JAI Bangla! Jai Bangla!” From the banks of the great Ganges and the
broad Brahmaputra, from the emerald rice fields and mustard-colored
hills of the countryside, from the countless squares of countless
villages came the cry. “Victory to Bengal! Victory to Bengal!” They
danced on the roofs of buses and marched down city streets singing
their anthem Golden Bengal. They brought the green, red and gold banner
of Bengal out of secret hiding places to flutter freely from buildings,
while huge pictures of their imprisoned leader, Sheik Mujibur Rahman,
sprang up overnight on trucks, houses and signposts. As Indian troops
advanced first to Jessore, then to Comilla, then to the outskirts of
the capital of Dacca, small children clambered over their trucks and
Bengalis everywhere cheered and greeted the soldiers as liberators. Thus last week, amid a war that still raged on, the new nation of
Bangladesh was born. So far only India and Bhutan have formally
recognized it, but it ranks eighth among the world’s 148 nations in
terms of population , behind China, India, the Soviet
Union, the U.S., Indonesia, Japan and Brazil. Its birth, moreover, may
be followed by grave complications. In West Pakistan, a political
upheaval is a foregone conclusion in the wake of defeat and
dismemberment. In India, the creation of a Bengali state next door to
its own impoverished West Bengal state could very well strengthen the
centrifugal forces that have tugged at the country since independence
in 1947. The breakaway of Pakistan’s eastern wing became a virtual certainty when
the Islamabad government launched air strikes against at least eight
Indian airfields two weeks ago. Responding in force, the Indian air
force managed to wipe out the Pakistani air force in the East within
two days, giving India control of the skies. In the Bay of Bengal and
the Ganges delta region as well, the Indian navy was in unchallenged
command. Its blockade of Chittagong and Chalna harbors cut off all
reinforcements, supplies and chances of evacuation for the Pakistani
forces, who found themselves far outnumbered
