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Ayub Khan hated 'crooked' Bengalis

Ayub Khan hated 'crooked' Bengalis

Author:
Publication: New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Date: June 24, 2007
URL: http://www.newagebd.com/2007/jun/24/front.html#7

Pakistan's military dictator Ayub Khan loathed 'crooked' Bengalis who 'have no stomach for self-criticism' and broadsided them for reverting to 'Hindu language and culture'.

His statement, which also includes Muslim Bengalis having 'no culture and language of their own', came to the public domain after his diaries recently hit the stands in Pakistan and immediately kicked up controversy.

Titled 'Dairies of Field Marshall Mohammad Ayub Khan: 1966-72', the book has come under huge criticism for its views on the 1971 war, where he finds fault with everyone -the 'crooked' Bangladeshis, the 'devious' Indians and the 'unreliable' Americans.

Ayub Khan kept his diary from September 1966 to October 1972, a very active period in Pakistan's history.

It included his yielding of the presidency to Yahya Khan and the period of Yahya's rule that saw the end of the unified state of Pakistan with the independence of Bangladesh, and also Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto replacing Yahya.

In his diaries, Ayub Khan shows no understanding of Bangladeshi pride in the country's linguistic and cultural heritage.

He writes, 'When thinking of the problems of East Pakistan, one cannot help feeling that their (Muslim Bengalis') urge to isolate themselves from West Pakistan and revert to Hindu language and culture is close to the fact that they have no culture and language of their own, nor have they been able to assimilate the culture of the Muslims of the sub-continent, by turning their back on Urdu.

'Further, by doing so they have forced two state languages on Pakistan. This has been a great tragedy for them and the rest of Pakistan. They lack literature on the philosophy of Islam.'

His tirade against the Bengalis did not end here. Writing on his dealings with the Bengalis in the erstwhile East Pakistan, he notes, 'We must get East Pakistan ministers to examine if there is any practical solution. I doubt this will bear any fruit as the Bengalis have no stomach for self-criticism nor for listening to the truth about themselves.

'People who do not have these qualities cannot recognise their maladies, let alone cure them.'

Ayub Khan's 'Diaries' is slowly snowballing into a major controversy with historians, academics and former diplomats condemning the publishing of the book.

It has been withheld from publication for the past 30 years because of an introductory note where Ayub Khan stated that the diary must be withheld from publication for an unspecified time as his comments may contain sensitive material.

G Pathasarathy, India's former ambassador to Pakistan, says the 'Diaries' show 'Pakistan's rulers never felt any remorse for the genocide of Bangladeshis they committed prior to and during 1971'.

'Also, one cannot help noting how an opinionated military ruler, supremely confident of his abilities and contemptuous of democratic institutions, never understood the Bangladeshi pride and rich cultural lineage,' Parthasarathy told the news agency.

S Sajad Haider, a retired commodore of the Pakistan Air Force, says that 'what stands out in some excerpts is Ayub Khan's contempt for and denigration of every single one of his former colleagues who turned hostile to his despotic and dishonest policies and rebelled after perceptive deliberation'.

The book makes several references to the Hindu character and the Bengali outlook.

'I am surprised at the Bengali outlook. It does not conform to any rational yardstick. They were exploited by the caste Hindus, the Muslim rulers and even the British.

'It was at the advent of Pakistan that they got the blessing of freedom and equality of status and a real voice in running of their government...Any normal people should have recognised and rejoiced at this blessing…'

'But they and their politicians and so-called intelligentsia show no realisation of this...In addition, they have cut themselves off from Muslim culture and thought through abhorrence of the Urdu language in which it is expressed, thus making themselves vulnerable to Hindu culture,' Ayub Khan wrote in his diaries.

Other targets include General Azam Khan, the most successful governor of former East Pakistan. He was sacked because his popularity among the Bengalis for securing their rights, which was construed as a threat to Ayub's power.


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