Let There Be...

I am still reading Gary Bass’s book on the Bangladesh war of 1971 called The Blood Telegram (nah, here “blood” doesn’t refer to the gory details; rather, it’s the name of an American consulate official in Dhaka at the time). I found one anecdote very amusing, so I thought I’d write about it without finishing the book.

 

As the (West) Pakistani army went about brutally putting down the Bengalis of East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh), it was tempting for India to step in and break Pakistan. Partly because, hey, Pakistan was the enemy; partly because the refugees pouring in were stretching India’s meagre resources at the time; and of course, the optics was excellent: India stepping in to prevent a genocide, while the US and the USSR looked on and did nothing. Indira Gandhi called in General Sam Manekshaw to discuss the option of stepping in.

 

Indira expressed her problem with the refugee crisis, and asked Manekshaw to do something. Do what, he asked. “Go into East Pakistan”, she said. “This would mean war”, he replied. “I know”, she said, “We don’t mind a war”.

 

The army’s reasons for pushing back at that time were all valid: time to prepare, the need to setup supply lines, monsoon round the corner, the possibility of Pakistan attacking from the Punjab side, China intervening, America stepping in… the list of possibilities and steps were long.

 

But here’s what Manekshaw claimed to have told Indira:

“In the Bible”, he claims to have said, “it is written that God said, ‘Let there be light, and there was light’. You think that by saying, ‘Let there be war’, there can be war? Are you ready for war? I am not.”

 

Bass calls it Manekshaw’s “flavoursome and well-polished version” of the conversation with Indira. True or embellished, the narrative has “taken on a halfway mythological character in Indian military circles”. It certainly makes for a great story…