Bodies in Pain: Voicing a people's History of 1971
by Dr. Yasmin Saikia, USA
My paper is focused on the event of the second partition of the subcontinent in 1971, the only moment in postcolonial South Asia when the three units of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh engaged each other on a common platform, in war and conflict. By probing into the violence of 1971, highlighting the memories of survivors, both men and women, I aim to understand the gendered nature of partition and war in the subcontinent, the multiple constructions and manifestations of postcolonial Muslim and Hindu identities, and develop a humanistic language aimed at understanding the actors, events, contexts and outcomes of the war to write a 'public biography.' By public biography I mean a text that incorporates the investigation of violence at a theoretical level as well as through autobiographical testimonials of people who experienced, perpetrated, witnessed and suffered the ravages of the war. The current historiography on 1971 is limited to the study of conflicts between the states of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India. In consequence, the narratives of hate and enmity that have emerged dominate and fuel relentless violence between people in the region. There has been no attempt to move beyond and probe into the common suffering of people in war to illuminate a human story of shared hopes, anxieties, fears, and desires to develop a possible space to come to terms with the past, violent though it may be. In this paper, by documenting people's histories and personal narratives of the war, I will highlight the linked, though conflicting, experiences of survivors for developing a human language of understanding to claim the history they produced and invite South Asian scholars to consider alternate ways of rethinking the legacies of the partitions of 1947 and 1971.
History, Power and Legitimacy: Bangladesh Perspective
by Muntassir Mamoon, Bangladesh
In almost every country, attempts have been made by some sections or groups to control history. This is done by influencing the collective consciousness of people through protagonist actions favoring some ideas or interpretation and misrepresentation of historical events. In this scenario, in countries where democratic roots are deep and strong, the pluralism inherent in democracy generates countervailing forces that stand in the way of controlling history by power. Following the Second World War, in many countries, specially in Europe and America, common people became more conscious of their rights and more vocal to protect, sustain and cherish these rights in all spheres of civil society. As a result, accountability of the rulers to the ruled increased in depth as well as in coverage. This made the rulers stand face to face before history and this, in turn, reduced the scale and lessened the intensity of debates centering around history, power and legitimacy in these mature societies. But in Asia the debate continues for the resolution of conflicts centering around these concepts. The rulers of Asian countries do not always want to stand before their histories.
History is capable of playing a definite role in social mobilization. In three countries of Asia, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, history has been used while accessioning government power. Two elements of this propensity, communal and secular, have been chronicled and are discernible as trends in this process. In the case of Bangladesh, till 1971, communal propensity or for that matter, a trend wrought out and imposed by a colonial rule over-shadowed the other. As a countervailing force, through mass movement and upsurge, the non-communal propensity transformed itself into a trend towards secular nationalism. Over time, this trend gained in strength, over-shadowed the other and finally achieved victory in 1971, leading to the creation of Independent Bangladesh. Although some people in Bangladesh are still supporters of the communal trend initiated and encouraged by (erstwhile) Pakistan, one has to admit, the Bangladesh constitution was founded on the main components of the other, i.e. the secular trend.
As is evidenced in the history of this riverine land, the two communities, the
Muslims and the Hindus lived and shared its endowment and bounty together, in peace and distress and in harmony and with tolerance and respect for the rights of each other. The communities so conditioned historically have developed over time, Bengali nationalism, which constitutes despite occasional aberrations, the main historical stream of Bangladesh. And as the history has it almost as a law, history cannot be controlled by a section or a group separated from the masses.
Post 9/11: Terror, Terrorists and Women in Pakistan’s Tribal Areas
by Saba Gul Khattak,Pakistan
While the present 9/11 context divides the world simplistically into friends or foes, it is clear that real life situations are not so simple. This paper examines the post 9/11 US-led global war on terror and its unaccounted impacts on ordinary people’s lives, especially women’s, in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The paper provides the political background within which the current violence in the area is embedded and argues that the Wana operations are a continuation of the historical manner in which the Pakistani state deals with political problems. This paper, thus, juxtaposes the tensions between international politics, state survival, regime continuity and people’s security, with a focus on women. Specifically, it asserts that the colonial laws that still apply to the tribal areas in tandem with local customs reinforce women’s invisibility at several levels and contexts—and result in increased oppression and injustice. Women’s voices remain unheard making it possible to project violence in a dehumanized manner in order to continue it. While pushing for women’s concerns to be translated into policy agendas, the paper argues that the developments emanating from the current tensions will impact the future options and arrangements of state society relations.
Constructing Identities through Symbols in South Punjab
by Hussain Ahmad Khan, Pakistan
This paper focuses on the use of “Islam” as a symbol for political struggle in south Punjab and the deployment of the term “Siraiki” in constructing a separate identity. These symbols have not necessarily come from values, traditions and practices of this particular region, but their selection is based on how these could effectively mobilize masses for a political movement representing the interests of various groups within the socio-political sphere. The selected symbols were changed, adjusted or re-adjusted according to socio-political circumstances.
The paper will primarily focus on the following two aspects:
- Use of “Islam” as symbol in the Bahawalpur Province Movement: The Bahawalpur Province Movement (BPM), which surfaced in the late 1960s and petered out in the early 1970s gave impetus to a series of literary and cultural activities that configured themselves around the Siraiki identity. The leadership in Bahawalpur claimed that their struggle was to enforce Sheriah (Islamic Laws). Many policies of the federal government were criticized and termed un-Islamic. Some religious parties like Jamait-e-Islami, Majlis-e-Ahrar-e-Islam and Jamait Ulema-e-Pakistan favored the demand for a separate province due to the Islamic posture of the BPM.
- Deployment of term “Siraiki”: The word Siraiki was coined by the Sindhis to identify immigrants and those living in upper Sindh since the word was prevalent in Sindh, but was never accepted in lower Punjab. The people and language were identified by locally constructed identities. When Ucch became the center of the Sufis and the ulia, the locals began to assert their identity as “Uchi”. Similarly, when Bahawalpur became a state, the locals began to call themselves Bahawalpuri and their language was termed “Riasti”. The language spoken in Multan was known as “Multani”. It was in the 1960s that local intellectuals started questioning the political and economic control of the settlers over their region. They cast their argument in terms of cultural authenticity, attempting to trace the roots of their language. For the first time in the 1960s, the linguists and literary figures of southern Punjab employed the word “Siraiki”.
View Abstracts
