This week our reading is over Lahari’s book, interpreter of Maladies which discusses the migration in and out of India. The story “When Mr. Pirzada Came to Dine” is about Mr. Pirzada, who leaves Dacca in East Pakistan to do research in Boston while his wife and seven children stayed behind in Dacca. This story takes place after partition and during 1971 when East Pakistan was fighting to become Bangladesh. I believe that having a more in depth understanding of what took place during the bangladesh liberation war will give us better insight while reading about Mr. Pirzada.After partition in 1947, where British India became both India and Pakistan, Pakistan was divided into two territories. These territories were West Pakistan and East Pakistan, known today as Pakistan and Bangladesh. Shortly after, tensions began to rise between the two as East Pakistan experienced unjust treatment by the West. West Pakistan refused to accept Bengali as a state language, they caused economic disparity, and looked down on the Bengali people and their culture. This tension between the two compromised their relations with one another.Pakistan was governed, undemocratically, by an oligarchy, and in 1970 things escelated further during the general ele tion when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the East Pakistan based Awami League to victory. Conflicts occured when West Pakistan refused to relenquish power to the East (Zakaria, 2019). Because of this, violence broke out between the Bengalis and Biharis (individuals viewed as being pro-West Pakistan that resided in the East). In March of 1971 the Pakistani army used this as a reason to get involved and intervened in the matter, recruiting from various local supporting groups, most of which had no military experience. Due to the brutality of West Pakistan towards East Pakistan, finally India became involved and welcomed in Bangladeshis refugees. Once Pakistan launched air strikes towards India, they oficially declared war on December 4th. While this war only lasted 13 days, and is considered “one of the shortest wars in history”(WION, 2019) The war between east and west Pakistan lasted for 9 months and resulted in 300,000-3 million people losing their lives. Ultimately Pakistan surrendered and West Pakistan gained it’s independance as Bengladesh on December 16, 1971.
What connections can you draw between past readings and the relations between West and East Pakistan?
Image: https://medium.com/bangladeshiidentity/breaking-into-freedom-personal-anecdotes-of-bangladeshi-war-heroes-as-heard-in-the-diaspora-a3399e7cbdc5https://www.globalvillagespace.com/did-pakistan-lose-more-than-just-a-war-in-1971/Sources: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2019/12/16/remembering-the-war-of-1971-in-east-pakistan/https://www.wionews.com/south-asia/bangladesh-liberation-war-the-story-of-indias-victory-pakistans-surrender-and-the-birth-of-a-new-nation-268445