1971: The Birth of Bangladesh

The tensions within Pakistan came to a head in 1970–71. In the December 1970 election, the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and demanding autonomy for East Pakistan, won 160 of the 162 general seats in the East and an overall majority in the national assembly. West Pakistani leaders delayed the assembly, and on 25 March 1971 the army launched a crackdown in East Pakistan. Independence was declared on 26 March, and a guerrilla war followed.

The army's campaign killed very large numbers of civilians, with estimates ranging from several hundred thousand to three million, and about ten million refugees fled to India. In December 1971 India intervened, and Pakistani forces in the East surrendered in Dhaka on 16 December. Bangladesh became independent. Its birth showed that a state created by decolonization could itself break apart, and that shared religion alone could not hold together regions divided by language, distance and political exclusion.