The Other Truth

By Nikhat Sattar | March 2020

The Romans used the 15th of March to mark the division of the month into two. Shakespeare used it as the date for an ominous announcement of Julius Caesar’s death. For many of us in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India, this date changes into 26th March when the fight for East Pakistan began formally, ending in the defeat of the Pakistani army almost nine months later, on December 16. This means celebrations for many in the erstwhile eastern arm of Pakistan; nonchalance or sorrow in Pakistan, depending on the level of awareness, and a sense of self-righteous victory in India. Together, these dates encapsulate a terrible story of breakup and fratricide that came before and after.

Despite the active role of Bengalis in the creation of Pakistan, they and their language had never been granted recognition equal to that of Urdu or Punjabi. Resentment had simmered ever since the language riots in Dacca in 1952. In the 60s, alleged sedition conspiracies by Mujib ur Rahman, the refusal of Bhutto and Yayha Khan to pass on the reins of the country to the former after his election win and the seething anger over negligence of the affectees of the devastating cyclone in 1970 led to increased agitation and turmoil in East Pakistan. On March 25, 1971, the Pakistan armed forces took over control, a wrong decision at all times for political problems. The next day, an independent Bangladesh was announced on the radio by Zia ur Rahman (and not Sheikh Mujib, as claimed by the BD government).

The discourse on the creation of Bangladesh has been heavily dominated by narratives of killings, torture and rape by the Pakistan army. Many Westerners have written articles and books and Bangladesh has made claims of three million killed and 200,000 rapes. Photographs of those tortured and dead were published in the Indian and Western press as evidence of the army’s brutality. No one realised that most were not dressed in the traditional Bengali attire. The stories of the dead and raped Bengalis simply don’t meet the demands of simple arithmetic. As Zia Khan writes, this meant that “in 250 days a little over two divisions of the Pakistan Army, while confronting twenty divisions of the Indian Army and rebels from within its own formations, killed 12,000 Bengali civilians and raped about 1,000 women every day!” Incidents of rape did occur. The question is of the scale of the crime, who the perpetrators were and of the total silence of non-Bengali women who were raped. No one has ever mentioned the missing latter whose loved ones kept trying to find them after 1971. Perhaps the reason is that the former were alive to tell their stories: the latter were all killed.

Only a few books describe what happened to the non Bengalis who had made East Pakistan their home. These include Dr. Junaid Ahmed’s “Creation of Bangladesh-Myths Exploded”; General Kamal Matinuddin’s “Tragedy of Errors” and Brig. Karrar Ali Agha’s “Witness to Carnage 1971”. According to reports, thousands of Urdu-speaking men, women and children were killed mainly in Chittagong, Jessore, Khulna (where 20,000 jute mill workers and their families were killed on 10th March 1972) and Dacca.

A book that looks at 1971 relatively neutrally is the ground breaking “Dead Reckoning” by Sarmila Bose, first published in 2011. Bose, a Bengali Hindu Oxford scholar, decided to conduct research, after she read “War and Secession: Pakistan, India and the Creation of Bangladesh” (1991), by Richard Sisson and Leo Rose. Until then, she had read accounts of the “victory” by the “victorious”, in which the Indian attitude was wildly triumphant, Bangladesh presented itself as the victim and Pakistan, projected as the villainous perpetrator, was either silent or bitter. The Pakistanis who had lived their humdrum, ordinary lives in East Pakistan and were either dead or had migrated to the truncated Pakistan, were conspicuous by their absence.

Bose spoke with people in Dacca, Khulna, Chittagong and other places in Bangladesh and army personnel in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi. Previously, she had enormous sympathy for the Bengalis and she had intended to fill in the gaps only because she found “so many incomplete stories”. She ended up being surprised: she still sympathised with all who had suffered, but “who they were had changed substantially.” They included various groups of Bengalis, including those who had sided with West Pakistan, as well as non Bengalis, who had been subjected to “appalling atrocities” committed by Bengalis and Indians. There are many instances which she relates, showing how false descriptions, distortions or missing facts hide the role played by Indian and nationalist forces in committing brutalities against non Bengalis.

Bose has been accused by Indians and ultra-nationalist Bengalis of bias, using a wrong methodology and prejudice in support of the Pakistan army. The book is banned in Bangladesh. Very few are interested in listening to views on the tragedy, other than the one which paints Pakistan as the only criminal.

Both Bangladesh and India continue to be in a state of denial of their respective actions towards non-Bengalis. Pakistanis either believe the usual accounts or ignore the mistakes made by their government and army. The three countries have rewritten history to suit their individual narrative, with a common casualty, the truth. Also, if the three neighbours do not change their violent stance towards political issues within their boundaries, they are perpetuating the bloodbaths of 1947 and 1971.

It is time for Pakistan and Bangladesh to understand that there is another truth to the one that has been told, accept their respective mistakes, recognise the crimes both their people, non-state actors and soldiers committed, apologise to each other and begin a process for acceptance and reconciliation to try and bring a closure to the cold war that is affecting peace and harmony in the region. This can be the beginning of a peace building process that continues to elude our several generations.

The writer is a development professional, researcher, translator and columnist with an interest in religion and socio-political issues. She has translated various writings including Dr. Khalid Masud’s seminal biography of the Prophet Mohammed (SWS). She can be reached at nikhat_sattar@yahoo.com

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