India - Pakistan war and creation of Bangladesh

India got Independence in August 15, 1947, India is situated between western and eastern Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Earlier,  Bangladesh was a colony of Britishers and after the independence of India, it became the colony of western Pakistan.  Eastern Pakistan used to be exploited by western Pakistan.  For instance,  at the time of droughts and famine, no resue operations held by Western Pakistan. Moreover, the revenue generated from jute productions used by western Pakistan in purchasing weapons. 

Eastern Pakistan struggled a lot to recognize the Bengali as the official language. They didn't even had any political representation and a ruler always elected from the western Pakistan. At that time, Yahya Khan was the ruler of Western Pakistan, he thought to conduct an election. The movement led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (father of current PM Sheikh Haseena of Bangladesh) and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto ( father of Banazir Bhutto) from eastern and western Pakistan respectively. Luckily, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman won the election because he got 167 seats out of 169 from eastern Pakistan, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, on the other hand, got just 88 seats out of 144 seats. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was about to rule in the eastern Pakistan but Yahya Khan arrested both of them ( Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto) and sent Rahman to a secret place in Pakistan. 

These incidents drived to start riots in eastern Pakistan. Later on, the western Pakistani army arrived in eastern Pakistan and an operation searchlight ( a planned military army carried on by western Pakistani army to squash the nationalist movements) started by them. More than 10 lakhs refugees entered in the Indian territory. As we all know India has a soft corner for refugees and even today, India has many refugees from Afghanistan and many other countries. 

Why did India entered into the war ?

Pakistan was putting charges on India and Israel for interfering in the eastern Pakistan.  India just asked Pakistan to sort out everything as soon as possible because the number of refugees were kept on increasing. India had a doubt that Pakistan may not start the war again like 1965 because according to a report of RAW ( Research  Analysis Wing), Pakistan was collecting weapons and at that time, the friendship between Pakistan and China were on the peak. Eastern Pakistan had an organization naming Mukti Bahini ( armed organization) which was opposing Western Pakistan too. So, India started providing weapons to it and even BSF started training and later on, Indian army controlled them for army tactics. Indian cabinet ministers travelled to various countries to explain the situation and requested them to ask Pakistan to solve the issue soon because the burden of refugees in India was increasing. 

India - USSR Friendship Treaty 

1. Before the war, India started developing a good relationship with USSR.

2. Pakistan had already a good relations with the U.S.A and China.

3. A triangular relation was observed between USA , China and Pakistan. 

4. India required a good friend which was USSR.

5. So In 1971, a friendship treaty was signed between India and USSR. This was possible because the relationship between China and USSR, at that time, wasn't good enough because both countries adopted communism and for both countries the ideology of communism was different. Moreover,  there was a boundary dispute was going on between China and USSR.

India - Pakistan War in 1971

Now Pakistan started shelling in the eastern Pakistan and India started covering firing to save refugees which ultimately, turned into a full-fledged war. From western Jammu & Kashmir to Easter Pakistan, war was started. Now India went to eastern Pakistan for liberation of Bangladesh. 

Pakistan was expecting help from China & USA, China didn't help Pakistan but USA did by sending a ship to Bay of Bengal but couldn't help Pakistan because of India - USSR Friendship Treaty. Indian army entered into the territory of Eastern Pakistan and forced to surrender 90,000 Pakistani soldiers. This happened because Pakistani thought that Indian army had captured the whole area. Atlast new country Bangladesh formed.

Reasons why did we win the war

1. The Pakistani army had already low morale because of fighting with their own people.

2. Leadership of India Gandhi was strong enough.

3. The country was unified during the war and the Indian government helped Bangladesh to form the government. 

4. RAW was introduced which helped to find the secrets of Pakistan. 

5. Indian military was superior as compared to Pakistan. 

6. Mukti Bahini was aware of all the routes and ways and there were also trained by the Indian army.

7. Neither USA nor China supported Pakistan whereas USSR fully supported Indian during the war.