Author: From our correspondent
Publication: Organiser
Date: April 7, 2002
Introduction: Not more than half
the incidents of atrocities find any place in the newspaper, and not more
than 10 per cent complaints are recorded in the police station. Living
under a constant threat of violation these hapless people are in a difficult
situation. In many cases they are subjected to harassment by police for
lodging complaint and face renewed violence of higher degrees by the culprits
when administration moves for action.
The Hindus in Bangladesh are facing
an organised attack from the supporters of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and some allied religio-political outfits.
Reportedly, the attack is political in nature as the Hindus there are labelled
as supporters of the Awami League (AL).
Since the gory tragedy of the Naokhali
killings of 1946, the Hindus in Bangladesh have been subjected to pogroms
at regular intervals. They have fallen victims to the religious fury of
their neighbours and the government on numerous occasions. The incidents
in 1947, 1950, 1964, 1971, 1990-92, are only some instances. And it is
noteworthy that the non-Muslim minorities in Bangladesh (east Pakistan)
constituted 29 per cent of the population in 1947. Now only eight per cent
non-Muslims are living there.
The Hindus in Bangladesh vote for
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the jatiya Party (JP) and other left
parties. But since the 8th parliament elections, a massive terror has been
unleashed on the minority Hindu community attributing the false charge
that they voted only for the Awami League. Starting from murder, rape,
physical assault, looting of properties, setting fire on houses, eviction
from houses, demolition of temples and deities, nothing has been left out
from the purview of revenge. The BNP and its allies are aiming at creating
a monolithic Islamic state like Pakistan by driving out all the Hindus
from Bangladesh.
The torture has been intensified
recently. The reason is not political or economical, but a clear fermentation
by the religious fundamentalists, according to a well chalked out blueprint.
It' is clear as daylight from the mode of atrocities that religious cleansing
of the Hindus is the primary goal. The underlying policy is "don't kill
them, molest their women, so that the they will leave the country gradually.
For the majority Muslims it has
become a routine since the last election to arbitrarily own household properties,
fishing and landed properties of the minority Hindu community. The misdeeds
are not taken as illegal as these are passed off by the authorities as
stray incidents. The grass root level BNP-JI activists are instructed to
suppress the Hindus since they vote for AL. Thousands of Hindus hounded
in the country are spending sleepless.
Begum Khaleda Zia, the Prime Minister
of Bangladesh, said during a nationwide broadcast on 19-10-2001: "Bangladesh
is a country of communal harmony. Everybody irrespective of his religion
is a Bangladeshi and not just a Muslim, Hindu or a Christian. In this wonderful
country of religious harmony we caution the people of our country to be
watchful against those people who are trying to create a division among
us by uttering the word 'minority' with a motive.'
The Home Minister Altaf Hossain
Choudhury, retired Air Vice-Marshall, said in a press conference held in
Dhaka on 15-10-2001: "Most of the incidents are stage-managed, and concocted
stories, and the reports published in the newspapers are mostly false,
and fabricated. 80 to 90% of what has been published in the newspapers
are false and baseless since we do not find any conformity between the
news reports and the reports submitted by district administration.'
The editorial-of the Prothom Alo
'A futile attempt to hide the truth' published on 23-10-2001 about the
contents of the report submitted by the cabinet committee constituted by
the government to probe into the matter of minority harassment clearly
brings out the role of the Bangladesh Government on this issue.
"What has been stated in the 6th
meeting of the cabinet committee on the law and order about the alleged
harassment of the minority and their migration from Bangladesh has been
a matter if surprise to all of us. It has been stated that out of nine
specifically alleged complaints about the torture and persecution of the
minority community only two have been found partially true; and there has
been no evidence of their leaving the country and migration to India. The
cabinet committee has furnished this information after carefully going
through the four-tier reports submitted by Ministerial, Parliamentarian,
Secretariat and diplomatic levels.
The obvious question that will creep
into the minds of the people is-are the reports on the atrocities committed
on the minorities that have been published in the newspapers are all false
and fabricated? We would like to put this question to the cabinet committee
and the govermnent, do they mean to say that countries' media is all lying?"
After the demolition of the Babri
structure in December 1992, when there was arson, loot, murder, rape and
demolition of Hindu temples and deities which continued for over a month,
the then Prime Minister, Begum Khaleda Zia said on the Floor of the Parliament:
"Nothing has happened anywhere in Bangladesh, a wonderful communal harmony
is reigning in Bangladesh".
As all these utterances of the former
Prime Minister and the Home Minister are inhuman and incorrect. They are
in a way inspiring the communal forces. The local administration has also
understood have noted that more than 10 incidents can be admitted out of
100 such incidents. The district administration and the police have precisely
done this. Not more than half the incidents of atrocities find any place
in the newspapers, and not more than 10 per cent complaints are recorded
in the police station. Living under a constant threat of violation these
hapless people are in a difficult situation. In many cases they are subjected
to harassment by police for lodging complaint and face renewed violence
of higher degrees by the culprits when administration moves for action.
The media also shy away from reporting torture on the minority in fear
of disturbing so-called communal harmony.
During the Pakistani regime the
intellectuals of Bangladesh used to attribute the reasons for communal
riots to the "divide and rule policy" adopted by the British and the communal
policies adopted by the Pakistani ruler in Bangladesh. They did this even
in 1971 only to console themselves and earn accolades for this argument
in seminars and various discussions on this subject. They said that the
communal riots of 1990 and 1992 were the result of the conspiracies hatched
by a dictatorial government and the fallout of the demolition of the Babri
structure in India respectively. This time also the same logic based on
political consideration has been put forward by many, and they still believe
that people of Bangladesh are not at all communal. The major political
parties of Bangladesh and their obedient intellectuals never admit that
lslamization, and communalisation of Bangladesh society have gone the full
circle during the last fifty years. What the common Muslim population is
doing now is grossly soaked in communalism and anti-Hindu sentiment. It
has now become a wishful thinking that the fair wind of communal harmony
is blooming in Bangladesh. These are the reasons that the Enemy Property
Act survives for decades after decades.
With few exceptions (brief rule
of AL for five years from 1996-2001), all the governments since 1975 have
pursued the communal agenda like Pakistan. An atmosphere of anti-Hindu
sentiment is pervading the society barring a handful of intellectuals.
The communal face of the government it looming large in Bangladesh for
the last fifty years. During the Pakistan regime, the Defence of Pakistan
Rule (DPR) has been applied to the leaders belonging to the Hindu community
without exception. During 1965 war the Hindus were subjected to DPR indiscriminately,
and through the operation of Enemy Property Act Hindus have realized that
they are nothing but second-class citizens of Bangladesh.
A recent study entitled "An Inquiry
into Causes and Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh
through the Vested Property Act" has estimated the violations of Hindu's
right to property as follows:
'Approximately a million Hindu households
(40 per cent have been deprived of over 1.64 million acres of landed property,
which is 53 per cent of the land owned by Hindu households. This included
81.7 per cent agricultural land, 10 per cent homestead land, 1.74 per cent
garden land, 2.4 per cent ponds, 0.68 per cent fallow land and the rest
was 3.4 per cent.
At the time they appropriated the
property, approximately 44 per cent were affiliated with the Muslim League,
20 per cent with BNP, 17 per cent with Awami League, 5 per cent with Jatiyo
Party and 1 per cent with Jamaat-Islami. In 1995, 72 and 11 per cent of
those who appropriated minority property belonged to the BNP and AL respectively.
While in 1997, an equal number of 44 per cent each from AL and the right
wing parties were involved in appropriating Hindu properties."
Before 1996 no Hindus were able
to get appointment in the higher posts of the government in spite of having
requisite qualification, and a few that they got during the AL rule is
now being taken off from them after 2001 election. The employment profile
may be considered a yardstick to understand the situation prevailing in
Bangladesh. The other yardstick can be migration of the Hindu population.
The majority community of Bangladesh has to ponder over the question: Why
the percentage of Hindu population has come down from 30 per cent to below
10 per cent during the last fifty years from 1947, i.e. the year when East
Pakistan was created?
After 1947, migration of Hindu population
from Bangladesh to India has been a continuous process. The riot of 1950
and the post-marshal-law dictatorial torture of 1958 and again the riots
of 1962 and 1964, the wartime terror on the minorities of 1965, the mass
killing, rape and arson of 1971, and the continuous torture of the Hindus
after the brutal murder of Sheikh Mujib in 1975 coupled with terrible communal
flare-up of 1990 and 1992 witnessed large scale migration of the Hindu
population from Bangladesh to India. As a result of the step-motherly attitude
of the government towards them the minority communities live continuously
under a threat of violence making them mentally weak. In Bangladesh, the
riot is one-sided. Murder, rape, extortion, abduction, grabbing of properties
from the Hindu community are the common features of all these riots. This
has been going on unabated oven after Bangladesh became a sovereign country
through a liberation struggle where the Hindus and Muslims fought together
against the Pakistan army.
Since the Pakistani days lslamization
of Bangladesh has been going on, which has grown very rapidly after the
gruesome murder of Sheikh Mujib. Madrasa education is the main plank of
nurturing this process, which has been strengthened by policies adopted
by the Bangladesh Government from time to time. Islam has become the state
religion according to its constitution. Thus there always existed a propensity
in Bangladesh society to hate the Hindus. In addition, the ill-effects
of Islamic fatwa coupled with ultra-Islamic extremism of Taliban, Rajakar,
Mujahiddin and Ladenic have increased this feeling. With this social situation
the claim of the politicians and intellectuals that the Muslims of Bangladesh
believe in communal harmony and are protectors of the minority Hindu is
nothing but a wisp in the wind.
There must be a way to put an end
to the unrelenting atrocities of Hindus in Bangladesh. The international
community, Government of India and every citizen of India especially in
West Bengal have to play their role to save the Hindus of Bangladesh.
