The birth of Bangladesh has received much scholarly attention all over the world. Volumes were produced depicting stories of individual fights and sacrifices that have been archived through memoirs of those who participated in the liberation war. However, the voices of those who interned in Pakistan, guarded by the Pakistan Army as they were huddled together as the ‘other’, the ‘enemy’ and ‘disloyal’ citizens of Pakistan have never received the attention of researchers. Partly because Pakistan refuses to accept its Army’s role in the division and partly due to the Bangladesh state’s attitude not to recognize their contribution as collaterals of war. Those who fought Bangladesh’s liberation war were conferred ‘bir protik’, ‘bir uttam’ , ‘bir Shrestho’ and enjoyed an elevated status both within the country and in their respective services as the repatriated Bengali remained marginal in the new state structure. As ‘liberators’ of Bangladesh enjoyed the fruits of freedom, the repatriates faced, what Naeem Mohaieman wrote in the Foreword of this book, ‘ranking crises’ and a ‘new second class status’ in a country that they opted for and suffered in the internment camps. Interestingly, nationalistic narrative emphasized on allegiance to the state and often questioned the framing of ‘national’ in the state structure. After 1947, the ‘Hindus’ were regarded as fifth columnist and traitors in East Pakistan in Jinnah’s 1948 Dhaka University convocation speech. Later along with the Hindus, the Awami Leaguers and their sympathizers were treated as traitors.
Chattha writes that the absence of Bengali internment in the war historiography of Bangladesh is because ‘they do not fully serve the nationalist framing of the violent events of 1971, which are understood through ideas of heroism and martyrdom’ (p. 6). In Pakistan it was denied by the ‘hegemonic national discourse’ and state sponsored ‘organized forgetting’.
Books like Separation of East Pakistan, Pakistan: Problem of National Integration explain the disaffection between the two wings. Memoirs of military personal like Sadik Salik’s book titled Witness to Surrender often portrayed Bengalis as traitors, as does AAK Niazi’s book, The Betrayal of East Pakistan. The betrayers paid for the ‘betrayal’ with stigma and racial slur in West Pakistan.
Chattha starts with how the Bengalis after the 1947 Partition led their lives in Karachi creating a cultural and political space for themselves. However, ties between the Bengalis and West Pakistanis weathered the politics. Yet the intelligence report on Mujib framed him as a disloyal citizen. This framing was extended to all the ‘Bengalis’ in general and also to those living in West Pakistan. Bengalis could sense the impending political crisis and many of them left, citing trivial reasons to visit East Pakistan tucking their life savings in suitcases. The two aircrafts flying from Karachi to Dhaka had a long list of waiting passengers.
Biharis also left East Pakistan for Karachi anticipating trouble. They targeted the Bengalis, now labelled ‘traitors’ by the state and occupied their properties to compensate for their loss, in a re-enactment of the 1947 Partition. The Bengalis were categorized as ‘white’, ‘black’ and ‘grey’ by the state, based on the threat they posed. Existing ethnicized loyalty screening became more stringent as the war progressed. Bengali bureaucrats in sensitive positions were transferred or dismissed (p. 39). As Bengali officers defected and supported the liberation war, Pakistan expanded its list of ‘traitors’ to include Pakistani Hindus and Pakistani Leftists. While in West Pakistan the ‘Bengali traitors’ were rounded up, in East Pakistan these traitors were simply killed, both by the regime and its ‘collaborators’.
In West Pakistan, the Bengali officers were neither declared ‘enemy’ nor POWs but were treated as ‘war necessities’ while harsher treatment was reserved for the soldiers (p. 63). Details of internees and their interaction with their fellow Punjabi course mates and friends given by Chattha reveal how affinity for fellow officers overtook the impending division of the country. Documentation of individual correspondence reveals the humane side of the relationship. Pakistan struggled to arrange the safe upkeep of the Bengali detainees to prevent them escaping. Some were held in NWFP and Balochistan. The camps for the Indian POWs captured during the 1971 war were showcased as model camps to the visiting ICRC and national and international press to underline the contrast between Pakistani and Indian treatment of POWs (p. 102).
Treatment of interned Bengali civilian officers was no better. Chattha writes, ‘Ironically, both the Bangladeshi and Pakistani governments labelled some civil servants as traitors simultaneously’ (p. 116). They were given an option to choose between ‘East’ and West Pakistan and less than hundred opted for West Pakistan. Pakistan could not reconcile to the division, and even on 1st January 1972, Bhutto Government was using the term ‘East Pakistan’ and not Bangladesh (p. 112). These internees became vital bargaining tools for Bhutto’s Government. To settle the issue Mujib proposed a population exchange ‘replacing Biharis with Bengalis’ which was rejected. Biharis in East Pakistan who collaborated with the Pakistan regime were understandably unwanted people for Bangladesh, but Pakistan treated them as war collaterals.
Pakistan separated interned Bengali officers (both Class I and II) from their families, placed them in camps in ‘obscure’ places establishing General Repatriation Centres as a prelude to try them for being ‘disloyal’ to Pakistan as a means to pressurize both Bangladesh and India not to go ahead with the trial of Pakistani POWs, held in India for war crimes. Many of these internees could not manage with the meagre allowance that Pakistan was providing and became ‘hostage’. Pakistan invited foreign journalists to meet the internees in the Warsak camp to win the propaganda war projecting Bengalis having a good life in confinement (p. 167).
Chattha also discusses how Bengalis not living in camps coped as the war progressed. Those working in factories lost their jobs as factories closed down due to disruption in the supply of raw material sourced from East Pakistan for which they were blamed, harassed and abused. The returnee Urdu speakers from East Pakistan targeted the Bengalis, killing 300 between March and April 1971 (p. 197). Their condition became international headlines as they sought help of foreign governments for their repatriation.
Between 1971 and 1973, a few Bengalis managed their escape from captivity. Around 2000 were caught while trying to escape West Pakistan. Finally, the tripartite agreement between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh resulted in the return of interned Bengalis and recognition of Bangladesh. More than 50 years have passed but the issue of trying 195 Pakistani officers, the question of ‘stranded Pakistanis’ in spite of their being conferred Bangladeshi citizenship in 2008, the debate on ‘collaborators’ of Pakistan and ‘traitors’ of Bangladesh continues to be politically portent.
Ilyas Chattha’s book has the distinction of being an immersive and engaging book on a topic very few people want to speak of. Based on archival research, extensive field trips and several interviews, this book is an extremely valuable source to understand how the interned Bengalis’ suffering and sacrifice remain unsung in Bangladesh’s intensely contested narratives on freedom fighters and collaborators in the liberation war.
Smruti S Pattanaik is Research Fellow, Manohar Parrikar Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses, New Delhi.