The Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence
My Personal Statement
Introduction to Myself and My Inspiration
For my Personal Project, I’ve decided that I dedicate my time to learn about Bangladesh’s history and fight for independence. Bangladesh is my motherland, the country that I was born in 1996. I came to the United States in 1997 when I was only 10 months old. Ever since then, I grew very “apart” from my country to the point where I didn’t even consider myself a Bangladeshi. However, as I grew older, my passion for wanting to get to know where I actually came from grew stronger. This realization all started in the summer of 2011, when I, after 6 years from my previous visit, went to Bangladesh to visit my close relatives. School had just finished and a few weeks afterand we were on our way to Dhaka, Bangladesh. I was given the guidelines for the Personal Project and the Summer Reading Assignments the week before school ended and I hadn’t had the time to thoroughly think about what I wanted to base my project on. So, I decided to just visit Bangladesh, enjoy my time there and hopefully come back with some useful ideas. During my time in Bangladesh, my family and I visited many places that I never went to on my last visit, so this time it wasn’t just for fun but for a learning experience as well. Considering that we only stayed in Bangladesh for a little more than 3 weeks, I couldn’t “explore” my country as much. I did however get to visit the Shahid Minar Memorial where many student demonstrators were killed in 1952. I also got to visit the Bangabhundu Memorial Museum which was created in honor of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s former prime minister who had been assassinated by the Pakistani Military at that exact location. This visit took place during the last week of my stay at Bangladesh and that day really changed the way I looked at my Bangladeshi folks and my country. Visiting that museum had me filled with tears considering that there were so many gruesome pictures of the Liberation War. I saw countless images of people lying dead on rickshaws, and bloody massacres all around. Just from looking at those images, I had a gut feeling that I had to do something to “raise awareness” on this topic even though the liberation war took place about 40 years ago. From then on, I was inspired to dedicate my Personal Project towards the Bangladeshi Movement and fight for independence in order to honor those who died fighting for Bangladesh. Many don’t know about the struggles my people had to go through just to make Bangladesh an independent country. From what I’ve researched, the Bangladesh genocide that occurred during the war was the least known and least researched genocide in modern history and this definitely played a factor in my decision of choosing this topic for my project. World leaders had turned their eyes from one of the worst genocides in modern history and the feeling I got after reading about this left me disgusted. It has since become the "forgotten genocide" and I feel as if it is my duty to at least show my peers the suffering Bangladeshis had to go through for the past 40-60 years. Deciding this project made me develop a strong fondness towards my country not only because I felt bad for my people, but because I had never realized the attachment I had with my country’s history and their people who have been suffering day in and day out.
My Guiding Question and My Goal(s)
During the beginning of my Personal Project, I really had no idea of what my “final product” was going to be. I thought about the various forms that my project could take for the first few weeks. I determined the possibilities of either writing a historical research paper, producing a video, or creating a website. Making a power-point presentation wasn’t really one of my possibilities mainly because I didn’t think that it was sufficient enough to “capture the whole picture” on this extensive topic. There was a lot of history to deal with! At first I thought of just sticking with writing a paper, but as my project progressed, I started to believe that creating a website was the best option for me. Making a website would be better because it would be an easier way and a much more interactive way of educating my community about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence. Since my main goal was to bring about an awareness regarding this topic of the Liberation War, making the website would be the best way to present my information in a way that I would be able to successfully answer my guiding question, “What were the significant events that led to the outbreak of the Liberation War in 1971?” Through my website, I plan on answering the following: Why were there so many civil outbreaks among the East Pakistanis and West Pakistanis? What had sparked this battle, this outrage between these sides? If all of these questions are fulfilled, it will definitely give me a clear understanding of why Bangladesh is what it is now in its current state after 40 years. In other words, learning about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence will not only help me to explore the events that ignited the Liberation War of 1971 as well as the long struggles faced among the East and West Pakistanis but also help me realize the effects that it had on today’s society. I really want to learn about how developed Bangladesh has become politically and economically after 1971.
My 1st Area of Interaction: HUMAN INGENUITY
My first are of interaction for my personal project is Human Ingenuity. This area of interaction allows students to explore in multiple ways the processes and products of human creativity, and to consider their impact on society and the mind. This area of interaction very much relates to my project because my whole process is going to be based around the creation of my website on weebly.com. This website is definitely going to be “100% authentic” and is going to consist of many images that just basically show to the people how life was like during that brutal time period in 1971. This area of interaction will also help me examine the consequences of history and give me knowledge on the factors that played a huge role during the movement for freedom, like the language movement, Martyrs Day, and the fight for land and liberty through the creation of my website.
My 2nd Area of Interaction: COMMUNITY AND SERVICE
My second area of interaction is Community and Service. To me, community and service starts in the classroom and extends beyond it, requiring students to take an active part in the communities in which they live. This project will definitely give me an opportunity to educate the younger community and also give me the aptitude to make connections between my intellectual and social growth by demonstrating the development of my ability to be aware of my community’sconcerns. It will also help me develop the skills needed to make a worthy contribution to society because doing this project will be a learning experience for me as well as my BSGE community. This AOI relates to my topic because creating the website itself is an act of community and service. It deals with self-development and exploration, which ultimately defines my aim towards being able to fully present all that I had learned throughout the research process.
My Initial Plan
In order to be fully engaged with my project, I planned on gathering as much information as I could to get a complete understanding of my country’s history. I would also be able to see the different viewpoints of different people and that would definitely help me go further with my project because I would be able to incorporate all the different perspectives into my project which would hopefully inspire a sympathetic reaction to my audience. I want my audience to “be in a Bangladeshi’s shoes” and feel the suffering we had to go through. Since I am very interested in finding out more about the issues and problems that have shaped today’s Bangladeshi society/community, I’ve been carefully taking the time to consider the subjects that I plan on focusing on for my guiding question.While that took place, I decided to create an informative website for my project which will give my society another source to attain to. This would be a public website where anyone could comment on or post on. I also had the idea of composing an interview with my grandfather considering that he was an actual “freedom-fighter” at the time of the liberation war. The purpose would be to collect information from a primary source and present it to my peers since it is truly very hard to find primary documents on my topic. Well, at least in New York, that is.
The Step-by-Step Process
From the beginning of my project up until now, my grandfather, Mohammed Tajul Islam, has been a core component to my project’s progression mainly because he was so knowledgeable on this topic. He was essentially my main “primary source” for the project and he definitely helped me overcome the difficulties of researching a country’s history by giving me the support I needed. Whether it was by breaking significant events down into “small chronological parts” or by simply determining importance from the text together, my grandfather was able to have me engaged with this extensive topic throughout the whole process even though at times I felt like changing my topic. I’ve always been weak with comprehension and sometimes I was misinterpreting what was being said in the various sources I had, but with the help of my grandfather’s knowledge, understanding, and own experiences from that time period, his explanations and stories definitely gave me a boost in my project and it kept me going towards accomplishing my goals.
Also, as I had said before, during the beginning of my Personal Project, I really had no idea of what my “final product” was going to be. I thought about the various forms that my project could take for the first few weeks. At my first meeting with my supervisor, Ms. Matani, I told her that I was going to write a huge historical research paper on the Bangladeshi Movement. But, as our meeting went on, my supervisor and I began to think that writing a paper would be the best way to go for my Personal Project. She gave me the idea of creating a website, but at the time, I really didn’t know how to make one and wasn’t sure if that was really something to consider. I mean, there was a lot of history to deal with in the first place! At first I thought of just sticking with writing a paper even though it wasn’t the best idea for me, but as my project progressed, I started to believe that creating a website was the best option for me. Making a website would be much less stressful because it would be an easier way and a much more interactive way of educating my community about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence.
At first, Ms. Matani told me to use http://www.webs.com/ to create the website. So I made an account on that site and attempted to begin my project. It didn’t go very well. I didn’t know anything on creating a website and barely knew how to add photos, information and etc. I tried and tried doing as much as I could on the website, but it just wasn’t suiting me because I really didn’t get to add things on the website “my way”. If I posted a photo online, it would either be too large to see or get cut off. There didn’t seem to be a way to crop the photos and the whole process was just complicated. Everything was just a mess at first and from that point on; I began to give up on creating a website until I searched on Google and found out a new site that allows you to create a free website. This website was called http://www.weebly.com/. I created an account on this site hoping that this would be an answer to my problems and just started to play around with the website. I then started to realize that this was the only site that actually allowed me to do it “my way” and I just loved it! It was so much better than webs.com because I was successfully able to post numerous photos and include sufficient information regarding the Bangladeshi Movement and the Fight for Independence without any hassle or confusion. The way everything was set up made life so much easier for me. On the top of my homepage, I added many tabs which were dedicated to a different concept. My first tab was obviously the homepage. The next few tabs consisted of a gallery, my grandfather’s interview, the inspiring speech that was given by our founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a historical timeline, a book recommendations page, and a blog. There were a total of seven homepage tabs. My URL is http://www.tahmidsdesh.weebly.com and this website is my final product.
Analysis of the Research Findings
When we had to write our first research summary, my guiding question was “What exactly ignited the East Bengal and West Bengal region to break into the liberation war after the Shaheed Minar incident in 1952?” My initial answer to that GQ was that due to political exclusion, ethnic and linguistic discrimination, and economic neglect by the politically-dominant West Pakistanis, popular agitation grew against West Pakistan and it led to the Liberation War of 1971. Not only was my answer unclear and extraneous, but my guiding question and research itself consisted of many flaws. In my question I mistakenly wrote East Bengal and West Bengal when it clearly should’ve been East Pakistan and West Pakistan. You see, up until 1947, countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan did not exist because they were all essentially part of India. During that year, India was split into East Bengal with its capital of Dhaka and West Bengal with its capital of Calcutta. This partition occurred due to the long-lasting conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. The western region consisted of the Hindu population whereas the eastern region contained the Muslim population. Not much later, East Bengal was split into East Pakistan and West Pakistan, where both of the regions lay more than 1000 miles apart. That was where the confusion came for me in the beginning.
As my project progressed, I began to tweak my guiding question even more to an extent that is was much more straight forward and clear. As a result, I would also have to change my initial answer so that it would be less elongated. After conversing with my supervisor, I changed my GQ to, “What were the significant events that led to the Liberation of 1971?” Through much of my research, I was able to come up with a legitimate answer to this extensive question. Basically, what I derived from my research was that the war broke out on March 26, 1971 as army units, directed by West Pakistanis, launched a military operation in East Pakistan against Bengali civilians, students, intellectuals, armed personnel, and many others who were demanding separation of the East from West Pakistan. This was known as Operation Searchlight. Rising political discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan were encountered by brutally subduing forces from the ruling elite of West Pakistani soldiers. (Nabi 435) West Pakistani President, Agha Mohammed Yahya, who was believed to be behind all of this brutality towards East Pakistanis, ordered the Pakistani Military to restore the Pakistani government’s authority, thus beginning the Liberation War.
From 1952 through 1971, there were several key events that sparked violent outrage between the East and West during the Liberation Movement. After the declaration of Urdu as the new national language during the early 1950s, violent riots broke out. On February 21, 1952, a day during the Language Movement, the police shot and killed several students at a demonstration in Dhaka (Orr 51). Though the government agreed to declare Urdu and Bangla as equal official languages, the conflict between the East and the West gained momentum with the 1954 General Election and then the Education Movement of 1962. During the 1954 General Election, the United Front won most of the seats in the East Bengal Legislative Assembly. These elections definitely changed the structure of party politics in Pakistan. “Political parties were organized along the lines of basic regional cleavages in Pakistani society, and efforts to establish a coherent national political leadership and national political symbols progressively diminished and became ineffectual. (Sisson & Rose 12)
Later on, the Liberation Movement finally shifted into high gear with the launch of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six-Point Movement for autonomy in 1966. The keystones of these points demonstrated the theme of autonomy. Rahman proclaimed three essential concepts that revealed how to create and maintain a free state. The first few concepts of his six-points involved law. It stated that the federal government should deal with only two subjects: Defense and Foreign Affairs. It also stated that the constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense based on the Lahore Resolution and parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.
The next few concepts in his six-points involved economy. From my perception, there was a demand for a “free flowing” currency and a set plan for enforcing the trade plan. It stated that there shall be two separate currencies mutually or freely convertible in each wing for each region.Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.The power of taxation and revenue collection should be vested in the federating units and the federal center would have no such power. The federation would be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures. The main idea of this economic concept was that the constitution needed to empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
The final concept in which Sheikh Mujib presented in his 6-points involved the military. He stated that East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.He also stated that until this land (Bangladesh) has been freed, no taxes will be paid to the government any more.
In retaliation, Pakistani military rulers accused Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of treason and put him behind bars. This trial was known as the Agortola Conspiracy Case. Pakistan's actions were responded to with a tremendous student protest in 1968 that reached every stretch of Bengal. The events lead to the people's uprising in 1969, manifested by the Students 11-Point Movement against Pakistani military rule, which raged the West Pakistanis even more. Then, it all started after the Formal Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7, 1971.
By the time Pakistani forces eventually surrendered on December 16, 1971, India had taken numerous prisoners and gained control of a large area of East Pakistan, which is now known as Bangladesh. Lt. Gen A.A.K. Niazi, Commander of Pakistani Army forces located in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. At the time of surrender, only a few countries had provided diplomatic recognition to the new nation. Over 90,000 Pakistani troops surrendered to the Indian forces making it the largest surrender since World War II. Yahya Khan’s dictatorship collapsed and gave way to Bhutto (Pakistan’s prime minister) who took the opportunity to rise to power. General Niazi, who surrendered along with 93,000 troops, was viewed with suspicion and hatred upon his return to Pakistan. He was shunned and branded a traitor. The war also exposed the shortcomings of Pakistan’s declared strategic doctrine that the “defense of East Pakistan lay in West Pakistan.” (Orr 61)
These pieces of evidence were able to prove my initial answer to my guiding question because all of this information presents a clear explanation of what exactly the significant events were of which led to the Liberation War. I was able to break down the extensive history into the form a “small timeline” so that I would clearly be able to analyze the chain reaction of events which ultimately ignited the Liberation War of 1971. This would give me a clear understanding of the historical events in a more chronological order.
Analysis Conclusion
My Personal Project deals with the AOI’s of Human Ingenuity and Community and Service. These areas of interaction have definitely been involved in every aspect of my project and served as a backbone for the progression of my project and the project itself.
What I had learned about Human Ingenuity it gave me the opportunity to explore my research in multiple ways, and helped me consider their impact on society and the mind. Learning about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence not only did help me to explore the events that ignited the Liberation War of 1971 but helped me explore as well as the long struggles faced among the East and West Pakistanis but also help me realize the effects that it had on today’s society. The connection between this AOI and my topic is that it will generate me a vivid image of the great cultural and historical movements, but also involved showing me how the human need for changes in the society have shaped today’s reality in Bangladesh. My project could have gone in different directions but I chose Human Ingenuity because I did in fact create something, while my project and my guiding question revolved around it.
What I had learned about Community and Service was that it helps people develop the skills needed to make a worthy contribution in society because doing this project was a learning experience for me as well as my BSGE community. A big part of this Area of Interaction deals with self-development and exploration. This area of Area of Interaction required me to orally present all that I have learned about my topic through the actual process. It gave me the confidence to speak in front of an audience even though it was one of the many weaknesses I had addressed. Throughout my project, I have discovered that Community and Service also enabled me to develop an awareness of the world around me and a respect for different cultures’ history. With this AOI, I believe I have grown socially to an extent because I am able to communicate to my community through history and this would definitely give me and my peers the knowledge necessary to expand on what we know and what we don’t know. In this case, it was my duty to educate my community on Bangladesh’s brief history and their fight for independence.
From the moment I decided that I was going to base my project on the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence up until now, where I am finishing up my project, I believe that I have grown a lot from the experience due to the fact that it has opened my eyes to studying my country’s history. After completing my project, I realized that my project research helped me fully answer my guiding question by breaking down a long period of time into tiny chronological events. Now, incorporating these events into a thorough explanation on my website gave the project a more personal touch than something like a PowerPoint presentation or historical research paper. Because of this project, I was able to deepen my knowledge on Bangladesh’s history and the negative as well as positive influence the Liberation War had.
Working with my Grandfather throughout this entire process, I was only able to generate a “one-sided” view of the situation that held Bangladesh 41 years ago. Since he was a freedom fighter during the war, he as well as millions of Bengalis obviously had“distaste” towards the West Pakistanis for their brutal actions. This of course “rubbed off” on me and I also started to develop this form of anger toward West Pakistanis who participated in that Liberation War. Though I tried to stay neutral with my opinions and my information, it was pretty difficult mainly because everything I had researched came from a one-sided perspective.
List of Works Cited
1. Bangladesh at a Glance. Dhaka: Department of Films and Publications Ministry of Information Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2003. Print.
I found this book very visually helpful because it provided a lot of rare images of Bangladeshi History.
2. "Create a Free Website." Weebly.com. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. <http://www.weebly.com/>.
Without this website, I wouldn't have been able to create my own personal website regarding the topic of the Bangladeshi Movement and the Fight for Independence. This website was very useful in terms of creating my final product.
3. Islam, Mohammed Tajul. "Freedom Fighter Interview." Personal interview. 2 Feb. 2012.
This interview was an essential part of my Personal Project's progression because it gave me an opportunity to actually conduct a questionnaire to someone who was contributor to the Liberation War. This interview definitely gave me a "one-sided" perspective on this topic.
4. Nabī, Nūruna. Bullets of '71: A Freedom Fighter's Story. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2010. Print.This book was very useful to me because not only was it informative but it was also a primar text that I could rely on for opiniated views.
5. Orr, Tamra. Bangladesh. New York: Children’s, 2007. Print.
This book, though it was a children’s book really gave me all of the basic information I needed to help me get started on my project.
6. Robb, Peter. A History of India. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave, 2002. Print.
This book did help me very little in researching about the partition of the Indian regions in the late 1940s.
7. Sisson, Richard, and Leo E. Rose. War and Secession: Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh. Berkeley: University of California, 1990. Print.
This book provided me a brief history on how Bangladesh emerged into what it is now today.
8. Talbot, Ian. Inventing the Nation India & Pakistan. Madison Avenue, NY: Arnold 2000 Print.
This source was very helpful for me in terms of finding the pre and post events that had occurred after the Liberation War.
9. “Virtual Bangladesh: History.” Reading.Welcome to Virtual Bangladesh. Virtual Bangladesh. Web. 08 Dec. 2011 http://virtualbangladesh.com/history/index.html.
This website was very interactive and very factual! I really found this site helpful because it provided me with many statistical information.
10. Yunus, Mohammed, and Aradhana Parmar. South Asia: A Historical Narrative. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ., 2007. Print.
This book honestly did not help me as much but it did provide me a historical background of the Southeastern Asian subcontinent.
For my Personal Project, I’ve decided that I dedicate my time to learn about Bangladesh’s history and fight for independence. Bangladesh is my motherland, the country that I was born in 1996. I came to the United States in 1997 when I was only 10 months old. Ever since then, I grew very “apart” from my country to the point where I didn’t even consider myself a Bangladeshi. However, as I grew older, my passion for wanting to get to know where I actually came from grew stronger. This realization all started in the summer of 2011, when I, after 6 years from my previous visit, went to Bangladesh to visit my close relatives. School had just finished and a few weeks afterand we were on our way to Dhaka, Bangladesh. I was given the guidelines for the Personal Project and the Summer Reading Assignments the week before school ended and I hadn’t had the time to thoroughly think about what I wanted to base my project on. So, I decided to just visit Bangladesh, enjoy my time there and hopefully come back with some useful ideas. During my time in Bangladesh, my family and I visited many places that I never went to on my last visit, so this time it wasn’t just for fun but for a learning experience as well. Considering that we only stayed in Bangladesh for a little more than 3 weeks, I couldn’t “explore” my country as much. I did however get to visit the Shahid Minar Memorial where many student demonstrators were killed in 1952. I also got to visit the Bangabhundu Memorial Museum which was created in honor of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Bangladesh’s former prime minister who had been assassinated by the Pakistani Military at that exact location. This visit took place during the last week of my stay at Bangladesh and that day really changed the way I looked at my Bangladeshi folks and my country. Visiting that museum had me filled with tears considering that there were so many gruesome pictures of the Liberation War. I saw countless images of people lying dead on rickshaws, and bloody massacres all around. Just from looking at those images, I had a gut feeling that I had to do something to “raise awareness” on this topic even though the liberation war took place about 40 years ago. From then on, I was inspired to dedicate my Personal Project towards the Bangladeshi Movement and fight for independence in order to honor those who died fighting for Bangladesh. Many don’t know about the struggles my people had to go through just to make Bangladesh an independent country. From what I’ve researched, the Bangladesh genocide that occurred during the war was the least known and least researched genocide in modern history and this definitely played a factor in my decision of choosing this topic for my project. World leaders had turned their eyes from one of the worst genocides in modern history and the feeling I got after reading about this left me disgusted. It has since become the "forgotten genocide" and I feel as if it is my duty to at least show my peers the suffering Bangladeshis had to go through for the past 40-60 years. Deciding this project made me develop a strong fondness towards my country not only because I felt bad for my people, but because I had never realized the attachment I had with my country’s history and their people who have been suffering day in and day out.
My Guiding Question and My Goal(s)
During the beginning of my Personal Project, I really had no idea of what my “final product” was going to be. I thought about the various forms that my project could take for the first few weeks. I determined the possibilities of either writing a historical research paper, producing a video, or creating a website. Making a power-point presentation wasn’t really one of my possibilities mainly because I didn’t think that it was sufficient enough to “capture the whole picture” on this extensive topic. There was a lot of history to deal with! At first I thought of just sticking with writing a paper, but as my project progressed, I started to believe that creating a website was the best option for me. Making a website would be better because it would be an easier way and a much more interactive way of educating my community about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence. Since my main goal was to bring about an awareness regarding this topic of the Liberation War, making the website would be the best way to present my information in a way that I would be able to successfully answer my guiding question, “What were the significant events that led to the outbreak of the Liberation War in 1971?” Through my website, I plan on answering the following: Why were there so many civil outbreaks among the East Pakistanis and West Pakistanis? What had sparked this battle, this outrage between these sides? If all of these questions are fulfilled, it will definitely give me a clear understanding of why Bangladesh is what it is now in its current state after 40 years. In other words, learning about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence will not only help me to explore the events that ignited the Liberation War of 1971 as well as the long struggles faced among the East and West Pakistanis but also help me realize the effects that it had on today’s society. I really want to learn about how developed Bangladesh has become politically and economically after 1971.
My 1st Area of Interaction: HUMAN INGENUITY
My first are of interaction for my personal project is Human Ingenuity. This area of interaction allows students to explore in multiple ways the processes and products of human creativity, and to consider their impact on society and the mind. This area of interaction very much relates to my project because my whole process is going to be based around the creation of my website on weebly.com. This website is definitely going to be “100% authentic” and is going to consist of many images that just basically show to the people how life was like during that brutal time period in 1971. This area of interaction will also help me examine the consequences of history and give me knowledge on the factors that played a huge role during the movement for freedom, like the language movement, Martyrs Day, and the fight for land and liberty through the creation of my website.
My 2nd Area of Interaction: COMMUNITY AND SERVICE
My second area of interaction is Community and Service. To me, community and service starts in the classroom and extends beyond it, requiring students to take an active part in the communities in which they live. This project will definitely give me an opportunity to educate the younger community and also give me the aptitude to make connections between my intellectual and social growth by demonstrating the development of my ability to be aware of my community’sconcerns. It will also help me develop the skills needed to make a worthy contribution to society because doing this project will be a learning experience for me as well as my BSGE community. This AOI relates to my topic because creating the website itself is an act of community and service. It deals with self-development and exploration, which ultimately defines my aim towards being able to fully present all that I had learned throughout the research process.
My Initial Plan
In order to be fully engaged with my project, I planned on gathering as much information as I could to get a complete understanding of my country’s history. I would also be able to see the different viewpoints of different people and that would definitely help me go further with my project because I would be able to incorporate all the different perspectives into my project which would hopefully inspire a sympathetic reaction to my audience. I want my audience to “be in a Bangladeshi’s shoes” and feel the suffering we had to go through. Since I am very interested in finding out more about the issues and problems that have shaped today’s Bangladeshi society/community, I’ve been carefully taking the time to consider the subjects that I plan on focusing on for my guiding question.While that took place, I decided to create an informative website for my project which will give my society another source to attain to. This would be a public website where anyone could comment on or post on. I also had the idea of composing an interview with my grandfather considering that he was an actual “freedom-fighter” at the time of the liberation war. The purpose would be to collect information from a primary source and present it to my peers since it is truly very hard to find primary documents on my topic. Well, at least in New York, that is.
The Step-by-Step Process
From the beginning of my project up until now, my grandfather, Mohammed Tajul Islam, has been a core component to my project’s progression mainly because he was so knowledgeable on this topic. He was essentially my main “primary source” for the project and he definitely helped me overcome the difficulties of researching a country’s history by giving me the support I needed. Whether it was by breaking significant events down into “small chronological parts” or by simply determining importance from the text together, my grandfather was able to have me engaged with this extensive topic throughout the whole process even though at times I felt like changing my topic. I’ve always been weak with comprehension and sometimes I was misinterpreting what was being said in the various sources I had, but with the help of my grandfather’s knowledge, understanding, and own experiences from that time period, his explanations and stories definitely gave me a boost in my project and it kept me going towards accomplishing my goals.
Also, as I had said before, during the beginning of my Personal Project, I really had no idea of what my “final product” was going to be. I thought about the various forms that my project could take for the first few weeks. At my first meeting with my supervisor, Ms. Matani, I told her that I was going to write a huge historical research paper on the Bangladeshi Movement. But, as our meeting went on, my supervisor and I began to think that writing a paper would be the best way to go for my Personal Project. She gave me the idea of creating a website, but at the time, I really didn’t know how to make one and wasn’t sure if that was really something to consider. I mean, there was a lot of history to deal with in the first place! At first I thought of just sticking with writing a paper even though it wasn’t the best idea for me, but as my project progressed, I started to believe that creating a website was the best option for me. Making a website would be much less stressful because it would be an easier way and a much more interactive way of educating my community about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence.
At first, Ms. Matani told me to use http://www.webs.com/ to create the website. So I made an account on that site and attempted to begin my project. It didn’t go very well. I didn’t know anything on creating a website and barely knew how to add photos, information and etc. I tried and tried doing as much as I could on the website, but it just wasn’t suiting me because I really didn’t get to add things on the website “my way”. If I posted a photo online, it would either be too large to see or get cut off. There didn’t seem to be a way to crop the photos and the whole process was just complicated. Everything was just a mess at first and from that point on; I began to give up on creating a website until I searched on Google and found out a new site that allows you to create a free website. This website was called http://www.weebly.com/. I created an account on this site hoping that this would be an answer to my problems and just started to play around with the website. I then started to realize that this was the only site that actually allowed me to do it “my way” and I just loved it! It was so much better than webs.com because I was successfully able to post numerous photos and include sufficient information regarding the Bangladeshi Movement and the Fight for Independence without any hassle or confusion. The way everything was set up made life so much easier for me. On the top of my homepage, I added many tabs which were dedicated to a different concept. My first tab was obviously the homepage. The next few tabs consisted of a gallery, my grandfather’s interview, the inspiring speech that was given by our founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a historical timeline, a book recommendations page, and a blog. There were a total of seven homepage tabs. My URL is http://www.tahmidsdesh.weebly.com and this website is my final product.
Analysis of the Research Findings
When we had to write our first research summary, my guiding question was “What exactly ignited the East Bengal and West Bengal region to break into the liberation war after the Shaheed Minar incident in 1952?” My initial answer to that GQ was that due to political exclusion, ethnic and linguistic discrimination, and economic neglect by the politically-dominant West Pakistanis, popular agitation grew against West Pakistan and it led to the Liberation War of 1971. Not only was my answer unclear and extraneous, but my guiding question and research itself consisted of many flaws. In my question I mistakenly wrote East Bengal and West Bengal when it clearly should’ve been East Pakistan and West Pakistan. You see, up until 1947, countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan did not exist because they were all essentially part of India. During that year, India was split into East Bengal with its capital of Dhaka and West Bengal with its capital of Calcutta. This partition occurred due to the long-lasting conflicts between Hindus and Muslims. The western region consisted of the Hindu population whereas the eastern region contained the Muslim population. Not much later, East Bengal was split into East Pakistan and West Pakistan, where both of the regions lay more than 1000 miles apart. That was where the confusion came for me in the beginning.
As my project progressed, I began to tweak my guiding question even more to an extent that is was much more straight forward and clear. As a result, I would also have to change my initial answer so that it would be less elongated. After conversing with my supervisor, I changed my GQ to, “What were the significant events that led to the Liberation of 1971?” Through much of my research, I was able to come up with a legitimate answer to this extensive question. Basically, what I derived from my research was that the war broke out on March 26, 1971 as army units, directed by West Pakistanis, launched a military operation in East Pakistan against Bengali civilians, students, intellectuals, armed personnel, and many others who were demanding separation of the East from West Pakistan. This was known as Operation Searchlight. Rising political discontent and cultural nationalism in East Pakistan were encountered by brutally subduing forces from the ruling elite of West Pakistani soldiers. (Nabi 435) West Pakistani President, Agha Mohammed Yahya, who was believed to be behind all of this brutality towards East Pakistanis, ordered the Pakistani Military to restore the Pakistani government’s authority, thus beginning the Liberation War.
From 1952 through 1971, there were several key events that sparked violent outrage between the East and West during the Liberation Movement. After the declaration of Urdu as the new national language during the early 1950s, violent riots broke out. On February 21, 1952, a day during the Language Movement, the police shot and killed several students at a demonstration in Dhaka (Orr 51). Though the government agreed to declare Urdu and Bangla as equal official languages, the conflict between the East and the West gained momentum with the 1954 General Election and then the Education Movement of 1962. During the 1954 General Election, the United Front won most of the seats in the East Bengal Legislative Assembly. These elections definitely changed the structure of party politics in Pakistan. “Political parties were organized along the lines of basic regional cleavages in Pakistani society, and efforts to establish a coherent national political leadership and national political symbols progressively diminished and became ineffectual. (Sisson & Rose 12)
Later on, the Liberation Movement finally shifted into high gear with the launch of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Six-Point Movement for autonomy in 1966. The keystones of these points demonstrated the theme of autonomy. Rahman proclaimed three essential concepts that revealed how to create and maintain a free state. The first few concepts of his six-points involved law. It stated that the federal government should deal with only two subjects: Defense and Foreign Affairs. It also stated that the constitution should provide for a Federation of Pakistan in its true sense based on the Lahore Resolution and parliamentary form of government with supremacy of a Legislature directly elected on the basis of universal adult franchise.
The next few concepts in his six-points involved economy. From my perception, there was a demand for a “free flowing” currency and a set plan for enforcing the trade plan. It stated that there shall be two separate currencies mutually or freely convertible in each wing for each region.Furthermore, a separate Banking Reserve should be established and separate fiscal and monetary policy be adopted for East Pakistan.The power of taxation and revenue collection should be vested in the federating units and the federal center would have no such power. The federation would be entitled to a share in the state taxes to meet its expenditures. The main idea of this economic concept was that the constitution needed to empower the units to establish trade links with foreign countries.
The final concept in which Sheikh Mujib presented in his 6-points involved the military. He stated that East Pakistan should have a separate militia or paramilitary force.He also stated that until this land (Bangladesh) has been freed, no taxes will be paid to the government any more.
In retaliation, Pakistani military rulers accused Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of treason and put him behind bars. This trial was known as the Agortola Conspiracy Case. Pakistan's actions were responded to with a tremendous student protest in 1968 that reached every stretch of Bengal. The events lead to the people's uprising in 1969, manifested by the Students 11-Point Movement against Pakistani military rule, which raged the West Pakistanis even more. Then, it all started after the Formal Declaration of Independence of Bangladesh by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on March 7, 1971.
By the time Pakistani forces eventually surrendered on December 16, 1971, India had taken numerous prisoners and gained control of a large area of East Pakistan, which is now known as Bangladesh. Lt. Gen A.A.K. Niazi, Commander of Pakistani Army forces located in East Pakistan signed the Instrument of Surrender. At the time of surrender, only a few countries had provided diplomatic recognition to the new nation. Over 90,000 Pakistani troops surrendered to the Indian forces making it the largest surrender since World War II. Yahya Khan’s dictatorship collapsed and gave way to Bhutto (Pakistan’s prime minister) who took the opportunity to rise to power. General Niazi, who surrendered along with 93,000 troops, was viewed with suspicion and hatred upon his return to Pakistan. He was shunned and branded a traitor. The war also exposed the shortcomings of Pakistan’s declared strategic doctrine that the “defense of East Pakistan lay in West Pakistan.” (Orr 61)
These pieces of evidence were able to prove my initial answer to my guiding question because all of this information presents a clear explanation of what exactly the significant events were of which led to the Liberation War. I was able to break down the extensive history into the form a “small timeline” so that I would clearly be able to analyze the chain reaction of events which ultimately ignited the Liberation War of 1971. This would give me a clear understanding of the historical events in a more chronological order.
Analysis Conclusion
My Personal Project deals with the AOI’s of Human Ingenuity and Community and Service. These areas of interaction have definitely been involved in every aspect of my project and served as a backbone for the progression of my project and the project itself.
What I had learned about Human Ingenuity it gave me the opportunity to explore my research in multiple ways, and helped me consider their impact on society and the mind. Learning about the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence not only did help me to explore the events that ignited the Liberation War of 1971 but helped me explore as well as the long struggles faced among the East and West Pakistanis but also help me realize the effects that it had on today’s society. The connection between this AOI and my topic is that it will generate me a vivid image of the great cultural and historical movements, but also involved showing me how the human need for changes in the society have shaped today’s reality in Bangladesh. My project could have gone in different directions but I chose Human Ingenuity because I did in fact create something, while my project and my guiding question revolved around it.
What I had learned about Community and Service was that it helps people develop the skills needed to make a worthy contribution in society because doing this project was a learning experience for me as well as my BSGE community. A big part of this Area of Interaction deals with self-development and exploration. This area of Area of Interaction required me to orally present all that I have learned about my topic through the actual process. It gave me the confidence to speak in front of an audience even though it was one of the many weaknesses I had addressed. Throughout my project, I have discovered that Community and Service also enabled me to develop an awareness of the world around me and a respect for different cultures’ history. With this AOI, I believe I have grown socially to an extent because I am able to communicate to my community through history and this would definitely give me and my peers the knowledge necessary to expand on what we know and what we don’t know. In this case, it was my duty to educate my community on Bangladesh’s brief history and their fight for independence.
From the moment I decided that I was going to base my project on the Bangladeshi Movement and Fight for Independence up until now, where I am finishing up my project, I believe that I have grown a lot from the experience due to the fact that it has opened my eyes to studying my country’s history. After completing my project, I realized that my project research helped me fully answer my guiding question by breaking down a long period of time into tiny chronological events. Now, incorporating these events into a thorough explanation on my website gave the project a more personal touch than something like a PowerPoint presentation or historical research paper. Because of this project, I was able to deepen my knowledge on Bangladesh’s history and the negative as well as positive influence the Liberation War had.
Working with my Grandfather throughout this entire process, I was only able to generate a “one-sided” view of the situation that held Bangladesh 41 years ago. Since he was a freedom fighter during the war, he as well as millions of Bengalis obviously had“distaste” towards the West Pakistanis for their brutal actions. This of course “rubbed off” on me and I also started to develop this form of anger toward West Pakistanis who participated in that Liberation War. Though I tried to stay neutral with my opinions and my information, it was pretty difficult mainly because everything I had researched came from a one-sided perspective.
List of Works Cited
1. Bangladesh at a Glance. Dhaka: Department of Films and Publications Ministry of Information Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2003. Print.
I found this book very visually helpful because it provided a lot of rare images of Bangladeshi History.
2. "Create a Free Website." Weebly.com. Web. 26 Mar. 2012. <http://www.weebly.com/>.
Without this website, I wouldn't have been able to create my own personal website regarding the topic of the Bangladeshi Movement and the Fight for Independence. This website was very useful in terms of creating my final product.
3. Islam, Mohammed Tajul. "Freedom Fighter Interview." Personal interview. 2 Feb. 2012.
This interview was an essential part of my Personal Project's progression because it gave me an opportunity to actually conduct a questionnaire to someone who was contributor to the Liberation War. This interview definitely gave me a "one-sided" perspective on this topic.
4. Nabī, Nūruna. Bullets of '71: A Freedom Fighter's Story. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2010. Print.This book was very useful to me because not only was it informative but it was also a primar text that I could rely on for opiniated views.
5. Orr, Tamra. Bangladesh. New York: Children’s, 2007. Print.
This book, though it was a children’s book really gave me all of the basic information I needed to help me get started on my project.
6. Robb, Peter. A History of India. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave, 2002. Print.
This book did help me very little in researching about the partition of the Indian regions in the late 1940s.
7. Sisson, Richard, and Leo E. Rose. War and Secession: Pakistan, India, and the Creation of Bangladesh. Berkeley: University of California, 1990. Print.
This book provided me a brief history on how Bangladesh emerged into what it is now today.
8. Talbot, Ian. Inventing the Nation India & Pakistan. Madison Avenue, NY: Arnold 2000 Print.
This source was very helpful for me in terms of finding the pre and post events that had occurred after the Liberation War.
9. “Virtual Bangladesh: History.” Reading.Welcome to Virtual Bangladesh. Virtual Bangladesh. Web. 08 Dec. 2011 http://virtualbangladesh.com/history/index.html.
This website was very interactive and very factual! I really found this site helpful because it provided me with many statistical information.
10. Yunus, Mohammed, and Aradhana Parmar. South Asia: A Historical Narrative. Oxford [u.a.: Oxford Univ., 2007. Print.
This book honestly did not help me as much but it did provide me a historical background of the Southeastern Asian subcontinent.