First of all, the idea of partition was a crazy idea, it was basically designed to fail. The leaders who made this decision were short sighted. The best option for South Asian Muslims in 1947 was not to have partition. I can cite many reasons:
- secure water sources for Muslim majority areas
- avoiding the specter of the Hindu dominated "Ram Rajya", instead of this India, we would have a balance of Hindu-Muslim power within the same state in a different India with about 500 million Muslims
- avoiding the nuclear standoff between India and Pakistan, Kashmir problem, insecurity about North east states (the main reason why India helped to break Pakistan), an ever insecure Bangladesh that is surrounded on 3 sides
- a bigger more viable state that was a natural extension from earlier large unified empires and kingdoms
After partition, the two wings of Pakistan were bound to go separate ways. A 3 state solution was a better option instead of the 2 state solution, from the start, like many stated in earlier post.
As for language, instead of Urdu, English was a more practical option for a national language, while Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Sindhi, Pashto, Baluchi etc. could be local 2nd official languages.
As for who is to blame for 1971 casualty of 300,000 or so from all sides (Bengali, Bihari etc.), my opinion is this:
- West Pakistan unfair treatment with East Pakistan was something that could be solved with discussion, even more autonomy or outright secession could be discussed if democracy was allowed, so military rulers of Pakistan had some responsibility for not allowing democracy to take its course specially after 1970 election
- some elements within Awami League were engaged with Indian Intelligence agencies for decades to destabilize and eventual secession of East Pakistan, I think some of these people were trained and became part of Mujib Bahini years before 1971
- majority East Pakistan population changed their mind from autonomy to independence/liberation after the commencement of Operation Searchlight on the night of 25th March, 1971
- Mukti-Bahini was formed from East Pakistan armed population like Army, Police etc. initially and civilians who were later trained after declaration of independence was made on 26th March, 1971 by Zia, on behalf of Mujib, the elected leader
So if anyone could be called traitors, it could be those who conspired against their state with help of an enemy state, such as some elements within AL, but not Mukti-Bahini and people of Bangladesh who rose up in a general revolt after commencement of Operation Searchlight on night of 25th March, 1971, formally declared independence on 26th March, 1971 and then got help from India in the process of this revolution.
For the loss of lives, I personally blame Indira Gandhi who had this idea to break Pakistan using AL elements to instigate a civil war with their insurgents engaged in clandestine killings prior to Operation Searchlight, and West Pakistan civil and military leaders who swallowed the Indian bait, hook, line and sinker, commenced Operation Searchlight and sparked a mass revolt and the war of liberation for Bangladesh. Her main motivations were:
- to break and weaken a unified Pakistan which was a threat for India
- secure North East states from ISI-Chinese intelligence supported insurgency which could possibly result in the independence of this area if Bangladesh was not created in time
