The then East Pakistanis were always taken by the bureaucrats in the central government of Pakistan in Rawalpindi as more Akhand Bharatis then Pakistanis although there were many famous Bengalis who were in the forefront of the Ladkay Lengay Pakistan movement. The spell of Pakistan could not have a long lasting effect on us and it evaporated entirely when it was declared by Mr. Jinnah that Urdu will be the state language of Pakistan. Our secular attitude came very heavy on us in 1971 when the Pakistani military was directed by Gen Tikka Khan that they were serving the cause of Islam by Killing the Bengalis who are basically Hindus. The partition of India was a momentous event in the modern history the legacy of which is still soaked with blood and pain. From antiquity India was homogenous land stretching from the Khyber to Akyab, from the mighty Himalayas to the Indian Ocean for thousands of years. The myth of Hindu Muslim rivalry was deliberately created to feed the frenzy of religious passion which did not serve anyone. In the recorded history there are 73 communal riots is mentioned till 1946 and much of them were not related to politics. The animosity some people take as a valid ground for the partition in 1947 was based on very flimsy ground. The tendency to be on each others throat was created to maintain and support Mr. Jinnah’s infamous Two Nation Theory. But the myth is breaking down now. May people who once called us as traitors now ask if the partition was a blunder? 

Akbar Hussain