Looking Biharis in the eye

In 1947, one million Muslim Biharis migrated from India, like so many others, to Pakistan – East Pakistan. Educated and fluent in Urdu, the Biharis were treated as part of the elite, filling major bureaucratic and private-sector positions, all the while remaining separate from the 'local' population. As a result, the Bangla-speaking populace grew resentful, viewing these migrants as supporters and symbols of unjust West Pakistani domination. The Biharis drew even more Bangladeshi ire during the liberation war of 1970-71. Since the group regarded itself as Pakistani, the majority sided with West Pakistan, some joining the armed movements.

After India's intervention in December 1971, Pakistan evacuated Bangladesh. Left behind, in a country that had formed around them, were over one million Urdu-speaking Biharis. Persecuted, their property and houses seized, their jobs terminated, by 1972 1,008,680 Biharis were interned in camps across Bangladesh.