Hidden within the photograph of Pakistan’s surrender ceremony on 16 December lies an unexamined discomfort at the heart of our historical practice. Will you look at the photograph again? Perhaps it caught your eye at the Liberation War Museum on Victory Day. It is the moment the war ended on 16 December. On one side of the table sits Pakistan’s Lieutenant General AAK Niazi, his face bearing the subdued grief of defeat. On the other side sits India’s Lieutenant General Jagjit Singh Aurora. From their posture, it might seem like two old classmates facing each other again. And in fact, they were.
At the roots of our history lies the Partition of 1947 on the basis of religion. Niazi and Aurora were both students of the same British-era military academy. Both fought for the British on the Burma front during the Second World War. After Partition, one joined the Pakistan Army, the other the Indian Army. They first found themselves on opposing sides in the 1965 India–Pakistan war. This meeting in 1971 was the final stage of the tensions that followed 1947.
Yet within this famous photograph there is a fragment of visual dissonance. At the very moment Bangladesh is being born, there is officially no Bangladeshi presence at the table. Standing in one corner amid the crowd of military officers is Group Captain A. K. Khandker—wearing civilian clothes, not military uniform. In different photographers’ images, Khandker’s position shifts. In some, he appears at the edge of the frame; in others, he has been cropped out entirely. In his Liberation War memoir 1971: Bhitore Baire (Prothoma Prokashon, 2014), A. K. Khandker wrote, “The crowd was so dense that it was difficult even to stand.” A little later, when Niazi and Aurora were inspecting the surrendered Pakistani troops, Bangladeshi officer Major Haider can be seen walking beside them. It is said that General MAG Osmani was on his way, but due to various complications he could not arrive. Many believe there was a deliberate attempt to exclude Bengali freedom fighters from their moment of glory.
