Adil Najam
As the fourth part of our series on the events of 1971, we are reposting this post which was first published at ATP on December 16, 2006. We are reposting it with all the original comments since they, as a whole, are very much part of the conversation we all need to have with ourselves. The previous three parts of the series can be read here, here and here.
Today is December 16.
Today Bangladesh will mark its 35th ‘Victory Day.’
Most Pakistanis will go about their lives, not remembering or not wanting to remember. We should remember – and learn – from the significance of this date.
Not because it marks a ‘defeat’ but because it marks the end of a dream, 24 years of mistakes, horrible bloodshed, traumatic agony, and shameful atrocities. The constructed mythologies of what happened, why, and who is to be blamed need to be questioned. Tough questions have to be asked. And unpleasant answers have to be braced for. We need to honestly confront our own history, for our own sake.
But right now, the goal of this post is different. We at ATP just wish to extend a hand of friendship to our Bangladeshi friends. May the memories we make in our future be very different (and more pleasant) than the scars we carry from our past.
There is much – too much – that I wish to say; but cannot find words for. So let me do what I always do when I am at a loss of words. Let me quote Faiz Ahmad Faiz, who in his memorable 1974 poem ‘Dhaka say wapsi par’ (On Return from Dhaka) expressed what I wish to say so much better than I ever could.
We share with you here the original poem in Urdu, a version in ‘Roman Urdu,’ a wonderful English translation of the poem by the late Agha Shahid Ali in his book The Rebel’s Silhouette
ham ke Thehre ajnabi itni mulaaqaatoN ke baad
phir baneiN ge aashna kitni madaaraatoN ke baadkab nazar meiN aaye gi be daaGh sabze ki bahaar
khoon ke dhabe dhuleiN ge kitni barsaatoN ke baadthe bahut bedard lamhe khat’m-e-dard-e-ishq ke
theiN bahut bemeh’r subheiN meh’rbaaN raatoN ke baaddil to chaaha par shikast-e-dil ne moh’lat hi na di
kuchh gile shikwe bhi kar lete manaajaatoN ke baadun se jo kehne gaye the “Faiz” jaaN sadqe kiye
an kahi hi reh gayi woh baat sab baatoN ke baad
After those many encounters, that easy intimacy,
. we are strangers now —
After how many meetings will we be that close again?When will we again see a spring of unstained green?
After how many monsoons will the blood be washed
. from the branches?So relentless was the end of love, so heartless —
After the nights of tenderness, the dawns were pitiless,
. so pitiless.And so crushed was the heart that though it wished
. it found no chance —
after the entreaties, after the despair — for us to
. quarrel once again as old friends.Faiz, what you’d gone to say, ready to offer everything,
. even your life —
those healing words remained unspoken after all else had
. been said.
Has anyone ever thought why East Pakistan and West Pakistan were one country? what an absurd geography of a counbtry which is separated by 1000 miles and in the middle sits the arch enemy. The countries should have been independent since 1947. Its a very common saying, cultures unite but there is no unification due to religon. East paksitan and west Pakistan as a one country is teh same if Turkey and Pakistan becoem country, both are muslims but two distinct cultures, just not possible. The sepration happened in 1971 but it was going to happen sooner or later, however, I wish it was not bloody sepration that way it happened.
Ive been wanting to get my hands on the book ‘ the rebel’s sillhouette’ ever since I read this post….
does anyone know of some online bookstore in Pakistan that sells te book?
Pakistan did what any country would do when its terretorial integrity is threatened. I would narate how hindu teachers were infiltrated into East Pakistan and anti state propoganda and actions were carried out at the grass root level. later regular indian army acting as Mukhti Bhani was stationed in East Pakistan for several years before the operation even began. just like the mumbai attack recently one of the Indian airline aircraft a F27 named Ganga was hijacked and brought to Lahore where the indian hijackers burnt it on the tarmac imediately India went to the securtiy council and got Sanctions against Pakistans Airline flying over Indian terretory cutting off the two parts of the Pakistani Union.
Increasing the flight time by four times.
the often repeated slogan by Mujeeb was that we smell bengali PUTSUN from Lahore roads and Bengali Rice is being sold at a fraction of the price in bengal itself.
This was all false propoganda because no pakistani leader from west falsified his claims. it is just like Indian trained Talibans in SWAT and FATA area. these talibans are being trained/supported & funded by over 15 so called counselates along the same Pak Afghan border and the Mumbai attacks are all Reminiscence of the mukti bhani in the East and the GANGA aircraft hijacking. Most of these so-called Taliban when killed revealed to have Indian currencies and ID cards and were using the latest Indian Army issued weapons.
Again the territorial integrity of Pakistan is at stake with Indian funded separatist claiming supression of rights to the people of Swat & FATA. we are reminded of the events of 1971. before it was mukti bahini now its Taliban.. but I think Pathans have more integrity than Bengalies and would never Side with our enemies for their own reasons.
All leaders and intellectuals must negate this propaganda. So history does not repeat itself.
West Pakistan was blamed for not negotiating. East should be blamed for taking sides with the enemy who had fought a war with us less than a decade ago . it would be more decent to have sold their souls to the devil rather than siding with the enemy who still had the blood of our soldiers on their hands from the last war .
Afan Khan: after speaking out your fallacious anguish backed by some irrational arguments, would you be able to answer one question: was the pakistani army successful in crushing the rebellion?! NO! cause no pakistani general ever proposed Mujib that anything would be his if he called his men off. the butcher Yahya didn’t even need to go there if he kept his promise of handing over the power to Mujib’s awami league. he did not do that. why? cause behind the curtain, Yahya promised to give Bhutto the power that only Mujib deserved, after winning the majority in 1970 election. Bengalis were fed-up of the exploitation, namely the latest of which was the political drama. you mentioned about three “bengali” political leaders who ruled as prime minister of pakistan. Well none of them except Suhrawardy is considered true Bengali by us. They were to us what Mahmood Abbas of Fatah is to Palestine. They were puppet agents of pakistan army and didn’t hesitate to lick their western martial leaders’ feet when needed, often sacrificing the cause of their people in Bangladesh. Bengalis had power in the 50s when Sher-e Bangla Fazlul Huq was elected, except the fact that pakistan army saw him off in months! The fact is Pakistanis were never comfortable with us, for reasons only they can explain! Islamic brotherhood was the theme which we Bengalis followed when we merged with Pakistan, not something that I think you can see in the gang rapes of innocent muslim bengali mothers and sisters by the hand of Pakistan army officers and soldiers! Anyway, if you really believe in crushing fellow oppressed countrymen’s rights through violence and torture while maintaining the name “ISLAMIC REPUBLIC” of pakistan, then my kudos to your philosophy!
bangladesh GDP growth rate has been better than pakistan indicating it is going to exceed pakistan as the second largest economy after india in that region. female:male = 103:100 in the primary schools. female literacy has already been higher in bangladesh in 2000. next UN statistics will prove pakistan to have lower overall literacy than bangladesh. under 5 year death rate/ 1000 == bangladesh : pakistan = 77 : 108 . pakistan is no comparison to bangladesh. nearly 90% bangladeshis are sunni muslim who dont practise any tribal or caste system unlike pakistan having shia sunni troubles, racial, tribal, caste-based troubles. please dont try to compare bangladesh with pakistan.