Short Subjects

Behind the Revolt in East Pakistan

Apart from basic differences in language, tradition, culture, and even the manner in which their common Islamic religion is practiced, the Urdu-speaking West Pakistanis and the Bengali-speaking East ex-Pakistanis have stood in an unhealthy political, social, and economic relationship to one another ever since Pakistan was founded in 1947. It was only at the insistence of Mohammed All Jinnah, head of the original Muslim League and creator of the Pakistan state, that Bengal was split into East and West Bengal with the predominantly Muslim East Bengal forming East Pakistan while the predominantly Hindu West Bengal became part of India. Where partition in the West led to the tragic slaughter familiar to the world, the Bengal Partition, even though it involved the exchange of millions of people, was relatively nonviolent and peaceful, thanks partly to Gandhi’s efforts but mainly to a sense of common brotherhood (of fellow B...