Tuesday, January 04, 2011

While My Guitar Gently Weeps - The Concert for Bangladesh

The Concert for Bangladesh was arranged by George Harrison in response to the Muslim atrocities perpetrated during just one more phase of the 1400 year old Jihad against the Infidels which ought to be better known as the reign of Allah.

The Concert For Bangladesh was the event title for two benefit concerts organized by George Harrison and Ravi Shankar, held at noon and at 7:00 p.m. on August 1, 1971, playing to a total of 40,000 people at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Organized for the relief of refugees from East Pakistan (now independent Bangladesh) after the 1970 Bhola cyclone and during the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities and Bangladesh Liberation War, the event was the first benefit concert of this magnitude in world history. It featured an all-star supergroup of performers that included Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Billy Preston, Leon Russell, Badfinger, and Ringo Starr.

An album was released later in 1971 and a concert film was released in 1972, with later releases for home video. In 2005, the film was re-issued on DVD accompanied by a new documentary.

Beginning with the start of Operation Searchlight on 25 March 1971 and continuing throughout the Bangladesh Liberation War, there were widespread violations of human rights in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) perpetrated by the Pakistan Army with support from local political and religious militias. Time reported a high U.S. official as saying "It is the most incredible, calculated thing since the days of the Nazis in Poland."

Bangladeshi authorities claim that 3 million people were killed, while the Hamoodur Rahman Commission, an official Pakistan Government investigation, put the figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties.[3] The international media and reference books in English have also published figures which vary greatly from 200,000 to 3,000,000 for Bangladesh as a whole.

A further eight to ten million people fled the country to seek safety in India.

Many of the murdered intellectuals were victims of the collaborators of Pakistan Army: Razakars, Al-Shams and Al-Badr forces, at the instruction of the Pakistani Army. There are many mass graves in Bangladesh, and more are continually being discovered (such as one in an old well near a mosque in Dhaka, located in the non-Bengali region of the city, which was discovered in August 1999). The first night of war on Bengalis, which is documented in telegrams from the American Consulate in Dhaka to the United States State Department, saw indiscriminate killings of students of Dhaka University and other civilians.

Numerous women were raped, tortured and killed during the war. The exact numbers are not known and are a subject of debate with some sources quoting figures as high as 400,000.








16 comments:

midnight rider said...

A few years ago at Christmas a former boss, aware of my musical idiosyncracies, gave me cd copies of both this and All Things Must Pass. Both are still high ranking favorites of mine.

Ultimately, over the years 12 million dollars was sent to Bangladesh (the original concert raised only $250,000 or so. The rest has come from album and movie sales) although there was a lot of allegations back and forth over mishandling of the money for many years, including being tied up by the IRS (figures, right?) for a decade or so.

Pastorius said...

I just found out tonight that the Concert for Bangladesh was in response to Jihad. I never knew that.

Now George really is my favorite Beatle.

It had always been a toss-up between him and John. Well, now it's George all the way.

ACE(india) said...

Hmm do u know that US president at that time supported west-PAK(current pak) against east-PAK ( current day b'desh).
When, after anticipating the crisis the then India PM Indira Gandhi met Nixon informing him of the genocide of the bengali ppl in east pak.
His NSA said n i quote "the Indians are bastards anyway" further adding
"While she was a bitch, we got what we wanted too. She will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception and therefore in despair she's got to go to war"
Finally India made a pact with USSR, who sent their N-sub/carrier to guard us from US. while our forces invaded B'desh. The USSR pact kept china at bay too,even though Nixon urged them to intervene.
Thats the reason for the small anti-american leftists in India today.
Source:http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/4633263.stm

Pastorius said...

Ace,
I'm going to have to read more. Check this out:

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2011/01/bangladesh-1971-make-sure-there-is-no-hindu-left-alive.html

How does that fit into the narrative as you explain it?

ACE(india) said...

Pastorius,
Well I was only stating the start of the genocide.Once it began, it was a total Chaos.Genocide against hindus is nothing new... and still mass discrimination dose happen in B'desh, Indonesia Malaysia etc. This is only one incident in the war. During those chaotic times the Pakistan army took advantage of the confusion and
a) killed Hindus
b) killed Ethinic Bengalis (Mostly muslims but hindus as well).
c) Raped women.
d) Killed the bengali intelligentsia.
e) Political Assassinations.
So the above narrative (what u linked) may just be a part of the Bigger picture...and as you know muslims r the biggest hypocrites so they kill their kind the most. check Wikipedia it has a balanced (also PC but quite fair)view on the topic.
Another morbidly funny fact, Before the war Pakistanis believed that 1 Muslim = 10 Hindus, also that the Muslims were Aryans, while all Hindus were Dravidians. then at the end of war 92000 Muslims surrendered to the Indian army. That was the racist mood of that time...still pravails in pakistan because they claim to have "Ruled India for 1000 years"
Hehehehehe

Pastorius said...

I have a feeling it's gonna take me some time to sort out the truth here.

I understand what you mean about Muslims killing their own kind. But, the truth is, they don't usually kill their own kind, until they have killed almost all the Infidels.

Or, as in Sudan, racism causes them to kill black Sufis before they finish off the Christians.

But, it's always motivated by a will to Jihad. There is rarely a mitigating circumstance.

Pastorius said...

Bosnia is the only place where the subject seems truly twisted. Bosch Fawstin told me he believes the Bosnian Muslims were a relatively peaceful people, and the Christians of the area were a relatively un-peaceful band of Christians.

I believe that.

midnight rider said...

FWIW from all I read years ago Bosch is correct. Mostly, anyway.

As for B'desh I've read far less so I will defer to smarter heads. However, I do know that for years the balance of power between India and China was maintained largely because of the strange bedfellow reltionship between India and the USSR. ACE would seem to explain how that relationship started. And since the collapse of the USSR China has become dominant, especially through their manufacturing capabilities.

I'm rambling. I'll hush up.

:)

ACE(india) said...

@pastorius
If you go to pakistan and B'desh, you will find they they are of opposing skin contrasts. Infact,India from north to south is a color chart, from kashmiries as white as Caucasians to south indians as black as africans.

"I understand what you mean about Muslims killing their own kind. But, the truth is, they don't usually kill their own kind, until they have killed almost all the Infidels."
Well its not a simple first infidel and then other sects kind of thing. Its all simultaneous, and unorganized. But yeah they do wipe out the Infidels first. so as of now pak is 97% Muslim.
E.G. Pak is sunni majority, and shia's are prosecuted, so stuff like this happens:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/pakistan-suicide-bombers-kill-44-at-parade
So ironically Iran(shia) is furious at pak blaming it as supporter of terrorism and has better ties with India.
@MR
Yeah India was close to USSR, in fact ppl in Uzbekistan still name their daughters "Indira" after the then(1955) visiting indian PM's daughter. That has translated into a very warm relationship with Russia. SO the cozy comfy relationship continues bcoz Medvedev visiting india a few weeks ago said "Will support India against a friendly neighbor"

Pastorius said...

Maybe you could write something for us. Or maybe you could suggest something for me to read on the subject.

ACE(india) said...

I'd love to write something 4 u guys. I can write about,
a) Indo - Pak
b) Indo US/Russia
c) Indo Isreal, Iran etc.
with a hindu perspective of course...and also about the subcontinents indigenous strain of Islam , sufism. BTW i got 112 on my TOEFL.

Pastorius said...

What is a TOEFL.

It must be something so important that I have had no experience with it.

;-)

ACE(india) said...

TOEFL....
Test of English as Foreign Language...Since English is your native language u don't need to give it.
We on the other hand need it to apply to diff univ's and jobs abroad.
So, just tell me wat u need n I'll try to come u with somethin.

Pastorius said...

Your English is very good.

I'm always surprised at how well many people around the world speak English. Many times people speak English as if they have been speaking it all their life.

My wife is an immigrant to America and she speaks English extremely well.

ACE(india) said...

Thank you...In india, during the formation of the nation, we had many problems, because we have over 1500 languages...including various variations and dialects...so when we tried to implement Hindi as the national language, we faced mass protests, some saw it as a move by the elite to "erase" their indigenous culture. But English was something every one was interested in( except: Muslims....they thought their Krayon was complete), Hindus were interested to learn english and continue the damocratic framework that the english left. So as a result many indians are trilangual.
1) Mother toung
2) The predominant language of the region they reside in
3) English because its their medium of instruction at school
Of course u can choose to study in u r regional language as well

ACE(india) said...

Ohh did u get this frm Pakistan
Salman Taseer, the flamboyant and high-profile Governor of Punjab(Pak ), was gunned down here on Tuesday by one of his security guards.

The guard, Mumtaz Qadri of the Punjab Elite Force, yelled out ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ and emptied two magazines of an SMG on the governor in the Kohsar Market before surrendering himself.
He was killed because he opposed the blasphemy law and called it a black law.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/pakistan/8240469/Pakistan-on-high-alert-for-state-funeral-of-murdered-governor-Salman-Taseer.html