Everyone will be thankful that Pakistan’s surrender has ended the war in East Bengal. A province that gets much more than its share of natural disasters has been sunk for eight months in a welter of man-made conflict. Fortunately the war itself has not been prolonged nor is it likely to have been very heavy in its toll of civilians. The fear that with the war’s end Bengalis and Biharis would again be at each other should be avoided by effective policing by the Indian army. As and when a Bangladesh authority emerges a real peace should bring its reward.

With the surrender and repatriation to the west of the Pakistan troops the de facto authority of the Pakistan Government has now been removed from the eastern province. It cannot be reestablished either de facto or de jure unless it were by the invitation of the representatives of East Bengal. Events in the past eight months make any such possibility most unlikely Indeed, the Awami League, which fought the election a year ago on a demand of justice for the east and for greater autonomy, but not specifically for secession, will probably now be unwilling to consider any alternative but secession. The government that India has recognized will soon be in the capital, Dacca, and will seek to establish its authority internally and internationally.

There are bound to be difficulties before that authority is plain and unimpeded. For some time to come the Indian army will be present and there will be a tendency for Indian officials to try to lay down guide-lines for the future. This is natural, given the circumstances of the war, the period of preparation during which the guerrillas were under Indian protection, and the unavoidable disruption brought by warfare. Even to assess the needs and feelings of the population, or to coordinate guerrillas many of whom have been operating without much central control, or to support for an immediate political programme, will take time. Political opportunism on the extreme left - to mention one possibility - may have opened some rifts in the handsome backing that was once given to the Awami League.

Of direct and urgent concern to India is the question of refugee. Those of them who are Bengali Muslims may now willingly return without urging or much in the way of assistance. The Hindu element, commonly estimated at about three-quarters of the total that took refuge in India, may not find return so easy or so reassuring. This is a problem that India will have to tackle in co-operation with the Bangladesh authorities, and in the end quite a few of the refugees may have to be absorbed in India. Several millions of Hindis from East Pakistan have crossed the border in the years since partition. What seems from outside a problem of ordinary human welfare will unavoidably carry political overtones. This is one issue in which India will have to tread delicately.

The Indians will not therefore simply be responding to Chinese taunts if they do their best to ensure that as soon as possible the authority of a Bangladesh government, independent of any strings pulled in Delhi, is in being and can be acknowledged without reserve. Mrs. Gandhi has made such intentions plain : India would never interfere in the internal affairs of Bangladesh, she said, but would live as a neighbour in peace and friendship. No one need doubt her words. But many complications, some of them as yet unforeseen, may make the clean break that must come between a temporary and necessary Indian authority and the complete emergence of an independent government in full control of East Bengal a difficult one. The Indians have said that their army will remain only so long as the Bangladesh government requires them. The sooner they can withdraw the better.

For the moment, according to General Yahya Khan’s defiant statement to his people yesterday, the war is to go on in the west unless on second thoughts he Pakistan Government responds to the Indian declaration of a cease-fire. This means that an end to the war in the west must await some kind of consensus among the leading powers at the United Nations. With American and Russian warships moving into the Bay of Bengal the prospects yesterday did not look very hopeful. And if the war goes on in the west tie hopes of a speedy settlement in the east could become even more confused. What exists now is the foundation for a real freedom for the people of East Bengal. To most world opinion that has seemed the natural goal to which events should lead.