SDRE-2

The Pakistani view of the people to their east as short dark rice-eaters (and meant in a derogatory, not a descriptive sense) has a long history.  I had previously posted a mention from 1941.   This post is to record a more recent one.

Pervez Hoodbhoy, in remembering the formation of Bangladesh, confesses:

Having seen only grotesque caricatures of history, it is impossible for Pakistan’s youth to understand 1971. But how can I blame them? Those of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s knew in our hearts that East and West Pakistan were one country but not one nation. Young people today cannot imagine the rampant anti-Bengali racism among West Pakistanis then. With great shame, I must admit that, as a thoughtless young boy, I, too, felt embarrassed about small and dark people being among my compatriots. Victims of a delusion, we thought that good Muslims and Pakistanis were tall, fair and spoke chaste Urdu. Some schoolmates would laugh at the strange sounding Bengali news broadcasts from Radio Pakistan.