Salman Rushdie Midnight's children Salman Rushdie Midnight's ...

Niazi have been in the city that December. To continue: the Indian interve
ntion in the Bangladesh dispute was also the result of the interaction of g
reat forces. Perhaps, if ten million had not walked across the frontiers in
to India, obliging the Delhi Government to spend $200,000,000 a month on re
fugee camps the entire war of 1965, whose secret purpose had been the annih
ilation of my family, had cost them only $70,000,000! Indian soldiers, led
by General Sam, would never have crossed the frontiers in the opposite dire
ction. But India came for other reasons, too: as I was to learn from the Co
mmunist magicians who lived in the shadow of the Delhi Friday Mosque, the D
elhi sarkar had been highly concerned by the declining influence of Mujib's
Awami League, and the growing popularity of the revolutionary Mukti Bahini
; Sam and the Tiger met in Dacca to prevent the Bahini from gaining power.
So if it were not for the Mukti Bahini, Parvati the witch might never have
accompanied the Indian troops on their campaign of 'liberation'… But even t
hat is not a full explanation. A third reason for Indian intervention was t
he fear that the disturbances in Bangladesh would, if they were not quickly
curtailed, spread across the frontiers into West Bengal; so Sam and the Ti
ger, and also Parvati and I, owe our meeting at least in part to the more t
urbulent elements in West Bengali politics: the Tiger's defeat was only the
beginning of a campaign against the Left in Calcutta and its environs.
At any rate, India came; and for the speed of her coming because in a mere
three weeks Pakistan had lost half her navy, a third of her army, a quarter
of her air force, and finally, after the Tiger surrendered, more than half
her population thanks must be given to the Mukti Bahini once more; because
, perhaps naively, failing to understand that the Indian advance was as muc
h a tactical manoeuvre against them as a battle against the occupying West
Wing forces, the Bahini advised General Manekshaw on Pakistani troop moveme
nts, on the Tiger's strengths and weaknesses; thanks, too, to Mr Chou En La
i, who refused (despite Bhutto's entreaties) to give Pakistan any material
aid in the war. Denied Chinese arms, Pakistan fought with American guns, Am
erican tanks and aircraft; the President of the United States, alone in the
entire world, was resolved to 'tilt' towards Pakistan. While Henry A. Kiss
inger argued the cause of Yahya Khan, the same Yahya was secretly arranging
the President's famous state visit to China… there were, therefore, great
forces working against my reunion with Parvati and Sam's with the Tiger; bu
t despite the tilting President, it was all over in three short weeks.
On the night of December 14th, Shaheed Dar and the buddha circled the fring
es of the invested city of Dacca; but the buddha's nose (you will not have
forgotten) was capable of sniffing out more than most. Following his nose,
which could smell safety and danger, they found a way through the Indian li
nes, and entered the city under cover of night. While they moved stealthily
through streets in which nobody except a few starving beggars could be see