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S/O, S/O Common Knowledge...Bangladeshi Genocide?


Is the Bangladeshi Genocide common knowledge?  

  1. 1. Is the Bangladeshi Genocide common knowledge?

    • Yes (learned in school or elsewhere)
      4
    • No
      119


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See, these are starting to get confusing. Yes, I'm aware of it. No, I don't think most people are. Is the question should it be? Is the question do *I* know about it? Or is it just do we think of it as something others knowing?

 

Honestly, the question should almost be "Is the existence of a country called Bangladesh common knowledge?" because I think many Americans couldn't name it, or at the very least, would have no context for it geographically or historically.

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It's not common knowledge, but we start getting to a point where everyone can't know everything when we keep asking these questions.

 

For example, I live in Kyrgyzstan right now. Very few Americans know anything about Kyrgyzstan, or the atrocities that have happened here, or the wonderful things that have happened here. Most Americans can't even pronounce the name of the country. But I don't think that necessarily means that Americans are ignorant. For some it might, if they haven't learned other worthwhile things, but usually it simply means they have focused on learning different, but still worthwhile, things.

 

This is a huge world with a lots of things we can learn about.

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See, these are starting to get confusing. Yes, I'm aware of it. No, I don't think most people are. Is the question should it be? Is the question do *I* know about it? Or is it just do we think of it as something others knowing?

 

Honestly, the question should almost be "Is the existence of a country called Bangladesh common knowledge?" because I think many Americans couldn't name it, or at the very least, would have no context for it geographically or historically.

 

Yes, I see that I did make the answers a bit confusing. Sorry, I do mean to ask if it is considered to be common knowledge?

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Was this genocide or mass murder? There is a difference.

 

Genocide. The Pakistani gov't tried to wipe out the entire Bangladeshi peoples.

 

According to the Genocide Convention defined by the UN in 1948:

 

“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:

 

(a) Killing members of the group,

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,

© Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

 

I would define mass murder as more along the lines of a randomized killing spree.

Edited by sleepymommy
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Genocide. The Pakistani gov't tried to wipe out the entire Bangladeshi peoples due to their religion.

 

According to the Genocide Convention defined by the UN in 1948:

 

“any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group as such:

 

(a) Killing members of the group,

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,

© Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part,

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group."

 

I would define mass murder as more along the lines of a randomized killing spree.

 

...but most Bangladeshis are Muslim even today some 90% are Muslim.

 

Bangladesh was designated as East Pakistan following the British exit from India because it was a Moslem dominated area.

 

Note I am in no way arguing for Pakistanis, simply questioning the use of the term genocide. This is not because I necessarily disagree but rather because I simply do not know.

 

The link frequently uses the term GENDERcide rather than genocide. The quote about killing 3 million, while horrendous, seems not to indicate a desire to exterminate ALL.

 

My knowledge of this episode is somewhat limited and I appreciate the info provided.

 

While this episode may not be deemed common knowledge I certainly think that people should be aware of those events.

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At that time there was a much larger percentage of Hindus in Bangladesh, however many Muslims were also killed during the genocide. I edited my post right after I posted to be more accurate.

 

The main targets were the Hindu Bangladeshis, from what I've learned about this is that the Muslims were more a "random" killing. If the army felt like killing them they did, if they felt like letting the live they did. Why kill their own? From what I understand, the Bangladeshi Muslims were of a different sect. But it was always death, torture, etc for the Hindus.

 

The term gendercide is used mostly because the proportion of men, boys, and male babies killed was greater than the woman. During the first phases of their attacks, they targeted men and boys. Killing off the men would aid in the extermination of the peoples. The woman and girls were often taken back to the army barracks as slaves and raped repeatedly until later death. .

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Or what about the one in SriLanka that just took place end of last year , beginning of this year ?

 

I would think most Aussies would have heard of it, even if they didn't know details, since we have a lot of refugees from there.

 

I hadn't heard of the Bangladeshi genocide until this thread. All I'd ever read about Pakistan and Bangladesh splitting was the issue of distance. I guess I got the "lies to small children" version of the story. :001_huh:

 

Rosie

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