BENGAL IN PAKISTAN
By HORACE ALEXANDER
ISUPPOSE 'most English people, when they think of Pakistan, picture a territory that formerly covered die north-western part of undivided India—in fact, Sind, Punjab and North-West Frontier. And that is quite a natural point of view. The word " Pakistan " itself contains letters standing for Punjab, Afghans (that is, the people of the North-West Frontier), Kashmir, Sind ; and (some say) Baluchistan is implied in the start or -ran at the end. All these are contiguous territories inhabited by a predominantly Muslim population. These were the territories claimed by the original inventors of " Pakstan " or " Pakistan." There was no " B " for Bengal.
Yet, when the separation actually took place in 1947, it- was based on the principle that Pakistan should have those territories in British India where the majority of the population was Muslim by faith ; consequently, in addition to most of the territory originally claimed, Pakistan also incorporated more than half Bengal, although this province is a thousand miles distant from western Pakistan. East Bengal is far more than a mere appendage ; it is no mere " island " or colony far separated from the mother-country. It contains within its borders a larger population than the whole of western Pakistan. From the point of view of trade its production of jute is Pakistan's most important single economic asset. Being entirely in the Ganges and Brahmaputra deltas, its country is well-watered and fertile, much less dependent on fickle rainfall than much of western Pakistan.
Some observers in 1947 doubted whether the two halves of
Pakistan could ever pull together. Not only the great geographical distance, but the profound differences of culture were noted. To a Muslim of Bengal his co-religionist from the Punjab, still more from the frontier, is a foreigner. There is no common language. The East Bengal Muslims are Bengali through and through. They tend to have very much the same view of life as their fellow Bengali Hindus. Their houses, their clothes, even their food, are commonly identical with those of their Hindu neighbours. So it has been argued that East Bengal would soon grow tired of its dependence on the remote Pakistan central government in Karachi. It would .soon reunite with West Bengal. Indeed, there was a movement in 5947, supported by both Hindu and Muslim leaders in Bengal, for a united Bengal, independent of both India and Pakistan. That movement, as far as I can judge, is dead today, unless perhaps in the minds of a few dreamers.
Whatever East Bengal may think of Karachi, its politically conscious elements are all united in the determination not to come back under Calcutta. It has to be recognised that, for many generations, the Hindus of Bengal have had the wealth, the brains, the culture; they have been the dominant element. Among the poor millions of the villages, Muslim and Hindu have lived side by side as brothers ; but among the Muslim middle-classes there has been widespread resentment at the continued domination of Hindu wealth and culture. For over ten years, under the Fazl-ul-Hug, Nazim-ud-din and Suhrawaxdy ministries in Calcutta—all three Muslim Premiers—that feeling has subsisted. In the past few years the struggle for power has been intense, as the Calcutta massacres, Dacca stabbing epidemics and 1946 Noakhali killings all showed. The Muslim League fought and won. The ancient capital of Dacca, which had become an unimportaht provincial town, is once again the seat of an important government. Islam is in control again. Almost all the Hindu officials, and there were many, have migrated to West Bengal. And although this has been a disaster for some of the services—a great majority of doctors and nurses went away— it gives the Muslim officials a chance to show what they can do.
Eighteen months is a very short time for establishing and re- directing the whole administration of a Province of over forty millions and clearing away the debris of the old. Yet the leaders of East Bengal are proud of what they have done. First and fore- most, they hold that their policy towards the Hindu minority has been good. It is true that over a million Hindus have left. On many days last year Hindus were reaching Calcutta from East Bengal by train at a pace of well over a thousand a day. But several millions remain. I asked a Hindu teacher in Dacca University why so many had left. "Chiefly from fear," he said ; " but also for economic reasons." Now both Bengal Governments are doing their utmost to check this one-way flow of refugees. It has nearly stopped. And those who remain seem to be reassured as to their safety. They may well be. For years before 5947 stabbings or shootings occurred in Dacca every month ; almost every week. Since August, 1947, it appears that there have been none. That is a remarkable record. In Calcutta you still hear stories of terror in East Bengal ; so, too, in East Bengal they tell you of the dreadful things the Hindus are doing to the Muslims in Calcutta—and if you murmur doubts they add: " But, of course, the Indian papers are not allowed to publish these things. We know they are happening." Happily, one need not believe either story ; and today I think there is a tendency even for refugee horror tales to become stale.
Economic relations cannot be easily adjusted. Jute is grown in East Bengal ; but the mills are in West Bengal. West Bengal is trying to grow more jute. East Bengal is trying to put up jute mills. But East Bengal cannot keep the jute traffic till the port of Chittagong is vastly improved. There is certainly good reason to develop the port ; nor need Calcutta suffer. But such changes will take years to complete. Meanwhile there is danger of friction. A customs union between the two countries has recently been discussed. I gathered that East Bengal would not like it. They think their province has been seriously neglected. Today they want a tariff wall behind which they can industrialise.
The temper of students often indicates the way the wind is blowing. I had an interesting experience in one of the Dacca colleges. Friendly references to India and especially to Gandhi were not resented. On the contrary, what really stirred them to enthusiasm (Muslims and Hindus were mixed together in a crowded lecture-room) was a passionate assertion from one of their own staff that Pakistan and India were quite able to manage their own affairs and to live at peace with one another. In Pakistan today there is a warm welcome for men and women from the west, technical experts, nurses, college professors and others, who are willing to help a new State to get on to its feet and to fight against poverty and disease and ignorance. The new Government will try to give such foreign helpers security and tolerable living conditions. But it seems that one condition is attached. Firmly but politely the leaders would say—echoed less politely by the younger generation—" If you will come and help us, please remember that we do not want'
ant Your advice about the direction of our political life, still less about our relations with India. Asia, today, is determined to manage her own affairs, and we suggest that Europeans and Americans have quite enough to do in settling their own problems without trying to tell us how to settle ours." That seems to be the voice of Pakistan today, no less than the voice of India.
What of Communism ? East Bengal is next to Burma, and near to China. The leaders say that, apart from a tribal area in the north- east, where there was some recent trouble which was labelled " Com- munist," there is little sign of Communist influence. The Communists seem to be inclined to " jump " East Bengal, and concentrate on Calcutta and the " bigger game " beyond. But, added my informants, the Government is on the alert, and will leave nothing to chance. Some of them add that in Islam there is neither high nor low, so that Communism does not readily find a foothold. In East Bengal, how- ever, there is still plenty of abject poverty. The brotherhood of the faithful no doubt signifies something still in religious and even in social life. In economic life it means little or nothing.
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