Book Review – A Stranger in my Own Country by Major General (Retd) Khadim Hussain Raja
Rana Rizwan Hussain
The book ‘A Stranger in My Own Country’ is a recollection of memory of a patriot army officer who served in East Pakistan as Major General from 1969 to 1971. The book reveals number of facts which became a cause of separation of East wing of Pakistan doing an irreparable loss to the country. At the start of the story about East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), Major General (Retd) Khadim Hussain Raja, says that certain opportunists in East Pakistan propagated against West Pakistan and put forth the distorted facts before the public just to disgust the image of West Pakistan in their eyes. A campaign amongst the masses was already on the move with a flawed idea that West Pakistan was usurping all the benefits which were generated out of the resources of East Pakistan wing. According to General (Retd) Raja, the propaganda was completely baseless and was launched in East Pakistan by certain groups with vested interests just to create an environment of hatred there for West Pakistan. General (Retd) Raja sorrowfully points out that the rulers sitting in West Pakistan were aware of the situation aggravating in East Pakistan but they remained silent and negligent to nip the evil into the bud. It is also stated into the manuscript that the then President of Pakistan was continuously apprised of the situation with solid proofs of anti nationalist elements taking strength in East Pakistan and was requested several times to intervene for taking measures against them but nobody sitting in West Pakistan could comprehend the direness of the situation properly, hence no measures on time.
General (Retd) Raja is quite eloquent in his view that in evolving the circumstances leading to the fall of Dhaka, the first responsibility goes to the leadership of East Pakistan who motivated and disgusted the people of East Pakistan against West Pakistan for their personal political interests and the same was coupled with the sluggishness in performing state responsibilities by West Pakistan wing when it came about the East Pakistan. Although, the geographical location of East Pakistan was a big hurdle in the performance of such responsibilities. He says that after the water had already run over, the rulers sitting in West Pakistan got alarmed of the aggravated situation in East Pakistan and they tried to overcome the situation through use of power, which was again a bad decision and resulted into a massacre due to the non-responsible attitude of the army command, there.
It can rightly be collected from various parts of the book that West Pakistanis considered East Pakistanis to be timid people but the same was true about East Pakistanis as well who hated West Pakistanis and thought that they were the usurpers of their national assets.
After reading the book one can easily reach the conclusion that the mutiny of 1971 was a result of lust for power of the political elite of the country in both wings. The final nail in the coffin was fixed when two parties which emerged on the political scene after the general elections, refused to share power with each other. The situation could certainly have been handled, if the politicians and the leaders had kept the national interests supreme and sorted out their political differences on table to find a mid way reconciliatory solution. Unfortunately, no such sincere effort was made throughout the period.
General (Retd) Raja at the end gives the moral of his piece of writing and says that leadership of Pakistan must learn from the past events and should not repeat those in future, as the result of making the same mistakes again would be no different from that of past. This is a message which speaks volumes for the leadership of the country reigning in the present era.
http://splus.nation.com.pk/E-Paper/Lahore/2014-01-12/page-63
Writer is a practicing lawyer based in Lahore, lecturer of commercial law and founding partner at Hussain & Associates; hnachambers@gmail.com
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