ABSTRACT
This chapter asks how and why the UN became involved in humanitarian aid, and how the East Pakistan Crisis in particular set a precedent for increased and ongoing UN involvement in humanitarian emergencies. It analyses how the United Nations dealt with traditions that can be traced back to the League of Nations. The creation of an international organization for refugees took up the tradition of the League of Nations and developed it further. The chapter pays special attention to the UN's humanitarian efforts or the lack thereof in disaster-prone India. It argues that the humanitarian commitment of the United Nations developed in three overlapping phases. The chapter focuses on humanitarian aid in the self-conception of the United Nations and its importance within the work of UN programmes and special agencies. It argues that the UN's real departure from the legacy of the League of Nations only came in the 1970s, when its commitment to relief became truly global and permanent.
