Bangladesh Liberation War 1971

Table of Contents

Recently Bangladesh has witnessed sudden riots resulting in a serious situation in Bangladesh and the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the primary focus of the riots was initially over the reservation provided to families of veterans of the Bangladesh Liberation War 1971.

In this article, we will discuss in detail the Bangladesh Liberation War 1971, issues leading to the war, India’s role in the war, India’s concerns, and the aftermath of the war.

Also to help students with the preparation and developing answer writing skills for UPSC CSE mains exam we have attached a Mains practice question, please note that this topic and practice question is important for UPSC GS 2 and 3 for International Relations and Internal Security.

Q1. Considering India’s past and present relations with Bangladesh discuss the strategic importance of Bangladesh in regional Co-operation and India’s internal security.

Bangladesh Liberation War 1971

The considerations made for the formation of Pakistan were only based on religious lines. Demography, secularism and the concept of continuity was ignored concerning Bengali speaking population in then East Pakistan, also along with ignorance the suppression began with Bengali speaking population even when they formed the majority part of the population of Pakistan.

This eventually nurtured a rebel among the Bengali speaking population which escalated after the arrest of Sheikh Mujib in 1971, we will discuss about the war and background further in the article in detail.

Background of Bangladesh Liberation War

Before heading to learn about the Bangladesh Liberation war 1971 we will study about the background from partition to 1971 and then the aftermath of this war which will include the changes in political landscapes of Pakistan and newly formed Bangladesh.

Areas of East Pakistan saw extensive military raids after the 1970 general elections to suppress civil disobedience.
Pakistan army created radical groups in East Pakistan like Razakars and Al-Shams.
The war was well anticipated between Pakistan and Bangladesh.
In early 1970 Bangladesh was hit by the Bhola Cyclone, which was very powerful.
By now, Ayub had resigned and Yahya Khan had become president of Pakistan.
East Pakistan didn’t receive the proper support from West Pakistan.
After the general election in December 1970, the Awami League won 167 out of 169 seats belonging to East Pakistan.
The total seats In Pakistan were 300, this was a clear majority which meant Sheikh Mujib was to be the Prime Minister of Pakistan.
But because of the discrimination, Mujib was not accepted, In March 1971 he was arrested by Pakistani forces and flown to West Pakistan, and Awami League was banned.
Along with this Operation Search Light was launched.
Bengali, academics and Hindus were widely targeted alongside Muslim Bengali nationalists with widespread, indiscriminate extrajudicial killings
It was because of this cruelty India saw a refugee crisis, around 1 crore refugees came to India.
An example of cruelty during this period is the Dhaka University Massacre.
Eastern wing commander, Tikka Khan was leading Operation Searchlight and the army launched the attack on Dhaka University, further attacks were carried out on 14th December killing around 200 students.

Partition of India 1947

As discussed above the partition was solely based on religious lines and demography and language were ignored, we study about the root cause of the problem which led to Bangladesh Liberation War 1971 and about Husain Suhrawardy, as he had always advocated for a 3rd country and was leader for Civil right movement in East Pakistan.

India got independence in 1947, and along with it came the partition
India was divided into two countries India and Pakistan.
Pakistan had two fronts, west to India was West Pakistan, and East to India was East Pakistan.
Jinnah played a huge role in the formation of Pakistan and is considered to be the father of Pakistan.
But hardly he is remembered in Bangladesh, apart from his infamous speech at Dhaka University about Urdu being the sole language of Pakistan.
Hussain Suhrawardy played a huge role in the 1937 elections and it was because of him that the Muslim League won the Bengal seat, only this single seat was won by the Muslim League.
Suhrawardy had earlier thought of creating a third country other than India and Pakistan during the independence struggle only.
Suhrawardy was responsible for the deaths of Bengalis on Direct Action Day in 1946 but was also a civil rights activist for Bengalis.
Suhrawardy moved to Pakistan, his party Awami League formed government in Pakistan and he was prime minister of Pakistan from 1956-57 but resigned under pressure, and soon a coup was made by Ayub Khan.

India’s Preparation for Bangladesh Liberation War

During the war India was being led by Indira Gandhi on the political front and by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw on the war front, with the long vision of these two and other leaders India was way ahead for the preparations of Bangladesh Liberation War 1971, the preparations are discussed below in detail

In January 1971, India barred access to Indian airspace for Pakistan this was in result of the Ganga Hijacking.
This made it difficult for Pakistan to supply the logistics because now Pakistani planes had to go the way round from the southern tip of India to reach Bangladesh.
Absorbing 1 Crore refugees who came to India was not possible.
General Manekshaw asked Indra for 6 months to prepare for war.
Firstly, the terrain at the India and Bangladesh border is quite marshy because of rivers flowing, in the month of June this marshy land would have restricted India’s ground movement.
Secondly, meanwhile, India gave training to Mukti Bahini and the refugees to defend their motherland.
Thirdly, to evade a 3 front war, which could have involved China and during winters it is not possible for China to cross the Himalayas and enter India.
India prepared itself for the 2 front war with Pakistan.
Indira Gandhi made a visit to Moscow in August 1971 and Indo–the Soviet Treaty of Peace, Friendship, and Cooperation was signed.
Article IX of this treaty reads

Each High Contracting Party undertakes to abstain from providing any assistance to any third party that engages in armed conflict with the other Party. In the event of either Party being subjected to and attach or a threat thereof, the High Contracting Parties shall immediately enter into mutual consultations to remove such threat and to take appropriate effective measures to ensure peace and the security of their countries. This meant in case of an attack on India, military assistance would be provided by the USSR and vice versa.

Bangladesh Liberation War, 1971

Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 is most probably the most important war among all wars India has been to, this war changed the geo politics for South East Asia completely.

Below we have discussed about the war events in detail and India’s position on each front which includes the western borders, eastern borders and international waters.

On 3rd December, Pakistani fighter jets violated Indian space and bombarded forward Airbases of Amritsar, Ambala, Agra, Awantipur, Bikaner, Halwara, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer, Pathankot, Bhuj, Srinagar and Uttarlai and Radars at Amritsar and Faridkot under Operation Chengiz Khan.
Following this, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi declared war on All India Radio after a meeting at around 11 pm.
On December 5 Indian Navy launched Operation Trident.
Operation Trident inflicted heavy damage on Karachi Naval Base.
Pakistan had deployed PNS Ghazi with the mission to lay mines along India’s eastern coastline and eliminate INS Vikrant under the command of Zafar Muhammad.
But was submerged in deep waters by INS Rajput.
The naval operations not only celebrated victories but also grieved for INS Khukri.
On 9th December 1971 INS Khukri and INS Kripan, two anti-submarine frigates were tracking PNS Hangor, when Hangor fired a torpedo which eventually got hit INS Khukri and because of failures INS Khukri submerged in the waters.
Captain Mahindra Nath Mullah was captain of this ship and denied leaving his sinking ship and saved as many lives as he could.
In Parallel to the victory of the Naval operations, the Indian army also advanced.
On the western Border, the Battle of Longewala was fought between India and Pakistan.
Indian side with 120 soldiers and 3 HAL fighter jets was attacked by 3000 Pakistani soldiers and 40-50 tanks.
Still, the Battle of Longewala was won by the Indian Army under the command of Major Kuldip Singh.
Meanwhile, the nuclear fleet of the USA reached near India and aimed to threaten Indian operations but soon the Russian nuclear fleet also reached under the Indo-Soviet Treaty of 1971, and no engagements were made.
Eastern engagements of the Indian army were remarkable too.
Para troopers were dropped in Bangladesh to advance towards Dhaka.
An example of information warfare by India, To confuse Pakistan, dummy troopers were used in areas of Bangladesh, and the next day in the newspaper a photo was printed that was actually from a military exercise.
soon Pakistan assumed that India had landed with a complete Brigade but actually only 800 soldiers were dropped.
General Niazi was given the option for Surrender, to which he agreed.
This is the biggest ever surrender to date where 93000 Pakistani soldiers surrendered.
Not only surrender but Niazi also gave Guard of Honor to Lieutenant General Arora.
After inspecting the Guard of Honor surrender agreement was signed by Niazi and General Arora at Ramna Race Course on 16th December 1971.

Aftermath of Bangladesh Liberation War

With the surrender agreement on 16th December 1971, Bangladesh was declared independent, now we will further read about the Shimla Agreement of 1972, the Delhi Agreement, Pakistan politics, and changes in Bangladesh’s politics.

Shimla Agreement 1972

This was the peace treaty between India and Pakistan after the Bangladesh Liberation War 1971.
The treaty also gave back more than 13,000 km² of land that the Indian Army had seized in Pakistan during the war.
The treaty was signed by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Indira Gandhi.
Major Outcomes of this treaty –

It paved the way for recognization of Bangladesh as an independent country.
Both countries(i.e. India and Pakistan) will settle their differences over Kashmir by peaceful means through bilateral negotiations only and deny third-party intervention.
The cease-fire line of 17 December 1971 was agreed as the Line of Control, many bureaucrats argue that India lost an important negotiation and we could have asked it to be the international border and withdrawal of Pakistani forces from PoK.

Delhi Agreement 1973

Delhi Agreement was a trilateral agreement between India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
This agreement allowed for the repatriation of prisoners of war held in the 3 countries after the Bangladesh Liberation War.
The agreement has been criticized for Pakistan’s failure to repatriate Urdu speakers in Bangladesh.
According to the UN, 121,695 Bengalis were moved from Pakistan to Bangladesh. They included high-level Bengali civil servants and military officers.
Around 108000 people moved from Bangladesh to Pakistan.
In 1974, General Niazi was the last Pakistani officer who was repatriated to Pakistan.

Pakistan after the Bangladesh Liberation War

India had defeated the Pakistan and with this defeat Pakistan had moved towards the democracy with Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto taking over as prime minister of Pakistan, with the below discussion you will be able to draw a more clear picture.

Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18th December 1971, he was presenting Pakistan before UNSC.
He took over two positions from Yahya Khan, one as president and the other as the first civilian Chief Martial Law Administrator.
Bhutto immediately placed Yahya Khan under house arrest, brokered a ceasefire
Also Bhutto ordered the release of Sheikh Mujib, who was held prisoner by the Pakistan Army.
Bhutto was sworn in as the prime minister of the country on 14 August 1973.
General Zia declared martial law and suspended the constitution in 1977.
Bhutto was arrested and Pakistan was again under a military coup.

Bangladesh after Bangladesh Liberation War 1971

Bangladesh got its true independence in 1971 with the victory in liberation war with this Sheikh Mujib returned to Bangladesh from the prisons of Pakistan and took over as prime minister of Bangladesh, the detail of events that followed in Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War can be fetched below

Mujib reached Bangladesh and officially took over as prime minister of Bangladesh in 1972.
Mujib introduced a parliamentary form of government in Bangladesh.
The constitution was framed and adopted for the independent Bangladesh on 18th December 1972, within one year of independence.
Bangladesh became the first constitutionally secular state in South Asia in 1972.
The newly adopted constitution included the word “secular”.
Mujib saw a growing dissatisfaction among the public and elections were approaching in 1977.
In 1975 he declared himself president and enforced One Party State.
Mujib imposed censorship in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Krishak Sramik Awami League (BAKSAL) became the only legal party in Bangladesh.
This one-party state lasted for about 7 months.
Mujib was assassinated on 15th August 1975 by the army along with his 17 family members, his two daughters were in Germany so they remained safe.