Gradual self-destruction

How Pakistan got divided, Rao Farman Ali Khan, OXFORD university press; Rs.1,150, Pages 298 Rao Farman Ali Khan’s book under review is of interest because, as the Pakistani newspaper Dawn noted when he died in January 2004, he had been a “key player in the East Pakistan crisis”. Commissioned in the Artillery regiment in 1942, Rao Farman Ali Khan served many years in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). As military adviser to the governor of East Pakistan in 1971, he had complete knowledge of the events leading to the fall of Dhaka. That comes through in the 17 chapters of this narration. He was later accused of many misdemeanours, including preparing a list of Bengali intellectuals and others for elimination. He denied the charges saying his wasn’t a prominent role; he did nothing but his assigned duty. Yet, it is a measure of contemporary popular perception that he was the one addressed by Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw to surrender to the Indian army in December 1971. Post-liberation, he was taken a PoW and remained in India till repatriation in 1974.  The discrimination and alienation faced by the Bengalis in East Pakistan; suppression of democratic forces and representative institutions to ensure dominance of the Western wing and the Army; the 1970 elections and political shenanigans thereafter; the military crackdown from March 1971 onwards; and, finally, the War of Liberation have been documented well enough by Bangladeshi, Pakistani and third country sources. The author’s own account contains, at different points, severe indictments of the decision makers — mainly the generals sitting in distant Islamabad. Thus, Rao Farman Ali Khan’s exoneration of the Pakistan Army (despite an army/martial law regime throughout this period), blaming the defeat on the Pakistani “national political leadership’s ineptitude, ego and pursuit of personal gains”, lack of patriotism among the Bengalis, and Indian conspiracy to dismember Pakistan, fails to ring true.  It is sad that four-and-a-half decades later, this thesis is sought to be given legitimacy through retelling. There was, clearly, no effort during his lifetime to revisit the events taking advantage of the authoritative corrective knowledge that became available. It is a pity the present edition has also evaded this task. Indeed, the foreword says the book is dedicated to the shaheeds of 1971 but restricts the term to those “defending united Pakistan” and “innocents who fell prey to the vengeance of the uprising forces”. In effect, the Bengalis who died or were otherwise casualties of the military crackdown and the Liberation War deserve no tears, no prayer!  Defeat is an orphan: How Pakistan lost the great South Asian war, Myra Macdonald, Random House; Rs.599, Pages 313 Myra Macdonald presents a reality check. With sharply dissimilar political systems, Pakistan has “calcified into a militarized state dependent on nuclear weapons and Islamic proxies,” whereas India has become the “world’s biggest democracy”, “fastest growing economy”. The big change in the last two decades in South Asia has been that “India had emerged as a rising power while Pakistan floundered”.  Having observed the region over the past two decades, partly…