Radio War Nerd EP 282 — 1971 Bangladesh Genocide, Part I, with The Fakir

Guest: The Fakir Recorded: May 29, 2021 This is the 50th anniversary of the forgotten genocide in Bangladesh in 1971 , carried out by the US-backed dictator of Pakistan to crush Bangladesh's popular democratic autonomy movement back when Bangladesh was a province of Pakistan known as "East Pakistan." Previous RWN guest "The Fakir" joins us to walk us through the political background of West Pakistan vs East Pakistan: the Partition, Pakistan's suppression of Bengali language, the impact of the global 1968 student movement on Pakistani politics, and the rise of three key players in the events of 1971: Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Yahya Khan, and the leader of Bangladesh's independence movement, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. We end this episode with Operation Searchlight, the start of the genocide and ethnic cleansing in the spring of 1971. Listen to The Fakir's two-part series on the Rise & Fall of the Maratha Empire: RWN EP #220, EP #224. Books: 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh, by Srinath Raghavan The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and the Forgotten Genocide, by Gary Bass "The Prophet's Hair" by Salman Rushdie * * * Interlude music by Brendon Anderegg. Check out his group Mountains here. Buy John Dolan's book "The War Nerd Iliad" and his audiobook "Pleasant Hell". Check out the new Radio War Nerd Merch store here! Total time: 1:35:22 Direct link to this episode's mp3 here