My Indian Jatra

My acquaintance with the Bengali people began in 1946 just one year before the creation of East Pakistan by the politicians.  As a student of the Bengali language, I learned to love the beautiful poetry, music and the classical dance of the Bengali people.  The 1000 year literary heritage of Bengali literature is older than Chaucer.

The division of the land of Bengal into two parts was a severe blow to this Bengali culture.  One part remains with India and every tourist to Calcutta can describe the poverty of that city.  But those who have lived and worked there have been impressed by the subtle thought and profound religious insight of the Bengali people.  The best known personality is Rabindranath Tagore.  There are many other sensitive writers and artists.

More than half the people of the Bengali culture became a part of Pakistan. East and West Pakistan were bound together by the Muslim faith, but the Muslims from West Pakistan felt that the Bengali Muslims of the East practiced a corrupted form of the faith. First the West Pakistan Government tried to purify the faith by suppressing the Bengali language.  According to the Bengali people, and supported by fact, there have been 24 years of various types of oppression.  West Pakistan, which is a military government, supervised the national elections in East Pakistan.  After the elections they did not turn the government over to the elected representatives.  Negotiations broke down, rebellious feelings increased and chaos broke loose on March 26, 1971 in East Pakistan.

While 10 million people have fled from East Pakistan to the friendly Bengali part of India the world has been paralyzed for nine months.  India’s emotional, economic, and political stability has been strained beyond its endurance.  The result is war.  All sides will lose and that includes the United States.

It is a strange war; a war in which Muslim fights against Muslim, and brown men against brown men.  It is a war in which the United States is allied with the military dictatorship of Pakistan and Communist China against the democratically elected government of India.

It is not surprising that the reaction of the average American is one of  recoil.  Some say let’s not get involved, but when convinced that we are involved the questions becomes; How?  Why?  My own thinking on my call as a missionary, like that of so many missionaries, is undergoing constant scrutiny.  What does it mean to preach the good news to the poor, and to proclaim release to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed? For me in the midst of the India - Pakistan crisis means I must ask the United States Government why it has not protested to the Pakistan government over the imprisonment and secret trial of the elected leader of the East Pakistan people?  Why the silence when they have not been silent in making condemnation of India’s actions?