Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 - Why it Happened?

In December 1971, Indian forces crossed the border into East Pakistan to put an end to a humanitarian crisis. This video will look at the history and causes of the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971, and how Bangladesh became a nation.

[Newdivide]

Sadly, no one was ever tried for the atrocities that happened in Bangladesh

[BjornCanute]

"Pakistani forces in east Pakistan would surrender in Dhaka bringing a quick end to the conflict. " Yeah, its a lot harder fighting an actual army using guns rather then just slaughtering civilians.

[LeCharles]

Kind of ironic how Pakistan, a former colony, had it's own colony in the form of East Pakistan for a while. The production to investment ratio and even the political balance of power were textbook colonial.

[samiurkhan]

This is a pretty sensitive topic so kudos to you for covering it.

My mom and dad were kids during the Bangladeshi War and its pretty strange hearing from them how casually the Pakistani Army killed people. My parents both mentioned that the trains were a common source of violence. The PK army would board trains and at each station, fire at any civilians waiting there. People in Dhaka would regularly wave white flags on apartment roofs to inform Air Force pilots to not bomb them. My dad and his sisters would put uncooked rice in salt water and each it uncooked because power/gas were out. Resistance fighters would eat a similar diet and would often join regular families to eat. My mom and her sister had a dedicated guard who was responsible for taking them and running as far away as possible in case their house was attacked. My grandfather was a teacher at the local college so he was likely to be a target in case of an attack. What was most interesting was how casually my parents talked about it. Being born in the west, I think liberal norms and rules of engagement add a deeper impact to civilian violence but to my parents who were growing up with violence around them it's just another day.

Unfortunately, I think this "violence is normal" mindset has impacted Bangladesh to this day and religious violence especially against Hindus is still common. The targeting of teachers and academics is also a problem since it hurts the next generation. I think Bangladesh only really recovered that loss of academic talent in recent years and hence you see recent economic boom.

Great video mate cheers.

[huyk]

Oh boy the comment section will be calm, civil for this video

[rajatdani]

Funfact-- None of the Prime minister of Pakistan has completed its 5 years tenure in its 70years History😂😂..
Because The Country is Controlled By Pakistani Supreme Army Chief.

[RobinTheBot]

This whole series on conflicts is "Pakistan picks a fight it can't win at all for reasons that don't make sense, loses, and then agrees to not do it again while preparing to do it again". If they just lied a little less, all the things they were afraid of wouldn't have happened...

Edit: it just keeps going! I thought Russia was the nation most talented at panicking and doing things to hurt itself, but Pakistan may be the real top dog there...

[JeepWrangler]

This always puzzled me. India is the world’s largest democracy and was courted by the USSR. So the U.S. then favored Pakistan which only tolerated the U.S. while it received military assistance. Oh what a tangled web we conceive….

[orion]

My great grandfather fought in World War 2 in North Africa and Italy. He was captured by the Germans, lost his fingernails and toes to them, but managed to escape. He rejoined his unit and fought with them until he was again injured in 1945, and shifted to a hospital in Hove, Sussex. He stayed there for sometime and came back in 1947 to join the Indian army. He retired in 1957.

He had setup a refugee camp in my home state of Odisha, India which is very close to Bangladesh by sea, but doesn't have a land border. In the 1960s, Shia Muslims and Hindus used to escape persecution in Bangladesh and come to his refugee camp. It didn't have many people, and it was quite easy to assimilate them in the Indian population. But in 1971, his camp was filled to the brim. Everyday Odisha's fishermen used to pull boatloads of refugees from the sea, and this time Sunni muslims were escaping too. He and my grandfather both were perplexed, as they couldn't put Sunni Muslims along with the previous Shia Muslim and Hindu refugees. It was a logistical nightmare. Most of these boats would just be wandering around on the sea, with people emaciated from hunger. God knows how many people just drifted away in the sea. At it's peak, his camp had 11, 000 people. The condition of women and children was particularly bad. Kids as young as 14 were with child. Almost all of them had been victims of GBV. Feeding them and medically treating them was a nightmare, and so he called upon his old mates from the British army to help. They were denied entry as Britain had sent it's Eagle fleet against the Indian Navy to support the Pakistanis, and it wasn't received well in India. So they entered India through "cheaper" means (going to Malaysia and smuggling themselves in a cargo ship) in early 1972 and set to work in the refugee camp.

By the 1980s, all of the camp's refugees had been either repatriated or had been resettled with jobs and businesses in India. All of the orphans were put up for adoption, both in India and in Britain. In 2002, the camp was officially shutdown by my grandfather (GG had passed away by then). My dad grew up with Bangladeshi kids. To this day, he gets very happy whenever he sees Bangladesh do well. India will always have a soft spot for Bangladesh, especially the Indians on the East Coast who were exposed to the conflict.

[dexterroy]

It was a massive logistical problem to manage all those 90, 000 Pakistani PoWs.
They had to be provided with food, clothes, medical care, accomodation. There were bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome. Their family members were worried, they were writing mails, sending parcels, which had to delivered to these PoWs. A system of making some payments to these PoWs had to be formulated by Indian govt so that they can buy certain things from Indian military canteen stores, as they were staying for an extended period of time. It took a few years before all 90K of them could be sent back home. 13 days of war resulted in this years of mess.

[arkzbh]

I am from India, and I was born and brought up in a village right alongside current India Bangladesh border (Village name Gitaldaha, you can locate it on google map). My parents saw the atrocities that were committed by Pak soldiers to the Bangladeshi people and the horror of the migrants, it's still fresh in their minds. My family was originally from Bangladesh and my grandfather decided to move to India in 1946, a year before my father was born. He thanked God his whole life for not having to put his children through the 1947/48 massacre, and my parents thanks God that me and my sister didn't have to see or suffer 1971. 😢 Unspeakable atrocities were comitted by West Pak soldiers which will put Japanese soldiers at Nanking to shame. 😢 In Bengali literature, you can still find the glimpse of the pain and suffering. But it was so bad, the people actually had to suffer, won't even say anything, they just say "you don't want to know" and if you look at their face, you know what they are hiding.

[ztgaming]

A recent shift i have seen in Pakistani society is the realization that we r on the wrong side in 71...this has coincided with rise in anti Pakistan army sentiment(due to military inference in democracy)

[humanityk]

I m from Bangladesh🇧🇩 thanks our big brother india🇮🇳😊

[kg]

You missed covering the role of the USA, UK and USSR in this military conflict. The fact that US and UK both sent their carrier groups to attack India to help Pakistan, which forced India to sign a defence pact with USSR.

[firstsparkle]

You should have included the part of war strategy in 1971 in which US sent its nuclear 7th fleet to assist Pakistan against India but presence of Russian Navy averted any US advance in Bay of Bengal.

[CrayogenicDeath]

I'm Indian. Well done on the maintenance of neutral language and factual reporting. This is why you're one of my favourite channels on YT.

[amitbajwa]

Western countries led by USA, kept supporting pakistan's atrocities implicitly. While threatening India with military forces . Nixon and kisinger's shamefull conduct during this time is well documented.

[LeCharles]

11:09 "Our government has failed to denounce the suppression of democracy. Our government has failed to denounce Atrocities. Our government has failed to take forceful measures to protect it's citizens while at the same time bending over backwards to placate the West Pak dominated government and to lessen likely and deservedly negative international public relation impact against them. Our government has evidenced what many will consider moral bankruptcy."
Should someone tell him? I feel like someone should tell him.

[vishalsheth]

Footnote: US sent her Navy's 7th fleet with an aircraft carrier to intimidate India and to show support for Pakistan during 1971 war. Soviets came to rescue with their own fleet. Big reason why people of my parent's generation view America with suspicion and Russia as a friend. Pakistan was always armed with modern American jets, tanks etc. and India fought with her vintage WW2 era weapons left by the British. Moving closer to Soviets was inevitable.

[JohnRodriguesPhotographer]

I remember when this happened. Even national geographic covered this war. I knew of the atrocities but not on this level one thing that should be kept in mind, it was an India's best interest to sever East Pakistan at West Pakistan and allow the formation of a third state. This greatly weakened Pakistan from a military and economic standpoint.