Remembering Sachindra Lal Singha, Bangladesh’s Indian Warrior

On Monday, the Indian state of Tripura celebrated the 110th anniversary of the birth of its former chief minister Sachindra Lal Singha, who is remembered in Bangladesh for his fervent support for the Bangladesh Movement in the 1960s and during the Liberation War. Sachindra, who took office as Tripura’s Chief Minister in July 1963, was the first high profile figure in India to come out in support of the Bangladesh. During the 1960s, Singha actively lobbied New Delhi to change its stance on the then East Pakistan. In an example of Sachindra’s activism, he flew to New Delhi to broach the issue with Prime Minister Nehru.  However, Sachindra was rebuffed. Nehru was still licking his wounds after India’s crushing defeat in the 1962 war with China, and was not prepared to involve India in another international crisis. Singha returned to Agartala disheartened. However, with Nehru’s death in 1965, and the ascension of his daughter Indira Gandhi to the post of Prime Minister in 1966, the ideas that Singh had championed in the early 1960s began to enter the mainstream in the corridors of power. The worsening situation in Bangladesh injected a sense of urgency into Sachindra’s campaigning. The urgent need to find a solution was palpable in Tripura, which shared a border with East Pakistan, and was experiencing an influx of refugees. On 29th March 1971, Tripura’s Legislative Assembly convened a session to discuss the matter. Historian Bikach Chaudhuri, in his book on Bangladesh and Tripura, notes that Sachindra stood and delcares that: “Our heart goes out in sympathy to those people of East Pakistan at this hour of trial.” The following day, 30 March 1971, Sachindra introduced a resolution into the Assembly that received cross-partisan support. The resolution declared, “This House extends its full support to the freedom-loving people of Bangladesh in their struggle to establish democratic rights and requests that the Government of India recognise the newly-formed Government of Bangladesh headed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and extend to the people of Bangladesh all kinds of help in their struggle for freedom.” Sachindra’s motiion was adopted with thunderous applause. The resolution was historic, and is illustrative of Sachindra’s role in supporting the Bangladesh movement in neighbouring India. Tripura was the first state to pass such a resolution and, its resolution was forwarded to Indira Gandhi. Five days before receiving instructions from New Delhi in 1971, Sachindra unilaterally opened Tripura’s borders to refugees from Bangladesh fleeing from the Pakistani Army’s genocidal campaign. Yet, Sachindra went further than simply declaring his support, and actively lobbied New Delhi, flying from Agartala to Delhi to broach the issue with Prime Minister Nehru. Sachindra had studied in Comilla in his youth, and had some blood links with Bangladesh. This two facts go far in explaining – at least partially – why Sachindra was a such an invaluable friend to Bangladesh.