16 December, celebrated in India as Vijay Diwas, marks the anniversary of the Indian Army’s victory in the war against Pakistan in 1971. The war was marked by the surrender of 93,000 Pakistani troops and is still remembered as a spectacular victory for India.
About the 1971 war, Lord Desai writes in The Rediscovery of India, “Indira Gandhi had achieved the impossible. She had dismembered India’s main enemy, permanently reduced its territory and humiliated it militarily…[p. 353]
But what separates this war from the other wars India has had with Pakistan, is that this was the first time India went on the offensive against its arch enemy. Senior journalist K Yatish Rajwat highlights the importance of the war of 1971.
Why is it important to remember 1971? It was the first time that the Indian leadership decided to take decisive action on moral grounds. It was the first time that India violated the UN charter. It was the first time that India handled pressure from US, China and Europe. It was the first time that India decided that an error made by the British in division needed to be corrected by force. It was the first time that India decided that the Bangladeshi immigrant problem could only be addressed if the country was given its legitimacy. There were many other firsts and some of them are also the last for a country that has now forgotten its heroes of this war.K Yatish Rajawat, in a column for Firstpost
The popular narrative says that India, which was planning to intervene militarily in the ongoing Bangladeshi liberation movement, was attacked in a “pre-emptive”strike by the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) at Indian Air Force bases on 3 December 1971. The strike was seen by India as an open act of unprovoked aggression, and it marked the official start of the Indo-Pakistani War.
Within two weeks of intense fighting, Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered to the joint command of Indian and Bangladeshi forces following which the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was created.
But history of course, isn’t immune to distorted narratives. Here’s how the war of 1971 plays out in Indian and Pakistani textbooks.
How Indian and Pakistani History Books Differ
Pakistan’s narrative of the creation of Bangladesh blames India for “instigating” the East Pakistani dissenters. There is little or no mention in the textbooks of the recorded brutalities in 1971.
While Indian school text books claim India did nothing more than extend support to a “freedom struggle”.
For more on the opposing accounts of Indian and Pakistani history, click here.
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