Author: Ramananda Sengupta, lately in Dhaka
Publication: Rediff.com
Date: March 22, 2006
URL: http://in.rediff.com/news/2006/mar/22spec.htm
Citizens generally were free to practice the
religion of their choice; however, police often were ineffective in upholding
law and order and slow to assist members of religious minorities who were
victims of crimes. Religiously motivated discrimination and violence -- including
killings, rapes, attacks on places of worship, and forced evictions -- remained
a problem.
-- From the International Religious Freedom
Report for 2005, released by the United States State Department November 8,
2005.
Sanjay Chatterjee was barely 20 years old
when he left Kolkata in 1988 in search of greener pastures. Family connections
with Leftist politicians -- who in turn were linked to a minister in Bangladesh
-- took him to Dhaka, where he set up a small garment business.
As his business grew, he acquired Bangladeshi
citizenship and married a local Hindu girl. His parents and siblings live
in Kolkata. That same year, military strongman and then Bangladesh president
Hossain Mohammed Ershad amended the constitution of Bangladesh to make Islam
the State religion. He also changed the State's weekly holiday from Sunday
to Friday.
Eighteen years later, Chatterjee -- who now
has a nine-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter, and routinely travels
to China, Thailand and other East Asian nations on business -- wants to return
to India.
"Things have become very difficult here
after the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its fundamentalist allies came
to power in 2001," he says. "It has become increasingly difficult
for a Hindu to walk the streets of Dhaka with his head held high."
The ruling coalition -- it includes the Jamaat-e-Islami,
Islami Oikya Jote, and the Naziur faction of the Jatiya Party -- led by the
BNP's Khaleda Zia won 209 of the 300 seats in the nation's single-House parliament.
All three coalition partners advocate the imposition of Sharia, or Islamic
law, in Bangladesh. The Jamaat reportedly endorses the activities of Al Qaeda
chief Osama bin Laden, and is know for its strident anti-Indian stand.
Immediately after the elections, there were
massive, concerted attacks on Hindus -- known to be supporters of the Opposition
Awami League led by Hasina Wajed -- by ruling party activists. Hundreds died,
many were raped, forcibly converted or deprived of their property. Thousands
fled to India, mostly the border states of West Bengal and Assam.
"Since then, Hindus who stayed on in
Bangladesh even after the anti-Hindu -- and by extension, anti-India -- riots
which followed the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya (in India) in
1992, have been facing a hard time," says Chatterjee. "Our women
avoid wearing vermilion on their foreheads and clothes which identify them
as Hindu."
As for the men, "we are routinely referred
to as malaun (infidels) and kafirs by local Muslims, particularly the younger
people," he says. "If we dare protest, we are harassed further."
Dhaka's Bengali intellectuals, however, assert
that the violence against Hindus is mostly political, not religious, in nature.
They also point out that almost all Muslim nations faced violent anti-Hindu
demonstrations following the Ayodhya demolition.
"We are devout Muslims. But it is essentially
a cultural, not a religious, identity," says former minister and member
of parliament Shawfikul Ghaani. "Of course, such attacks have occurred,
but perhaps not on the scale that the Hindus claim, and it would be wrong
to classify all of them as religiously motivated. After all, Muslim supporters
of the Awami league were also attacked by ruling party goons and leaders after
the 2001 elections," he adds.
On November 14, a day after the The South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit concluded amid very high
security in Dhaka, two lower court judges died after their minibus was bombed
by fundamentalists.
A youngster arrested for the bombing belonged
to the outlawed Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh, said to be behind the August
17 serial blasts across the country and the recent threats and attacks on
judges and other government officials. The JMB wants the imposition of Sharia
rule in Bangladesh.
Among the thousands rounded up nationwide
by the security agencies after the bomb attack were members of the students
wing of the Jamaat-e-Islami and Islami Oikya Jote, members of the ruling coalition.
Some media reports said many were
subsequently released following 'government intervention.'
The fact that one of the judges killed in
the bombing was a Hindu is cited by BNP supporters as evidence that Hindus
can aspire to senior government positions in Bangladesh. The fact that the
other judge was a Muslim proves that the attackers were not specifically targeting
Hindus, they say.
S Ganguly is an Indian working for a Japanese
company in Dhaka for the past two years. His interactions with the Hindu community
in Dhaka has left him somewhat disillusioned.
Agreeing with Ghaani that reports of religious
discrimination were usually exaggerated by the Hindus, he says it is an attempt
by the community to garner support in India, where many still have old ties
and sympathies.
Look at these people," he says. "They
earn in Bangladesh, but send their money to relatives in India. Many of them
openly support India, for instance, during cricket matches. They teach their
children to refer to India as 'my country.' As an Indian, how would you feel
if Muslims in your neighbourhood openly supported Pakistan?" he asks.
"Of course, there have been cases of
religious atrocities. No one can deny that. But sometimes I wonder whether
they are asking for it," he says.
"Frankly, the anti-Hindu feeling has
been there long before independence,' says Mushirul Haq, a history teacher
at a primary school in Dhaka. "The hatred against them was fuelled by
the leaders in West Pakistan, who branded anyone here who preached secularism
as pro-Hindu and hence anti-Islam."
According to him, "Pakistan's military
rulers like Ayub Khan and Yahya Khan promoted the radical Islamic parties
in order to retain their power base, just like Zia and Ershad did here post
independence."
"And we must remember that the Jaamat-e-Islami
was originally a Pakistani theological party which preached jihad against
the kafirs, or in other words, the non-believing Hindus. And these people,
who opposed independence from Pakistan fearing a loss of their power here,
and were at one time banned from entering politics, are now actually in power,"
he sighs.
"After the BNP came to power, the Jaamat
revived its anti-Hindu programme, not officially, but by patronising and indirectly
praising those who fuelled such hatred," he said. "Today, the police
and even sections of the military have become party to this, because their
civilian masters obviously encourage such feelings. And what's worse, many
others support them for fear of being branded as Hindu lovers."
Moinuddin, a BNP student leader at Dhaka University
who refuses to expand his name, says, "The BNP as a party is more secular
and liberal than the Awami League. But this cannot be at the expense of nationalism.
Hindus in Bangladesh are our brothers and sisters. But those who would rather
live in India, let them leave now, or be identified as traitors and face the
consequences."
"BNP or Awami League, they are the same,"
says Atiqur, a fruit seller at Dhaka's Kawran Bazaar, next to the plush
Sonargaon hotel. "Our country has gone to the dogs ever since these two
women (Khaleda Zia of the BNP and Hasina Wajed of the Awami League) decided
that they were ordained to rule over this country. Until they go, things cannot
improve. I think things are going to get a lot worse before it starts getting
better. Today, you cannot cross the street without having to bribe someone.
At least Ershad, despite all his flaws, did improve some of the infrastructure
in the country."
"These two leaders and their slaves,
who have no other agenda except to fight each other for the right to loot
the nation, will drag this nation to hell. How will we explain that to our
children?" he sighs.
Abdur Rahman, an activist of the Opposition
Awami League, cites poverty and illiteracy as the prime causes for the growing
anti-Hindu sentiments in Bangladesh. The BNP has compounded the mess by funding
more madrasas than regular primary schools, he says.
"The people who graduate from these madrassas
where they only learn the Koran and Islamic tenets by rote cannot get regular
jobs. The only job they can get is that as head of a mosque, which perhaps
explains the mushrooming number of mosques across the nation," he says.
"Some small villages have as many as five."
"When people are poor, unemployed and
frustrated, particularly the youngsters, it is easy to convince them that
someone else -- in this case India and the Hindus -- is responsible for their
problems," says Rahman, who was a supporter of Ershad's Jatiya Party
before switching loyalties to the Awami League. "India's condescending
attitude and its bullying tactics over river waters and trade does not help
matters," he adds.
According to him, some 1,800 Bangladeshis
who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan returned home after the rout
of the extremist outfit in 2001. "These youngsters, who trained in military
camps in Pakistan, are now actively drumming up religious fervour and hatred
for India across Bangladesh. And they have the protection of the Jamaat, a
party which fought against our independence in 1971, and still maintains cordial
ties with the Pakistani establishment," he says.
"However," he adds hopefully, "we
Bengalis are essentially non-violent and secular. So, while these people are
getting a few recruits, it is not the kind of overwhelming support they were
hoping for. Very soon, they will be exposed and ostracised."
But for Sanjay Chatterjee, soon is not good
enough.
