Fifty years on, Bangladesh and India recall the War of Liberation that forged an unbreakable friendship.

Despite several months delay due to covid restrictions, the Embassy of Bangladesh in Brussels has been marking the fiftieth anniversary of the country’s independence. Freedom was only achieved in 1971 after many months of bitter fighting, which included genocidal massacres committed by the Pakistani army and eventually saw India’s military intervention in support of Bangladesh’s liberation.

It is a friendship of two peoples who in the words of Bangladesh’s ambassador, Mahbub Hassan Saleh, are different in geography but united in history. “Our passports are different but our hearts are the same”, he told a joint celebration with the Indian Embassy of their nations’ Friendship Day.

India’s ambassador, Santosh Jha, spoke of their shared history, culture and vibrant people to people ties but also that it was a relationship forged in blood. “It was India’s honour to be part of this moral struggle”, he said.

During more than nine months of conflict, three million Bangladeshis lost their lives and over ten million fled their homes. The country went from peaceful demands for autonomy to a war of liberation in the face of an implacable opposition to Bengali identity from Pakistan’s rulers.

They believed that the people of what was then East Pakistan should be dominated by the less populous West Pakistan. This economic and cultural supremacy was even intended to extend to the replacement of the Bengali language by Urdu.

After an overwhelming election victory in East Pakistan gave a parliamentary majority to the Bengali leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman , the military resolved to overturn the result by force. They launched Operation Searchlight, an invasion of the east, and abducted Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, flying him to the west.

The Bengalis resisted the occupation with all their might, despite the massive price in death and destruction. With Indian assistance, initially in the form of supplies but eventually direct military intervention, they liberated their country.

Although it was headline news around the world at the time, the Bangladesh War is rarely remembered in Europe today and its lessons for other conflicts are too often lost. It’s very different in Bangladesh and in India, where the fiftieth anniversary has been marked by a series of high level visits and events organised by the two governments.

At the joint celebration in Brussels, both the horrors of the struggle and its triumphant outcome were conveyed in dance by the Bangladeshi cultural troupe Dhriti Nartanalaya, led by Wanda Rihab. It as a touching way of bringing home to a largely European audience the extent of the suffering, the sheer determination of a people to be free and the lasting bonds of friendship that were forged.

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