Razakar (رضا کار) is etymologically an Arabic word which literally means volunteer. The word is also common in Urdu language as a loanword. In Bangladesh, razakar is a pejorative word meaning a traitor or Judas.
In Pakistan and India
Razakars were an East Pakistani paramilitary force that aided the Pakistan Army against the Mukti Bahini during the Bangladesh Liberation War.[1]
Police Qaumi Razakars are a volunteer force in Pakistan which aids the Police in their duties.[2][3]
In Hyderabad, Razakars were volunteers sponsored by the Nizam's state of Hyderabad for opposition to its merger with India.[4]
In Bangladesh
In Bengali language, razakar is an ethnic slur mainly towards Pakistanis and Biharis: a pejorative term akin to the western term "traitor" or Judas.[5] The phrase comes from the East Pakistani paramilitary force written about above.
References
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-10-04. Retrieved 2013-02-10.
- ^ "THE PUNJAB QAUMI RAZAKARS ORDINANCE, 1965". Punjab Laws. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ^ Faisal, Muhammad (4 March 2014). "Failure to check corruption: Police mull razakar force abolition". The Dawn. Retrieved 6 January 2015.
- ^ Moraes, Frank, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mumbai: Jaico. 2007, p.394
- ^ Mookherjee, Nayanika (2009). Sharika Thiranagama, Tobias Kelly (ed.). Traitors: Suspicion, Intimacy, and the Ethics of State-Building. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 49. ISBN 978-0-8122-4213-3.