Professor Gregory Stanton of Genocide Watch developed a theoretical framework to study genocide and identified eight stages of the horrendous act. The beginning of such crime of crimes is very inconspicuous - it is the identification, classification and stigmatisation of a particular group that ultimately turns into extermination of members of that group, not because of any offences, but for being members of that group.
In the definition of the crime of genocide, these groups have been identified as national, ethnical, religious and racial. In 1971, the genocide in Bangladesh was targeted both against the Bengalis as a national group and the Hindus as a religious group. The latter was targeted doubly, being Hindus as well as Bengali nationalists. Hindus were considered to be enemies of the people, the natural ally of India and all through the history of Pakistan, they were classified and stigmatised in many different ways.
What happened in Bangladesh in 1971 deserves to be studied in depth and dimension to bring out the lessons of history
However, with the case of Bengali nationalists, it was not easy to identify them as enemies of the state since they were also overwhelmingly Muslim. However, the identification, classification and stigmatisation worked all along, projecting their national identity as conflicting with the Muslim identity. Such projections may seem harmless or may be treated as another political debate, but they carry the seeds of organised violence.
Seemingly harmless events can push perpetrators to commit genocide
The stigmatisation of the Bengalis of Pakistan started right from the beginning. The denial of their language rights had many links to that. During the troubled times of the Language Movement, the pro-government daily Morning News carried the headline “Dhotis roaming on Dhaka streets.” The aspersions need not be elaborated any more. In 1963, a dictionary on everyday use of Urdu explained Bengalis as “Agar Bangal admi ho to pret kisko kohu?” (If Bengalis are human, then who are the devils?)
This stigmatisation became deeply rooted over time and led to the development of a superficial attitude to people of other cultures by identifying them as inferiors or in distorted ways. This was the ideological premise that nourished the mindset of the perpetrators of genocide. This was also the phenomenon that can be called the “Banality of Evil”.
A glaring example of disrespect of otherness can be seen in the memoirs written by one of the perpetrators Major General Rao Farman Ali, the person who raised the killing squad of Al-Badar and executed the intellectuals in the last days of the war. His memoir started with the following lines - “Bengali Babu, Bengali Jadoo and Bhooka Bengali, these three pronouncements were what we heard about the Bengalis in childhood.”
He then elaborated his learning which, it seems, did not go much beyond childhood education. To him, Bengali people were always subservient to the rulers, happy with playing the roles of clerks and being a ‘Babu’. The Bengali women knew magic and could spellbind any outsider with their magical charms. Finally, Bengal is a land of famine where people always remain hungry. There is no doubt that people with such mindsets can become the exterminators of the nation they despise.
We need socio-psychological studies on perpetrators and the process of dehumanisation
It is also important to study how such people can rise to power and manipulate religious or national ideology to generate hatred for other people.
What happened in Bangladesh in 1971 deserves to be studied in depth and dimension to bring out the lessons of history. Unfortunately, humankind can very easily forget the past and fall into the trap of repeating the past. This is what is happening in Myanmar today, where a small community of Rohingya Muslims were identified, classified and stigmatised since long and no one had paid much attention to that. Now, this has turned into an all-out act of genocide with the international community being a bystander.
The final stage of Gregory Stanton’s theoretical formulation is the denial of genocide. This was done by the Pakistani perpetrators throughout their post-genocidal past. Rao Farman Ali vehemently denied his involvement in the killing of intellectuals and tried to put the blame on Lt Gen Niazi, Commander of the Eastern Theatre. But the desk diary of Gen Rao, which was left at his office when he hastily fled from the Governor House, had the names and addresses of the intellectuals scribbled in his own handwriting.
From the identification, classification and stigmatisation of a targeted group to its extermination - it is a long way. Early warnings are very important to stop the process and prevent extermination. Early identification of such acts and appropriate measures to restrict those, such as thwarting hate speech and hate campaigns, carries much importance. But the question is, when will we ever learn?
The writer is a trustee of the Liberation War Museum and director of its Centre for the Study of Genocide and Justice
