“Over 50 years ago, news came that the endless stream of refugees coming from East Pakistan was swelling by the day and was taking the shape of an exodus. I packed my bags and arrived in Calcutta by the morning flight and drove down straight to Jessore Khulna Road, leading to the border of what is now called Bangladesh,” photographer Raghu Rai writes in a text for the publication entitled Bangladesh: Rise of a Nation.
Rai, now a member of Magnum Photos, did not start out to be a photographer. In the early 1960s, he was originally a qualified civil engineer, working for the Indian Government in Punjab. But after one year and a half, he quit his job and moved to Delhi to stay with his brother, the Chief Photographer at the Indian Express. When he accompanied his brother on an assignment, for which his brother lent Rai a camera and some general lessons on how to use it, he came back with some good photographs. His brother sent one to The Times in London, who ran it, and Raghu Rai started to pursue photography.
“Within a few months wandering around in the streets and a set of good photographs got me a job with The Statesman, one of the leading newspapers in Pakistan,” tells Rai. “By 1966 I became Chief Photographer competing with my elder brother and another well-known photographer, Kishore Parekh.”
The causes of the Bangladesh War of Independence goes back to when India and Pakistan partitioned in 1947. Pakistan was separated into two parts: Pakistan and East Pakistan on the other side of India, now Bangladesh. Following years of economic and social tensions between the two halves of the country, and rising Bengali Nationalism in East Pakistan, the Pakistan military initiated Operation Searchlight on March 25, 1971, trying to eliminate the Bengali nationalists in East Pakistan. The Pakistan soldiers tried to systematically eliminate nationalists, Bengali civilians, students, religious minorities, educated people, and military personnel. They also supported armed militias who terrorized the populace, while rape and mass murder against Bengali became common place.
The Bengali fought back, liberating towns and villages as they went, and eventually drove back the Pakistani forces. When India joined the war in December of 1971, after Pakistani forces preemptively attacked the nation, the Pakistani forces were overwhelmed. Drawn into a fight on two fronts, and unable to continue, Pakistan surrendered on December 16, 1971.
But the costs of this conflict were astronomical. Estimates by the Bangladesh High Commission in London calculate that around 3 million people were killed in the 9 months of war. Nearly 10 million more became refugees, while another 30 million were internally displaced.
When Bengali refugees began streaming into India to escape the Pakistan Army’s atrocities, The Statesman sent Rai to the border to cover these events. “It was in August, the monsoon was in full swing, when thousands of refugees were crossing over the border,” Rai explains. “In fact, when India and Pakistan were partitioned I was merely 5 years old and we had to flee from Pakistan into India. I could see myself as a small boy walking with these Bengali refugees – drenched and tired, and there was no end to it.”
Raghu Rai went to Bangaon, a small village along the border on the Indian side. The town was too small to accommodate all the refugees who came across, with not enough food, clothing, and shelter for them. Some were forced to live in sewer pipes till refugee camps could be set up.
Rai writes in the book’s text: “The emotional fallout was overwhelmingly painful. An old woman looked up as I went to photograph her; her eyes were stoned by the tragedy she had been through. A child in need of food shrieked, his eyes held a flood of tears. A young woman, probably raped, lay next to her pots and pans, her agonized eyes did not blink any more. The expression haunted me for days. Back home, a few days later, I was sitting with my three-year-old son, looking at these images, with a painful expression on his face. He asked, ‘Why?’ But this was just the beginning of a holocaust being inflicted on the natives of Sonar Bangla (Golden Bengal).”
Raghu Rai’s photographs had an effect on what was going on. Being seen internationally led to an awareness of the full scope of the crisis on the border. “We are not social reformers but truthful informers – the pain and deluge of suffering is to be shared as a news man. Back then, in 1971, I traveled around the world’s capitals with 70 images of the events, 25 of which were about the plight and suffering of the refugees. Major stories in Le Monde, Le Figaro, Die Zeit or The Washington Post informed of how India was being burdened with 10 million refugees.”
The effects of the Bangladesh War for Independence is still being felt today. The current unrest in Bangladesh stems from the aftershocks of the war. The government job quotas are one of the root causes of mass student protests in Bangladesh, and were originally created to make sure that those who fought in the war, plus their children and grandchildren, would get solid employment. This system was put in place by the government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of last prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed, who resigned on August 5, 2024.
As the recent protests turn deadly, with dozens killed, combined with the arrests of party leaders, activists and students, the government of Bangladesh has moved to cut internet access in some areas, and close the rail system to stop the movement of people.
The country is once again falling into a black hole of information, where word of what is going on becomes harder to get out of the country. In light of these events, the photographs and news reports that do get out seem important to tell, and they raise awareness of the history of a country that is too often overlooked. “History repeats itself,” says Raghu Rai. “Centuries after centuries, men remain cruel and ruthless creatures when it comes to territorial considerations. In the name of patriotism, the devil wakes up ready to kill. The Ten Commandments or the sermons from Geeta or Quran are stories to be thrown at each Pulitzer or Nobel Prize winner. But we certainly remain loving people.”
Bangladesh: Rise of a Nation is published by the Durjoy Bangladesh Foundation and the Raghu Rai Foundation. More information on the book can be found here, while information about the exhibition of the photographs can be found here.
More of Raghu Rai’s work can be found on the website of Magnum Photos.
