পাকিস্তান আমলে আঞ্চলিক বৈষম্য কেমন ছিলো Capitalist Development and Regional Disparity in Pakistan
Summary
TLDRThe lecture explores the economic exploitation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) by West Pakistan during the period from 1947 to 1971. Initially hopeful for unity, East Pakistanis soon faced growing economic disparities, with West Pakistan benefiting from government policies. The lecture details how capitalist development, led by American advisors, deepened these disparities in income, consumption, and access to resources. The Six-Point Program, which sought to address these inequalities, was rejected by the Pakistani state, leading to further conflict. The session concludes with a promise to discuss the political struggles for autonomy in the next class.
Takeaways
- 📜 East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) initially supported Pakistan in 1947 but quickly faced exploitation by West Pakistan.
- 💸 Pakistan adopted a capitalist development model, influenced by American advisors, which led to increasing economic disparity between East and West Pakistan.
- 📊 The income gap between East and West Pakistan widened significantly, with West Pakistan earning 61% more by 1969-70.
- 🧈 Consumption of basic goods like milk, butter, and meat was far higher in West Pakistan than in East Pakistan, highlighting the disparity in living standards.
- 💡 East Pakistan received less foreign aid and public investment, with only 31% of foreign aid allocated to the region, despite significant contributions.
- 🏭 Non-Bengalis controlled 93% of industrial assets in East Pakistan, leading to further economic exploitation.
- 📉 The overvaluation of the Pakistani rupee benefited West Pakistani industrialists while East Pakistani jute growers faced significant losses.
- 🗣 Bengali economists and intellectuals in the late 1960s began protesting these disparities and challenging the capitalist model imposed by the government.
- 📑 Sheikh Mujib and the Awami League proposed the Six-Point Program to ensure greater autonomy and economic fairness for East Pakistan.
- ⚖️ The economic exploitation and disparity between East and West Pakistan eventually fueled the independence movement in East Pakistan, leading to the creation of Bangladesh.
Q & A
What was the initial support for Pakistan in East Pakistan after 1947?
-In 1947, the overwhelming majority of people in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, supported the Muslim League and the creation of Pakistan, hoping for economic and cultural benefits.
How did East Pakistan's perception of Pakistan change over time?
-Over the 24 years following 1947, the people of East Pakistan began to realize that Pakistan was exploiting them economically and treating East Pakistan as a colony.
What economic model did Pakistan follow after 1947, and what were its implications?
-Pakistan pursued a capitalist development model, heavily influenced by American advisors during the Cold War. This model led to increasing regional economic disparity between East and West Pakistan, with West Pakistan benefiting disproportionately.
What was the income disparity between East and West Pakistan from 1949 to 1970?
-In 1949-50, West Pakistanis earned 22% more than East Pakistanis, and by 1969-70, this gap had increased to 61%, highlighting growing economic inequality.
How did consumption patterns differ between East and West Pakistan?
-Consumption in West Pakistan was much higher. For example, East Pakistanis consumed 2.1 pounds of milk and butter per month, while West Pakistanis consumed 8.6 pounds. This stark difference was also seen in other commodities like mutton, beef, and fish.
How did foreign aid and government spending differ between East and West Pakistan?
-East Pakistan received only 31% of foreign aid, while West Pakistan received 69%. Additionally, West Pakistan benefited from significantly more government spending in development and infrastructure.
What was the economic impact of Pakistan's overvalued currency on East Pakistan?
-Pakistan overvalued its currency, which benefited West Pakistan's industrialists by allowing them to buy imported goods more cheaply. Conversely, East Pakistan's jute growers received less money for their exports, exacerbating economic exploitation.
Who controlled the industrial assets in East Pakistan?
-Non-Bengalis controlled 93% of the industrial assets in East Pakistan. They also dominated banking, with 70% of all bank deposits being in non-Bengali banks.
What was the significance of the Six-Point Program developed by Sheikh Mujib and the Awami League?
-The Six-Point Program, developed in 1966, aimed to reduce exploitation by ensuring greater economic and political autonomy for East Pakistan. It became the basis of the 1970 elections and called for separate control of finances, military, and government decisions for East Pakistan.
How did economic exploitation contribute to the rise of Bengali nationalism?
-The clear economic exploitation of East Pakistan by West Pakistan, highlighted by disparities in income, consumption, and government spending, fueled Bengali nationalism. The Six-Point Program and growing awareness of economic inequality led to increasing demands for autonomy and eventually independence.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Pakistan’s Economic Exploitation of East Pakistan
The speaker introduces the topic of economic exploitation of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) by Pakistan, which followed cultural oppression. After the partition in 1947, the people of East Pakistan initially supported the idea of Pakistan, but soon realized that they were being economically exploited. Pakistan adopted a capitalist model under the influence of the Cold War, leading to growing regional disparity, with East Pakistan being treated as a colony. The lecture focuses on this economic disparity, which increased over time, and introduces the six-point program by the Awami League that sought to redress this inequality.
🏞 Initial Economic Conditions and Colonial Structures
This section outlines the initial conditions after the 1947 partition. While West Pakistan had better infrastructure, East Pakistan was rich in natural resources, especially agriculture. The bureaucratic and business environments were dominated by West Pakistan, and Hindu zamindars had controlled much of East Pakistan’s land. After the partition, Muslim tenants took over, but economic power remained skewed in favor of non-Bengalis, creating an uneven economic structure that disadvantaged the majority Bengali population.
📊 Growth of Disparity in Income and Consumption
The speaker details the increasing income disparity between East and West Pakistan from 1949 to 1970, with West Pakistan’s per capita income significantly surpassing East Pakistan's. The consumption of basic goods such as milk, butter, meat, and rice also highlights the disparity. Prices in East Pakistan were higher, while West Pakistanis consumed more for less. This section illustrates how the economic gap widened over time, and how this exploitation was reflected in everyday life.
🏥 Disparity in Infrastructure and Aid Distribution
This paragraph discusses the disparity in infrastructure, healthcare, and foreign aid distribution between East and West Pakistan. West Pakistan received a much larger share of government spending, foreign aid, and resources. Despite East Pakistan’s economic contributions, most of the resources and investments were directed to West Pakistan, further exacerbating inequality. The speaker highlights examples such as the distribution of hospital beds, doctors, and government expenditures, which clearly favored West Pakistan.
🏭 Economic Exploitation Through Resource Transfer
The speaker provides further details on how economic exploitation was executed, such as the transfer of resources from East Pakistan to West Pakistan. He explains how non-Bengalis controlled most industries in East Pakistan, with the government favoring West Pakistan in policies such as exchange rates. As a result, East Pakistanis were paid less for exports while West Pakistanis benefited from cheaper imports. This resource transfer left East Pakistan increasingly impoverished while enriching West Pakistan.
📈 The Rise of Economic Protests and the Six-Point Program
This paragraph highlights how young Bengali economists recognized the growing economic disparity and began protesting against Pakistan’s discriminatory policies. The six-point program, developed by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bengali economists in 1966, sought economic and political autonomy for East Pakistan. This program became the foundation of the Awami League’s demands and was widely supported in East Pakistan as a response to the exploitation and inequality they faced.
🏛 The Political Struggle and Rise of Bengali Nationalism
The speaker discusses the political implications of the economic exploitation of East Pakistan. Despite support from a small elite group in East Pakistan, the vast majority of Bengalis rallied against the economic disparity. Sheikh Mujib’s six-point program called for democratic elections and regional autonomy, which resonated with the population. The speaker concludes by highlighting the widespread realization of exploitation by West Pakistan, setting the stage for the political struggle that would follow.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Economic Exploitation
💡Colonialism
💡Capitalist Development Model
💡Regional Disparity
💡Six-Point Program
💡Balance of Payments
💡Foreign Aid
💡Jute Industry
💡Harvard Advisory Group
💡Affluent Urban Upper Class
Highlights
The majority of East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, initially voted for Pakistan in 1947, but within months, this sentiment changed as Pakistan began exploiting East Pakistan.
Over the 24 years of Pakistani rule, East Pakistan faced increasing economic disparity and was treated as a colony by West Pakistan.
Pakistan followed a capitalist development model influenced by American advisors from Harvard, which contributed to regional disparities.
By 1969-70, West Pakistanis earned 61% more income than East Pakistanis, highlighting growing inequality over the years.
Consumption patterns revealed massive disparities: East Pakistanis consumed less milk, butter, and meat compared to West Pakistanis.
Commodity prices varied greatly between the two regions, with East Pakistan paying higher prices for basic goods like rice, contributing to exploitation.
In terms of infrastructure, East Pakistan had significantly fewer motor vehicles, hospital beds, and doctors compared to West Pakistan.
West Pakistan received 69% of all foreign aid, while East Pakistan only received 31%, reflecting inequitable resource distribution.
East Pakistan consistently imported more than it exported, while West Pakistan benefited from better trade balances and government transfers.
From 1948 to 1969, almost 12 billion rupees were transferred from East to West Pakistan, demonstrating a large-scale resource shift.
Non-Bengalis controlled 93% of industrial assets in East Pakistan, benefiting from resources meant for East Pakistanis.
The Pakistani government overvalued the rupee, allowing West Pakistanis to import goods at lower costs while East Pakistanis received less for exports.
East Pakistani economists protested the discriminatory economic policies, opposing the recommendations of Harvard advisors in the late 1950s and 60s.
In 1966, Sheikh Mujib's Awami League introduced the Six-Point Program to demand regional autonomy and address economic disparities.
The Six-Point Program became the basis for the 1970 election victory, which led to increased tensions and ultimately the Bangladeshi independence movement.
Transcripts
greetings students
today we'll be discussing
the economic impacts of pakistan's
colonialism over east pakistan
as you all know we started discussing
the pakistan period
from the last lecture now the
interesting
thing that you'll have to keep in mind
is that
in 1947 the overwhelming majority of the
people
of east pakistan what constitutes
bangladesh
now voted for the muslim league
and voted for a pakistan and they all
had big dreams
on what pakistan would provide for them
however in a matter of a few months that
changed
and over the next 24 years
people started recognizing how pakistan
the state of pakistan was actually
exploiting east pakistan
and treating it as a colony in the last
lecture we talked about
the cultural aspects of it pakistan's
oppression
over our language our culture
denial of our language in fact
today we'll be talking about the
economic exploitation
and in the next class we'll be talking
about the political domination
so once again today we'll be discussing
the economic exploitation of east
pakistan
and how that we can see
through the increasing regional
disparity
there's another thing you have to
recognize is that pakistan
was pursuing a capitalist development
model
because at that time there was the cold
war
and a large influence of the soviet
union
and china over many parts of the world
especially southeast asia
remember the vietnam vietnam war was
going on at that time
so pakistan was picked up as a model
for the rest of the world on what
capitalist development
would look like so it was american
advisors
coming from harvard who
instructed who advised the pakistan
government
in promoting a strong capitalist
development path
which in turn actually led to increasing
visual disparity and the economic
exploitation of
east pakistan so
in this class as i said we'll be talking
about the economic disparity
we'll be identifying some of the causes
of that
and we will try to understand how that
pursuing of the capitalist development
model
actually led to the inequality between
east and west pakistan
we'll also try to understand how the
six-point program
of bangladesh and awami league
tried to redress the imbalance the sixth
point
that the pakistan state never accepted
and in fact when it was obvious that we
would
take over government and implement the
six points
they launched this massive genocide
so let's briefly start with what the
initial conditions
were west pakistan at the time of the
partition
1947 did have slightly better roads
railways
irrigation and power but while east
pakistan didn't have that
east pakistan had highly fruit high land
good rainfall for agriculture production
and well-developed systems of waterways
for transportation both
winds had very low industrial capacity
this remember in the east it was mainly
in calcutta and west bengal
and also in west pakistan there wasn't
much it was
primarily in india educational
attainment was also learned
but very importantly was pakistan had a
strong
army because much
of the british army the british indian
army
comprised of people from the northwest
frontier province and
from west punjab which constituted
pakistan also
in terms of the indian civil bureaucracy
when the muslims
migrated to pakistan in 1947
they generally all migrated towards
pakistan
so the civil bureaucracy was dominated
by west pakistan
also in terms of businesses
most muslim traders from
india went to west
for pakistan came to east pakistan
so once again the economic conditions of
east pakistan
zamindars dominated
the land in east pakistan
and muslims were generally tenants and
smallholder farmers
so when the hindu zamindars left
in 1947 and then was
taken over by the government he had a
system of
muslim tenants and smallholder farmers
trade commerce financial intermediation
and even rural industries were primarily
dominated by hindus
the tea industry in east
the pakistan we also
already said bureaucracy teaching legal
professions
in east pakist
for pakistan
in the east in 1947 because
the bengali muslims expected they would
make great advancements
to the creation of pakistan but let's
see what happened
let's look at the growth of disparity so
we're looking at per capita incomes
already from the beginning 49 50
you have just look at the last column
that's highlighted in yellow
21 or rather 22
of west pakistan rather
west pakistanis earned
22 more incomes than east pakist of
going down and having greater equality
it started increasing to 24
to 32 percent to 45
and by 69.70 west pakistani households
earned earned 61 percent more
incomes than is party sales
so the state of pakistan and that 23 24
years of pakistani rule
had led to east pakistanis earning less
and less than west pakistan
and that follows too not just in incomes
but in consumption
so let's just look at the highlighted
ones
let's look at milk and butter in east
pakistan
this is pounds per month east pakistani
people would consume 2.1 pounds per
month of milk and butter was pakistanis
8.6
mutton beef and fish these pakistanis
would consume
0.4 pounds per month west pakistanis
would consume
1.7 pounds per month
implying huge differences
in some of the consumption patterns in
fact the price is still varied
the same price of rice that rather the
same rice
cost 518 rupees per ton
in each pakistan but only 334
rupees in west pakistan
rupees per ton in east pakistan and
267 only nearly half
in west pakistan so not only would the
west pakistanis earning
more over the years
but they were also purchasing
commodities at far cheaper prices than
in east
in west pakist at a cheaper rate that
was one form of exploitation
also other things look at motor vehicles
56 000 motor vehicles in east pakistan
259 000 in west pakistan
hospital beds about 7
000 in east pakistan in 1966
26 000 hospital beds in west pakistan 88
000 doctors in east pakistan
and 131 000 doctors in west pakistan
gives you an idea of the disparity
let's also look at the regional
expenditures
this is revenue and development
expenditures
what the government was spending and
look at the differences
in east pakistan over this period
there was 35 billion this was
this is a million takas 35 billion taka
spent in east pakistan
but 82 billion takas spent
in west pakistan
and 66 67
in west pakistan
we notice a huge big difference let's
just look at the
bottom row in terms of percentages
so all the foreign aid that came in
in the name of pakistan east pakistan
receives
only 31 percent of foreign aid west
pakistan received
69 percent of foreign aid
i'm numbing it up obviously she better
sense
again of the disparity
increasing over the years the balance of
payments this
is exports versus imports
and so the net disparity is being led by
the government so east pakistan
imported 4 billion rupees
more than it exported west pakistan
imported 55 billion rupees more
than it exported so big balance of
payments
for west pakistan we were exporting
quite a bit even though
like in the early years 48 to 60 to 61
we were exporting more than we were
importing
and then that money was getting
transferred to west pakistan
finally if you look at the transfer of
resources
how much net resources was being
transferred
to west pakistan from east
so from pakistan 49 to 68 69
a total off it was much higher in the
early years slightly lower in the low
less a few later years but if you look
at the last row
last column we see
that over the years
from 48 to 69
almost 12 billion groupies
was transferred from east pakistan
government
was paying plain partial
to west pakistan and money from east
pakistan
it was unknown bengalis rather than
bengalis
that were dominating the economy so even
when you see
that east pakistan produced so much or
earned so much
money it wasn't bengalis that were
receiving it
to a great extent it was non-binaries
so non-bengalis received 62
of all money
that the government was providing to set
up industries
in east pakistan so it was
coming in the name of east pakistan to
set up industrial enterprises
but almost two-thirds of it
it was non-bengali's receiving it
the government was also setting up major
factories
and just transferring it to west
pakistan
so it would show that the government is
providing his factories to
east pakistan but in reality it wasn't
bengals
in fact in terms of all
the industrial assets in
east
it pakistan known bengali controlled
it controlled 93 percent of all imports
at most
wholesale trade and they owned the banks
so 70 percent of all bank to bank
deposits
in east pakistan were in non-bengali
banks and they owned two of the largest
three shipping companies and
19 of all t outputs so once again
it was whatever there was in east
pakistan it was little compared to west
of pakistan transfer from east
[Music]
the pakist exchange rate for one dollar
was actually 10 rupees
the pakistan government overvalued the
value of the rupee
from 10 rupees to 5 rupee per dollar
now what would that mean it would mean
that when west pakistan industrialists
were buying capital goods
machinery from the west using dollars
instead of paying ten dollars for each
ten
rupee for each dollar they were only
paying five rupees for every dollar
worth of things they were procuring so
supposing they were buying a
refrigerator
or an air conditioning and if it cost a
hundred dollars
they should have actually paid thousand
rupees instead of that they were only
paying 500 rupees
so west pakistan spent much less
on imported goods the capital because
they were important
on the other hand jude growers in east
were pakistan instead of
ten rupees for every dollar that they
were
exporting abroad they were receiving
five rupees
because the pakistan government had over
valued the
so for every dollar people were getting
less so once again the east pakistanis
were getting
twice as much for the value of the
dollar they were importing
this is how resources were transferred
from
east
of west pakistan industries um
that was promoted by the people
in state government in national
government low interest
loans over invoicing free initial
capital we will be discussing that in
more details
in the discussion groups now
while this started from the late 50s
onwards
young bengali economists
realize what was going on started
protesting
remember the pakistan government was
being aided by
the top economists of the world from
harvard university and others
promoting the capitalist development and
here you have
young economists in pakistan in their
20s
early mid-20s and maybe one or two in
their early 30s
by the end of 60s but they were all
young
and they said no your policies
are discriminatory your policies are
promoting increasing disparity
and i just wanted to mention some of
these
famous professors who took issue
with the pakistan government and with
harvard professors
they were professor rahman professor
islam professor
we owe a great debt to them an
intellectual debt
for pointing out how we were being
exploited
as i said the harvard advisory group
was contributing to
the development plans in pakistan in
1968
because i you khan had finished 10 years
of his dictatorship his rule
ayub khan and the uh the
u.s economists were celebrating the
decade of development they called it
1958-68
and they said this is excellent we are
having high growth
and pakistan has proven once again
how we can have a capitalist development
model that is a response
to what the socialists are saying
however what we found out
that what it did was promote mutual
inequality and we went through that
it also promoted income in inequality
workers wages kept going down and now
not just in east pakistan
but it was pakistan also the peasantry
in our part of the world got poorer and
poorer
and he had the rise of 22 rich families
these were big business houses the adam
jees
the bhawanis and others
there are only one family from east
families pakistan was the ak khan family
the hikikon group
that is still active in business today
west pakistan had the powerful
bureaucracy and army
we had very minimal
representation in the bureaucracy of the
army
what you also had was an affluent urban
upper class
of course west pakistan but in east
pakistan also
so an affluent urban
upper class that benefited from
pakistani view
bengalis who felt that they owed to
pakistan
and who supported pakistan a very small
fraction
of the population but they spoke
in urdu or english they did not like
bangladeshi and they contributed to the
exploitation
of bengalis and us not having confidence
in
our own nationality so there was also
this affluent
urban upper class in the discussion
group we can talk more about that too
so because of all this in 1966
sheikh mujib in the league
developed wrote up the six point program
this was along with the bible economist
and it was sheikh mujeeb himself that
participated
in creating the six points and the sixth
point demand
really was for ensuring
that east pakistan would not
be exploited
and this was spread all over
east pakistan
so what about the six points part of it
was about democracy
that we should have a parliamentary form
of government
not what yuhan was doing through basic
democracies and controlling
elections so we wanted democratic
elections
we wanted regional autonomy we wanted
east pakistan to decide
how the economy would function in east
pakistan
and we would let west pakistan do the
same but letting the central government
only control defense and foreign affairs
we would control the rest
and so that money could not be
taken from east pakistan
two separate central banks
also for foreign exchange we wanted two
separate accounts
whatever east
and pakist we would control it it would
not go to pakistan
also we would have a separate military
and a separate
paramilitary force along with the naval
headquarters here
these for the world are six point
programs in 1966
and these this was the basis of the
elections in 1970
end of 1970 which won
and people voted for the six point
program
for visual autonomy
this is a famous poster and i wanted to
enter
at what we end with this it says
why is golden bengal now a graveyard
and it points to the economic
disparities
between east pakistan and this
poster was put up everywhere
in east pakistan um i was
i used to be politically active at that
time and i visited a lot of places in
pakistan
at that time and this was everywhere
and every bengali had seen this
and basically it said how we were being
exploited
so bangladesh we were
uh rajasthan revenues
were spending pakistan was spending 1500
crore attackers here in west pakistan
they were spending 5 000
developing expenditures 3 000 crore
tacos here
6 000 in west and so on and so forth
but also look at where the bottom
look at the price of rice per month
which is a little less than 40
kilograms 50 takas
per month in bangladesh these pakistan
and 25 only in west
of course produce also pakistan pakistan
but we producing the majority
me too big disparity cheaper
in west pakistan
the price of gold that too
was different in west pakistan
cheaper than in east pakistan
showed to everybody how we were
exploited
and this rallied everyone in
east
once pakistan what i tried to
demonstrate
was how east pakistan
was exploited by west pakistan from the
beginning
of the creation of pakistan
and how over the years we started
realizing how we will be exploited
and we spoke out we said
if you want a single unified pakistan
you have to provide us with autonomy so
we
wanted to present you with certain facts
about this discrimination thank you
next class we'll talk about the
political relevance to political aspects
the political fight against dictatorship
the political fight
for democracy thank you very much
let's talk more in the discussion
[Music]
sessions
you
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