Bangladeshi War of Independence of 1971

Independent Pakistan was a divided country in more ways than one. West Pakistan (now Pakistan) was ethnically diverse while East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was nearly homogenous and much more densely populated. Just about their only strong bond was an adherence to Islam. The leadership of Pakistan, historically dominated by the west, committed to holding national elections for the first time after more than a decade of military rule in 1970. Scheduled for November, the election was postponed until December because of a cyclone that devastated East Pakistan, killing an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 people. Discontent with the response of the Pakistani government to the disaster and other resentments led to overwhelming support for Awami League in East Pakistan (160 of 162 seats) while the largest party in West Pakistan, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), won 81 of 138 seats. The absolute parliamentary majority created a crisis because the Awami League intended to devolve national authority over everything other than foreign affairs and defense. With PPP support, the military delayed convening the National Assembly. Ethnic Bengalis, the majority of the population in East Pakistan, openly revolted and, on March 25, 1970, the military leadership declared a state of emergency.

The Awami League was outlawed, its leaders arrested, and a vicious suppression of Bengalis in East Pakistan followed. Bengali dominated military units joined the uprising. By April Pakistani forces had occupied the major cities and scattered the rebels but the revolt continued. A guerrilla army, the Mukti Bahini (Liberation Force), was formed while surviving Awami League members proclaimed an independent Bangladesh on April 14th, before fleeing to India. The Pakistani army recruited ethnic Bihari, a minority population in East Pakistan, to form a paramilitary force, the Razakars, intended to terrorize the population of East Pakistan in support of the army. Massacres of Bengali civilians grew in frequency over the summer as did attacks by the Mukti Bahini.

The civil war in East Pakistan created a flood of refugees into India which was beyond its capacity to adequately support while American diplomatic backing for Pakistan limited international humanitarian aid for the growing crisis. A military intervention was being considered by the Indian government. India sought and received military support and diplomatic assurances from the Soviet Union. The twenty-year Treaty of Peace, Friendship and Cooperation, signed in August 1971 by India and the Soviet Union, gave India the arms it needed and balanced the threat of American or Chinese belligerence. By September 1971 nearly ten million Bengalis had fled to India.

India was sympathetic to the independence-minded Bengali insurgents in East Pakistan, but also keen to exploit Pakistani vulnerability. It began providing military support to the Mukti Bahini and, by November 1971, Indian armed forces were making limited incursions into East Pakistan in support of Mukti Bahini cross-border attacks. In response to Indian military incursions into East Pakistan, and possibly to divert Indian forces westward where most of the Pakistani armed forces were deployed, Pakistan launched a series of preemptive air strikes against Indian airfields, mainly opposite West Pakistan, on December 3, 1971. The plan was to reproduce the results of the Israeli air strikes opening the Six Day War but the attacks were far too weak.

India responded with national mobilization. The Indian Air Force attained air superiority within the next twenty-four hours and retained it for the duration of the war; the small Pakistan Air Force contingent deployed in East Pakistan was destroyed. At sea an Indian Navy task force immobilized East Pakistani port facilities and landed an amphibious force to cut off escape routes to Burma. At the same time, an Indian task force contained the main Pakistani fleet and bombarded port installations at Karachi, in West Pakistan. Although comparatively minor, the war at sea was the heaviest and costliest fighting at sea anywhere in the world since the end of World War II.

On the ground the Indian strategic plan called for prioritizing the defeat of Pakistani forces in East Pakistan while simultaneously containing West Pakistan. Indian armed forces launched a full-scale invasion of East Pakistan on December 4th. The invasion force numbered about 160,000 troops in nine infantry divisions with attached armor units and supporting arms. The Pakistani defenders numbered about 73,000 regulars and 20,000 irregulars (the Razakar) and they were fatally dispersed to defend along the border rather than concentrated to hold the capital. Indian forces advanced rapidly, bypassing the Pakistani defenders at the border and pressing relentlessly toward the capital at Dhaka; at least three brigades of the Mukti Bahini fought in conventional formations with the Indian forces. The defenders were overwhelmed by the speed and power of the Indian advance. On December 16th Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered and Dhaka was occupied. India took about 94,000 prisoners.

On the western front, India effectively contained Pakistani attacks and made limited advances into West Pakistan but the fighting was bloodier. Along the Jammu and Kashmir front, Pakistan captured Chhamb but its forces were repulsed in their attempt to pursue the retreating Indians. In the Punjab, India captured some of territory in the Shakargarth salient held by Pakistan. A Pakistani attack further south, from Sind, was repulsed and Indian forces penetrated the frontier at several points in Sind and the Rann of Kutch. However, neither side achieved a decisive victory along the West Pakistani-Indian frontier but the total defeat in East Pakistan was enough to produce a ceasefire in the western front as well on December 17, 1971.

The new state of Bangladesh was already recognized by India on December 6th but the stunning India victory over Pakistan in the fifteen day conventional war assured its independence. With the birth of Bangladesh, the position of India in South Asia became dominant, and its foreign policy, which remained officially nonaligned, tilted toward the Soviet Union – in reaction to American belligerence and US diplomatic encouragement of a Chinese intervention against India. To most Pakistanis, the news of defeat came as a numbing shock – their military was both disgraced and condemned for its brutal crackdown in East Pakistan; literally overnight, the country had lost its status as the largest Muslim nation in the world. Gone, too, were any illusions of military parity with India.

Notes

[1] Most sources treat the civil war/genocide in East Pakistan (beginning March 25, 1971) separately from the India-Pakistan War (December 3, 1971 to Decmeber 17, 1971) that ended it, possibly to highlight the latter. However, neither period is complete without the other and Indian military engagement in East Pakistan, although minor, began months before the 15-day war.

[2] The uncertain but overwhelming number of battle deaths resulting from the civil war/genocide make Indian and Pakistani battle death additions misleading. During the conventional war total battle deaths amounted to 11,223 Indians and Pakistanis.

[3] The official Bangladesh claim is 3 million killed but this is widely disputed. Low estimates speak about "tens of thousands" and a consensus seems to be 250,000 to 300,000.

[4] Based on the Correlates of War battle deaths for Pakistan: 2,500 (782) and 7,982 (178)

References

Bangladesh - A Country Study; Brogan, 209-10; Clodfelter, 1095-103; COW782, 178; India - A Country Study; Kohn, 228, 349; Pakistan - A Country Study.

Category

Inter-State War

Region

South Asia

Belligerents

India, Pakistan, Bangladeshi

Dispute

Governance, Interests

Initiation Date

March 25, 1971^[1]

Termination Date

December 17, 1971

Duration

8 months, 23 days
(268 days)

Outcome

Imposed Settlement
(Indian, Bangladeshi victory)

Fatalities

Total: 250,000^[2]
Bangladeshi: 250,000^[3]
India: 3,241
Pakistan: 10,482^[4]

Magnitude

5.4