double and disrupted postcolonial trajectory. In 1947, Indian independence from British colonial rule resulted in the creation of a new homeland for the Muslims of India by carving out the eastern and northwestern corners of the country as two widely separated territories, known as East and West Pakistan respectively. In the formation of Pakistan, Islam was the sole principle of nationhood unifying these two widely disparate units, separated not only geographically but also by sharp cultural and linguistic differences. Ostensibly they formed a single nation state. But it is important to remember that the Islam of Bengal, bearing the imprint of different historical and social forces, was not the Islam of Pakistan. “Orthodox” Muslims in other parts of South Asia also interpreted the practice of Islam in Bengal as too Bengali, equating it to being Hinduised (Hindus constituted a sizeable minority in East Pakistan). Moreover, real military and administrative power lay in West Pakistan and successive Pakistani regimes, reluctant to rely on religious allegiance alone, embarked on a strategy of forcible cultural assimilation towards the Bengalis of East Pakistan. Soon after Partition in 1947, the Bengali language was targeted to be replaced by Urdu as the only state language so as to purge Bengali culture of its perceived “Hindu” elements.