Pakistan has, since its inception, been dominated by Punjabis who make up a sizeable plurality of its population. This was even true when Bangladesh was know as East Pakistan, when Pakistan was a military junta and before that a dominion. Population-wise, prior to Bangladesh’s independence, Pakistan was majority-Bengali. This, however, did not result in real political control at all, as the military junta excluded Bengalis from the military and from political control. The reality that East Pakistan made up a majority of Pakistan’s population did not need to be touched upon until 1970, when Pakistan’s first general election (not including presidential elections, which discarded the popular vote with an American-inspired electoral college) was held - an entire twenty-three years after becoming independent. The result was a victory for the Awami League, representative of the Bengali people, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, an East Pakistani, was the genuinely elected Prime Minister of Pakistan. Yet, the military immediately refused the legislature to convene, and arrested Mujib. The result was the horrific Bangladesh Liberation War, where Yahya Khan, the genocidal military leader of Pakistan who stated, “Kill three million of them, and the rest will eat out of our hands”. Two hundred thousand Bengali women were raped, with twenty five thousand becoming pregnant. An Indian intervention meant that the Bengali genocide stopped at a “mere” three hundred thousand, frustrating Yahya Khan’s bloodthirsty desires. Sheikh Rahman became the leader of the new country of Bengal - unfortunately, he was soon assassinated and Bangladesh’s democracy perished early. And unfortunately, Pakistani war criminals were never tried for their crimes against humanity.
Yahya Khan was by no means the only leader of Pakistan to hate Bangladesh -his predecessor Ayub Khan stated “East Bengalis…have all the inhibitions of downtrodden races … their popular complexes, exclusiveness and … defensive aggressiveness … emerge from this historical background”. This is very reminiscent of British racial theory, and is simply a despicable statement to make.
Despite all this, the fact remains that Bengalis made up a majority of Pakistan’s population and would surely dominate Pakistani politics in a fair and democratic system, as the 1970 election demonstrated. But Pakistan was not a fair and democratic system and so that meant nothing. My challenge to you is to make East Pakistan the dominant half of Pakistan.
Yahya Khan was by no means the only leader of Pakistan to hate Bangladesh -his predecessor Ayub Khan stated “East Bengalis…have all the inhibitions of downtrodden races … their popular complexes, exclusiveness and … defensive aggressiveness … emerge from this historical background”. This is very reminiscent of British racial theory, and is simply a despicable statement to make.
Despite all this, the fact remains that Bengalis made up a majority of Pakistan’s population and would surely dominate Pakistani politics in a fair and democratic system, as the 1970 election demonstrated. But Pakistan was not a fair and democratic system and so that meant nothing. My challenge to you is to make East Pakistan the dominant half of Pakistan.