1971: A People’s History From Bangladesh, Pakistan And India By Anam Zakaria

Sir
I thank Madam Anam Zakaria for writing this book in military controlled Pakistan where it is difficult to use freedom of expression. She has worked hard to write this book, widely travelled in India, Bangladesh, and her own country Pakistan.

It’s a established truth that it was Indian Army which greatly defeated the Pakistani army . India established itself, first time in history to be a, regional power. Mukti Vahini might have troubled Pakistani army but not trounced as India did. General Niazi was humbled down. It was leadership of Mrs Indira Gandhi, assisted greatly by General SHFJ Manekshaw, Air Chief P C LAL, and Admiral S M Nanda, General Jagjeet Singh Arora, Lt General Sagat Singh, Major General Jacob. Indian intelligence agencies and Indian diplomatic corps also contributed to the liberation of East Pakistan.
It is open secret that 3 million people were murdered, 4 lac women were raped and more than 1 crore persons destabilised from East Pakistan. There was no control and supervision of General Niazi over his army. Pakistani army crossed all limits of civilised behaviour. At the right moment, India striked it’s enemy, humbled it out and the enemy bit the dust.
It was Julfiqar Ali Bhutto, who helped to create Bangladesh as he incited General Yahya Khan not to handover power to elected Awami party. India even treated the POWs of Pak army well. India faced danger of America and China but faced both. Human Rights were violated in Bangladesh greatly which nobody bothered to notice.Mr Jai Prakash Narain travelled most of the countries, be of no avail.Only then Mrs Indira Gandhi took hard decision to strike hard Pakistan and it’s degenerated army and India was successful in its mission. The whole world saw Pakistani army surrendering before Indian army. The greatest legacy of Indira Gandhi is dismemberment of Pakistan.
The book doesn’t cover atrocities committed by Pakistan army on Hindu minority, they tried almost to wipe out Hindus. Pakistani army lost its credibility all over world. The history would give it’s verdict of atrocities committed by Pakistan army to bangali community, and Hindus in particular.
This is first attempt by a Pakistani lady, although it is impossible to narrate 100 percent honestly. The world knows that it is Pakistani army who is running the country in unison with Pakistani beaurocracy.
There is one mistake in the book and I hope it would be corrected in next edition.
Page. 250 it is written” I firmly belief that a gentleman doesn’t harm another… there were others who had really suffered in 1971″ The verb believe should be in place of belief which is noun which is wrong.

It is better, the book is published in India. The price is reasonable, paper used is good.
There are no mistakes of facts and English language. The book is interesting and fascinating. I strongly recommend this for readers.

A must read for people who want to study 1971.

This is the second writing by Anam Zakaria I had the opportunity to read after her excellent work on 1947 partition. As usual, she has presented the complete truth about 1971 in this work, an unbiased account of the happenings in this subcontinent in that year. A 360° narrative that presents the whole picture before us unlike many other versions available on the subject that cater to a particular agenda. A must read for all those interested in a truthful narrative of the event and believe in humanism ! It will be great if some good film maker takes it as a base to produce a film on the subject for wider audience that will help spreading the truth to a larger segment of people. Keep it up, Anam Beta !

Considering this book is written by a Pakistani female, I’m truly impressed with the amount of honestly, fact finding, frankness which is rare or negligent amongst most Pakistani writers barring a few like historian Ishtiaq Ahmed. Not that I fully liked this book but it’s a good beginning for the world to understand what happened in then East Pakistan especially coming from a Pakistani Punjabi who lives in Pakistan and therefore is even more gutsy & praise worthy. I’ve read other independent (non subcontinental) authors books on this subject like ‘Blood Telegram’’ and ‘Vortex’ but this one is more of a social research.

But as a social research experiment which derives opinions and experiences of all those involved and affected by the Bangladesh war of independence, there was minuscule feedback or opinions from India. Even this minuscule data seems to come from irrelevant sources like her editorial staff, colleagues or friends in India which cannot be considered as genuine social feedback from those involved but just vague memories, imaginations and mere generalized opinions. While she got it perfect with her interviews and conversations with the right people in Bangladesh and then to some lesser extent from Pakistan. And I can understand that such projects require substantial expenses or external support in funding.

In attempting to highlight both sides of the story, I found the book being pretty sympathetic to the abusers; the Pakistani military, politicians and their cronies. By emphasizing the plight of non Bengalis, some of whom may have been victims of violence by the Mukti Bahini, the reasoning or justification for the brutal Operation Searchlight by the Pakistani army is given. Obviously when General Tikka Khan created the Razakars, they were not meant to help or take care of the Bengalis or Hindu minority community but help commit heinous crimes with the Pakistani army. Instead this book only points out or details concentration camps, torture chambers, locations run by the Mukti Bahini freedom fighters and hardly any details of Pakistani army operations, detention and execution chambers. It’s like saying that in 1943 the Jews of Warsaw Ghetto were to blame or responsible coz they decided to stand up and fight the Nazis. The sheer numbers of Bengalis massacred, tortured and raped by the Pakistan army even if Sheikh Mujibur’s estimates were misinterpreted into millions for lakhs, it’s still a genocide in every aspect and definition whether Pakistan eventually apologizes for it or keeps denying it. Regarding the issues post liberation, the onus lies on Pakistan especially in the case of the stranded Biharis who were abandoned by Pakistan despite them being their active supporters and staunch ideologues. This was the 2nd abandonment by Pakistan; the previous being during partition in 1947 when it prevented additional muslim migration from India, though publicly it promulgated and still justifies the ‘two nation theory’. Whatever suffering or reprisals the Biharis or Punjabis endured is minor ‘collateral damage’ when you look at what the Bengalis had gone through to achieve Bangladesh.

India’s contribution in this book is made to look as a mere enemy that took advantage with the intention of breaking up Pakistan. Not one mention of how over a crore of Bangla refugees were feed and settled in make shifts camps at a time when India itself suffered from massive food shortages, poverty etc. with no support coming from so called freedom loving Western democracies who instead chose to back the military dictator General Yahya in this genocide. Yes, the Mukti Bahini played a major role in the Pakistani army surrender but again no mention of the sacrifices made by Indian soldiers who were welcomed as liberators by crowds on the streets nor the fact that 93.000 Pakistani POW’s were saved from reprisal attacks from the Mukti Bahini or from any punishment for their crimes.

The book mentions Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s banning of the Jamaat party and punishing those involved in the 1975 coup and murder of her father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and most family members without mentioning all the years of suffering and even hiding she had to go through or her contribution in improving the Bangladesh economy or efforts in making it a more secular nation unlike the previous Islamic political parties and military rulers who wanted it to become a mirror image of Pakistan. No doubt most Bangladeshis cheer for Pakistan against India in cricket matches due to their common religious identity though there are more muslims in India; many intelligent and conscious Bangladeshis are grateful to India. The best gesture of this was by PM Sheikh Hasina who after almost four decades honored, thanked and awarded the now retired Indian army officer who rescued and saved her life along with her sister and mother (wife of Mujibur) and other family members when they were held in captivity by the Pakistani army and had orders to kill all of them in the final days of 1971 war.