History of East Pakistan
aspect of history
The history of East Bengal and East Pakistan from 1947 to 1971 covers the period of Bangladesh's history from its incorporation into Pakistan following the end of British colonial rule in 1947 to its independence from Pakistan in 1971.
1947–56: dominion era
Post-partition difficulties
East Pakistan was the lone province in Pakistan where most of the Hindu minority was concentrated, where they constituted 25% of the population. 12 out of the 14 Hindu members of Pakistan's Constituent Assembly came from East Bengal. However, the 1950 East Bengal riots, often classified as a genocide, & the deliberate inactions of the new Governor General Khwaja Nazimuddin & Chief Minister Nurul Amin in quelling the riots, caused most of the Hindus of East Pakistan to migrate to India. The deadly anti-Hindu violence caused all 34 Hindu members of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly & 12 Hindu members of the Constituent Assembly to abandon their positions & migrate to India, with notable figures like Jogendranath Mandal, the Law Minister appointed by Jinnah, being among them. A peasant revolt also occurred in Rajshahi but was quickly suppressed.
Bengali language movement
One of the most divisive issues confronting Pakistan in its infancy was the question of what the official language of the new state was to be. Muhammad Ali Jinnah yielded to the demands of refugees from the Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who insisted that Urdu be Pakistan's official language, as the language's central role in assertion of Muslim identity had been solidified since the Hindi-Urdu controversy. Speakers of the languages of West Pakistan (Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, and Baluchi) were upset that their languages were given second-class status. In East Pakistan, the dissatisfaction quickly turned to violence.
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