Between March and May 1954, an election and two riots took place in East Pakistan, with far-reaching implications. On 30 May, the prime minister of Pakistan, in a bellicose tone, declared that ‘enemy agents’ and ‘disruptive forces’ were at work and imposed governor's rule for the first time in East Pakistan. The autocratic and high-handed attitude of the Central government in Karachi over the seemingly wayward East Wing was to become a portent of future conflicts between the province and the state, eventually leading to the unmaking of Pakistan in 1971. What precipitated the 1954 crisis? Who were the enemy agents and disruptive forces that the prime minister had alluded to? The reference was to the Bengali labourers in East Pakistan—the main protagonists of the 1954 Karnaphuli Paper Mill and Adamjee Jute Mill riots. These were the most violent industrial riots in the history of United Pakistan, if not the subcontinent. Using sensitive materials obtained from multiple archives, this article dismantles the conventional thesis that these riots were ‘Bengali–Bihari riots’, fanned by the flames of Bengali provincialism at the political level, or events instigated by the Centre to derail the democratic hopes of the Bengali population of Pakistan. A microhistory of the events demonstrates a more complex picture of postcolonial labour formations and solidarities; the relationship between state-led industrialization and refugee rehabilitation, and conflicting visions of sovereignty. This is a story of estrangement between employers and workers over the question of who were the real sovereigns of labour, capital, and Pakistan itself.

中文翻译：

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“工作中的特工”：1954 年东巴基斯坦亚当吉和卡纳普里暴动的微观历史

1954 年 3 月至 5 月期间，东巴基斯坦发生了一次选举和两次骚乱，影响深远。5 月 30 日，巴基斯坦总理以好战的口吻宣布“敌方代理人”和“破坏性力量”在起作用，并首次在东巴基斯坦实施州长统治。卡拉奇中央政府对看似任性的东翼的专制和高压态度成为未来省州之间冲突的预兆，最终导致巴基斯坦在 1971 年瓦解。是什么促成了 1954 年的危机？首相提到的敌方特工和破坏力量是谁？这里指的是东巴基斯坦的孟加拉劳工——1954 年卡纳普里造纸厂和亚当吉黄麻厂骚乱的主要参与者。这些是联合巴基斯坦历史上最暴力的工业骚乱，如果不是次大陆的话。本文利用从多个档案中获得的敏感材料，推翻了认为这些骚乱是“孟加拉-比哈里骚乱”、在政治层面被孟加拉地方主义的火焰煽动或由中心煽动破坏民主希望的事件的传统论点。巴基斯坦的孟加拉人口。事件的微观历史展示了后殖民劳工组织和团结的更为复杂的画面；国家主导的工业化与难民康复之间的关系，以及相互冲突的主权愿景。这是一个雇主和工人之间在谁是劳动力、资本和巴基斯坦本身的真正主权者问题上的隔阂的故事。