Liberation War through the lens of different dimensions:
The purpose of Irregular warfare is not the same as the conventional warfare. That’s why it is also called unconventional warfare. It is not done by military operation or other conventional system rather it is mainly based on some principles. There are certain dimensions that work on irregular warfare. Political Dimension, Psychological Dimension, Cultural or Ideological Dimension, Socio-economic dimension, Military Dimension and International Dimension.
Bangladesh emerged as a country in the scenario of Cold War period. The Liberation war of Bangladesh is relevant to those dimensions in some ways.
The Political dimension basically talks about the popularity to get support from the natives. The main objective of political dimension is to gain support from the mass people of a certain area. The public support is important because once it is gained the insurgents can enter into the areas and can mix with the mass people. In the liberation war of Bangladesh, the political system in east Pakistan was a complete mess. Political instability was everywhere in east Pakistan which made the natives aware of their rights and fight for their own land. Also the genocides occurred during the liberation war made the people of the east Pakistan aware; mass killing, inhuman tortures and many more were the scenarios during the war and these make the people aware about their rights and jump into the war to get freedom from the west Pakistani forces. Taking all these ideas the east Pakistani forces spread the idea of freedom and encouraged everyone to fight against the enemy by gaining mass support.
Psychological dimension also talks about the public support. This dimension is somewhat related to the political dimension. According to psychological dimension, insurgents convince the people morally or psychologically not in the ways of military system. Because when they will be able to plant their idea in the minds of mass people, that will bring a legit public support. In the liberation war of Bangladesh, the freedom fighters entered into the villages, and every corner of the country. They mixed themselves with mass people, took shelter in the houses of the local people and encouraged them in many ways. They gained public support by planting the ideologies and ideas in the minds of the general people. They influenced them with the ideas and also recruited new fighters from every villages by planting the ideas.
When the insurgents push into the minds of people that what the acting government doing is wrong and corrupted and what they are doing is right and logical, then a value is created in the minds of people against the government. Cultural and ideological dimension talks about these. In the Liberation war of Bangladesh, the guerilla force manipulated the local people by awaking patriotism and negativity against the Pakistani government in the minds of the mass people which made others to hate the system and get them involved into the war. According to this dimension the insurgents influence the mass people by cultural aspects. Although both east and west Pakistanis were same according to religion, Bangladeshi people were first Bengali then Muslim which was another strong point for the insurgents to make the mass people aware about the situations and influence them to hate the current government and fight against them.
Socio-economic dimension explains that the revolutionary army will create a new of economic structure for the society and show that their motive is the will of the people and value of the movement. On the historical 7th March speech of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, he mentioned about closing all the Secretariat, Supreme Court, High Court, Judge’s Courts, and government and semi-government offices but only the banks may open for two hours daily for business transactions. He also mentioned that no money shall be transmitted from East to West Pakistan. He also mentioned that the Bengali people must stay calm during these times.
Military Dimension talks about some political aspirations by which sometimes the activities of the insurgents turn into military actions. The Governmental conventional army will not be able to fight back as the unconventional army is trained in way that they attack in a small group and attacks are done always suddenly. In the liberation war of Bangladesh, the guerrilla forces were trained in India and coming back they fought against the enemy by forming small groups consisting 10-12 members or sometimes less.
International Dimension is basically about the international support from the international community. It includes international recognition, moral and material supports which are important in guerrilla wars. Particularly these supports are very important and significant when these come from neighboring countries like the liberation war of Bangladesh India helped Bangladesh training the forces, with arms, morally, mentally also economically. This dimension was very important in the liberation war of Bangladesh. Not only for Bangladesh, it is important for every revolutionary or guerrilla warfare.
