World leaders have now ensured “international humanitarian aid” is allowed into Gaza though aid workers are calling for “far more desperately needed supplies” for the displaced Palestinians. India is among the countries that have responded but given the tone and tenor of coverage, people could be forgiven for thinking the Gaza crisis is unprecedented in contemporary history and unmanageable without the attention and support of Western and Arab nations.
In the context of humanitarian crises arising from conflicts, one name comes to mind: Dr Dilip Mahalanabis who was posthumously awarded a Padma Vibhushan this year. His herculean humanitarian feat has few parallels in modern history. He was the Indian paediatrician from Kolkata whose brilliantly simple oral rehydration therapy (known now as ORS) saved the lives of millions of Bengali East Pakistanis who fled to India to escape extermination in 1971.
Dr Mahalanabis’ valiant but mostly unknown and unrecognised role epitomises the tremendous odds against which India not only fought a third war with its perpetually aggressive neighbour but also marshalled its limited resources to help millions of East Pakistani Bengali refugees. India fed, clothed and housed them, and ensured there was no outbreak of cholera or other diseases with little support, moral or otherwise from other nations. But does anyone remember?
The statistics of the India-Pakistan war of 1971 far outstrip anything seen or reported so far in the 2023 Hamas-Israel war. Three million East Pakistanis, mostly Hindus, were killed by order of their own government located in West Pakistan. The world did not care. In the past two weeks, just over 5,000 Palestinians have been killed due to retaliatory Israeli strikes for the murder of over 1,400 Israelis by terrorists of Hamas. And the world is traumatised.
An astounding 10 million Bengali-speakers fled to India to escape targeted slaughter from March to December 1971 and the west waited for “a humanitarian catastrophe” to unfold. It did not, thanks to India’s concerted efforts, including Mahalanabis’ ORS. But huge protests and dire forecasts about the fate of a million Palestinians who have fled from north Gaza to the south have galvanised world leaders and the media in 2023 to call for immediate ceasefire and aid.
The Muslim world is particularly incensed by the deaths and destruction in Gaza. But back in 1971 there was no world outrage at the slaughter of innocents, no rising diplomatic initiatives driven by “distressing” visuals of the “humanitarian crisis” wrought by West Pakistan on its eastern brethren. India quietly tended to 10 million—not just one million—even as the US helped the aggressor by sending the Seventh Fleet to the Bay of Bengal to intimidate India!
In 1971, the US Consul General in Dhaka Archer Blood informed Washington DC (in vain) about Bengali-speaking Pakistanis being killed on the orders of the Martial Law Administrator (MLA). “MLA authorities have list of Awami League supporters whom they are systematically eliminating by seeking them out in their homes and shooting them down” he wrote. “Non-Bengali Muslims are attacking poor people’s quarters and murdering Bengalis and Hindus.”
Blood was recalled from Dhaka as President Richard Nixon and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger continued with their anti-India, pro-Pakistan stance with an eye to wooing China. Fifty years on, China is US’s Enemy No1, Israel has two US aircraft carriers supporting its action to eliminate Hamas and rescue 220 hostages, and the media is feverishly covering world leaders responding to the “spiralling humanitarian crisis” of a million Palestinian refugees.
Amazingly, neither the widespread and sustained repression, torture and killings in East Pakistan nor its consequence—the exodus of a mind-boggling 10 million of its Bengali-speaking citizens to India—qualified as a “humanitarian crisis” for world leaders of that time, although Western intelligence agencies were certainly aware of what was happening there. The bar for qualifying as a “humanitarian crisis” has evidently been lowered considerably over the past 50 years.
The US journalist Sydney Schanberg, famous for his reports from Cambodia that led to the film The Killing Fields, also covered the killing fields of East Pakistan for the New York Times but those equally horrific reports were not made into a film or even mentioned in his obituary. He had reported West Pakistanis were singling out Hindu houses in the East by painting the letter H on them and killing all Hindus and Awami League supporters they could find.
Déjà vu?
In June 1971 Pakistani journalist Anthony Mascarenhas bravely wrote in The Sunday Times: “I have witnessed the brutality of “kill and burn missions” as the army units, after clearing out the rebels, pursued the pogrom in towns and villages…In the officer’s mess at night, I have listened incredulously as otherwise brave and honourable men proudly chewed over the day’s kill. ‘How many did you get?’ The answers are seared in my memory.” Sounds familiar?
India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s radio broadcast to the nation on December 3, 1971, reiterated the point of the refugee influx and India’s intention to stand up for those innocent civilians being targeted for elimination in East Pakistan by its own government. Her words remain a reminder of how different the world was before media and social media made the dissemination of information and garnering support so much easier, albeit rarely well informed.
“Since last March we have borne the heaviest of burdens and withstood the greatest of pressure and a tremendous effort to urge the world to help in bringing about a peaceful solution, in preventing annihilation of an entire people whose only crime was to vote democratically,” she declared. “But the world ignored the basic causes and concerned itself only with certain repercussions.”
“The situation was bound to deteriorate…The war in Bangladesh has become a war on India, and this imposes upon me, my government and the people of India an awesome responsibility. We have no other option but to put our country on a war footing. Our brave officers and jawans are at their posts, mobilised for the defence of the country…Every necessary step is being taken, and we are prepared for any eventualities.” Her words could well have been Netanyahu’s.
There are unmistakable echoes of the events of 1971 in the Israel-Gaza conflict in 2023. Only, the world was largely unmoved back then. The UN has still not recognised the genocide of East Pakistanis and rapes and other atrocities by Pakistani soldiers. But in 2023, there are voices in support of (and opposition to) both sides. Hamas targeted Jews specifically, but ironically, charges of anti-Semitism are now countered by accusations of Israelis being Nazis!
Despite his seminal role in preventing a “humanitarian crisis”, Mahalanabis did not get official recognition even from India (much less the rest of the world) until the Modi government included his name this year’s Padma Awards in the category of Unsung Heroes. India itself is an Unsung Hero too. Most of those now concerned about the happenings in Gaza and Israel in 2023 have no idea what a huge humanitarian precedent was set by India way back in 1971.
The author is a freelance writer. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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