'The dismemberment of the country became a possibility when West Pakistan's power elites refused to accept Bengali ... as one of the state languages. It became a necessity when the principle of parity was ... not implemented in the fields of civil and military services. It became an inevitability when people's representatives in the East, who had won the first-ever general election ...were prevented from coming to power by army action.'

This is how the author Sheikh Maqsood Ali sums up the story of the dismemberment of Pakistan in From East Bengal to Bangladesh. The irritants, such as the imposition of Urdu as the only state language; droves of West Pakistani officers descending on East Pakistan; denial of due share to the people of the eastern wing in the civil and defence services and the country's resources; humiliation as a non-martial race and discrimination acted as vehicles that hastened the denouement.

Those disputes having been examined by many writers are, by now, fairly well-known. The author, too, recounts the irritants in meticulous detail with the help of tables and authentic references. But he goes further to explore a field less well-known the historical background of the people of the two wings and their socio-cultural chemistry that moulded their political outlook that was the genesis of the divide.

The author's account of the development of identity and consciousness of the people of West and East Pakistan from the earliest times, their respective roles in the Pakistan Movement, their social and political structures and the initial economic bases of the two wings is extremely fascinating and insightful for its many revelations.

Fundamental differences with other communities extended to every facet of their lives including language, social customs, administration, self-government institutions and politics. The contrast was sharpest between the Bengalis and the Punjabis. Social practices such as endogamous marriages and the biradri (clan) system that were prevalent in Punjab were virtually unknown in Bengal.

West Pakistan was a 'semi-feudal society with landlords having substantial representation in the civil and military services [and] living in half-Mughal, half-British style linked by matrimonial relations.' Therefore, West Pakistani political leadership was 'dominated by feudal-military-bureaucratic elite.' Such a situation was alien to the Bengalis whose political leaders and senior bureaucrats came from the middle class.

Opposition to landlords was inbred in the Bengali psyche. Thus, in the 1937 provincial election, A.K. Fazlul Haq, fell out with the Muslim League because Jinnah did not agree to his condition about abolition of zamindari (feudal system) without any compensation. A lawyer from the middle class, Haq contested against the Muslim League-backed zamindar Khwaja Nazimuddin and defeated him by 39 seats to 37. 'It was an experience unthinkable in feudal north-western India.'

In East Bengal zamindari was abolished in 1950. The ceiling was fixed at 3.3 acres for individual holdings. In contrast in West Pakistan, the Land Reform Commission set up in 1959 allowed 500 acres of irrigated and 1,000 acres of non-irrigated lands for individual holdings.

In Bengal the Moneylenders' Act and the Bengal Agricultural Debtors' Act were passed in 1933 and 1935 respectively; both pieces of legislation helped to emancipate the peasants from the clutches of moneylenders. But even though the incidence of agricultural indebtedness and the moneylenders' ravages were no less acute in Punjab, no such law was passed there.

In the administrative sphere, the Punjab administrative system was geared towards dealing with lawless tribal elements, with the deputy commissioners exercising much discretionary power. In contrast, the power of district magistrates in Bengal was controlled by 'some regulation or an act of the legislature.' Police were fully accountable. And self-government institutions such as the district and union boards were quite active.

Because Bengalis came 'mostly from middle class backgrounds' and were 'historically oriented towards a reformist agenda', they were also politically conscious and agitated not only for their own rights, but also for the rights of people of the smaller provinces in West Pakistan. For example, Maulana Bhashani, who founded the ANP in 1957, included the dissolution of One Unit and land reform in West Pakistan, besides provincial autonomy among his demands.

The author has tried to adopt an objective profile. But his ultra-nationalism is exposed by his referring to the eastern wing of former Pakistan as East Bengal throughout the book. This is an egregious distortion of history and sits like an ugly wart on a beautiful complexion to dilute the author's credibility because the eastern province was called East Bengal up to October 14, 1955. From October 15, 1955 onwards it was officially known as East Pakistan.

Nevertheless, the book is irresistibly fascinating. The partitions of Pakistan and India have a remarkable similarity the same arrogance of the powerful and their intransigence in conceding the rights of the weak; the same step-by-step hardening of attitudes, culminating in dismemberment.

For Pakistan's politicians, therefore, it is a lesson in disaster, because this insight into the past may prevent a repetition of the same mistakes in the future.

From East Bengal to Bangladesh
By Shaikh Maqsood Ali
University Press Limited, Dhaka
ISBN 7020000127
438pp. Tk750