Biafra and Bangladesh: The Political Economy of Secessionist Conflict

Abstract

Class, regional and communal conflicts which influence the probability of secessionist war are affected substantially by the nature of the colonial economic system and the post-colonial international economic nexus. In Nigeria and India, British colonial rule brought about imbalances in the mobilization of populations, reinforced or created ethnic identities, and provided a framework for competition between classes and regional groups. The post-independence political and economic ties of Nigeria and Pakistan to Britain and the United States further intensified these imbalances by strengthening the dominant elite within each less developed country. Military and economic assistance, and private capital from the U.K. and the U.S. served also to shield this elite from peripheral groups within its own nation-state. The dominant classes utilized sentiments associated with sub-national identities to transfer potential hostilities from class disparities within their own communities to differences with and antagonisms toward other ethnic groups and regions. Major political elites pursued and implemented economic policies which served their economic advantage. These policies had the effect of increasing inter-regional discrepancies in Pakistan, and threatening established regional cconomic interests in Nigeria. Though patterns of perceived deprivation thus differed in the two cases, both Biafra and Bangladesh came to view their membership within a federal union as one entailing persistent economic costs. The precipitants of the two political conflicts - the reorganization of the Nigerian federation and the postponement of the Pakistan constituent assembly - were only final steps on the long road to secessionist civil war. © 1976, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.