Negotiating Nationhood: Constitutional Warfare, International Law, and the Birth of Bangladesh
Keywords:
Government in Exile (GIE), Bangladesh independence, 1971, constitutional warfare, legalism, international law, sovereignty, territoriality, self-determination,Abstract
This paper argues the Government in Exile (GIE), the first government of independent Bangladesh, played an important role in framing the founding moment in legal terms. The GIE's constitutional warfare through its adherence to legalism, and subsequent internationalization of the conflict significantly shaped the independence movement of 1971. The GIE was composed of leaders who were lawyers, economists and other intellectuals who sought refuge in neighboring India. The agency of the founders and their allegiance to constitutional principles catalyzed the founding moment, oversaw the transition to an independent state and ultimately led to a swift adoption of a constitution that endures despite much instability. This national struggle of 1971 also played out in the international arena. In the process, lawyers from the so-called Third World articulated, reshaped, and generated new debates about international legal principles such as sovereignty, territoriality, and self-determination (and criterion for legitimacy of exiled governments)—most of which were considered to be well-settled at the time.
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This movement had a profound impact on politics and society in East Pakistan. Its aftermath for the next decade witnessed Bengali cultural revivalism as the state policies began to target Bengali culture to rid it of Indian/Hindu influence. Some examples include bans on songs by Tagore and the use of the Bindi or vermillion as a Hindu symbol. See Hossain, Bangladesh, 9.
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Many overseas associations had been established to aid the cause of the war. For example, the Bangladesh Association in the UK and the East Pakistan League in USA were particularly active in international advocacy and fundraising for the Bangladesh cause, efforts that sustained the GIE activities. See generally Kabir and Rahman, Documents of Bangladesh Liberation War, vol. 4.
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Indian army official account at the conference observed that there were rifts between leaders and some of the delegates, many did not understand the gravity of the situation. It also stressed the need for effective organization of government. Rahman (ed.), 1971, 119.
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Ibid.
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Ibid., 511.
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Quadir, Independence of Bangladesh in 266 Days, 62.
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Quadir, Independence of Bangladesh in 266 Days, 232.
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Ibid., 165–77.
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Ibid., 225–26, 300.
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Ibid., 225.
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Ibid.
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Gary J. Bass, The Blood Telegram (India: Random House, 2013), 196; July 12, 1971, The Times of India, New Delhi.
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Sobhan, Untranquil Recollections.
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Bass, The Blood Telegram, 171.
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National Archives, Nixon Presidential Materials, NSC Files, Box 849, President's File—China Trip, China Exchanges. Top Secret; Sensitive; Exclusively Eyes Only; https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v17/d176.
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Sobhan, Untranquil Recollections, 386–87.
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Sarah B. Snyder, “‘A Call for US Leadership’: Congressional Activism on Human Rights,” Diplomatic History 37, no. 2 (2013): 372–97.
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The only available account of these events comes from Nierenberg's Negotiation Institute Website at http://www.negotiation.com/negotiating-independence-bangladesh/. However, Gary Bass's archival work confirms the Nixon administration was warned by the State Department about the illegalities of supplying weapons to Pakistan due to congressional embargo. There was internal discord within the administration, and these were routinely over ruled in Oval Office meetings. See generally, Bass, The Blood Telegram.
124
Bass, The Blood Telegram, 152.
125
Kabir and Rahman, Documents of Bangladesh Liberation War, vol. 6, 512.
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Ved P. Nanda, “A Critique of the United Nations Inaction in the Bangladesh Crisis,” Denv. L.J. 49 (1972): 53, 57.
127
Resolution 303 (1971)/[adopted by the Security Council at its 1608th meeting], of December 6, 1971.
128
129
John Salzberg, “UN Prevention of Human Rights Violations: The Bangladesh Case,” International Organization 27, no. 1 (1973): 116–27.
130
Raghavan, 1971, 226–31.
131
Hasan, Muldhara 71, 206.
132
Ibid.
133
Provisional Constitutional Order 1972.
134
Karim, Sheikh Mujib, 387–88.
135
Ibid.
136
Rounaq Jahan, “Bangabandhu and After: Conflict and Change in Bangladesh,” The Round Table 66, no. 261 (1976): 73–84.
137
Syed Badrul Ahsan, “Bangladesh at 50: Coups, Assassinations and Democratic Struggle,” Asian Affairs 52, no. 3 (2021): 554–62.
138
For general accounts, see Islam, Muktijudhdher Smriti; Quadir, Independence of Bangladesh in 266 Days; and for specific reference see Sobhan, Untranquil Recollections, 402.
139
A point amply reinforced in the ICJ Report: 1972, 76.
140
James Crawford, The Creation of States in International Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 711.
141
Islam, Muktijudhdher Smriti, 32.
