Constructivist Analysis of Independence of Bangladesh

 

Tripuresh Pathak*

Assistant Professor (Political Science), Government Vivekanand P.G. College,

Maihar, District Satna (M.P.)

*Corresponding Author Email:

 

ABSTRACT:

The Independence of Bangladesh was one of the most important event to have occurred in the World Politics of 20th Century. It was not just dismemberment of the then biggest Muslim State in terms of Population, but was also a great question mark on the survival of the state that was founded only on the basis of Religion. Constructivism is an approach in International Relations that contends that Reality is inter-subjective and is constructed through the interaction of different players and institutions. This Research Paper makes an in-depth analysis of different factors that played important role in creation of Bangladesh. The two Nation theory on which Pakistan was founded has been dealt in this paper. The value of given identity depends upon its number and the binding potential of an identity is more in case of identity being in substantive minority than when the identity is in majority. The colonial construct of labelling the entire community as either martial or coward was also responsible for the crisis. The lack of democratic development has also been highlighted as it reduced the capability of Pakistani state in dealing with aspirations of people of East Pakistan. The paper also seeks to critically analyze the role of India in formation of Bangladesh. 

 

KEYWORDS: Constructivism, Two Nation Theory, Difference, Binding Potential, Democracy Deficit, Colonial Construct.

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

Bangladesh became an independent state in 1971. But, liberation of Bangladesh did not come through simple deliberation and proposal for just participation or mere launching of separatist movement.

 

It happened due to the presence of various factors like injustice done to Bengalis who were more than 50% of the then population of Pakistan by non-recognition of their language as state language and lack of adequate representation in bureaucracy and army; the adamancy of Yahya Khan in not recognizing the result of 1970 elections in Pakistan; dynamic leadership of Mujibur Rehman; genocide done on Bengalis by the Pakistan Army; Indian intervention due to refugee crisis and opportunity of weakening Pakistan; colonial heritage of seeing the identity in straightjacket terms leading to description of Bengali race as weak and non-warrior type in the vocabulary of Pakistani military and civil services.

 

There are many factors and events related to this historical development and many scholarly works of great repute have been published. It is not possible to discuss the different aspects in one research paper or one chapter or even one book as such an effort will be merely repetitive mentioning of events with poorer analysis and explanation. There is need to be specific about the aspect that has to be dealt with in a given paper.

 

There is need to focus on some vital aspect of this political and economic development from the Constructivist framework that can be creatively engaged with other relevant concepts and principles. Constructivism is a very important approach in International Relations. It contends that reality is inter-subjective and is developed due to interaction between different players and institutions. Reality is neither purely subjective nor purely objective. The chief proponents of Constructivism are Alexander Wendt, Nicholas Onuf, Martha Finnemore, Maja Zehfuss, Peter J. Katzenstein among others. Construction of reality happens due to the interplay of material and ideational factors. Identity is given great importance in Constructivism as Identity plays key role in defining the chief attributes of the given State as well as important political groups. It also determines the important objectives and targets of the group.

 

The aim of this paper is to focus on the construction of Bengali identity that was inclusive enough to include the critical Hindu factor (Hindus were almost 19% of the total population of East Pakistan during the liberation movement), but quite exclusive of the other ethnicities of Pakistan. The paper will try to delineate the development of Muslim consciousness in Bengal in British times and evaluate its adjustment and maladjustment with the two nation theory. This is important as the contradiction of ethnic Bengali identity with Pan- Islamic identity formed the main reason for the unrest in East Pakistan and the formation of Bangladesh.

 

Constructivist Analysis of Pakistani Identity:

Pakistan was based on the Two Nation Theory. The theory meant that there are two nations in India, i.e. Hindus and Muslims. The two cannot live together in a single political system. There is thus a need to create a separate homeland for Muslims. The theory supported the notion that Hindus and Muslims vary a great deal in their religious beliefs, food habits, dress, language and many other aspects of life. This difference cannot be accommodated in one political system, however liberal and democratic it may be. The two nation theory opined that overall minority of Muslims in India will lead to their oppression by the Hindus. The creation of new sovereign state for the Muslims will solve the problem for all the Muslims of India. The assumption inherent in the approach is that the diversity within Islam in India is  insignificant.

 

Geography is very important element of determination of identity. It was much more in earlier times as the means of transportation and communication was very poor. Agriculture was the chief occupation of Indian people and they lived settled life. This resulted in lesser movement of people due to which their entire life was spent in relatively small geographical area. This led to creation of language, dialects, some folk culture and values in a geographical region that was followed by people of different religions. This is very important in understanding the meaning of two nation theory in context of East Pakistan.

 

Constructivist framework is very important as it helps us to locate the contradictions between Bengali Muslim and constructed notion of Indian Muslim by the Muslim League. The construction of Muslim as Urdu speaking person was incorrect as Muslims spoke almost as many languages as Hindus, depending on the zone to which they belonged. Urdu was popular only in United Provinces, Central Provinces and Bihar and even in these Provinces local dialects were commonly spoken by both Hindus and Muslims. Urdu, in itself is a mixture of Hindi and Persian and that is why it has been referred to as Rekhta, i.e. hybrid. The script of Urdu is different from Hindi, but it matters only for literate people. This fact must be seen in the light of the fact that only 18% of the Indian population was literate during the time of independence. Bengali was spoken both by Hindus and Muslims in Bengal. Bengalis love for arts like music, poetry and dance also crossed religious barriers. Bengal was hub of National Movement in Swadeshi days and both Hindus and Muslims participated a lot in those days against the British government. The popularity of leaders like Chittranjan Das and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was among both, Hindus and Muslims. There was thus limited sense of common Muslim identity throughout India that was separate from Muslim identity.

 

It is important to bear in mind that Bengal was very active centre of intellectual activity in the British period. It saw the seeds and maturation of the seed of Indian Renaissance in stalwarts like Raja Rammohan Roy, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, Keshab Chandra Sen, Swami Vivekanand, Sri Aurobindo and many others. The genius of these leaders cannot be doubted and they had genuine feeling of establishing unity and love among the people. But the works of leaders of Renaissance had a strong Hindu tinge that derived its inspiration from classical Hindu texts. This, coupled with the fact that there was fear among the Muslim clergy that the influence of Hindu social reformers may result in reconversion of Muslims on large extent, led to separation of Muslim thinking from Hindu aspirations. This was very well utilized by Muslim League which encouraged the sense of suspicion, mistrust and separateness among the Muslims vis-à-vis Hindus.

 

Psychological Perception of Self Identity in case of being Majority

The working of new state failed to free itself from the shackles of discourse of two nation theory. It has to be kept in mind that the power and force of two nation theory did not have same magnitude throughout the Muslim population. It was most in the areas where Muslims were in minority as they had fear regarding the domination of Hindu majority in the democratic system. The Pakistan movement was strongest in United Provinces, Bihar and Central Provinces. It was not so strong in regions of West Pakistan and it also lacked great support among the Muslims in East Pakistan. This is because Muslims were in comfortable majority in these regions. Here, their identity was not much defined in opposition to Hindus. This helps us to understand the role of difference in the evaluation of an identity. Difference is very important concept developed by Jaques Derrida that helps us to define an identity or entity in reference of features that distinguish it from other identity. Thus, there is lot of dependence of one identity on the other identities as far as the definition of self is concerned. It is in the context of other identities that the values of one’s own identity are emphasized. Thus, the presence of large number of Hindus in the provinces like United Provinces and Bihar helped in laying great emphasis on Muslim identity as different from or rather opposed to Hindu identity. But, this was not possible in Muslim dominated provinces as the Hindus were not much of force in such provinces. Thus, the concept of Pakistan was never uniform in terms of acceptance. This problem has been faced by Pakistan since inception. It has assumed that the religious similarity would bridge all the differences that exist across different identities in Pakistan. This assumes that Islam would constitute as the most important factor that will be used by all Muslims in Pakistan to define themselves. Islamic identity will totally sideline all the values, norms and features related to ethnic identity of different regional communities. There was great flaw in such logic as there is difference in identity conception in an area where an identity is in minority and in another area where the same identity is in majority.

 

The sense of being Minority does generate fear regarding the attitude of majority, though the nature of fear may be genuine or just an artificial creation through the work of propaganda machinery. The reality is that if majority turns violent or aggressive, there may be lot of loss to life and property of people. This compels the members of minority to unite together against any acts or designs of majority. There are differences within the given identity and lines of fracture do exist within the identity, but they are all overpowered by the force of necessity. This situation becomes different in the areas where a given identity is in majority. There is no longer necessity of remaining united as far as the given identity is concerned. The lines of fracture are able to assert themselves with great force. The divisions occur within an identity at a greater pace as compared to functioning of identity in the regions where it is in minority and the possibilities of the divisions and dissensions are contained to great extent.

 

There is also great difference regarding the common meaning attached to an identity in terms of reference value in day to day life. This is very important aspect that has to be understood in the context of functioning of society and working of a given political system. The common person is normally not much bothered about the nuances related to the existence of given identity. There may be different interpretations and critical discourses related to important features of an identity. The common person lacks knowledge related to these as he is often uninterested in such matters; has less time and labour left because of his engagement in one or the other occupation and he is generally untrained for the purpose of critical analysis. Still, he or she has good knowledge regarding the core values of an identity. The important point is related to the reference that he or she makes to the identity in the daily political discourse. The reference is made in context and if there is no important need of reference of identity, there will be little reference made to the given identity.

 

In case of majority identity, there is limit to which one can define oneself as member of the given identity in communication with other members of the same identity. This is because there is lack of proper context in which such reference would make great meaning. If one lays extra emphasis on his or her identity, there may be unexpected backlash from the other members as they might feel that their identity status is being probably degraded or degenerated. For example if Muslim refers to Islamic identity in Indian context, there is lot of value as there is context of common consciousness due to minority nature of the identity. But, if a Muslim makes the same reference in Pakistan, it will not have much meaning as there is lack of oppositional context in which Muslim identity will make sense. The other Muslim might also misunderstand that the first person is trying to show himself as a greater Muslim than him or her. The reference to one’s identity is quite less when the given identity is in Majority as compared to the amount of reference made to the given identity when the identity is in minority. This can be stated as hypothesis regarding Binding Potential of an Identity. The Binding Potential is the capability of an Identity to usher in unity among different members in a group amidst all the heterogeneities preset in the group. The Binding Potential of an identity varies inversely with the size of an identity. The Binding Potential for a Minority becomes politically significant only when it has some critical mass as political aspirations do not develop for a minuscule minority.

 

This evaluation must be seen in the light of works of great genius of Comparative Politics like David Easton who had said that very important function of Political System is related to the allocation of goods and services among the population. There is competition among different individuals and groups related to acquiring more amount of goods and services. This leads to factions in a given polity. The factions cannot be made around the majority identity unless and until the minority is receiving much more than the normal share. This is because it is not possible to enjoy much of the fruits after the distribution of goods and services among large number of people that constitute majority. Due to big divisor, the quotient is bound to be less. This leads to reduction in reference value of an identity with increase in membership of the given identity. This acts as a great limitation on the unifying value of a given identity in the context of polity of region where the given identity is in majority.

 

Democratic Deficit in Pakistan:

The study of independence movement of Bangladesh has to be done by appropriate combination of knowledge developed in the field of Comparative politics and the constructivist knowledge related to the creation of an identity and the working of forces that play an important part in shaping the identity of different groups. Bangladesh was culmination of assertion of ethnic identity amidst the great pressure imposed on it by the religious identity. Pakistan was very weak in democratic development since its inception. This can be termed as Democratic Deficit. This was because of early demise of the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah that led to great void in political system that could not be filled by the emergence of other leaders who succeeded him. Another factor that led to weak democratic institutions was the lack of penetration of Muslim League among the masses in terms of articulation and aggregation of the interests that were concerned with the masses. Muslim League had poor presence in the Punjab and Sindh areas and therefore it could not develop grass root organization in such areas. It had weak organization even in Bengal. The role of political parties is very important in democratic set up as it acts as a bridge between the aspirations of the people and the government. Political parties often act as a safety valve as they diffuse the tension that develops in a system over a period of time due to inefficiency of government or administrative underperformance. The lack of functioning of political parties leads to breakdown of system as the demands of people does not find legitimate solution and the weakened feedback system prevents development of adequate policy that may quell the dissatisfaction of the people to great extent.

The case of East Pakistan was great instance in this regard. This is because there was very poor representation of Bengalis in the army and the bureaucracy. The Punjabis dominated the system. Pakistan was under military rule from 1958 to 1970. There was reluctance among the leaders of West Pakistan to conduct elections as they feared that such election would see emergence of Bengali leadership. Amidst all domestic pressures, elections were conducted in Pakistan in 1970. The Aawami League had swept the elections. It was able to garner 167 out of 169 seats in East Pakistan. It had the legitimate right to form a government. But, Yayha Khan was not willing and he refused to accept the verdict. This led to start of great movement in East Pakistan that demanded freedom of the region from the control of Pakistan.

 

The movement was crushed with heavy hand by Pakistan army and there was estimated killing of at least 3 million people in East Pakistan, displacement of more than 1 crore of people and rape of thousands of Bengali women. Yayha Khan gave the infamous statement that called for changing the entire ethnicity of Bengalis in one generation. Its implication was brutal rape of Bengali women on large scale. This helps us to understand the masculine values in international politics that construct the female as a site of oppression which can act as proof of valour and courage of given group. The other group is estimated in its ability to protect the dignity of women. If it fails to do so, it is labeled as incompetent and weak in military terms. Thus, woman unfortunately becomes an object of control in the conflict between political and socio-cultural egos of two groups. The relevance of Constructivism is very important as the Pakistani discourse was based on the propaganda of Hindu conspiracy in such movement. It was spread that India and Hindus of East Pakistan were fuelling the movement to disintegrate Pakistan. Though the role of Research and Analysis Wing in furthering the movement was important, yet it would be immature statement to lay down major portion of the blame on India and local Hindus. This is because the majority of population of East Pakistan was Muslim. It had given such huge mandate to Sheikh Mujibur Rehman that clearly showed their support to Mujibur Rehman. Mujibur Rehman was not taking any new line when he called for greater autonomy, but was merely restating his position that was clearly mentioned in the six point formula. There were structural and systemic defects coupled with the presence of unresponsive government headed by military dictator that led to such large scale movement and not mere involvement of external intelligence agency.

 

The Pakistani position was substantiated by their reference to Bengalis as an incompetent race in terms of warrior like qualities. It was advocated that Bengalis being inferior to Punjabis in terms of physical powers, could not provide lot of resistance and display resilience. The Pakistanis still lived in the Colonial Construct that tended to put one label on all the members of the given identity. That construct was over-simplified expression of reality and may have served the imperial ambitions of Great Britain by helping them arrive at required number of army professional required along with the major groups, castes, regions and races with which they had to negotiate for this purpose. This construction is not suited to post colonial society that is based on rising aspirations of the people. Once the principle of equality of opportunity finds a place among large section of society, the members of such groups cannot be pacified by mention of general labelling that questions the potential of their entire race.

 

The liberal values related to equality of opportunity have exercised great influence among the vulnerable sections in post colonial societies in the world. When we talk about Indian subcontinent, it must be remembered that mobilization of groups for better representation had started even in British period. Pakistan had to evaluate the level of optimism generated by the creation of separate homeland of Muslims. The optimism implied that people would only settle for higher equilibrium and not accept the status quo that is related to their deprivation. Pakistani establishment tried to be over smart in believing that it would limit the fruits of development to a few areas while it would manage the support from Bengali society. The Bengali population belied the hopes of Pakistani leadership and the movement for autonomy finally resulted in creation of new state of Bangladesh.

 

Constructivist Analysis of Indian Role in Liberation of Bangladesh:

The role of India is very important in this regard. India suffered from crisis of refugees due to large scale migration of Bengalis from East Pakistan. This had the effect of change in demography in many areas of Bengal and Assam, which would have further increased the chances of backlash in these regions. There was huge pressure on supply of food grains as India was suffering from food shortage. The refugee crisis was expected to have great impact on the economy of India. There were also cases of violation of its air space over which it had territorial sovereignty. India had been champion of international peace and supported solution of problems through negotiation and mediations. Article 51 of Indian Constitution is statement of these values of International Policy of India. It was opposed to violation of Human Rights. The scale of violation of human rights in East Pakistan was of the order of genocide. India had the opportunity of presenting itself as champion of Human Rights. This was to increase its prestige among the members of the International Community. The intervention was also an opportunity to expose Pakistan as much as possible before the world. Thus, there was opportunity of making double gains; one related to elevation of self-prestige and other related to degradation of prestige of the enemy. Though both Hindus and Muslims living in East Pakistan suffered due to brutal measures adopted by Pakistan and shots from bullet and voyeuristic propensities of Pakistani soldiers knew no distinctions, Hindus were at greater receiving end as Pakistani leadership wanted to polarize the entire issue. There was thus lot of domestic pressure on Indian Government, particularly put upon by Hindu organizations as there is powerful latent discourse of India being the ultimate shelter for Hindus in the world. The Congress, with all its discourse related to Secularism, could ill afford to alienate the majority section of Hindus. Thus, there was domestic construction of Hindu based Indian identity that also played an important role in determining the intervention of India in the matter.

 

It must not be forgotten that India had proved to be very vulnerable in Chinese War in 1962 and it had to suffer crushing defeat. The entire Nehruvian policy came under great criticism as it proved to be incapable of defending the frontiers of India. The 1965 war against Pakistan was very important as it showed Indian potential to turn the tables against the enemy. The forward march to Lahore was great act that lifted up the prestige of Indian forces. Still, 1965 war once again proved that India was on defensive path as it was Pakistan who first crossed border and also captured large tracts of land. The return of all territories through the Tashkent Agreement further reduced all the advantages that had been gained by the military success. There was thus a need for greater success against its arch rival that would result in substantial defeat of the rival and also reduce its combative and material resources for all times to come. The crisis in East Pakistan was great opportunity and India should have been less of an International Player and more of a saint in world of sinners, for not to have grabbed the opportunity. Thus, it is found that the constructed notions of Indian polity and diplomacy related to good international image; Hindu related aspects of electoral and identity politics; image of Army all played very important role in determination of Indian foreign policy amidst economic challenges that had been posed by refugee crisis. India was able to defeat Pakistan within 13 days in 1971 War and it led to surrender of 93,000 Pakistani soldiers and creation of Bangladesh.

 

CONCLUSION:

The separatist movement in East Pakistan resulting in the ultimate creation of Bangladesh was the indication of strength of linguistic identity over religious identity and failure of hegemonic religious discourse to assimilate the regional sensitivities. The linkage of all Bengalis through their common culture was more significant than their predominantly Islamic identity that they shared with other Muslims throughout the world. The movement for separate state was not just an emotional outburst related to affirmative expression of Bengali identity. It was basically a result of failure of policies of Pakistan in fulfilling the legitimate demands of the Bengali society. The lack of respect given to majority language was great issue in this regard. The overconfidence of Pakistani military related to successful suppression of all movement of Bangladesh proved to be great disaster. The constructivist understanding helps us to locate the failure of Pakistani establishment in carrying forward the constructed notion of warrior and non-warrior race that was nothing but statement of colonial over-simplification. The strong and resilient leadership of Mujibur Rehman is an indication of the inspiration that a leader can provide for a group to readily suffer for the fulfilment of a given cause. Constructivist notion tries to understand the occurrence of given phenomenon in the light of meaning attached to events by different actors and institutions. The actors and institutions are inter-related and inter-dependent and therefore their interactions result in creation of inter-subjective meaning. An effort has been made in this paper to understand the meaning attached to reality by different players. An additional advantage with constructivism is that it not only helps in understanding the historical nature of identity and its impact on international events, but also assists in knowing the functioning of identity and determination of national interests in a flexible and dynamic manner. The proper evaluation of many major political phenomenons will be greatly benefitted by this Constructivist insight.

 

REFERENCES:

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Received on 11.07.2021         Modified on 27.09.2021

Accepted on 14.10.2021      ©AandV Publications All right reserved

Res.  J. Humanities and Social Sciences. 2021; 12(4):245-250.

DOI: 10.52711/2321-5828.2021.00044