1971 Bangladesh Liberation War: Decisive Victory India Ever Achieved

The heroic acts of bravery and valour Of Indian soldiers in 1971 war have no parallel in history. The military confrontation between India and Pakistan that occurred during the Bangladesh Liberation War in East Pakistan from 3 December 1971 to the fall of Dacca on 16 December 1971 (3 Dec 1971 – 16 Dec) is finest example of cohesive war fighting. It is the only war that saw all three wings of the Indian defense — the Army, Navy and Air Force — fighting together in multiple theaters.

It was 50 years ago on this day that India pulled off the biggest and most decisive military win it has ever achieved. On this day (16 December 1971) more than 93,000 Pakistani military and government officials, led by Lt Gen. A.A.K. Niazi, commander of East Pakistan, surrendered before the Indian Army, ending the war that ended in less than two weeks. This was the largest surrender by an army since World War II, and led to the division of Pakistan and the creation of a new country, Bangladesh.

For the first time, 1971 war saw the political class, the Army, Air Force, Navy, intelligence agencies as well as paramilitary forces come together to pull off a victory that caught the world by surprise.

Now, 50 years later, today India is doing the theaterization of its military. By all accounts, the 1971 war was India’s greatest feat of arms, and ranks high among the all-time great military campaigns in the annals of history. By design or default, there was a clear politico-military strategic aim, political-diplomatic-military conditions were shaped over 10 months, and the coup de grace was dealt within 15 days through a lightning operational-level military campaign to create a new nation.

It is to be noted that 1971 was the culmination of nine years of military tough preparations , leadership, training and equipment after the catastrophic defeat in the 1962 Indo-China War. The hard lessons of 1965 War were learnt and imbibed. Military reforms were carried out with optimum defence budget allocation.

Undoubtedly, the decisive victory could not have been possible without the brilliance and hard work of the all our soldiers . It was a Cold War international order wedded to the Westphalian model of nation-states. The Chinese threat and American support for Pakistan needed to be counterbalanced. The military had to make preparations for a three-front war — West and East Pakistan, and China. It was, indeed, as decisive military combat fought with extreme bravery and valour,

It is ironic that controversies still center around the share of credit for the victory. The then Congress govt lead by Mrs. Indira Gandhi was the inspirational force behind the victory but real credit goes to our soldiers who fought the war and sacrificed their lives for the pride of the nation. As many as 471 Indian soldiers were killed and 1450 wounded in the war.

The worst part of this nine-month-long Bangladesh Liberation War, was that Pakistan Armed Forces and supporting pro-Pakistani Islamist militias from Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami killed between 200,000 and 3,000,000 people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women. Its also unparalleled in history.

It is also ironic that there still no authentic government and military documents on the 1971 war. An “unofficial history” was published in 2014 by Dr S.N. Prasad and U.P. Thapliyal, retired officials of the history division of the Ministry of Defence. This history is based only on limited declassified documents and is merely a chronological record of events and not their critical analysis of the theory of war.

(Chander Sharma)