Subalterns and Raj: South Asia since 1600 by Crispin Bates

Author:Crispin Bates [Bates, Crispin]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781315889726
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2013-09-16T04:00:00+00:00

East Pakistan/Bangladesh post-1971

Bangladesh came to independence amidst a wave of popular support, spearheaded by student organisations and passionate assertions of Bengali nationalism. Like India, Bangladesh adopted a secular constitution soon after the birth of the new state, but there the similarities ended. In many respects the country soon began to suffer the same symptoms of political instability associated with its borders and minorities, as had west Pakistan (Van Schendel 2005). These included serious problems of democratic secessionism in the Chittagong hill tracts to the north, provoked by and inherited from the former regime, which had ridden roughshod over the relative autonomy formerly enjoyed by the region in colonial times. Conspicuously, Bangladesh's new constitution lacked any reference to the rights of multilingual national minorities, and an armed movement sponsored by the Jana Samhati Samiti (formed in 1972 to represent the Chittagong tracts) has fought an underground campaign to win recognition ever since, a conflict that has at times degenerated into civil war between rival factions, further adding to the plight of this region. Hundreds of Shanti Bahini (armed opposition group) members have been captured or killed and thousands of hill people have become refugees deep in the forests or in neighbouring India. The Shanti Bahini was formally dissolved after an unpopular accord between the JSS and the Awami League in 1997, which failed to put a check on Bengali settlement and to resolve land disputes, but the struggle for regional autonomy by the Chakmas and the Marmas and other subaltern groups continues (Mohsin 2003; Majumdar 2003; Chakma 2002).

Beyond the problem of its borders, the difficulties faced by Bangladesh in 1971 included the legacy of chaos and destruction following the independence war itself, and the culture of violence and extremism that it enjoined. It is estimated that as many as a million Bangladeshi civilians may have died in the fighting and as a result of the associated chaos and dislocation (Mascarenhas 1986). These difficulties were piled on top of the economic problems already inherited in the years immediately following partition. Bengal's main industrial city and principal port, Calcutta, having been joined with India in 1947, the most serious difficulty faced by east Bengal was its woeful lack of industrialisation. A consequence was that the country was completely dependent on its annual rice harvest in order to feed itself. This was precarious at best, as almost the entire country is deltaic and below sea level, and therefore highly susceptible to flooding both from the sea and from the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and their tributaries as they flow through the state.

Poorly administered and deprived of development finance, Bangladesh had furthermore to bear the burden of years of political disorder, which had culminated in the civil war of 1971. Arms abounded, and the government had difficulty in finding qualified staff to fill the positions formerly occupied by fleeing west Pakistan personnel. This was a problem in the military as well as in the civil service. At the commencement of the civil war, Bangladesh had

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