'In my beginning is my end.'

There is no situation in the world that cannot be explained through poetry in general, T.S. Eliot's in particular. Sheikh Hasina, one of the longest-serving heads of the government in the world, has demitted office after a month of bloodshed in Bangladesh. Her life seems to be coming full circle-the former Prime Minister has sought refuge in India and is likely to come to Delhi.

The beginning is this. Humiliated by the West Pakistan establishment despite decisively winning the 1970 parliamentary elections, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman - Hasina's father - gave a call for Independence and after a year of bloodshed, Bangladesh came into existence. Mujib was killed; a terrible beauty was born.

Independence is a thing of beauty. It is also terrible. Rarely does it come into being in the absence of violence. This holds more succinctly for South Asia than any other part of the world, or at least it feels so given the sheer numbers. In India's public imagination, 1971 is all about Mukti Bahini and the Indian armed forces joining hands in birthing Bangladesh. It's about Indira Gandhi and Sam Manekshaw.
After Yahya Khan cancelled the Pakistan National Assembly on March 1, 1971, more than 300 ethnic Biharis were murdered by Mujib's supporters even before the latter's call for mobilisation. Within a month, the Pakistan........

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