From the time immemorial the clash between and among the human races are evident throughout the whole world. The history of human civilization reveals the fact that human being in general can not get rid of his sexual, personal, relational, social, cultural, political / ideological, regional, communal and/or religious belonging and hence make himself narrow to bind in a specific community he thinks he belong. As a result before establishing him as a human being he loves to think himself for example either as a male/female and/or as a doctor/ Engineer, higher caste member, leader, culturally advanced, leftist/rightist/fundamentalist, a regional representative, a community head or as Muslim/Hindu/Christian. Sahdat Hasan Manto, Krishen Chander, Rahul Sankrityan and some other secular writers highlighted the clashes in their several writings based on the communal riot just after the independence of Pakistan and India on 14th and 15th August 1947, respectively. Tens of thousands of people from both the communities were slaughtered during the period until Mahatma Gandhi declared fasting till death. Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan (Simanta Gandhi) also introduced a very restless effort to stop the violence. All these atrocities and manslaughter was due to the encouragement by the then politicians who claimed a separate land for the Muslims and introduced a bi-nation theory for their political interest and hence seeded the poison of communality in Indian subcontinent. If we look a bit backward it was evident that Hindus in undivided India (British India) educated themselves and were able to establish themselves in various functionaries of the government and gained reliability to act as the head of the local government (Jamider). On the other hand the Muslims being patronised by their spiritual and political leader started avoiding English education, civic culture, govt. Job (the rumour of by force uptake/use of pork products incorporated with gun bullet etc. with a fear of losing their religious identity) and so on. As a result the distance between these two religious communities widen from big to bibber due to jealousy of religious, economic, social and cultural variation. This sentiment further had been aggravated by continuous communal and religious campaign by some of the opportunist leaders to exploit their support for their own community and political interests. That seed of communalism had been nursed by those groups of people and helped disseminating the same via all possible means of communication including mosque and Madrasas. This grass route level campaign proved successful to induce several riots in the then East and West Pakistan.
After the partition most of the educated and financially solvent Hindus fled to India leaving behind their properties, inherited culture and motherland forever. Their properties were being declared as the enemy property by the then Muslim League government and thus a discrimination began at the national and governmental level, which influenced the radical opportunist Muslims to grab the Hindu properties, snatch their daughters and wives to marry and subsequently convert them into Muslim. Because it was declared by the spiritual leaders that if you can convert one “Kafer” (non Muslim) to Muslim, the paradise is reserved for you. Discrimination started at all levels of society to suppress the rest Hindu people who failed to go to India due to economic or other reasons. As a result part of the Hindu population find no other way than converted into Muslim. Moreover, they were specifically taken to the religious gathering to declare the same so that all other minorities would have been encouraged to be converted into Muslim. Before liberation war of Bangladesh a big portion of Hindu community thought to be entangled to left politics thinking that is the only way to get protection from racial discrimination and to resist fundamentalism. (Late) Dr. Gholam Kabir, Associate Professor and Professor, Dept of Political Science, Rajshahi University and Jahangirnagar university, repectively made a cross sectional study on “Minority Politics in Bangladesh” published from the University press of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, where he mentioned about the changing of track of minority people from Swadeshi movement (Movement for own culture) to leftist movement and thereby with the ruling multiclass party, namely Awami League for the struggle of their existence. Similarly, most of the Muslims in India support the secular parties like Congress or left alliance for the same reason. There is a common inherited proverb in Bangladesh that “Hindus put one leg to Bangladesh and another to India”. Have anybody ever been tried to find out what are the reasons behind it? Possibly it is the only option left for the Hindus rather than resist oppression and come to a direct clash with the majority people. So, either they have to abandon their everything including girls, money and property or have to leave the country.
When I was very young I heard about the riot of Muladi, Bakerganj and Noakhali from my mother. My mother and maternal uncles were regarded as Swadeshi Andolan (movement for own culture and values) worker in British India (undivided India). Later on they were awarded with the certificate of achievement from the government. Ashwini Kumar, Mukunda Das etc. were in the leading role in that region of Bakerganj. But a radical change in politics in the subcontinent gave rise to Indo-Pak war after the independence in 1947, which gave rise to an anti Indian and anti Hindu propaganda and subsequent communal riot in various places of India and Pakistan. As a part of violence, the riot spread throughout the East Pakistan. In Muladi more than 150 Hindus were provided shelter in a LSD godown located in a market place. All the people inside thanked god and Officer in Charge of Muladi thana for their safety, thinking that at least they are not going to be killed until then when the OC himself started taking out one after another and slaughtered them by the help of radical Muslims promised to make the country free of Hindus. The girls and women hide within the bush of water hyacinth in the pond but failed to save themselves in most of the cases. Realising the seriousness of violence some leaders like Kalu Kha, Gazi and Samad Quazi came forward to stop the activists from killing, while the activists came to a direct confrontation with the leaders and did not stop until Kalu Kha was killed. On the other hand in some Hindu majority area like Karpha, Barapaika, Saheber hat, Agailjhara, Kodaldhoa, Ashkore, Bashail, Gaila, Paisar hat, Satla, Bagda of Wazirpur and Gournadi thana and some region of Gopalganj the scenarios were other way round. But this time the above mentioned areas, Bhola and Bagerhat were the main targets of the fundamentalists
Due to official obligation I had to go to Muladi in 1996 for couple of weeks. As I never visited my maternal uncles place in my life I did not want to miss the opportunity. Getting there one day I met a beggar on the road near upazila Parishad who was praying for some coin saying that he was Hindu before and has converted to Muslim during riot and hence deserve some sympathy and help from the people. I took him to the guesthouse where I used to stay for the time being and asked him about the incidence. He also repeated the same story as my mother described. I asked him about my maternal uncle. He answered, “Who doesn’t know Sitanath Paul. He was Jamider in our area. He had two guns and horses of his own, a lot of soldiers. He was a good Jamider, who did not torture the general public. Any way all his relatives were slaughtered but he managed to escape and went to India. Still his properties are within the grip of Mannan Kha, Wazed Bepari and some other influential persons. But most of his properties are now under water. Have you been to old steamer Ghat?” When I replied in positive he told me that some other day he would take me elsewhere and show me the position of my maternal uncles buildings. This incidence is an isolated example. Tens of thousands of such examples prevail in the region.
We see the repetition of same history during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971, while the then Muslim League govt. of East Pakistan declared Hindus as “Kafer” and asked for killing them indiscriminately. So, the radical people looted their properties, burned the houses, raped the women and girls and forced them to leave the country. As a continuation of the same some radical groups under the umbrella of present ruling government doing the same thing. The present four party alliance government, where the fundamentalists comprise a considerable component have been engaged in cleansing of Hindus from their motherland. It would be evident from the data presented by the participants of the seminar. Since 1st October 2001 the atrocities against Hindus include killing, rape, arson, eviction, looting and burning of Hindu properties, forcing them to leave the country. This is the extreme violation of human rights commenced by the direct influence of the present government in Bangladesh.
Considering the historic background the following recommendation can be made.
- 1. Hindus should be declared as the most vulnerable group in Bangladesh and law should be made and enforced immediately for their protection.
- 2. Bring the criminals to justice and hang to death to all the rapists.
- 3. Life sentence for the others involved.
- 4. Religious discrimination should be erased by including “secularism” in the constitution again.
- 5. Stop communal propaganda in Mosque, Madrasas and religious gatherings (like that in Pakistan) and make necessary law for the same.
- 6. Activities of all radical and fundamentalist parties should be stopped immediately and declare them illegal.
- 7. All the people from the Hindu community may be rehabilitated to a particular region of the country with an autonomy and national protection (like that in India).
- 8. Assign quota as per population of the Hindus in all govt. jobs including military, police, administration and security services.
- 9. Act should be prepared for the protection of minority properties.
- 10. Harassment by the land officials for buying and selling Hindu properties should be investigated and punish the corrupt officials.
0 মন্তব্যসমূহ