This academic year, Colorado high school students are required to study diverse instances of global genocide to graduate. Meanwhile, in the coming months, the state legislature will commemorate the Holocaust by illuminating different places affected by genocide and ethnic cleansing.
In both of these examples, the discussions will omit the Bengali genocide in 1971 when approximately 3 million people were killed. The Bengali genocide was once characterized by a former United Nations secretary as one of the most “tragic episodes in human history.” Yet, not many Coloradans know about it, and that needs to change.
As a second generation Bengali-American, I was immersed in this knowledge from an early age, shaped by the vivid stories my parents shared with me.
Stories of my mother as a child hiding beneath a makeshift refuge on a boat, evading Pakistani soldiers armed with machine guns. Stories of my father, barely in college, moving surreptitiously in the dead of night navigating a perilous route from one safe house to another under artillery fire.
By sheer fortune, my parents survived the 10 months of massacres. But many of their family and friends did not, succumbing to the deadliest genocide since World War II.
In 1947, the partition of the Indian subcontinent led to the creation of Pakistan, divided into two distinct regions: West Pakistan and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). While these regions shared the same Islamic faith, East and West Pakistan were culturally and linguistically different. The people in East Pakistan spoke Bengali while the majority of West Pakistanis spoke Urdu, among many other differences. After being ignored and neglected for decades by the West Pakistani leaders, East Pakistan demanded independence.
In order to suppress the burgeoning independence movement, President Yaha Khan ordered West Pakistani soldiers to “kill 3 million (Bengalis) and the rest will eat out of your hands.” Between March and December of 1971, Pakistani soldiers systematically targeted Hindu Bengali civilians: raping, mutilating and murdering nearly 3 million Bengalis. Over 10 million refugees fled to India. Shops and houses where Hindus lived were marked with a letter “H,” identifying them to be killed.
President Richard Nixon and then-national security adviser Henry Kissinger sought to enhance ties with China and saw West Pakistan as a crucial partner. Consequently, as the East Pakistan genocide unfolded, President Nixon not only refrained from condemning West Pakistan but endorsed its actions.
The Smithsonian calls this “the Genocide the U.S. can’t remember,” and it’s not clear why. Perhaps the Bengali population is not a large enough political force. Perhaps recognizing this makes the United States complicit in what occurred.
Whatever the reason, here in Colorado we can begin to take steps to make sure the Bengali genocide is recognized.
The Colorado legislature can start by recognizing the Bengali genocide. We already do that for the Armenian genocide, which is characterized by a similar scale of devastating loss as what happened in East Pakistan.
Additionally, when the Holocaust is commemorated, a list of where previous genocides took place is mentioned, including Rwanda, Cambodia, South Sudan, Syria, Myanmar, and Bosnia, but it does not mention the Bengali genocide. The legislature should add the Bengali genocide to the list.
The Colorado legislature in 2020 passed the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Act. However, in the implementation guide created by the Colorado Department of Education, there is only a passing mention of Bengali genocide and no mention in the resource guide given to teachers. We can fix that by creating a scope and sequence for teachers to teach about this part of history in their classes.
Genocide politics is nothing new. We tend to label certain countries perpetrators of genocide quicker than others. Groups with power and resources tend to get identified faster than groups who might not have a strong political constituency.
We can do better in Colorado. The goal should not be to elevate some groups at the expense of others. Rather, the goal should be to raise awareness as to how genocides take place and what lessons we can learn from them.
As Colorado Gov. Jared Polis stated when he signed the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Act: “Our generation must take that knowledge to ensure it never happens again.” For this to become reality, it is imperative to objectively identity the victims of genocide, free from power and politics.
As a Bengali-American and Colorado native, I urge Colorado to lead the way.
Prateek Dutta lives in Denver and is an education advocate serving as the deputy director of…
Read More: Opinion: Adding Bengali genocide to Colorado history lessons would be a big step