14 panorama , FRIDAY MARCH 29, 2013 panorama panorama panorama panorama panorama panorama panorama panorama panorama panorama The international context of Liberation War

n 1971, the world’s wit - violent suppression of the USSR were still dominant, new Zedong was also ready to open perhaps even to dismember its East and the forma - alliance with India to counter - nessed the emergence of its Bengali people through the emerging players were gaining up towards Washington - neighbour. Given the fact that tion of a new independent state balance . 136th nation, Bangladesh. West Pakistani armed forces more international leverage, because it was confronted with Washington saw the Pakistani of Bangladesh as a fait accom - The Bangladesh Liberation For most analysts of the South marked one of the most sig - most notably China with its Soviet forces amassing at its military as the most suitable pli. The only remaining issue War demonstrated that the US Asian region, this did not come nificant and dramatic events growing economic power and borders, ostensibly in prepa - partner for accommodating US for the US, China, and partly and other members of the by surprise. The matter why on the subcontinent after its India with respect to its large ration for an invasion of China- interests in the Pakistani rump- also for the was, United Nations (UN) were will - was quite apparent for the bloody Partition in 1947. land mass and huge popula - the US had no direct access to state and the extended region, how to get West-Pakistan ing to fade out any esteem for experts, but the when and how The question that arises is tion. Nevertheless, the sharp the Chinese leadership at that an Indian intervention was through the‘East-Pakistan cri - democratic principles and especially with which conse - why the international com - antagonism as well time. This brought Pakistan in perceived as an existential sis’ with as little damage as pos - human rights in order to quences made the interna - munity was not willing or able as the omnipresent threat of a the picture.With the help of the threat to US interests: it would sible. To be sure, all major play - achieve their goal in 1971. The tional security circles and lead - to stop the military operations ‘Third World War’ remained. government in Islamabad and lose its only ally on the sub - ers (besides India) had no prevalence of inaction regard - ing politicians feel quite in Pakistan’s Eastern wing right This very context had severe the strong support of military continent which also provid - interest to get deeply involved ing the of the Bengali uncomfortable. from the beginning? Of course, implications for the top brass a secret liaison ed the key towards China. To in the conflict, neither militar - people committed by the After the formation of explicitly denied Bangladeshi independence between Washington and prevent such a scenario from ily nor diplomatically by put - must Pakistan, in 1947, an extraor - any involvement of Pakistani struggle. The political leader - Beijing was facilitated. China happening, Washington ting sufficient pressure on be interpreted as a clear igno - DR. SIEGFRIED dinary rift existed between its soldiers in a ‘Genocide’ and ship of the most significant was increasingly seen as an‘ally announced a policy of ‘maxi - Islamabad to stop the genocide rance of the 1948 UN O. WOLF two wings, and condemned it as propaganda players at the global scene were of convenience’ in order to mum intimidation’ against among Bengali people and the Convention on the , which were sep - against West Pakistan. aware that the newly emerging secure US interests in South India. Therefore, US naval pogrom-like killings of Bengali Punishment and Prevention of arated by about 2,000 km of However, due to the presence international system became Asia, and Pakistan was identi - forces were sent into the Bay political leaders and intellec - the Crime of Genocide Indian territory. A major dif - of international media and more politically volatile. Hence, fied as the only possible con - of Bengal and China was asked tuals. Moscow andWashington (Genocide Convention) by the ference was language, with diplomatic missions, there was it became more difficult to duit for it. However, at the same to amass troops at the Indian just wanted to be sure that their respective national govern - Urdu the main and state-sup - credible and impartial report - maintain control over areas time Washington was also frontier to increase pressure on respective adversary wouldn’t ments. To retrieve at least part - ported language in West ing about the start of large- the Indians. At the same time, gain too much influence in ly the ‘democratic reputation’ Pakistan, and Bengali the sup - scale massacres and target- the US attempted to enforce a South Asia and that no region - of the Western sphere, one pressed language of its Eastern killings in Dhaka. Most remark - ceasefire through the UN al player would gain regional a might differentiate between the part. This disparity resulted in able in this context were the Security Council (UNSC) to too dominant position. governments and societies in an ethno-linguistic movement reports of US Consul General protect Pakistan from a mili - Therefore, maintaining the US and the bandwagoning in the early 1950s demanding from March 27th, tarily enforced break-up. contentious triangle of India- Western Europe. There were that Bengali be made a state 1971 until he was recalled from However, none of these Pakistan-China appeared the deep sympathies towards the language too. The movement his post in Dhaka –obviously measures of the Nixon admin - most appropriate strategy to freedom struggle of the Bengali got further aggravated by the for being too inconvenient. istration worked out as intend - maintain some kind of balance people among the civil soci - tremendous economic and Most significant was his last ed. First, the US proposal for in South Asia. With the inde - eties and much activity was political inequalities to the dis - cable on 6 April 1971, the so ceasefire at the UNSC got pendence of Bangladesh and carried out to pressure their advantage of the Bengali peo - called ‘Blood Telegram’, in vetoed by the Soviets. Second, the preservation of territorial political leadership to change ple. In order to maintain supe - which he denounced the com - the Chinese did not build-up integrity of West Pakistan, this the policy direction in favour THE NATIONAL riority, West Pakistan, which plicity of the US administra - much military pressure on its common goal was apparently of the Bengali people. Here, the LIBERATION STRUGGLE treated its Eastern part as an tion of then US President borders with India. Third, New achieved. ground breaking article by internal colony, responded to and his National Delhi was not impressed by the Therefore, leaving aside Anthony Mascarenhas OF THE BENGALI PEOPLE notions of autonomy and sep - Security Advisor Henry American ‘gunboat diploma - Pakistan, the governments of ‘Genocide’ (Sunday Times, arate identity with violent Kissinger in the genocide. In cy’ and just ignored the pres - the major powers were offi - June 13th, 1971) functioned as AGAINST THE repression. Consequently, the this context one has to state which were seen as part of their aware of Islamabad’s limited ence of the 7th fleet of the US cially satisfied with the out - a final wake up call. This phe - OPPRESSION OF WEST language movement gradual - that the whole process of respective influence. Especially capacities, especially due to the in ‘its waters’. Instead, it inter - comes of the war. The US was nomenon found not only its ly but persistently transformed Bangladeshi state formation inWashington, after the failure tremendous asymmetric vened and Bangladesh gained able to achieve its minimum expression that the US con - PAKISTAN COINCIDED into a struggle for independ - didn’t happen in a‘South Asian of its‘Roll-Back policy’ against power relations, to compete its independence. But the most goal to preserve an allied gress was forced to pass an WITH AND BECAME ence that began with its dec - vacuum’. The national libera - , as the KoreaWar militarily successfully with the fundamental mistake of Nixon Pakistani rump-state and embargo of weapons against laration on 26 March 1971 and tion struggle of the Bengali and Indian Union. More concrete, and Kissinger were their fatal maintain its strength as much Pakistan (which was illegally ENMESHED IN A MAJOR ended with the liberation of people against the oppression demonstrated, a major redef - US were very sceptical regard - misperception of Indira as possible. Furthermore it was undermined by Nixon) but also Bangladesh on 16 December ofWest Pakistan coincided with inition of its foreign policy was ing the prospects for West Gandhi’s intensions regarding able to keep the Soviet Union in some of the world’s greatest STRUCTURAL 1971. The trigger for open con - and became enmeshed in a getting off the ground, name - Pakistan to maintain control Pakistan and the Soviet Union. out of the conflict. China was charity events -concerts for TRANSFORMATION OF flict between East and West major structural transforma - ly its ‘Détente policy’. At the over its eastern wing in case of In contrast to US fears, India able to stand-up against the Bangladesh- were organized in Pakistan were the 1970 gener - tion of the international polit - core of this decision was the an armed confrontation. The was not at all interested ‘to slice Soviet Union which had to New York to raise funds and THE INTERNATIONAL al elections and the negligence ical system. The most charac - understanding that a relaxation chance for Islamabad to keep the West Pakistani pie’. The accept the sovereignty and ter - international awareness for the POLITICAL SYSTEM of the results by the then rul - teristic feature of this phe - in the Soviet-US relations was in check the Bengali aspira - alliance with the Soviet Union ritorial integrity of China. refugees following the ing junta of General Yahya nomenon was that the rigid necessary. In order to ‘thaw’ tions of liberating themselves was a logical consequence of Furthermore, the US approach Genocide. However, these Khan. In the East it was expect - bipolarity determined by the the encrusted Cold War con - from theWest Pakistani choke the anti-Indian sentiments in to seek an alliance with Beijing efforts were made far too late ed, that Sheikh Mujibur rivalling two superpowers US stellation, a rapprochement become even poorer with view Washington. In other words, it undoubtedly bolstered China’s to change the unfortunate Rahman’s - and Soviet Union as well as with China –which would also on the Indian support for the was based on pragmatism and international leverage and course of trajectories of glob - which won not only most of their firm diametrical align - keep‘overambitious newcom - freedom fighters and the not on friendship. Therefore, prestige. al politics. To conclude, the vic - the seats in the East but also in ments following theWorldWar ers’ like India at bay- was seen unfavourable geographic con - there was no threat that India This finds it most debatable tims of the Bangladesh the National Parliament- II was loosening. A major pro - as one the most eminent cor - ditions. Basically the Nixon or Bangladesh be turned into expression in granting China a Liberation War were not only would lead the new national voker of this, was the Soviet- nerstones of this strategy. administration feared any for - a Soviet client state. For the permanent seat in the UNSC sacrifices of the Pakistani army government in Islamabad. China split which became The overall aim of this newly eign intervention into the sake of completeness, it has to to the detriment of Taiwan, in but also of the global However, this was blocked by unbridgeable after the ideo - introduced -rough - Bangladesh Liberation War. be pointed out that India did - October 1971. This marks a Realpolitik at this time. Or in the West Pakistani military, logical differences between ly characterised by doing away The US were primarily con - n’t intervene in East Pakistan move against India which was - other words, they were a pay - which feared the loss of its own Maoist Beijing and Marxist- with ideology-based political cerned about an Indian inter - because of humanitarian rea - n’t granted a permanent seat off for helping the US to open power and control over East Leninist Moscow culminated decision making in favour of a vention. Washington’s ration - sons or in order to defend dem - in the UNSC. Regardless, India up China. However, the prize Pakistan if they handed over at the border conflict between pragmatic approach- was to ale was that India would band - ocratic values. had been able to substantially for this policy - three million authority to Mujib. The estab - both countries in 1969. Not normalize US-USSR relation, wagon with the struggle of the After being overwhelmed by weaken its enemy Pakistan and killed Bengali, 30 million inter - lishment inWest Pakistan was only was the myth of a mono - to balance Beijing and Moscow Bengali in order to finally set - millions of refugees from East to establish a hegemonic posi - nally displaced persons, the aware that a federal adminis - lithic communist camp pub - as well as to restrain the influ - tle its scores with Islamabad Pakistan and having the tion in South Asia. exodus of 10 million people, tration under Sheikh Mujibur licly brought to an end, but also ence of the increasingly appar - with dramatic consequences. chance to weaken Pakistan, Furthermore, it did not yield the rape of hundreds of thou - Rahman would lead to a tec - increasing strains within the ent alliance between New It was expected that, if India New Delhi’s actions in towards under US pressure. Achieving sands of women and the rav - tonic shift in the country’s ‘anti-communist coalition’ Delhi and Moscow. helped to set East Pakistan free, East Pakistan s were as much such an enormous success in aging of wide parts of the coun - power structure with severe appeared. The raising conflicts The Indo-Soviet friendship it would be dragged in New guided by Realpolitik as the foreign policy, the India Gandhi try - was paid by the Bengali impacts in the country’s over economic interests treaty signed in August 1971 Delhi’s slipstream and thereby US’s. For example, the taking administration in New Delhi people. domestic and international between the US, Western further aggravated Nixon’s per - be turned into another client away of all significant military was able to keep the increas - field. In other words, Operation Europe and Japan marked the sonal antipathy against India state of the Soviet Union. equipment left in Bangladesh ing opposition against the The writer is a lecturer of Searchlight can be seen as a onset of a mutual alienation. and her Prime Minister Indira Furthermore, there were seri - by Pakistan indicates that it was increasingly autocratic style of Political Science and pre-emptive strike on political As a result, the global order in Gandhi. ous concerns among US secu - not all about the well-being of government at bay, at least International Relations as well forces like the Awami League the early 1970’s shifted from However, regarding his new rity circles that India would use the Bengali people. until she had to proclaim state as a senior research fellow in because they could assert their bipolarity towards some kind tilt towards Beijing Nixon had the event to send it troops Nevertheless, in sum, it of emergency 1975 in order to the Department of Political legitimate power. There is no of multi-polarity. Even though a major problem. Despite the towards Islamabad to oust the seemed that‘the world’ accept - stay in power. Finally the Soviet Science, South Asia Institute, doubt that the beginning of the the ‘old polar powers’ US and fact that China under Mao pro-US military regime and ed the potential separation of Union was able to maintain its Heidelberg University Higher Education: Past, present and future

GOLAM SARWAR CHOWDHURY out which a country’s needs 32. Also, there are two special ical activities although there is ation of knowledge through tion as institutions that active - Universities a portion of the cannot be determined while Universities, the National no bar to voice their opinions meaningful research relevant ly help governments, by pro - profit to be spent solely for he contribution of high - its growth may not be sus - University and the Bangladesh in forums or platforms in the to the society. A number of fac - viding expertise, to bring about research purposes. er education to the over - tained. Open University. larger society. This has helped tors at present have restricted important changes. Outcome The government on its part all growth of a country Before the independence of Two International the continuance of academic HEIs in the country to emerge of research done at HEIs cannot be complacent by is a fact that has been recog - Bangladesh only five univer - Universities, the OIC funded activities without any inter - as institutions capable of con - passed on to governments claiming that annual budget - nised by politicians, social sci - sities, with government fund - Islamic University in Gazipur ruption resulting in the com - ducting research independ - transform societies, and citi - ary allocation for education is entists, educators, and experts ing, were functioning in the and the Asian University for pletion of degrees within the ently without looking for sup - zens are the ultimate benefi - very high. in various fields across the country to serve the needs Women in Chittagong are also stipulated time. port from international donor ciaries. A democratic government world. related to higher learning. The functioning in the country. Given the consensus among agencies or NGOs. In Bangladesh it is now the doing its best to increase the As Bangladesh strives hard context during the pre-inde - Even though the University scholars throughout the world The major factor that limits right time for HEIs to realize country’s annual growth rate to become a middle income pendence period was differ - Grants Commission of as to the role of HEIs as power HEIs in Bangladesh to embark that have to work as centres of to 7 per cent in the coming country in just over ten years ent from that of the present Bangladesh has kept many of houses of human develop - on long-drawn research proj - excellence by providing intel - years should realize that with - it is absolutely necessary for time in the sense that univer - the private Universities under ment and repository of knowl - ects is the extremely limited lectual leadership. For this, out the creation of knowledge policy planners to review the sities were creating graduates pressure for shifting to per - edge, it is obvious that these budget with which large scale HEIs have to fully understand a society cannot progress as strengths and weaknesses of capable of getting jobs in the manent premises, quite a institutions would get more research work cannot be done. the expectations of the larger much as desired. Therefore, Higher Education Institutes civil service, in the nascent pri - number of them have made attention and would be sub - Also, many HEIs having no society, and by comprehend - HEIs should be ensured suffi - (HEI) in the country. Without vate sector, and in teaching qualitative changes in teach - jected to greater scrutiny to specific research objectives are ing the innermost feelings of cient funding for research, and ensuring quality higher edu - positions at schools and col - ing, particularly in awarding a expose their strengths and unable to motivate their aca - society, they can greatly con - the UGC can monitor to make cation, capable of creating leges. In addition, the role of four-year degree in time . weaknesses. demics to get involved in tribute the knowledge they sure that the money is spent indigenous knowledge, it may Dhaka University in creating Unfortunately many Public At present HEIs in research. Academicians, on create, through research, so for not merely expanding not be possible to develop awareness among the educat - Universities still continue to Bangladesh, both public and their part, complain about lack that society can speed ahead knowledge but for creating it. leaders competent of manag - ed middle class with regard to suffer from the so called ‘ses - private, would generally be of incentives and a heavy with more vitality. Knowledge It has to be borne in mind ing vital institutions, and language, culture and nation - sion-jams’ and are unable to considered as institutions of teaching load as deterrents. in the ultimate analysis is that there can be no substitute human resources, once al identity, of course, played complete academic sessions higher learning focusing on It is only through ground- strength and energy that soci - to home grown knowledge Bangladesh transforms into a perhaps the most important because of extra academic teaching where research is not breaking research that aca - ety requires more and more as which only academia can pro - middle-income country. role in the creation of inde - interventions that force these done to the extent of creating demics can discover the urgent it strives to climb a certain duce. By creating indigenous The link between higher pendent Bangladesh. Universities to shut down aca - indigenous knowledge. The needs of society and how these height necessary to deliver knowledge many HEIs could education and development At present with the ever demic activities when semes - major difference between a can be addressed in order to benefits to those who are its earn international recognition makes it absolutely necessary increasing number of students ters are still on. teaching University and a improve the condition of liv - stakeholders. as producers of original knowl - to ensure that quality and qualifying to have access to The private Universities University that focuses on ing of the people. In countries The University Grants edge beneficial to the society. effective higher education is higher education, a paradigm have also earned credit for research is that the latter gives such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Commission, the corporate If Bangladesh has to move for - made available in order for the shift has occurred. The gov - being able to publish results high priority to the creation of and Malaysia, academia has sector and Non Residential ward rapidly in terms of eco - Want to society to progress in terms of ernment, therefore, had no within a week after the com - original knowledge that could been in the forefront of lead - Bangladeshis have to join nomic growth and social development encompassing option but to allow the setting pletion of final exams which help the society in different ing societies to positions of hands in order to find ways as progress imbued with the spir - steady economic growth, of HEIs (Higher Education is in sharp contrast with pub - ways to forge ahead and strength in terms of improv - to how more money can be it of secular democracy, HEIs contribute? social awareness and empow - Institute) in the private sector. lic Universities where in many improve the standard of living ing the living standard of the made available to actively have to emerge as real bastions erment of marginal commu - The first private University in cases results are published, at of its people. people, identification of soci - encourage research at the of locally unearthed knowl - nities including women, and the country was established in times, after six months or even If society in Bangladesh is to etal requirements, and pro - HEIs. Universities in the pri - edge in the immediate future. at.independent strengthening democracy. 1992, and in the year 2013 the more, following the final exam - be restructured into a knowl - viding solutions to problems vate sector that have already This is also important for the number of private HEIs has inations. Private Universities edge-based one, HEIs have to with the help of indigenous earned recognition for impart - The writer is Professor of English @gmail.com creation and dissemination of gone up to seventy, while state also do not allow faculty and reevaluate their own roles and ideas. Research based HEIs in ing quality education must at University of Liberal Arts indigenous knowledge with - funded Universities remain at students to take part in polit - seriously engage in the cre - these countries actually func - also plough back to the Bangladesh (ULAB)