India, Sept. 19 -- The Bangladesh War is often recounted in terms of the operational brilliance that led to the surrender of Pakistan and the birth of a new country. However, in these retellings, the reasons that compelled India into a war that year are often overlooked. In 1971: The Genocidal War, General (Retd) VK Singh attempts to define the systematic massacre in East Pakistan as genocide, a term long denied to it. Based on his first-hand accounts, the book describes in detail the events that preceded the war: the tide of refugees that flowed into India, the rise of makeshift camps across the frontier and the diseases that followed, and the creation of the Mukti Bahini resistance force that often worked in conjunction with the Indian Army. The collapse of Pakistani forces was swift. Factually meticulous and evocative, this book makes a poignant effort to tell the full story of a tragedy....