In a very positive note, government of Bangladesh has decided to honor 226 Indians for their crucial support to the country during 1971 Liberation War. As this TOI news tells:
Bangladesh to honour 226 Indians for role in 1971 ‘Liberation War’
Bangladesh will honour some 500 foreigners, including 226 Indians, for their crucial support to the country’s 1971 ‘Liberation War’, as it marks the 40th Victory Day anniversary next year.
Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would be conferred with a special honour for her “immense” support for Bangladesh’s independence, officials earlier said.
Apart from the late Indian Prime Minister, then Indian army chief, Field Marshal S.H.F.J. Manekshaw and the army commander in India’s eastern theatre, Lt. Gen. Jagjit Singh Aurora, figure in a list of eminent people to be honoured by Bangladesh.
At the same time, I am horrified to read the concluding part of the article:
On March 26, 1971, Bangladesh – then East Pakistan – declared its independence from West Pakistan.
According to official figures, Pakistani troops, aided by local collaborators, killed an estimated 3 million people, raped about 200,000 women and forced millions more to leave their homes during the bloody nine-month guerrilla war.
Now this is shocking and completes the story of Division of India in 1947. I don’t know how many men and women would have died if there was no division of India, but certainly ‘a lot’ suffered due to it; be it in 1947, or 1971. All those who died or suffered, were sons and daughters of the same soil.
While sons and daughters of soil suffered in all three artificially created nations of India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, interestingly, three dynasties grabbed power in the three respective nations, for decades. Nehru/Gandhi in India, Sheikh Hasina (daughter of BD’s founding father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) and Bhuttos in Pakistan, these are strong dynasties which have survived and thrived. Their tales are full of ups and downs, with some members of dynasties paying price by their lives. In any case, I think situations with less separate “Desh”s would have been better and bigger.
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