East Bengal War 1971 and Famine Abroad - Essay Example

East Bengal War 1971 Pakistan, one of the newly founded s of British India, has two culturally and linguistically distinct areas ly West Pakistan and East Bengal. East Bengal was later on named as East Pakistan. The central political power was concentrated in West Pakistan which eventually led to cultural and political oppression to East Pakistan. The people from East Pakistan felt oppressed and protested against the West which started the conflicts between the two areas. A political group led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, demanded autonomy of East Pakistan from the West.

This group named Amawi League won in the East Pakistan national election in 1970. The Western leader General Yahya Khan, in connection of the victory of Amawi League, ordered and said “Kill three million of them [East Pakistanis] and the rest will eat out of our hands,” as quoted by Ariana (2011) from Asia Times. West Pakistan ordered a genocide campaign on March 25, 1971 which included massive killing of East Bengal resistance group members and raping of Bengali women. Amawi League leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was also assassinated during the war.

In was on December 16, 1971 when East Pakistan won the war and declared independence from West Pakistan. East Bengal earned a new name, “Bangladesh” meaning “Country of Bengal”, and its own national language “Bengali” (Ariana, 2011).The Bengal Famine Under the British colony in Bengal, the land had 30 to 40 famines and the last of the big famine happened between 1942 and 1945. In a span of three years, almost four million had died due to famine in Bengal. Bengal was once the most fertile land in Ganges delta and was the granary of India before Great Britain occupied the land.

The British was prosecuted for the organized and intentional genocide (Chawla, 2005). According to Anil Chawla (2005), “The ghastly genocide, which used hunger and starvation as tools, lasted for about eighteen decades and was carried out in Bengal, India (at present Bengal is partly in India and partly in Bangladesh) by the British colonial masters claiming about thirty million victims.” Amartya Sen, a Nobel laureate, claimed that famine death of the people in Bengal was not caused by extreme fall of food production but because of the British policies (Chawla, 2005).

Famine in Somalia Because of the drought that hit Somalia, millions of people are at risk of dying because of hunger. The drought struck in the summer of year 2011 causing thousands of Somalis dead because of malnutrition. The United Nations declared a famine and called for the international community to help aid millions of Somalis who immediately need help (Hicks, n.d.). Parts of Somalia are controlled by militant Islamic group known as Al Shabab. This group made it harder for the aid groups to bring help to the Somalis.

Al Shabab restricted any help to the people in Somalia making it almost impossible for the aid organizations to provide assistance to them. These parts of Somalia are considered “no go” zones thus making them inaccessible for the international groups who want to render help. Thus, Somalis themselves fled to other parts of Africa to escape death (Hicks, n.d.).Reference:Ariana, Deea. “Struggle for an independent Bangladesh: How the 1971 liberation war changed a nation.”Perspectives. The Mount Holyoke News, 17 February 2011. Web. 2 November 2011.

Chawla, Anil. The Great Holocaust of Bengal, (2005). Web. 1 November 2011.Hicks, Tyler. ”East African Famine 2011 (Somalia).” Times Topics. The New York Times, n.d. Web. 2 November 2011.