Political

The massacres of Bengali Hindus during the final phase of the genocide (1971), coinciding with the Bangladesh Liberation War, were referred to as ‘genocide’ by several key US and Indian political leaders and diplomats in private, as they happened. Several others took cognizance of the matter and did their best in their capacity to alleviate the great humanitarian crisis, but stopped short of terming the events as ‘genocide’. Till date no sovereign state officially recognizes the Bengali Hindu Genocide.

India’s official position during the Bangladesh Liberation War was that it was a ‘Bengali genocide’ and not a ‘Bengali Hindu genocide’. This meant that the Bengali-speaking people, both the Hindus and the Muslims and also others, were the victims of the genocide and not specifically the Bengali Hindus.

The Indian National Congress led by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was in power at the time. The ruling party was apprehensive that the admission of the fact that it was indeed a genocide of the Bengali Hindus, would lend more ammunition to the Hindu nationalist Jana Sangh which was in the opposition.

During a foreign tour in 1971 to gather support for the independence of Bangladesh, Indian External Affairs Minister Swaran Singh candidly told a group of Indian diplomats in London, “In India we have tried to cover that up, but we have no hesitation in stating the figure to foreigners.” Indian Ambassador to Moscow D. P. Dhar wrote, “We were doing our best not to allow this aspect of the matter to be publicised in India.“

Though India’s official position was that it was a Bengali genocide, the Indian state till date hasn’t formally recognized it as Bengali genocide.

United States had no official position with regards to ‘genocide’ during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Some diplomats privately acknowledged the Bengali Hindu genocide as it happened and a few politicians publicly acknowledged the genocide only recently. However, the United States hasn’t yet officially deliberated upon the genocide question to take a position on the matter.

While the final phase of the genocide was in progress in 1971, the US Consul General in East Pakistan Archer K. Blood wrote in a cable to the US State Department, “‘Genocide’ struck us as applying fully to the naked, calculated and widespread selection of Hindus for special treatment.” US Ambassador to India Kenneth Keating conveyed to the US President Richard Nixon and US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger over a telephonic conversation, “Now, he said they’re still coming at that time at 100,000 a day — the latest I heard was 150,000 a day — because they’re killing the Hindus…Now, having gotten control of the large centers, it is almost entirely a matter of genocide killing the Hindus.“

On the 50th anniversary of the beginning of Operation Searchlight, Member of the US House of Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee stated, “I rise in sad remembrance of the 50th anniversary of the Bengali Hindu Genocide, and celebrate and honor the lives of the more than two million Bengali Hindu persons who were systematically killed by the Pakistani Army…“

Another Member of the US House of Representatives Ro Khanna tweeted, “Today marks the 50th anniversary of the 1971 Bengali Hindu Genocide. Millions were killed or displaced in what was one of the most forgotten genocides of our time. I stand with the Bengali Hindu diaspora & human rights activists to ensure that we and the world never forget.“