Recently, my son returned to the U.S. from a trip to Bangladesh where he attended the wedding of his cousin. While he had many beautiful memories of his native country that he left when less than a year old, he asked me why so many people there are anti-Pakistani. He told me how many people had advised him, “Marry a girl from any country, but not a Pakistani girl.”
In another instance, one of my friend’s sons decided to marry a Pakistani girl. When he told his parents of his plans, his mother tried to persuade him against it. She told him of what she lived through during the 1971 Bangladesh War of Independence, how Pakistani soldiers massacred hundreds of thousands of civilians and raped thousands of women. He patiently listened to it all, then told his mother “But Mom, she did not kill anyone.”
Today I see so many young Bengali men and women getting married to Pakistanis here in the U.S., much more than their counterparts from India, America, or any other country.
The generation of Bengalis born after 1971 do not have the same feelings of alienation and resentment as their parents toward Pakistani people. Aside from the language barrier, the younger generation rather seem to feel more keenly that they share a religious and cultural background with their Pakistani counterparts. Yet without knowing much about our common history they are often confused. My son once asked me, “If there is so much animosity, then why did they fight together to make a single country?”
They have heard the name Jinnah but know very little about him and his story as the founder of Pakistan. This book is primarily a small step to make them aware of our common history.
When I started writing this book, I had many discussions with friends who encouraged me by helping me with all the information. I am especially indebted to Prof. Mahmudur Rahman, Dr. Nazmul Haque, Prof. Ahsan Habib and my friend Kazi Showkat Hassan for their constructive criticism. In addition, I have reviewed the published literature on Jinnah, among them Jinnah of Pakistan (Oxford UP, 2000) by Stanley Wolpert, Road to Pakistan: The Life and Times of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Routledge India, 2010) by B.R. Nanda, and Jinnah: India, Partition, Independence (Rupa Publications India, 2012) by Jaswant Singh. Of course, vast amounts of information are available freely in our age of internet. Google searches provided me with much of the additional information I needed, and I have been able to access online numerous articles from the Pakistani newspaper Dawn. I could freely download from a website the full transcript of Jinnah’s controversial speech in Dhaka.
I am especially grateful to Shumi Ferguson for her many constructive suggestions and taking the time to edit this book.
Last but not least, I am in debt to my three children Sajeed Ahmed, Kaiser Ahmed, and Nabila Ahmed, and to my wife Ruqsana Polly Ahmed who encouraged me and gave me suggestions in writing this book.