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.
Umair. I think Mujeeb came to Pakistan for the Islamic Summit.
Not sure if Bhutto ever went to Bangladesh.
Saadia,
Let me put it this way. Assuming that idiots are equally distributed all over the world — and they are — India will have far more idiots than Pakistan just because India has 6 or 7 times more people than Pakistan. My point was why focus on idiots only. The world is much bigger and there are a lot more sane people than there are idiots.
Coming back to the message of the post, East Pakistan became Bangladesh not because there was a grand conspiracy against Pakistan, as we are taught in our school books, but because of our collective and cumulative stupidities. Let’s hope we don’t repeat them.
Let’s also hope that Bangladeshis, too, learn from Pakistan’s mistakes and don’t replicate them in their country.
MQ there are two types of war one physical and another mental, we Pakistanis have no war with Bangladesh on any level. Politicians who show the tolerance on one time can also show hate for both countries on other time, they dance with music called need of time and political issues so I here don’t talk about them.
I talk about Pakistanis of every day life, I only see those Indians who come in Pakistani blogs and clap when some Pakistani talk against the system of his land and then they say “look how we are better than you” and they never accept that India is also not perfect.
I bet you today if ATP will not censor the blog comments then you will find more comments from Indians telling to us that how failed is our system and how good is their or you make a blog of your and talk against Pakistan then you will see what I mean. India has also enough problems still Indians come and when get chance try to compare India with Pakistan, especially when Pakistanis even do not mention a single word about India but only discussing their own system faults.
I have never seen any single Pakistani who go to Bangladeshi blog and take out the frustration of Pakistani defeat of 1971. Its not that Pakistan has more than enough problems its that we are fed to accept the reality that Bangladesh is a seperate nation so respect it.
If some Europeans say to me Bangladesh was East Pakistan, then I tell them its now free land and our good friend. I do not say as I have no interest or I am helpless. Actually I see myself as a normal Pakistani who respect Bangladeshi and stand for them as taking them as really good friends. I also see, it is my responsibilty to never let the hate against Bangladesh like it was once in Pakistanis heart in 1971,which resulted in killings of many Bengalis.
MQ, I am not pro Pakistani and neither I hate Indians, in reverse I have many Indians friends, its only a small reaction of the actions of many Indians comments in Pakistani websites and blogs thats all.
get a muslim brother to fight a muslim brother. thats always been the goal of non-muslims. goras have used this strategy to great effect in the m.e. and indians in the sub continent.
in this link ” http://dawn.com/weekly/dmag/dmag1.htm ” there is a tasveer of mujib thanking the army of a country that lied to world on kashmir; a government that while assisting mujib had locked its own agent and kashmiri traitor sheikh abdullah in prison for 15 years even though sheikh abdullah was demanding a lot less from india than mujib from pakistan; the same government that would later send 700k troops in kashmir that would kill tens of thousands of kashmiris with impunity and with full acquisence of the larger non-muslim world.
bangalis did not want to associate with other muslims. fine. bangali qaum has the right to live their lives as they see fit. pakistanis however did not want to go along with bangalis. results of 1970-71 elections clearly show this. our mujib is jinnah – a man who represents the opposite of everything mujib stood for and symbolises. unlike mujib, jinnah united muslims from different ethnicities and sects and jinnah achieved his goals against overwhelming opposition from goras and hindus and remarkably without any outside help. i believe jinnah’s warning to bangalis is equally relevant for us today. please read it very very carefuly
http://www.pakistan.gov.pk/Quaid/speech35.htm
Broadcast Speech from Radio Pakistan, Dhaka on 28th March, 1948
“…Pakistan is the embodiment of the unity of the Muslim nation and so it must remain. That unity we, as true Muslims, must jealously guard and preserve. If we begin to think of ourselves as Bengalis, Punjabis, Sindhis etc. first and Muslims and Pakistanis only incidentally, then Pakistan is bound to disintegrate. Do not think that this is some abstruse proposition: our enemies are fully alive to its possibilities, which I must warn you they are already busy exploiting. I would ask you plainly, when political agencies and organs of the Indian press, which fought tooth and nail to prevent the creation of Pakistan, are suddenly found with a tender conscience for what they call the ‘just claims’ of the Muslims of East Bengal, do you not consider this a most sinister phenomenon? Is it not perfectly obvious that, having failed to prevent the Muslims from achieving Pakistan, these agencies are now trying to disrupt Pakistan from within by insidious propaganda aimed at setting brother Muslim against brother Muslim? That is why I want you to be on your guard against this poison of provincialism that our enemies wish to inject into our State. There are great tasks to be accomplished and great dangers to be overcome: overcome them we certainly shall but we shall do so much quicker if our solidarity remains unimpaired and if our determination to march forward as a single, united nation remains unshaken. This is the only way in which we can raise Pakistan rapidly and surely to its proper, worthy place in the comity of nations…”
Adil,
My father was raised in East Pakistan, he speaks fluent Bengali and i grew up hearing stories about Khulna and Chittagong…About the Lions school there, the evening tennis clubs, the fresh coconut water…
Banglaesh got the rough end of the deal i feel and my generation will never understand the debacle because our history books are so tainted and so one sided that we will never learn what truly happened…
In any case, i wish them all the best…I hope to one day sip on coconut water in Chittagong and play a game of tennis at the club there…