This year Bangladesh celebrates the 50th year of its independence. The 1971 Liberation War continues to evoke high emotions embedded in the determination and sacrifice by men and women who withstood in the face of huge repression and genocide of humungous proportions perpetrated by Pakistan on its eastern wing, then called East Pakistan. It was the denial of the outcome of the elections of 1970 in which the Awami League, under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a clear majority in Pakistan's parliament leading to a sequence of events that would eventually redraw the map of Pakistan for Bangladesh to emerge as an independent nation.  

The road towards separation became inevitable when the March 3, 1971 National Assembly session was postponed. While no political steps were taken to resolve the political impasse this created, the situation took a point of no return with the Pakistani military launching a  genocidal military campaign on the Bengali population of East Pakistan just after midnight of March 25 that year. 

Genocide by Pakistan 

The book "A Bangladesh War Commentary 1971 Radio Dispatches"  could not have been better timed and gives an insight into the thinking of the Pakistani military-political establishment and the blatant discrimination and disdain of their Bengali citizens separated by the Indian landmass. The first chapter of the book begins with U L Baruah’s commentaries on genocide that took place based on editorials from the British Press, Le Monde as well as Morning News, Karachi. Baruah’s narration also relied substantially on the reporting of journalist Anthony Mascarenhas, the Pakistani correspondent for the London Times, whose despatches opened the eyes of the West to the brutality going in then East Pakistan. 

Baruah was the Director of External Services Division of All India Radio during 1971 and keenly followed the events of this period, including the precursor events in Pakistan. This book has been put together from a number of commentaries that reflected the daily radio broadcasts. The commentaries have been organized in four chapters, significantly focusing on the Genocide, Operations In West Pakistan, After Bangladesh the debates and the final chapter on the emergence of Bangladesh. 

In June 1971, Zulfikar Bhutto, in an interview to Iranian weekly Keyhan International, downplayed the resentment brewing in East Pakistan, insisting there would be a political settlement soon. While highlighting many of the myths that were circulated by the military rulers in Pakistan during the war period, Baruah also significantly refers to the right of the ethnic minorities, including those of Pakhtoons and their leaders, especially Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan, who was considered as enemy number one of Pakistan. Ironically, the Pakistani leaders kept up with misinformation insisting that Pakistani troops were advancing on all fronts, days before the surrender of Dhaka. 

Two wars in 1971 

Two wars broke out in East Pakistan in 1971. One was a civil war fought between West and East Pakistan, and the other was an international war fought between Pakistan and India. Bangladesh’s emergence on the international stage as a free and independent country changed the landscape of South Asia irretrievably.  

The Liberation War took place during the height of the Cold War, when new ideological realignments occurred amongst big powers. The US was reaching out to China given the latter’s fallout with the Soviet Union that had cast a shadow over the war in the Indian subcontinent. Baruah notes that a Chinese veto barred Bangladesh’s entry into the United Nations, which is of course forgotten history now. 

Baruah captures many significant moments of history in his commentaries and the book concludes by recalling the National Awami Party Secretary’s views that military pacts have done no good to Pakistan and how important it was "Pakistan accept the hand of friendship extended by India and solve all outstanding problems in a spirit of friendliness". 

Maybe Pakistan will take heed one day. 

Title: A Bangladesh War Commentary 1971 Radio Dispatches; Author: U.L. Baruah; Publisher: Macmillan India Pvt Ltd; Pages: 148; Price: Rs 1,650 

(The reviewer is Centre Head, Neighbourhood Studies and Senior Fellow, Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi)