Book Excerpt: The Blood Telegram - India's Secret War in East Pakistan

The birth of Bangladesh is one of the most defining moments in modern South Asian history. Pakistan, at the time of its creation in 1947, comprised two wings - West Pakistan and East Pakistan; it was East Pakistan that broke away to form a separate country in 1971.



The Blood Telegram - India's Secret War in East Pakistan brilliantly captures the chaos, despondence and violence that permeated the air in the run-up to the formation of Bangladesh. This is easily the best work on the 1971 India-Pakistan war and the creation of Bangladesh.



The book dwells on the finer nuances of international diplomacy, especially the anti-India Nixon administration in the U.S., the Chinese machinations against India, and the seminal role played by Indira Gandhi in the birth of the new country of Bangladesh.


Title: The Blood Telegram - India's Secret War in East Pakistan

Author: Gary J. Bass
Publisher: Random House
Pages featured here: 21-27

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