Let’s not forget

Letter August 02, 2011
Ethnicity, language and culture, along with religion, make a nation state.

NEW DELHI: This is with reference to Yaqoob Khan Bangash’s article “Remembering East Pakistan – I” (August 1). It’s not the first time that a Pakistani writer has been candid enough to accept the truth regarding the 1971 debacle, but the point is that most Pakistanis including well-known intellectuals still blame India for what happened then.

The argument goes that East Pakistan was an internal matter for Pakistan, and that had India not intervened, the country’s eastern wing would not have seceded. On the face of it, the reasoning behind this is valid but Pakistanis also need to understand India’s predicament. Bengali intellectuals, teachers, artists and so one were being carefully targeted in the run-up the events of 1971, as were local Hindus living in then-East Pakistan. The result was that refugees poured in to India and it became a humanitarian crisis. This was part of the reason why India felt it needed to intervene.

Mr Bangash is absolutely right in that there needs to be soul-searching in Pakistan and that the aspirations of other ethnic groups like the Baloch should have an honourable expression within the Pakistani state. If 1971 ever taught us anything, it is that religion alone cannot keep a nation together. Ethnicity, language and culture, along with religion, make a nation state.

Sonam Shyam

Published in The Express Tribune, August 3rd, 2011.