Gandhi got his life’s dream fulfilled when the Indian subcontinent granted full Independence from the British. But the subcontinent itself was hardly monolithic: even in Gandhi’s time repeated clashes between Muslims and Hindus suggested there was no peaceful for the two sides to co-exist. Before leaving, Britain portioned off India from the Muslim Pakistan region, but even that proved inadequate as an uprising in Pakistan divided it along the east and west battle lines.

On this day, March 26, 1971, the East Pakistan political party declared independence from West Pakistan and began discussion on partitions. West Pakistan responded by airlifting several infantry divisions over the mountains and dividing the East into eleven military sectors. The battle lines around the Bangladeshi war of Independence were drawn.

East Pakistan had many grievances against the West. They were culturally apart, speaking Bangladeshi and not the Urdu of the West. They also paid more taxes but had little say in a West-dominated government. The final blow perhaps came after a huge cyclone flooded large swaths of East Pakistan. Desperate calls for relief were only answered slowly by the West, leaving many embittered at the callousness of their own political leaders.