Cyclones

Question 1

When was the Bhola cyclone?

Answer 1

12 November 1970

Question 2

How many fatalities in the Bhola cyclone?

Answer 2

Estimates vary between 300,000 and over a million

Question 3

What were the general effects of the Bhola cyclone?

Answer 3

1. Starvation as crops destroyed
2. Disease
3. Destitution as property destroyed
4. A catalyst for anti-Pakistan sentiments

Question 4

How does Feroz Ahmed describe the colonial relationship between East and West Pakistan?

Answer 4

As a true colonial system in which the capitalist class of the Western wing owned almost the entire industry in the eastern wing, used it as a market for the goods manufactured in the western part and systematically discriminated against all classes of the eastern wing. Foreign exchange earned from the exports of eastern goods and the bulk of foreign loans were utilised for the development of West Pakistan.

Question 5

What percentage of Pakistan’s budget was spent on the military?

Answer 5

60%

Question 6

What percentage of military jobs went to east Pakistanis?

Answer 6

Less than 10%, even though they comprised 55% of the country’s population

Question 7

How did West Pakistan undermine Bangladeshi culture? (4)

Answer 7

1. Urdu was imposed as the sole national language and if Bengali legislators tried to speak in their language in the constituent assembly, they were told they could be accused of treason. Bengali was eventually accepted as a second language after a turmoil and several Bengalis shot dead.
2. Promoted stereotypes of Bengalis such as laziness, promiscuity, semi-Hinduism and timidity
3. Banned playing Tagore’s songs on Radi Pakistan
4. Pseudo-scholars such as I. H. Qureshi said that Bengalis were a different race to West Pakistanis

Question 8

What was the Awami League?

Answer 8

A political party in Bangladesh that led the struggle for independence from West Pakistan.

Question 9

What was the six-point programme?

Answer 9

A list of demands that called for greater autonomy for East Pakistan. It left only defence and foreign policy as federal subjects.

Question 10

When was the first democratic Pakistani election?

Answer 10

7th December 1970

Question 11

How did cyclone Bhola prompt the Awami League to win the elections?

Answer 11

Initial failure of central government to provide relief inflamed Bengali passions and sealed outcome of elections.

Question 12

How many seats did the Awami League win compared to Pakistan’s People Party?

Answer 12

AL: 160
PPP: 81
out of 300

Question 13

How did the military respond to the Awami League’s win?

Answer 13

The military kept delaying the convening of the national assembly

Question 14

Why did the Awami League call a strike after 3rd March 1971?

Answer 14

The Pakistan’s People Party wanted the Awami League to moderate the six-point programme. After the AL refused, the PPP said it would not participate in the assembly session scheduled for 3rd March. The military supported this by postponing the session indefinitely.

Question 15

How did West Pakistan respond to the Awami League’s strike?

Answer 15

General Yahya Khan, the President of Pakistan, blamed the AL leader for creating the constitutional crisis and dispatched troops to put down demonstrations. The army killed several hundred demonstrators.

Question 16

How many seats in the assembly did the BJP and BJD win in 2000 election combined?

Answer 16

106 out of 147

Question 17

By how much did Congress’s seat share drop in comparison to the 1995 election?

Answer 17

From 80% to 26%

Question 18

When was the Orissa Assembly Election?

Answer 18

February 2000

Question 19

When did the Orissa cyclone make landfall?

Answer 19

29th October 1999

Question 20

How many died in Orissa cyclone?

Answer 20

20,000

Question 21

What percentage of people considered Orissa government’s relief work satisfactory?

Answer 21

Only 5% of respondents to a survey

Question 22

What are the effects of Orissa cyclone? (7)

Answer 22

1. Political impact
2. Agricultural areas suffer from high salinity. In Siyali, farming households concentrated on monocropping rice in the rainfed season to raise a second crop owing to the absence of irrigation facilities. Had to halt this because of saline intrusion and devastation after the cyclone. Households have found it difficult to resume ricegrowing in years since
3. In Siyali, farming households generally had 5 acres or less of land area that they owned and operated before the cyclone. By 2008, this area of cultivable land had reduced as a result of rivers changing courses and river deposits on land
4. Increased flooding
5. Livestock-keeping negatively affected
6. Loss of trees both for fire and fruit
7. Outward youth migration because of a lack of alternative employment opportunities

Question 23

How does F. Ahmed describe government response to Bhola cyclone?

Answer 23

Inefficiency and neglect of government was of such magnitude that it could not even handle relief supplies, let alone provide itself; Matter of shame that a nation that spends more than 60% of budget on military must wait for foreign troops to start relief work
(F. Ahmed, The Second Cyclone, 1971)

Question 24

What does I. Seghal argue the main impact of the Bhola cyclone was?

Answer 24

Bhola cyclone brought anti-Pakistan sentiment to a head

I. Seghal, As I See It, 2005

Question 25

How does F. Ahmed describe the relationship between east and west Pakistan?

Answer 25

What started off in 1947 as an agreement between the two geographically separated and culturally dissimilar parts to share a common destiny has today turned into a colonial occupation of one region by the other

Question 26

How does B. Mohapatra condemn Congress for the way it dealt with the Orissa cyclone? (2)

Answer 26

BJD-BJP coalition inevitable.
In the absence of major caste/class cleavages, disaffection in Orissa is directed against the state and its agencies. Defeat of the Congress in the assembly election was penalty for its awful handling of the cyclone.