Exorcising the Ghosts of 1971…If only!

By Ghazala Akbar:

‘The past is a foreign country…they do things differently there’

Remember December 16, anyone? It is that time of the year when the Pakistani High Commissioner in Bangladesh is inexplicably indisposed, takes a mini-break from official duties or heads out of the Capital city Dhaka for some urgent business! Still clueless? Here’s another hint: 1971. Forty years ago, on this date, the Pakistan that came into existence on August 14, 1947 died a slow and agonizing death. It was a particularly violent finale to a nine-month war marked by extreme brutality. In the closing days and its aftermath, the savagery intensified into bestiality. War is hell.

In this War of Liberation or Secession (of the majority from the minority), human life and suffering were the biggest and most tragic casualties. Overnight, people turned stateless, homeless—even limbless. Families became divided, friends turned into foes and loyalties were suspect. Businesses, careers, properties, livelihoods, carefully nurtured over the years were lost. Nearly 97,000 West Pakistanis ended up as POWs in India, 28,000 Bengalis in the Army and Public Services interned in Pakistan. ‘Shielded’by the Geneva Conventions, they were the luckier ones. For civilians that had backed the losing side – ‘Loyalists’ or ‘Quislings’ – depending on how you view them – the consequences were catastrophic.

The death of united Pakistan and the bloody birth of Bangladesh was a painful experience then – and still painful to recount for those unfortunate to be caught in its maelstrom. I had hoped that with the passage of time and distance one could be objective, rational, dispassionate and detached. I was wrong. It still haunts. Type in a few key words on cyberspace –  East Pakistan , West Pakistan, Secession, Liberation War, Bangladesh, Bengali, Bihari, Mukti Bahini, Razakar, al Badar, al Shams,Yahya, Bhutto, Mujib, Indira, Tikka Khan, Niazi, Aurora, Maneckshaw, Indo- Soviet Friendship Treaty, Nixon, Kissinger, China, Seventh Fleet, Surrender… the ghosts return and are difficult to exorcise.

There are numerous books, personal accounts, fictional works, diaries, newspaper articles, official documents, de-classified documents, official cables, photos, films, video clips, interviews, paintings and poems — yellowed and bloodstained. It is a catalogue of horror. Three million, three hundred thousand or thirty thousand – the body count is disputed but it is still one too many. As the Hamoodur Rahman Comission observed: ‘No amount of provocation by the militants of the Awami League or other miscreants could justify retaliation by a disciplined army against its own people’.

To the victors, go the spoils and the exclusive rights to history, the loser can opt to remember or forget. After an initial public outcry, Pakistanis chose a form of selective amnesia. The conclusions of the Hamoodur Rahman Commission Report in 1974 were a political hot potato and quickly buried. Resurfacing 35 years later when most of the protagonists had died, there was conveniently, no one left to blame or hang. In the enterprise of nation – building and the craft of a new Islamic identity, official narratives air – brushed the misdeeds, the debacle became a footnote, relegated to ancient history.  Bangladesh was accepted, the ‘excesses’ regretted — but – the meddling role of India  and it’s Intelligence Agency RAW as– agent provocateur has lingered. It was neither forgiven nor forgotten.

Significantly, it is the recollection of that bitter memory that has shaped Pakistan’s attitudes and policies towards its Eastern neighbour for the past 40 years. It is why Pakistan ‘eats grass’ to maintain a nuclear arsenal, why it aids proxies, why it sought the KargiI heights, seeks strategic depth and will ‘fight for a thousand years.’ Martin Woollcott of the UK Guardian sums it up pithily: ‘much that is both wrong and dangerous in the sub – continent today– from Pakistan’s paranoia to India’s extreme self-righteousness and Bangladesh’s sense that it is neglected and ignored can be traced to the 1971 conflict, even if the roots go back further still.’

‘The roots’ do go back further– all the way to 1947 and the Partition of India. Take the case of the Biharis or ‘Stranded Pakistanis’ in Bangladesh, still a festering sore after forty years. Who are they, why are they stranded? How did they come to be there in the first place? This quote from Mr. Jinnah after communal violence had engulfed Bihar in February 1947 is self- explanatory: ‘The sufferings Moslems underwent in Bihar and elsewhere clearly showed we should have a separate State of Pakistan. I am really proud of the Bihar Moslems… their sacrifices will not go in vain. They have brought the Pakistan goal nearer and have shown readiness to make any sacrifice for its attainment.’

It was the ‘suffering’ and ‘sacrifice’, that caused a million or so to uproot to East Pakistan from Bihar in 1947. Sharing a linguistic affinity with West Pakistanis, they identified readily with the concept of a Unitary State with a strong Centre. This was at odds with creeping Bengali nationalist sentiment that wanted maximum autonomy. When push came to shove, it was time to take sides to save Pakistan — at any cost. It cost them dear. After the fall of Dhaka, their position became tenebrous. Viewed as collaborators or remnants of the ancien regime they became the targets of summary justice and reprisals.  Ultimately offered the choice of becoming citizens of Bangladesh or Pakistan, many opted to go — relocating to 66 Camps — awaiting repatriation.

After the Simla Accords, around 120 to170, 000 came to Pakistan between 1972 and1974. Thereafter, repatriation halted. The issue became contentious, acquiring an ethnic and linguistic hue in the internal politics of Sindh where they had mostly settled. What began as a humanitarian and national concern assumed an unfortunate parochial dimension. Occasionally their plight found a voice in international forums — eliciting a few token responses from Pakistan – but excuses were readily available– to delay and deny.

Procrastination and deliberate indecision over the years has further compounded the original problem.  Successive generations have grown up in squalid camps vacillating between hope and despair. Their legal status is a Catch 22: If they are ‘Stranded Pakistanis’, they cannot be classed as ‘Refugees’ or an official ‘Minority’ with rights and privileges in Bangladesh. If they leave of their accord, and enter Pakistan through surreptitious means – – they are illegal in Pakistan, subject to deportation! But where are they to be deported to exactly…the Indian State of Bihar?

To the credit of the current Government in Bangladesh, it has ended the legal limbo for some. Children born after 1971, or who were minors at the time have been enfranchised and are eligible for citizenship. Yet there are still many that are stateless, eking out an existence — waiting for the Promised Land. Once East Pakistanis, then Stranded Pakistanis –they are now Abandoned Pakistanis!

This abdication of responsibility remains a shameful stain on Pakistan’s collective national conscience. It exposes our hypocritical, oft-proclaimed love for the ummah and concern for the Palestinian cause. Consider too, that there are hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens living and working in Pakistan of all hues and nationalities yet its own citizens are denied legal entry. There can be no formal closure — no ghosts laid to rest of the events of 1971 until this issue is resolved.

Commendably, on many other fronts, the two countries have let bygones be bygones and buried the hatchet. Barring a few minor irritants, relations are friendly and fraternal. There is trade and commerce. There are cricket matches, cultural exchanges. The recently- observed 47th^th Anniversary of PTV invoked nostalgic memories of much – loved Bengali singers and dancers. Music was always a binding force, a shared heritage – then and now.  Recently I was fortunate to attend a concert in a Gulf Arab country. The performers were Indians — a Sikh husband and a Hindu wife of Bangladeshi origin. They sang primarily in Urdu in which both were fluent, often stopping to explain the poetic nuances of couplets by Qateel Shifai, a Pakistani poet. The grand finale was the soulful ‘Allah hi Allah kiya karo.’

I was elated …yet saddened …conscious of the irony: it was the language issue in 1952 that had triggered the initial divide between East and West.  A grand vision of a unitary, uniform Ideological State was force – fed on people who already had their own proud Bengali culture. It was to be purged of all ‘non – Islamic’ influences. The minority were imposing their language on the majority. Urdu was somehow considered Islamic! Blinkered minds — could not – or would not see an alternative picture.  Could we not have opted for unity in diversity? Was it necessary to have only One identity? Was the cultural gap between east and west really that pronounced? Given time, it would have narrowed — surely.

If only politicians could sing…!

Paradoxically, forty years on, the existence of Bangladesh as an independent state is trumpeted by many in Pakistan as a logical progression, proof and vindication of the Two-Nation theory. The original Pakistan Resolution of 1940, it is pointed out had called for the creation of two states – not one! The vision of hindsight is always 20/20 …or is it? Some had seen the writing on the wall and the futility of holding on forcibly. Asked for his views, ex- President Ayub Khan records in his diary on 23 February 1971: ‘I told Mohd. Ali  (brother of Gen Yahya Khan)…it now seems very difficult to hold the country as a Federation and the best situation would be to withdraw the army from East Pakistan, in the best manner that is possible and to think about a Confederation, as this seems to be a way in which the country will not be further put through a trauma. Agha Mohammed Ali said ‘sir is this is your considered opinion?’ and I said ‘yes I think so; we have gone beyond the stage of a Federation’.

If only General Yahya had heeded the advice of his superiors…!

The name Bangladesh often crops up today on animated discussions on Pakistan TV Channels. Hoping for a quick – fix, back- door solution to current problems, there are some that advocate the ‘Bangladesh Model’, a reference to a civil – military partnership that was partially successful in tackling political and financial corruption in Bangladesh. They would also be well – advised to consider the other Bangladesh example: of a liberal, pluralistic society, of syncretism and tolerance, co-existence of mosques, mandirs and churches. As some Pakistanis have admitted wistfully — and with some justification – Bangladesh 2011 is a truer manifestation of Mr. Jinnah’s vision than the Pakistan we have today.  If only such wisdom and insight had been available earlier — there might have been no ghosts of 1971 to exorcise. If only…!