6 - East Pakistan/Bangladesh 1971–1972: How Many Victims, Who, and Why?

Summary

The chapter disaggregates victim numbers during Bangladesh‘s war of independence in 1971 according to social groups. Based on findings from the secondary literature, medical studies, official Bangladeshi data, diplomatic and UN records, the chapter argues that overall 500,000 to one million lives were destroyed, less than often assumed. Violence was multi-polar (including killings by civilian crowds) and struck many groups in different ways, which blurred the line between armed formations and civilians, though members of the former were killed at higher rates. In absolute figures, rural dwellers (mostly dying from conflict-related famine) and Hindus were worst affected. In relative terms, certain armed formations (police and army units made up of Bengalis) were hardest hit. Killings struck urbanites at higher rates than villagers. Urban workers and pro-Bangladesh political activists bore an elevated risk of losing their life. In general, Pakistani massacres were widespread but data suggest that there was no attempt to exterminate the Bengali intelligentsia. Mass migration as a survival strategy was enormous; ten million civilians fled to India, mostly Hindus, and 16 or 17 million were internally displaced, mostly Muslims.