Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971 [Paperback ed.] 0822350386, 9780822350385

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OXFORD

WOMEN, WAR AND THE MAKING OF BANGLADESH REMEMBERING 1971

Yasmin Saikia

Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh REMEMBERING

1971

YASMIN SAIKIA

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It further.s the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dares Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore South Korea Switzerland Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in Pakistan by Oxford University Press © Yasmin Saikia, 2011. All rights reserved.

The moral rights of the author have been asserted Originally published in India in 2011 by Women Unlimited (an associate of Kali for Women), New Delhi First published in Pakistan by Oxford University Press, 2011 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press. Enquiries concerning reproduction should be sent to Oxford University Press at the address below. You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer. ISBN 978-0-19-906476-2 For sale in Pakistan only

Printed in Pakistan by New Sketch Graphics, Karachi. Published by Ameena Saiyid, Oxford University Press No. 38, Sector 15, Korangi Industrial Area, PO Box 8214, Karachi-74900, Pakistan.

For JAHANARA RAHMAN-SAIKIA (1"936-2009)

philosopher, teacher, social worker, friend, mother

Contents

Acknowledgements Preface

lX

Xlll

Part 1: Introducing 1971

1 The Told and Untold Stories of 1971 History and memory Locating the scholarship A short note on history writing in South Asia

3 3 17 29

2 Creating the History of 1971 The politics of Pakistan and India Violence on the side: war on noncombatants Becoming aware Research chronicle Tracking 1971 with the memories of women Women's humanity

45 45 54 75 81 92 109

Part II: Survivors Speak 3 Victims' Memories Nur Begum and Beauty, Rangpur Firdousi Priyabhasani, Dhaka Taslima's mother, Dinajpur Nurjahan Begum and a group of Bihari women, Khulna

137 137 152 167

4 Women's Services Suhasini Devi, Sylhet Dr Syed Ahmed Nurjahan, Chittagong Jharna Chowdhury, Noakhali, Gandhi Ashram

191 191 202 212

178

viii

Contents

5 Women's War Laila Ahmed, Rajshahi and Dhaka Mumtaz Begum, Jessore

225 225 244

Part Ill: A New Beginning

6 Postscript: Lessons of Violence

261

References

293

Index

305

Acknowledgements

I owe this book to my mother, Jahanara Rahman-Saikia, who gave me the first lessons on humanism and feminism. A professor of Philosophy, she made it her mission in life to speak and work for the vulnerable and marginal in Assam. These men and women became her friends and came together at her 'morning durbars' which welcomed anyone who came seeking her help. She fed and talked to them, gave them monetary help, and represented their grievances to the highest authorities in the state for redress. She truly believed 'service to mankind is service to God' and her love for destitute women and children was special. My intellectual and personal journey into the lives of 1971 survivors is a product of the early lessons of empathy for others that my mother instilled in me. In Bangladesh, Jahanara Karim gave me a home in Dhaka and her friendship and love sustained me through the initial stage of the research. When I could not bear the stories of violence, her warm welcome with food and talk at the end of the day encouraged me to endure and prod forward. Among the host of men and women in Bangladesh who facilitated and enabled my research I cannot name individually as the list would be unending, I would like to personally'acknowledge Akku Chowdhury, Shahriar Kabir, Mizanur Rahman Shelly and the office staff at the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, the late Enayatur Rahim, the late Jamal Warris, Sofia Warris, Kader Siddiqui and his family, Gazi Salehuddin, Muntassir Mamoon, Habibul Alam, Fird£_usi Priyabhasani and Ahmed Ilias. To my research assistants Rafiuz Zaman, Taslima Mizziboni, and Hasanul Kabir Chowdhury I owe a very special thank you for their companionship and unstinting dedication to my project. This book could not have

x Acknowledgements been written without the women survivors of 1971 who told me their experiences and shared their deepest and darkest secrets with the expectation that I would share them with others. In Pakistan, I was singularly fortunate to have met Colonel Nadir Ali, a veteran of 1971. His trust and invaluable support enabled me to access people and material in Pakistan, which otherwise would have been impossible. I am also indebted to Brigadier Talat Saeed Khan of Fauji Foundation University, Brigadier Shafi of the Sir Syed Memorial Society, and Ikram Seghal for their contacts and invaluable insights to understanding the war and its hidden memories in Pakistan. I am indebted to Iqbal Chawla, Saba Khattak, Scheherzade Asdar, Omar Suheyl, Salimullah Khan and the staff at the National Documentation Centre in Islamabad, especially Jaffar Mohammad, Nasira and Javed Iqbal, Tariq Rahman, Kishwar Naheed, Ghazala Irfan, Tahira Mahzar Ali, Mas'ud Mufti, Dr Mubashir, Rashad Rahman, Ahmed Rashid, the Orangi Pilot Project office staff, especially Javed Akhtar and Shamsuddin, Gulbaz Afaqi, Nadeem Akbar, Saeed Shafqat, Karamat Ali, Ahmed Salim, Javed Shah, Tahira Tanveer and Mazhar Mohammad at the Pakistan National Archives, Islamabad, for their generous guidance and assistance in undertaking my research. I cannot thank enough my research assistant, Mubasshira, Mushtaq and Razzak at the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, Lahore, and our 'Pakistan family'Bibi, Ismat, Mavra, Guddu and Riaz for their generosity and kindness. Above all, my deepest gratitude is due to the survivors, men who told me what they had not dared to tell anyone before, their crimes in the war and their deep regret for their actions. These truly brave souls made me realise the immense potential of being human, which they have nurtured. with incredible pain and deep struggle. In India, Aditi Sen, Ashok Mitra, Major General Lakshman Singh Lehl, Major General Jack Jacob, Squadron Leader Rana Chhima, Sukendu Dev Barma, Bikash Choudhury, Heramba Bora, Amalendu De, Naseema Banu, Mohini Giri, Kuldip Nayar, and Ashis Nandy enriched this study immensely. I am immensely thankful to my two young assistants, Zoheb Ahmed and Nida

Acknowledgements

xi

Ali, who worked long hours with me in the summer heat in Delhi digging in the archive and libraries for the political story of 1971. A few teachers guided and provided me incredible insights without which the book would not have taken shape. Cemalnur Sargut and Bruce Lawrence have encouraged me to think beyond history as an event to engage it as an experience. Sheikh Nizamuddih Auliya and Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi have been the source of my inspiration. My family consisting of Chad, Anne and Guni, Gini, Javed, Zoheb, and Shahveer have been my anchor and comfort and given me a 'home' to return to, after traumatic research trips. To Doann Houghton Alico, my mother-in-law, I am especially indebted for doing the initial editing of the text. To my friends David Ludden, Willem van Schendel, Lamia Karim, Kamran Asdar Ali, Jean Quatraet, Don Raleigh, Naveeda Khan, Urvashi Butalia, James Lancaster, Andrew Whitehead, Nila Chatterjee, Jerma Jackson, Lolita Guitrez Brockington and Jeri van Goethem I am immensely grateful for the innumerable joys of conversation and patient listening. Finally, the book became possible due to the generous support of many organisations and institutions. I am deeply thankful to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill for multiple summer fellowships, besides two years leave from teaching to undertake research in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. The financial support of the American Institute of Bangladesh Studies, American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation made it possible for me to research and write the book. For the efficient and helpful staff of the Liberation War Museum at Dhaka; the National Archives, Dhaka; the Bangladesh Radio archive, Dhaka; Ain-o-Salish Kendra, Dhaka; the Tripura State Archive, Agartala; the Asiatic Society Library, Kolkata; Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi; Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research, New Delhi; the Assam State Archive, Guwahati; National Defence College Library, Islamabad; Iqbal Academy, Lahore; Human Rights Commission Library, Lahore; National Documentation Centre, Islamabad; Pakistan National Archive, Islamabad; and the

xii Acknowledgements International Red Cross archive arid library, Geneva, I am immensely grateful. Some of the themes of this book, I discussed with colleagues in Lahore University of Management Studies; Indian Institute of Technology, Assam; History Department, Delhi University; Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata; Kroc Peace Institute, Notre Dame; University of Iowa; Rice University; U'niversity of Oregon; Johns Hopkins University; University of Nottingham; and University of Southampton; from which I benefitted immensely. For the shortcomings of the book, however, I alone am responsible. My husband and partner, Chad Haines, is the best critic and my strongest advocate. Without him, I cannot imagine my life and work. If this book has worth it is because of the people mentioned here and those who remain unmentioned who gave me their only possession, the memories of their experiences. Their stories are our currency to recognise our humanity because we are human, like them.

, Preface

South Asia, a term coined by the United States government in the post-cold-war era, was quickly adopted in academic circles. In 1964, the Centre of South Asian Studies opened in Cambridge University. Today, the terms 'South Asia' and 'Indian subcontinent' are used interchangeably with the emphasis, of course, on Indian Studies, which is the primary focus of most scholarly research and writing. In 1999, when I was appointed the first Assistant Professor of South Asian History at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, no one asked me nor did I understand the implication of this newfound responsibility. I had studied Indian history for several years in India and the United States. But South Asian History was more than this and it meant learning and studying this on my own in order to teach it to my students once I had some grasp of the region and its multilayered, multifaceted history. The best way to learn about the people and place was to travel and listen to people tell history through their experiences? As a person of Indian origin, travel to Pakistan was a little tricky and the outbreak of the Kargil war in 1999 made peopleto-people interaction more complicated and difficult. Bangladesh, on the other hand, was a little less threatening. Being close to my home state of Assam I was somewhat familiar with the Bengali language and people with whom we share a love-hate relationship, but beyond this acquired politics of identity I had a personal connection as well. My fa:ther had studied at Dh.aka University for several years and his memories transmitted to me made me curious to travel there. The relationship between India and Bangladesh being semi-friendly enabled me to obtain a visa and I visited Dhaka in summer 1999 before I started my teaching job. I decided my first visit' would be to the Dhaka University in

XIV

Preface

memory of my father but instead I was taken to a 'forbidden' place called Camp Geneva where the 'stateless' Bihari community lives. The residents were very curious about me and some were even hostile. Once they heard me speak in Urdu (their mothertongue), theyrecognis~d I was not a Bengali and many welcomed me to listen to their saga of misery after the war of 1971 and !li!ir pres-ent status as people without identity. While I was speaking with two middle-aged ~.;me~ outside their shack, a young man, the son of one of the women, came up and said, 'My parents will go _t() their graves without anyone kno~_!l_g_!h_~r story. Why ~ust we suffer for the crimes of another generation?' This questio_!l stunned me. Instantly, I realised that for a community living under the negative power of history's politics it is not a subject of research and study, but a burdensome inheritance filled with hidden memories. This chance encounter motivated me to find and write a history of South Asia, not about its made-up glorious past and its rich legacy of semi-mythical heroes but by looking for heroes in people who experienced this history and can talk about it. Also, it became clear to me that)971 is a very appropri_a,t~ ~~_g_ip.ning for inve_s!!gat!rrg_~_\!c_~-~-~is}~_ry__ ~ecause it j_s _(l_ l1Qiq~J~ IJl~ment; this was the only instance after the end of British colonialism when the people and governments of the Indian subcontinentIndia, Pakistan and Bangladesh encountered each other. The encounter was not friendly or nostalgic but designed and expressed in violence and terror. Since then the three nation-states of the subcontinent have never shared a common moment together. For several years, from 2001 onwards, I spent extended periods of time in Bangladesh, Pakistan and India meeting and talking, listening and sharing with people their stories of the war. It was a journey into deep pain and unforgettable memories of loss; but also of incredible resilience and heartening human compassion. Every time I despaired about the South Asian human community, I was immediately reminded of the inexhaustible source of human endurance and respect for fellow human beings, and I became intimately aware of the capacity of good and evil

Preface

xv

within us. History was no longer someone else's story or a project for teaching, research and getting tenure, it was a personal encounter to know and become implicated in the common story of the past and present and learn to share the space with one another. Refracting from the moment and memories of 1971 I have tried to convey the message of a common human narrative that survivors share with us. In the book, I focus on the story of gender violence in the 1971 war of Bangladesh to probe the relationship between nation, history and women-one of the most vulnerable groups in postcolonial South Asia. Moving beyond the external story of the war as a clash of ideologies and struggle for power between rivals India and Pakistan and East and West Pakistan, I tell the story of the war as a human event of individual losses and personal tragedies suffered by both women and men. Their individual stories articulate a collective loss of humanity (insaniyat) that transcends the politics of history and nation. Combining oral testimony with archival research in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, I weave together the social, political and cultural history of the subcontinent after the partition oflndia and Pakistan in 1947 to show the gaps between people and their governments, memories and history. By privileging oral testimonies of 1971 survivors, I seek to shine a spotlight on heroes we do not know of and on their suppressed and hidden memories for recovering a people's history. It is important to study violence and know it ethically and personally to develop a human language for rec~~ciliation between victims and perpetrators-women and men, as well as the countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. I have divided the book into three parts. Part I, 'Introducing 1971' consists of 'The Told and Untold Stories of 1971' and 'Creating the History of 1971 '. In this, I engage the theoretical and methodological issues of writing about violence from a South Asian viewpoint and tell the story as people experienced it as a way of decolonising the narrative of postcolonial history and claim agency to enable 'us' to accept the good and bad within 'our' history. In emphasising a cultural methodology to write the story of violence, I stress the forgotten pre-modern exchanges

xiv

Preface

memory of my father but instead I was taken to a 'forbidden' place called Camp Geneva where the 'stateless' Bihari community lives. The residents were very curious about me and some were even hostile. Once they heard me speak in Urdu (their mothertongue), they recognised I was not a Bengali and many welcomed me to listen to their saga of misery. after the war of 1971 and (~_ir present status as people without identity. While I was speaking with two middle-aged ~~me~ outside their shack, a young man, the son of one of the women, came up and said, 'My parents will go t()_their graves without anyone knowi_!l_gJ:~jr story. Why mus.t we suffer for the crimes of another generation?' This question stunned m-e. ··· Instantly, I realised that for a community living under the negative power of history's politics it is not a subject of research and study, but a burdensome inheritance filled with hidden memories. This chance encounter motivated me to find and write a history of South Asia, not about its made-up glorious past and its rich legacy of semi-mythical heroes but by looking for heroes in people who experienced this history and can talk about it. Also, it became clear to me that}971 isa very appropri_~t~ l!~g_i_~nii!S for inve~!ig