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East Pakistanis were popularly known as "Pakistani Bengalis"; to distinguish this region from India's state West Bengal (which is also known as "Indian Bengal"), East Pakistan was known as "Pakistani Bengal". In 1971, East Pakistan became the newly independent state Bangladesh, which means "country of Bengal" or "country of Bengalis" in Bengali ...
The East–West Bengal border did not see as much violence as seen in the Punjab border between North India and Pakistan. Jinnah made his sole visit to East Bengal as governor general in 1948. During a speech to students in Dacca University , he resisted demands to make Bengali a federal language.
- 1947–56: Dominion Era
- 1956–66
- 1966–71
- Liberation
- Sources
- Further Reading
Bengali language movement
One of the most divisive issues confronting Pakistan in its infancy was the question of what the official language of the new state was to be. Mohammad Ali Jinnah yielded to the demands of refugees from the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who insisted that Urdu be Pakistan's official language. Speakers of the languages of West Pakistan (Punjabi, Sindhi, Pushtu, and Baluchi) were upset that their languages were given second-class status. In East Pakistan, the dissatisfaction quickly...
Political issues
What kept the new country together was the vision and forceful personality of the founders of Pakistan: Jinnah, the governor general popularly known as the Quaid i Azam (Supreme Leader); and Liaquat Ali Khan (1895–1951), the first prime minister, popularly known as the Quaid i Millet (Leader of the Community). The government machinery established at independence was similar to the viceregalsystem that had prevailed in the pre-independence period and placed no formal limitations on Jinnah's co...
United Front cabinet in East Bengal
Legislative election held from March 8 to 12, 1954, the United Front, a political coalition anchored by A. K. Fazlul Huq's Krishak Sramik Samajbadi Dal (Peasants and Workers Socialist Party) and the Awami League (People's League) led by Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, won 223 out of 237 Muslim seats (total 309 seats) in East Bengal Legislative Assembly. The Muslim Leaguehad been overwhelmingly defeated in the 1954 provincial assembly elections by the United Front. Rejection of West Pakistan's domi...
1956 Constitution
Prime Minister Choudhry induced the politicians to agree on a constitution in 1956. In order to establish a better balance between the west and east wings, the four provinces of West Pakistan were amalgamated into one administrative unit. The 1956 constitution made provisions for an Islamic stateas embodied in its Directive of Principles of State Policy, which defined methods of promoting Islamic morality. The national parliament was to comprise one house of 300 members with equal representat...
Suhrawardy's premiership :1956-1957
The Awami League's Suhrawardy succeeded Choudhry as prime minister in September 1956 and formed a coalition cabinet. He, like other Bengali politicians, was chosen by the central government to serve as a symbol of unity, but he failed to secure significant support from West Pakistani power brokers. Although he had a good reputation in East Pakistan and was respected for his pre-partition association with Mohandas K. Gandhi, his strenuous efforts to gain greater provincial autonomy for East Pa...
1958 coup
On October 7, 1958, Iskander Mirza issued a proclamation that abolished political parties, abrogated the two-year-old constitution, and placed the country under martial law. Mirza announced that martial law would be a temporary measure lasting only until a new constitution was drafted. On October 27, he swore in a twelve-member cabinet that included Ayub Khan as prime minister and three other generals in ministerial positions. Included among the eight civilians was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, a form...
At a 1966 Lahore conference of both the eastern and the western chapters of the Awami League, Mujib announced his six-point political and economic program(on 5 February) for East Pakistani provincial autonomy. Mujib's six points ran directly counter to President Ayub's plan for greater national integration. Ayub's anxieties were shared by many West...
On March 25, the Pakistan Army launched, Operation Searchlight, a genocidal crackdown which attempted to suppress Bengali nationalism. Within hours a wholesale attack had commenced in Dhaka, with the heaviest casualties concentrated on the University of Dhaka and the Hindu area of the old town. The Pakistan Army came with hit lists and systematical...
Heitzman, James; Worden, Robert, eds. (1989). Bangladesh: A Country Study. Washington, D.C.: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress.Wolpert, Stanley (1984). Jinnah of Pakistan. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-503412-0.Baxter, Craig (1997). Bangladesh: from a nation to a State. Westview Press. ISBN 0-8133-2854-3.Bose, Sarmila (2011). Dead reckoning: memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-70164-8.Carney, Scott; Miklian, Jason (2022). The Vortex: A True Story of History's Deadliest Storm, an Unspeakable War, and Liberation. Ecco Press. ISBN 978-0-06-298541-5.Islam, Sirajul; Hussain, Aklam (1997). History of Bangladesh: 1704 - 1971. Dhaka: Asiatic Civil Military Press. ISBN 978-984-512-337-2.Apr 9, 2019 · East Pakistan was a non-conterminous province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971. It was initially known as East Bengal. East Pakistan waged an armed struggle for independence in 1970 and declared independence on March 26, 1971, as the state of Bangladesh. It was officially recognized as a sovereign state on December 16, 1971, and it drafted its ...
This was part of the Partition of India into the two states, of India and Pakistan which officially took place during August 14-August 15, 1947. East Bengal was renamed East Pakistan, and later became the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971.
The province East Pakistan was created during independence from the British empire in 1947. At that time, the South Asian subcontinent was partitioned into two countries: India (including lands with a Hindu majority) and Pakistan (lands with a Muslim majority). The people and territory of East Bengal became East Pakistan.
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history of Pakistan. Meanwhile, in East Bengal (East Pakistan), considerable opposition had developed against the Muslim League, which had managed the province since independence. This tension was capped in 1952 by a series of riots that sprang from a Muslim League attempt to make Urdu the only national language of Pakistan, although….
