The year 1971 exists everywhere in Bangladesh-on its roads; in sculptures; in its museums and oral history projects; in its curriculum; in people’s homes and their stories; and in political discourse. It marks the birth of the nation; its liberation. More than 1000 miles away; in Pakistan too; 1971 marks a watershed moment; its memories sitting uncomfortably in public imagination. It is remembered as the ‘Fall of Dacca’; the dismemberment of Pakistan or the third Indo-Pak war. In India; 1971 represents something else-the story of humanitarian intervention; of triumph and valour that paved the way for India’s rise as a military power; the beginning of its journey to becoming a regional superpower.