Secularism under siege in the Bangladesh churn
The damage that has been done to the country will take several years to undo, and even then, it depends on whether a secular regime returns to power.
Bangladesh is clearly in an existential crisis today. It is sinking into deeper levels of misery. With the country’s judiciary now having acquitted all the accused of the August 21, 2004 grenade blasts at a rally of the then Opposition, Awami League, one hardly needs to be informed of the abyss into which the country is being pushed by the caretaker regime headed by Muhammad Yunus.
The grenade blasts, it must be recalled, left no fewer than 24 people dead and scores of others injured. Among those killed was the senior Awami League politician Ivy Rahman. Sheikh Hasina escaped the assassination but was left with hearing problems owing to the force of the blast. And even today, survivors of the attack go around with multiple splinter wounds in their bodies.
The judgment delivered on Sunday is another regressive step in Bangladesh’s politics. The country is now in the grip of extremist Islamist elements that are determined to upend the nation’s history. As December, the month of the Bengali victory over Pakistan in 1971, begins, there is an unabashed effort by those in the corridors of power to do everything that will not only worsen the chaos in politics but also create conditions for social disorder. The recent arrest of Chinmoy Das Prabhu, a prominent spokesperson of the Hindu community, on charges of sedition and the rejection of his bail petition underscores the vulnerability of Bangladesh’s religious minorities. Since the political change in early August, the Hindu community has borne the brunt of attacks by Islamist extremists and by those who never could reconcile with Bangladesh’s secular nationhood.
This is not the first time that Hindus have been targeted in the country. Beginning with the Partition of India in 1947 and continuing through the beginning of the struggle for an independent Bangladesh, Hindus have consistently suffered for their religious beliefs. While Bangladesh’s emergence as a sovereign State in 1971 created the happy condition of all Bengalis — irrespective of religious affiliation — becoming citizens of a secular State, that notion was soon undermined with the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s founding father, in August 1975.
The idea of secularism was revived, albeit on a cautious note, by Sheikh Hasina’s government in its years in power. However, on a broad scale, the spectre of Hindu persecution has been an inescapable reality of the country’s history so far. Governments opposed to the secular concept have consistently asserted the theme of Bangladesh being a State defined by communal harmony. But communal harmony has always been fractured by the activities of elements adamant about imposing an Islamist political system in the country. History attests to the fact that over the years, large numbers of Hindus have left the country in the face of threats to their lives and property.
The new threat to Hindus in Bangladesh today is a depressing reminder of the calamity that befell them when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) defeated the Awami League in the general election of October 1, 2001. Almost immediately, BNP cadres attacked Hindus in different regions of the country, claiming that the community had been supportive of the Awami League. Homes and temples were ransacked, and Hindus in large groups either went into hiding or crossed over to India.
Today, Bangladesh’s people are witnessing a repeat of 2001. The extent to which Islamists have been pushing their campaign against the community was made obvious yet again only a few days ago, when the noted television anchor, Munni Saha, was accosted by a mob outside her office and accused of being party to a “sell-out” to India, indeed of engaging in moves to have the country become part of the Indian Union. But let there be a caveat here: These events have left most of Bangladesh’s people bewildered. They realise that the levers of power are now controlled by those who assumed office in August and their extremist followers. Their concern over the situation has now extended to a dip in relations between India and Bangladesh on the Hindu question. With the Indian government taking a hard-nosed view of the situation in Bangladesh, and Bangladesh’s interim authorities shooting back by charging Delhi with interfering in Dhaka’s internal affairs, the picture does not look good at all.
The comments of Suvendu Adhikari, the West Bengal Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, on the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh have set alarm bells ringing in Dhaka. The reasons are only too obvious. Bangladesh relies on supplies — food, aid and energy — from India. Additionally, the suspension of Indian visas for Bangladeshis, who have always looked upon India as a popular destination for tourism, medical treatment, and education, has been a source of grave worry since the installation of the Yunus regime in Dhaka. Add to all that, the attacks on the Bangladesh diplomatic mission office in Tripura by enraged Indians. They clearly reflect a worsening of diplomatic ties between two neighbours who have historically been friendly and cooperative with each other.
Internally in Bangladesh, the rise of mob culture, which shows no possibility of subsiding, has raised questions about the country’s democratic future. Mobs have gone after media houses, the most recent instances being the virulent demonstrations by religious fundamentalists before the offices of the Daily Star and Prothom Alo, two leading newspapers of the country, accusing their management of being defenders of what they called the fascist Awami League. The other day, Asaduzzaman Noor, a cultural activist and former minister, was assaulted by a mob.
Suborna Mustafa, a noted actor and former lawmaker, was prevented from travelling to Bangkok for medical treatment. Scores of journalists, a good number of whom are in prison on laughable charges of being involved in murder, have had their press accreditation cards revoked. Many have been stripped of their membership of the National Press Club. The country’s media is in a precarious state, with editors unwilling to invite the wrath of the authorities or their supporters by publishing news reports or articles critical of the caretaker government.
The damage that has been done to Bangladesh will take several years to undo, and even then, it depends on whether a secular regime wedded to the foundational principles of the State as it was conceived in 1971 returns to power anytime soon. For now, Bangladesh happens to be passing through a state of increasing uncertainty. The country’s Hindus are a beleaguered lot, but so are all those citizens whose idea of Bangladesh is of a nation-State based on democracy, secularism, and Bengali nationalism.
Syed Badrul Ahsan, a Bangladeshi journalist, has authored biographies of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Bangladesh’s wartime prime minister Tajuddin Ahmad.The views expressed are personal
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