AS we prepare to celebrate another Independence Day tomorrow, we must revisit our stance towards a large community that stood by Pakistan and paid a heavy price for it. Bihari is a generic term used for migrants from the eastern Indian province of Bihar, who first headed for East Pakistan after the partition of India in 1947, and then moved again in 1971 to what at the time was West Pakistan.

The mass exodus of Muslims to escape the Hindu atrocities marked the initiation of a new era of discrimination and resentment for the Urdu-speaking Bihari community. The estimated number of migrant Biharis to East Bengal was more than one million in 1947. According to the 1951 census, 671,000 Bihari refugees were in East Pakistan; by 1961, the refugee population mounted to 850,000. Broad assessments suggest that about 1.5 million Muslims migrated from West Bengal and Bihar in the first two decades after partition. The majority of Biharis were educated and hardworking, and they replaced the Hindus who had opted to move to India in 1947. As such, the Biharis ended up holding important governmental posts in Pakistan.

Initially after partition, the local Bengali population warmly welcomed the migrants. But the language issue was a distinct marker between the Bengali-speaking ‘locals’ and the Urdu-speaking ‘migrants’. Gradually, Bengalis began to look at Biharis as the ‘looters’ and ‘plunderers’ of the local resources.

The fissures between the two communities started growing in the wake of Bengalis’ nationalistic demands for self-autonomy. During the 1971 unrest, Biharis predominantly supported the West Pakistan stance, and, as a result, had to face acrimony and violence. The massacre of Biharis and other non-Bengalis was carried out with impunity in early March 1971.

Biharis were widely butchered by Mukti Bahini because they were unarmed and easy to target, living in particularised areas. R.J. Rummel, a University of Hawaii historian, gives a range of 50,000 to 500,000 Biharis killed, and concludes at a prudent figure of 150,000 murdered by Bengalis overall.

In the aftermath of the 1971 war, some of the Biharis managed to escape to West Pakistan via Nepal and Myanmar, but most of them ended up in ‘relief camps’. It is the travesty of fate that Bengalis looked upon Biharis as enemies, while West Pakistan refused to accept them as citizens of Pakistan. The refugee camps of Biharis have become heaps of slum. By the efforts of numerous international social organisations and human rights activists, in an agreement in 1974, Pakistan accepted only 170,000 Bihari refugees. The repatriation process has since stood stalled.

Today, more than 300,000 Biharis are stranded in Bangladesh, languishing there, waiting to go to the country for which they borne infinite loss coupled with their perpetual displacement. The only ‘crime’ the Biharis have committed is to stand by the ideology of Pakistan. What they got in response has contributed nothing but a sense of alienation and discrimination.

Pakistan must develop a strategy to mainstream the marginalised community as it has faced colossal losses for the sake of this country which should not to be forgotten, ignored or even belittled.

Faizan Bashir
Chiniot

Published in Dawn, August 13th, 2023