Independence
In pre-independence British India, there was an Urdu-speaking Muslim minority in the Hindu majority state of Bihar. In 1947, at the time of partition, the Bihari Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took place during partition, fled to the newly independent East Pakistan. They held a disproportionate number of positions in this region of the new country, because West Pakistan made Urdu (which was the mother tongue of many Biharis) the only official national language of the new state. This led to much resentment from the native Bengalis, the majority in East Pakistan, who had to acquire a new language and many were at a disadvantage on their own soil.
Read more about this topic: Stranded Pakistani
Famous quotes containing the word independence:
“The subject of the novel is reality liberated from soul. The reader in complete independence presented with a structured process: let him evaluate it, not the author. The façade of the novel cannot be other than stone or steel, flashing electrically or dark, but silent.”
—Alfred Döblin (1878–1957)
“We must have constantly present in our minds the difference between independence and liberty. Liberty is a right of doing whatever the laws permit, and if a citizen could do what they forbid he would no longer be possessed of liberty.”
—Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu (1689–1755)
“The Indian’s intercourse with Nature is at least such as admits of the greatest independence of each.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)