Name: Neha Zainab

Roll no: 20i-1708

Accounting & Finance-20

East Pakistan to Bangladesh

After the partition of the two nations, in 1947, a new form of struggle came into being.
Pakistan was separated into two wings- East and west Pakistan. After the partition Pakistan
had to face problems through every aspect: political, cultural, defense and many more.

East Pakistan, today known as Bangladesh, has always been a very different nation than west
Pakistan. They had different views in every aspect. This is due to the history they have had
with the British empire. If we briefly view the history of Bangladesh and British, we find out
that the British had ruled over that region since 1757-1947. This shows that their longing for
freedom has been more than any other region in sub-continent. They have also been the
victims of the brutality of the British. Farmers were robbed in the name Hissa Bitai (‫حصہ‬
‫)بیٹائی‬, a practice to share the profits of agriculture with the stake holders, as the British
claimed to be a major stakeholder in the farmer’s land therefore, demanding a higher profit.
There were many instances when the Bengalis fought against the British for their freedom.
This is also one of the reasons why the East Pakistanis were not recruited in the army, and the
repercussion of this step is later seen after the partitions.

Since the central government at that time was Calcutta, the Bengalis also learned a lot from
British imperialism. Bengalis became more secular, as they did not discriminate against other
religions they just wanted to fight for a free nation. They became the experts of democracy
because their leaders were more involved in the general public and getting them their rights.
This was the most important political tool they got with in all this brutality. They were also
the most stable communist government.

How did the two wings unite?

It all began with the 1940 resolution, in which Muslim league demanded that all the regions
with greater Muslim population should be grouped to constitute and independent state. This is
why the cabinet mission was rejected by the Congress party. This is why the struggle for two

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separate nations began. The Bengalis joined hands with West Pakistan to gain back their
freedom from the British.

The year 1947

Before the partition, Muslim league did not give enough thought to what will be the power
sharing arrangements if the two wings unite under one nation. This is where the struggle
between the two wings began.

 The Bengalis were more secular in their leadership but the two nations separated on
the basis of religion.
 There was no democratic constitution. (10 prime ministers were changed including 3
east Pakistanis). And the political standing of east Pakistan was weak.
 There was imbalance in the army as well. Only 5% Bengalis were in the army, at the
time, and had only 15 planes.
 The biggest problem that arose was the problem of Language. When Jinnah visited
Dhaka, he stated in his speech that Urdu and English will be the two official
languages of Pakistan. Choosing English over Bengali was also a point that
aggravated Bengalis.
 The unequal distribution of the economic resources.

The language movement

After Jinnah’s speech the Bengalis claimed that they are 63% in population, their language
should be chosen as a national language. This claim was opposed by two statements: first
reason was that Urdu is spoken in many regions which will make communication easier, the
second reason was that Bengali language resembles Hindi dialect and it wasn’t spoken in
west Pakistan.

As we have observed by now that Bengalis are more nationalist people therefore, things
began to heat up even more when Khawaja Nizam ud Din, a Bengali leader, in 1952 stated
that Urdu will be chosen as the official language. To this the students at Dhaka university
began the movement in which they started riots and attacked the assemblies. Similar events
continued and it settled deeply with the Bengalis that their culture and language is being
discriminated, and this for a nation like Bangladesh was not justifiable.

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Economic inequality

The inequality between the two wings can be looked through two periods. One is the
economic setting of East Pakistan before the partition and second is after the partition.

Before partition

The British brought the shift from communism to capitalism, to strengthen colonialism. This
began with the revenue act signed between the British and Bengalis. This was a move to shift
all the wealth in the hands of British by creating a monopoly. This would eventually result in
the creation of classes and inequalities, which is basically the mission of colonialism to make
the British race superior. This took away all the wealth from Bengali famers and left them to
a point where they could not do anything for their defense.

After partition

Pakistan was given the idea that if they constraint the wealth in the hands some people
(develop monopoly) this will speed the economic growth. This concept is known as the
Doctrine of functional inequality which was given by world bank to hit 6% growth rate in
developing countries. In the implication of the doctrine the wealth went in to the hands of the
upper class of Pakistan. This again led to class differences. So, in a way, the British system
prevailed again that was the main cause of these differences. After partition the wealth was
also in the hands of feudal.

In this whole scenario East Pakistan claimed that they are being robbed under doctrine of
functional inequality. The economic situation can be explained as follow:

 Balance sheet results (1947-1970)

o The balance sheet showed a net loss in West Pakistan and a net saving in east
Pakistan. Even though 63% population was in east Pakistan.
o It also showed that 63% population of Pakistan (east Pak) only had an
expenditure of 28.8%, as compared to the 36% (west Pak) population having
an expenditure of 71.16%.
 Balance of payment (1948-1969)

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 o West Pakistan had more exports due to which their balance was in deficit. On
the other hand, East Pakistan had more exports than imports. This was due to
the heavy machinery being imported west Pakistan to induce industrialization.
And East Pakistan’s savings were used to pay off the deficit of west Pakistan.
This resulted in slow economic growth of east Pakistan.
 Gap between the two wings as per capita income
o 1949-1951: 51
o 1959-1960: 88
o 1969-1970: 206
o This shows that the spending power of the people of east Pakistan was also
declining.
 In 1947 Jinnah announced that every Pakistani has the fundamental right to education.
To fulfil this, schools were supposed to be built in every region of the two wings. But
there was a decline observed in the number of schools in east Pakistan. The static
salary of the teachers was also less as compared to the salary of the teachers of west
Pakistan.
 It is also claimed that 4-5% of the income from east Pakistan was moving to West
Pakistan.
 During 1947-1968, only 55% of the foreign aid sent for east Pak was spent on East
Pakistan and there was 60-70% more foreign inflow in west Pak.
 It is also claimed that almost $2.6 billion were given to West Pakistan by East
Pakistan. In the 25-year period.

Keeping in view all these points the Bengalis demanded that a point should be added in
the 1962 constitution to end intra provincial disparity. This was to achieved by no interest
being charged on the intra state trading and the state should be autonomous in all its
foreign trading.

Institutional arrangements

After the partition there was no power sharing arrangements between the East and west
Pakistan. This was due to many reasons but the main reason that came forward was the
difference of opinion in what kind of a state Pakistan is. There was a dispute between two
things

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 1. Should Pakistan be secular state or theocratic state (Islamic republic).
2. Should Pakistan have a federal form of government or provincial form of
government.

The civil military bureaucracy was in the favor of a strong federation government rather
than a centralized government. The Islamic parties of Pakistan also wanted this
arrangement because they wanted to unite the diverse under one federation. But the right-
wing politicians had a contradicting view over this as they thought that people would
unite move under a provincial form of government, in which states are made independent
and only the decisions of foreign relations and military are in the hand of central. And this
is how the politics was divided in the left and right being politics.

The second division was due to the thought that whether Pakistan is a secular state or
theocratic state. This difference of opinion arose because in the 1940 resolution Jinnah
stated that Pakistan will be a secular state. To this the opponents objected with the
statement that if Pakistan was supposed to be secular state then we could have stayed
united under one nation.

To dissolve this matter Liaqat Ali Khan presented an objective resolution act in 1949 in
which he stated, “Ultimate sovereignty lies with Allah and we trust that sovereignty….”. He
also stated that democracy should be implemented as directed in Islam and minorities should
be given their rights. At this time, the all India congress had become Pakistan national
congress. Muslim league, along with congress party, was adamant on the fact that Pakistan
should be a secular country as promised by Jinnah in 1940. One main reason for the support
of this statement from east Pakistan was that there were 20% Hindus in east Pakistan and
since Bengalis were nationalists, they wanted to stay united with the minorities. This began a
split in the following structure:

 Whole of East Pakistan was united on:

o Secular constitution and Independent state
 West Pakistan
o Some parties wanted secular and independent state
o Some parties demanded federal form of government and institutions should
follow Islamic laws and make Urdu as the national language.

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The events stated above led to an extreme political instability, which never let the Pakistani’s
unite on one form of institution and as a result difference b/w east and west Pakistan further
deepened:

 1950 Basic committee report stated that Pakistan will follow British parliamentary
system. This would be based upon two house, Senate and Assembly. In assembly the
general public will elect the leaders and the seats will be on the basis of states and the
senate will have equal representation from all the provinces. This was opposed by
East Pakistan as they claimed that west Pakistan will always have 4/5 of the seats,
which will make east Pakistan a minority.
 In 1952 the Basic committee report was revised and it was stated that both the houses
will have equal seats, known as parity principle. This was again an unworkable
solution as in the case of any dispute the deadlock cannot be resolved.
 In 1953 the Bogra proposal was presented, which suggested that the federal system
can have two wings and each can have a representation according to the population.
This was not accepted by east Pakistan as it again presented the problem of autonomy.
 A gov of Indian act was also presented to resolve the problem between upper and
lower house. The solution was that the governor general will decide whether the
problem should move to upper house or should be resolved in the lower of house.
 In 1953 the anti-Ahmadi movement began in west Pakistan, which began religious
unrest especially in the Punjab region.
 In 1954 the final draft of the basic report was drafted in which Urdu and Bengali
language were considered equal. At tis time the Muslim league in east Pakistan had
become Awami league and joined hands with other parties to form a united front,
whose leader was AK Fazal ul Haqq. And united front won the elections. But his
assembly was soon dismissed due to instability.
 Sikandar Mirza then played an important role in the attempts to dissolving the conflict
by stating that one-unit scheme should be followed. This scheme was that West
should become one state and east should become one state.
 In 1956, the first constitution was passed in which parliamentary system was opted,
Urdu was chosen as the national language, provincial autonomy was given,
independent judiciary was established.
 In 1957 a National awami party was formed, it was republican party who fought for
the rights of common people.
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 In 1958 Sikandar Mirza, the president at the time, dissolved the assembly and called a
martial law because of his conflict with the prime minister Feroz Khan. And Ayub
Khan also noticed that the civilian government was ineffective in handling political
matters that was affecting the economy.

The period 1958-1971

At this time Yahya Khan was in power and Pakistan saw a complete shift in its politics.
After the dissolution of the 1956 constitution Yahya Khan imposed this law that only
union counselor vote will now be registered, who were only 80000 in the entire country.
He further passed an “Electoral bodies disqualification order” (EBDO), under which he
ordered to disqualify 7000 politicians. He also banned the communist parties and arrested
Hassan Nasir in 1960 (under Security of Pakistan act), who was an active communist
party worker in the favor of left-wing politics and worked for the rights of common
people.

The second constitution was passed in 1962 which was in the favor of Yahya Khan, as it
stated that there will be a presidential form of government so that the president of the
state would be entitled to make all the decisions and there will be unicameral house parity
principle under which only union councilors can vote. And this is how Yahya khan
became the 3rd president of Pakistan, after Sikandar Mirza.

Geopolitical Conditions

During this time the Geopolitical conditions began to change, as three countries were
facing threats from each other: China, America and Soviet. As a strategy to protect
themselves from these conflicts the countries made the following allies:

 America befriended China and Indian, as well as, supported Pakistan in the name
of communism. America may have made peaceful relations with China but it
wanted to use Pakistan and India as its alliance against China.
 In 1963, Pakistan befriended China.
 And India also befriended Soviet.

During this shift in the geopolitical conditions the economic conditions of west Pakistan
began to improve due to foreign inflow of funds. The differences between East and West
Pakistan began to increase, as there was more monopoly now.

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People, now, were completely against Ayub Khan. In the elections of 1965, Fatima
Jinnah stood against Ayub Khan. Fatima Jinnah’s party was merger of several left winged
parties. Even then Ayub Khan came into power again.

Pakistan India war 1965

During the year 1965, India started to cross the international borders and they began to
capture Kashmir. As a reaction, Pakistan began the operation Gibraltar.

Pakistan was weaponized by America with the promise that Ayub Khan wont s it against
India but the war of 1965 was a breech of contract and America put an IMbargo on both
the countries.

After a lot of pressure from the UN, both the countries agreed to resolve this matter in a
conference in Tashkin, 4-10 Jan 1966. This settlement made Ayub Khan’s position very
weak because the people now think that this settlement made us loose a war we were
actually winning.

The war made one thing very clear to East Pakistan that in case of a war the west Pakistan
will not protect east Pakistan and that is why they have to make good relation with India.
This made their longing for a separate state even stronger.

Zulfikar Ali Bhutto vs Sheikh Mujeeb ur Rehman

After the war of 1965 two leaders rose from both the wings:

 Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, founded the Pakistan People’s Party

 Shiekh Mujeeb ur Rehman, Awami League leader, who presented the 6-point
objective

Mujeeb presented a 6 points objective, which he demanded to be added in the next

constitution. These points were opposed by Bhutto. The points included the following
thing:

 Two independent states

 Separate state banks
 Duty free interstate trading
 Separate foreign exchange accounts
 Separate fiscal and monetary policy

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  State should be given the authority to impose taxes
 Pakistan will be federation

There were many concerns with these objects the most important one was the huge
dependency on state for every major decision, as they will now control almost every
aspect of the budget.

In the response to these objectives being rejected the following events took place in east
Pakistan:

 In 1968, 30 awami league leaders were arrested in Agar Talla conspiracy case.
 In 1969, a leader was killed by a police officer but was portrayed as a judicial
murder and riots in east Pakistan began. As a result, the case had to be taken back.
 In 1969 round table conference Ayub khan greed to only two points: autonomy
given to east Pakistan and separate state elections.
 In 1969 Yahya Khan, again imposed martial law after wining the elections again.
 In 1970, general public was allowed to vote and as a result Awami league won
and PPP came second. The following events then took place:
o 14 jan- Mujeeb became the first prime minister
o 13 feb- announcement was made that national assembly session will be
held in Dhaka on 3rd march.
o 15 feb- Bhutto decided that he will not be attending the session unless the
6-point objective is resolved outside the parliament.
o 21 feb- Mujeeb stated that constitution will only be formed on the basis of
6-point objective.
o 19 feb to 21 feb- army began to come on the roads governors and
personals were replaced by army
o 2nd march- Mujeeb stated that there will be no co-operation with the state
of Pakistan and as a result the Bihari and Bengali conflict began.
o Yahya invited awami league on 10th march for a conference but on 7 th
march Mujeeb started a rally in which he added 7 more points.
o Yahya and Mujeeb came to a solution that two drafts can be drawn and
national assembly will decide which constitution should be passed.
o On 25th march operation search light began and Mujeeb was arrested.

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Operation search light

In March 1971, Pakistan initiated an operation in response to what it perceived as a

rebellion by the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, in East Pakistan. The
Awami League had won a clear majority in the general elections held in December 1970,
but the central government in West Pakistan was reluctant to transfer power. Tensions
escalated as the East demanded autonomy and political rights, leading to a political
deadlock and ultimately the military operation.

In a failed conference between President Yahya Khan and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in
March 1971, disagreements arose over political structures, particularly the acceptance of
a proposed confederal structure for Pakistan. This impasse fueled further resentment in
East Pakistan.

The military operation unfolded in three distinct phases. The first phase, from March to
May 1971, was marked by efforts to establish control over major cities and the
suppression of the Awami League. The situation deteriorated rapidly as the Pakistani
army launched a crackdown on political activists, and the civilian population witnessed
widespread violence and atrocities.

The second phase extended from May to October 1971, with a shift in focus to control the
countryside, aided by Jamaat-e-Islami, and the fostering of anti-Hindu sentiments. The
Pakistani army executed its "living off the land" policy, whereby provisions were
requisitioned from civilians, leading to a grave humanitarian crisis. As tensions between
East Bengal Army and East Pakistan Army escalated, public opinion in favor of Pakistan
deteriorated.

The turning point arrived on March 23, 1971, when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman declared
"Resistance Day," marking a significant shift in the political landscape. As the situation
intensified, curfews were imposed, and civilians fled to coastal areas and neighboring
India. Many Bangladeshi people crossed the border into India as refugees, creating a
significant humanitarian crisis.

On the international stage, a series of events unfolded, with Henry Kissinger secretly
visiting Pakistan to improve relations and reduce India's influence. This development
alarmed the Soviet Union, resulting in the Indo-Soviet Treaty in August 1971, which

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committed the USSR to protecting India from external aggression, notably China's
involvement.

In response to these geopolitical shifts, India started supporting the Mukti Bahini, the
Bengali resistance movement, and prepared for potential military conflict. The situation
escalated to the brink of war. The Pakistani government accused India of attacking
Pakistani posts on the western border. However, India argued that it was the Mukti Bahini
operating against Pakistan.

On December 3, 1971, Pakistan launched preemptive airstrikes on Indian airbases,

marking the beginning of open hostilities. India responded with a full-scale military
intervention on the side of the Mukti Bahini. The conflict expanded rapidly, with
significant battles taking place on both the western and eastern fronts.

The city of Dhaka witnessed a pivotal moment as the Indian Army conducted a well-
executed operation to capture the city. On December 16, 1971, after a swift military
campaign, Pakistani forces in Dhaka surrendered to the joint Indian and Mukti Bahini
forces, marking the victory of the allied forces and the birth of Bangladesh as an
independent nation. This date is celebrated as Victory Day in Bangladesh.

The aftermath of the war saw a massive refugee crisis, with millions of people displaced
and in dire need of humanitarian assistance. The conflict also led to a change in public
opinion in Pakistan, with growing dissatisfaction with the military's handling of the
situation.

The Hamoodur Rahman Commission, established to investigate the events leading up to

the war, reported on a decline in military professionalism and standards, as well as
allegations of atrocities and abuses during the conflict. The commission's findings
exposed critical failures and excesses, including the mishandling of civilian matters by
military personnel and charges of genocide.

In summary, the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War was a complex and tumultuous period
in the region's history, characterized by political tensions, a military operation,
humanitarian crises, and a decisive war leading to the birth of Bangladesh. It had
profound consequences for Pakistan and Bangladesh, both in terms of the geopolitical
landscape and the impact on civilian populations.

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