Which of the following statements is/are correct? 1. India had accorded recognition to Bangladesh even before the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. 2. In March 2021, both India and Bangladesh had decided to celebrate 6 December as Maitri Diwas. Select the correct answer using the code given below:
- (a)1 only
- (b)2 only
- (c)Both 1 and 2
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2
Correct — C, Both 1 and 2. Statement 1 is right, and it is the point of the whole question. India recognised Bangladesh on 6 December 1971, ten days before the Pakistani forces surrendered at Dhaka on 16 December, so the recognition genuinely preceded liberation. Bhutan announced its recognition earlier the same day and is counted as the first state in the world to do so, with India following within hours. Statement 2 is right as well. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Dhaka in March 2021 for Bangladesh's national day and the fiftieth anniversary of its independence, the two governments agreed to observe 6 December as Maitri Diwas, Friendship Day, precisely because that is the date of India's recognition; it has been marked since, including by Indian missions abroad.
- (a)1 only — Accepts the 1971 recognition but rejects Maitri Diwas, which was in fact agreed at the March 2021 talks in Dhaka and is observed on 6 December.
- (b)2 only — Rejects the recognition claim. It is the sounder of the two statements — 6 December 1971 is ten days before the surrender at Dhaka on 16 December.
- (d)Neither 1 nor 2 — Rejects both, which would require India's recognition to have come only after liberation and Maitri Diwas not to exist. Neither holds, and the two facts are actually the same fact seen fifty years apart — the day chosen for Maitri Diwas is the day of the recognition.
The recognition of a new state is a diplomatic act separate from the military outcome of a war, and its timing carries meaning. India recognised Bangladesh while the fighting was still going on, which committed it publicly to the new state's existence and to the political settlement that followed. Fifty years later the two governments turned the anniversary into a standing observance. Maitri Diwas sits alongside a wider set of commemorations the two countries share — Bangladesh's Victory Day on 16 December, and the Mujib Borsho centenary year of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman that framed Prime Minister Modi's March 2021 visit.
A two-statement item like this is easiest when the two statements turn out to be connected, and here they are: the date in statement 2 exists because of the event in statement 1. If a candidate can recall that Maitri Diwas falls on 6 December and can also recall that Bangladesh's Victory Day is 16 December, statement 1 follows without any separate memory of the recognition date — the two dates are ten days apart and the earlier one is the recognition. The trap is the word 'before' in statement 1, which invites the assumption that no country would recognise a state that did not yet control its territory; several did, Bhutan first and India the same day. Both statements are correct, so the answer is (c).
- India recognised Bangladesh on 6 December 1971; the Pakistani instrument of surrender was signed at Dhaka on 16 December 1971.
- Bhutan announced its recognition on 6 December 1971 and is regarded as the first state in the world to recognise Bangladesh, with India following the same day.
- India and Bangladesh agreed during Prime Minister Modi's March 2021 visit to Dhaka to observe 6 December as Maitri Diwas, or Friendship Day.
- The March 2021 visit coincided with Bangladesh's fiftieth independence anniversary and the birth centenary year of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
- Bangladesh observes 16 December as Victory Day, the anniversary of the surrender at Dhaka.
- Assuming recognition must follow liberation. India recognised Bangladesh on 6 December, ten days before the surrender.
- Attaching Maitri Diwas to 16 December, which is Bangladesh's Victory Day, rather than to 6 December.
- Crediting India as the first country in the world to recognise Bangladesh. Bhutan's announcement came earlier the same day.
As a two-statement correctness item, as a date question on recognition or Victory Day, or as part of a chronology of the 1971 war.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Maitri Diwas, observed jointly by India and Bangladesh, falls on
- (a)26 March
- (b)16 December
- (c)6 December
- (d)17 April
Answer(c) 6 December — the anniversary of India's recognition of Bangladesh in 1971. Bangladesh's Victory Day is 16 December and its Independence Day 26 March.
- practice — not a real PYQ
The Pakistani instrument of surrender that ended the Bangladesh Liberation War was signed at Dhaka on
- (a)3 December 1971
- (b)6 December 1971
- (c)16 December 1971
- (d)26 March 1971
Answer(c) 16 December 1971 — observed in Bangladesh as Victory Day and in India as Vijay Diwas.