Two leaders met in the bathroom to stop Pakistan from dividing, why was there a need to create Bangladesh?

Violence has erupted once again in our neighbouring country Bangladesh. People have come out on the streets. The ancestral house of India’s great filmmaker Satyajit Ray was also vandalised. Last year too, riots started in Bangladesh in July which soon turned into severe violence. Due to which Sheikh Hasina not only had to leave the post of PM, but also had to leave the country to save her life and had to take refuge in India.

However, this time the scene is a little different from the last time, this time there are clashes between the workers of two parties. On the other hand, after the Pakistani army and intelligence agency, now Pakistani terrorist groups have also entered Bangladesh. In such a situation, should it be believed that Bangladesh is once again on the path of becoming Pakistan?

Why there was a need to create Bangladesh, what was going on in Pakistan a few months before the creation of Bangladesh?

Why did Bangladesh become a separate country?

When India got independence from the British in 1947, it was divided into two parts. On the basis of religion, a new country Pakistan was created on the map. The newly-formed nation Pakistan was divided into eastern and western provinces. People of East Pakistan spoke Bengali. Women wore colorful saris. On the contrary, Urdu and Punjabi were dominant in West Pakistan. There was a culture of burqa and hijab.

55 percent of Pakistan’s population lived in East Pakistan and 45 percent in West Pakistan. Out of the total 313 seats in the Parliament of Pakistan i.e. the National Assembly, 169 were in East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) and 144 in West Pakistan (present Pakistan).

Despite this, 80 percent of the budget was spent on only 45 percent of the people. That is, it was spent on West Pakistan. The leaders who ran the government were also from the West and they considered the people of East Pakistan as second class citizens and for the Pak Army they were nothing more than insects.

When the people of East Pakistan raised their voice against inequality and economic discrimination, the Pak Army suppressed their voice. Abusive words were used against East Pakistanis. They were considered weak and inferior. If they went to the police to tell their plight, the police also blamed them. In 1952, there was a movement in Pakistan regarding the Bengali language, in which many students lost their lives. This was just the beginning.

Why did Bangabandhu file a case?

Sheikh Mujibur Rahman alias ‘Bangabandhu’, the head of East Pakistan’s political party Awami League, raised his voice against political inequality and economic discrimination towards his province. After the Indo-Pak war of 1965, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman said in Lahore, “Provincial autonomy is also necessary to bring uniformity in the economic development of both the provinces.”

This suggestion of Awami League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was not only ignored, but a case was lodged against him in 1968 under the ‘Agartala Conspiracy’. It was alleged that he was conspiring with India to break East Pakistan.

1970 elections added fuel to the fire of Partition

Neither the government considered the East Pakistanis important nor the administration listened to them. The people were growing angry with the attitude of the people in the government and the misbehavior of the police and the army. While demanding their rights, the East Pakistanis started demanding an independent nation. The general elections held in December 1970 added fuel to the fire of partition in Pakistan.

Before the 1970 general elections, Pakistan was under President’s rule and dictator General Yahya Khan was the President. In the general elections, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League had fielded candidates on 169 seats including East Pakistan, out of which it won 167 seats, while the Pakistan People’s Party won only 81 seats out of 138 seats in West Pakistan. The majority figure to form a government in Pakistan was 157 seats.

Sheikh Mujiburahman had the majority to form the government, but the leaders of West Pakistan did not want Bengalis to rule them. Pakistan’s military dictator General Yahya Khan refused to make Sheikh Mujiburahman the Prime Minister.

On March 7, 1971, Sheikh Mujiburahman gave a historic speech at the Race Course Ground in Dhaka. He declared East Pakistan independent and named the country Bangladesh.

‘Let western leaders form the government’, the conversation that took place in bathroom

After this, on March 15, 1971, when Yahya Khan reached Dhaka to talk about the transfer of power, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman came to meet him in a white car. There was also a black flag on the car. When Yahya Khan took Sheikh Mujibur Rahman to the drawing room of the Government House for talks, Sheikh protested.

John Sisson and Leo Rose, while referring to this meeting in their book ‘War and Secession: Pakistan, India and Creation of Bangladesh’, wrote- Sheikh Mujiburahman wanted to talk in private. Yahya Khan ordered two chairs to be placed in the bathroom. After this, the talks to save Pakistan started in the bathroom. The talks lasted for about two and a half hours.

On 19 March, Yahya invited Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, leader of the Pakistan People’s Party, to Dhaka to join the talks. Once again the three – Sheikh, Yahya and Bhutto – met. Yahya tried to mediate between Bhutto and Sheikh, but the two were not on speaking terms.

Then Yahya joked to lighten the atmosphere and said- ‘You both are behaving like a newly married couple.’ Yahya held their hands and asked them to talk, then Bhutto and Sheikh Mujibur started talking to each other.

After this discussion, it was agreed that Bangladesh would exist within a united Pakistan, but on 23 March, all plans were ruined. In fact, on 23 March, ‘Lahore Resolution Day’ was being celebrated all over Pakistan. On this day in 1940, the idea of an independent Muslim country was announced for the first time.

On 3 December 1971, Indian soldiers jumped into the battlefield to stop the brutality of the Pakistani army. The war between India and Pakistan took place on all three fronts. Within 13 days, the Pakistani army had to surrender. In this war, more than 93 thousand Pakistani soldiers surrendered to the Indian army and a new nation was born in the form of Bangladesh.

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