June 13, 2004

“More brain, O Lord, more brain! Or we shall mar utterly this fair garden we might win.” — Anon

Innumerable books have been written on the 1971 break-up of Jinnah’s Pakistan. While many deal with the immediate causes of this great divide, few have delved into the deeper, much earlier causes behind the mass alienation felt by the former east wing masses for the western half, which ultimately led to the two wings splitting up into separate countries. One wonders, how many remain who realize that this event rent asunder the very basis of the two-nation theory forming the premise for a separate homeland for the Muslims of the Indian subcontinent. The East Pakistan debacle was the wanton bloodletting amongst the people of one ‘nation’ and one religion — Muslim against Muslim. And the world saw and must no doubt have wondered: what happened to the brotherhood?

What indeed did happen, the book under review — The Emergence of Bangladesh — sets out to explain. The author, Badruddin Umar, a scholar with a Tripos in philosophy, political science and economics from Oxford, wrote a series of articles for an English daily in Bangladesh on the various factors leading to the emergence of the Bengali homeland. Himself an eyewitness to most of the events, Mr Umar was prompted to write a factual history of Bangladesh when he noticed the massive campaign by the second Awami League government in 1996, to grossly distort the history of the political struggles of the Bengali people. These articles form the chapters of this book, which is the first of a two-volume effort beginning from 1947 to the Ayub Khan coup d’etat of 1958. The second will be carrying on from there to 1971 and to the emergence of Bangladesh.

The author contends that from the very beginning, Pakistan was an unstable state. The physical distance between the eastern and western wings, coupled with a considerable difference in social, cultural and political life and traditions made precarious footing. And the imbalance in the power structure prompted the great slip!

The book attempts to describe the relations between the two wings since the very beginning. The struggles waged by the various classes in Bengali society for self-preservation and improved quality of life have been described in detail and backed by record. The workers, the peasants, the teachers, the students and intellectuals all agitated in their respective spheres towards the common goal of equality with the western wing of the country, throughout the three decades of United Pakistan. Hence the subtitle of the book “Class struggles in East Pakistan”.

The issues upon which these various classes agitated were by no means minor. The great famine that ravaged East Pakistan right after 1947 was callously handled by the West Pakistan dominated central government. The after effects continued to agonize not just the peasants but all other lower and middle class segments of Bengali society for the next decade or so. It was at this very early juncture that disillusionment with the western wing set in. It steadily spread to the other classes as the economic pressure of upward spiralling prices of staple foods, in the face of rock-bottom buying-power of the majority, had made life generally oppressive. This disillusionment was further compounded with the imposition by the western dominated central government of what was generally taken by Bengalis as discriminatory policies. These included the state language issue and the economic manipulation of the western wing entrepreneurship over the eastern wing’s industry.

Politically, East Pakistan was handled like a colony or so the chapters of the book infer. To maintain an upper hand at the provincial level and to pursue their vested policies, the ruling Muslim League — top-heavy with the West Pakistan political leadership — sponsored the Bengali landed aristocracy and a few ‘loyal’ business houses.

What the rulers obviously failed to realize was that the Bengali landed gentry had ceased to be a powerful entity in Bengal even before the advent of Pakistan. Bengal under the British Raj had politically matured much earlier than the other provinces of India and the influence of the Bengali feudal had already played out its role with the establishment of the Muslim League in 1906 in Dhaka under the aegis of Nawab Salimullah Khan.

Thereafter, as the date for Pakistan drew near, the movement in Bengal was basically lower and middle class oriented, including only the small progressive feudal element led by Sher-i-Bengal A. K. Fazlul Haq. Thus the political imbalance between the east and west had already matured by 1947. It was thereafter retained to the detriment of Jinnah’s Pakistan.

A most interesting issue dealt with in the book is the question of the minorities collectively in British India and the author has actually begun the book with this chapter. It points out a lack of vision in the founding fathers, who did not really gauge the real value of minority representation. If the All India Muslim League had provided leadership not just to the Muslim minority of India, but also to other religions in a minority — the Dalits, the untouchables and the Sikhs among others — it would have changed the complexion of the division of the subcontinent altogether and would have provided the new state a more stable and stronger position vis-a-vis the Hindu majority whose intrusive rule initially led to the idea of two nations.

Mr Umar has addressed this critical subject academically, supporting his arguments and assessments with factual details. The book presents a fresh aspect of one of the greatest historical tragedies of the 20th century, giving scholars of Pakistan history something more to think about.

The Emergence of Bangladesh — Class Stuggles in East Pakistan (1947-1958)
By Badruddin Umar
Oxford University Press, Plot # 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, Karachi. Tel: 111-693-673
Email: ouppak@theoffice.net
Website: www.oup.com.pk
ISBN 0-19-579571-7
389pp. Rs695

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