From: dipen@lheavx.gsfc.nasa.gov (D. Bhattacharya)
Subject: Re: Treatment of Minorities in Bangladesh
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA/GSFC Laboratory For High Energy Astrophysics
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 06:26:00 GMT

In article <1992Apr14.202326.1@engvms.unl.edu>, mermmzh@engvms.unl.edu writes...
> 
>In Bangladesh there were no Hindu-Muslim riot after 1952 and the assault of
>Mollahs by Hindus or assault of shadu by Muslims never occured.

	I think you just missed the riot of 1964. This one was 
	first started in Khulna and then spread to Dhaka. I still
	remember the fire-lit sky above Banagram and Shankharibazar,
	neighborhoods with Hindu concentration. We hid in a Muslim
	friend's house where my parents would hide again in 1971.
	Amitava Ghosh has an excellent novel called "The Shadow Lines"
	which partly deals with the riots of 1964. The book has been
	written from a purely humanistic point of view and can be
	found in most of the university book stores in the US.


>Bangladesh is a country of the Bengalis, so the Hindus are not the minority
>there (Since most of them are Bengali). Non-Bengalis like the Chakmas can be 
>considered as minorities.
	
	That was the case officially until Ziaur Rahman struck out
	the chapter on secularism and Ershad declared Islam as the 
	official religion. Such constitutional legality is not only a
	superficial problem. This almost ensures that Govt. can be
	discriminatory in its hiring practices; the Hindus are not
	only under-represented in Govt. services, in some cases their
	participation is zilch--for example, in foreign services,
	in the armed forces, and even in the customs/immigration section.
	The reason that such grievances do not get expressed because 
	Hindus lack the power-base. With no full ministers in the BNP
	cabinet and without a powerful lobby to push its causes the
	minority section has remained sheepish in their expectations.
	Thus, even 20 years after the liberation, "The Enemy Property
	Act" enacted in 1965 hasn't been repealed and virtually hundreds
	of cases, where Hindu properties habe been usurped by the Govt.
	or a third party, remain pending at the courts.

	My point is that it is difficult for the majority to wear the
	same shoes of the minority. The majority almost forces itself
	to see a calm surface, but unfortunately there are rumblings
	underneath. It is important that the well-intentioned section
	of the majority does not fall into a state of complacency allowing
	its minority compatriots to fall into decay.

>---Zakir

	shubhechha,
	Dipen

	P.S. Reminiscence, not related to the follow-up.

	During the riots of 1964, we stayed briefly in Azimpore 
	Colony in a family friend's apartment. The graveyard, just 
	adjacent to the colony, was an intense source of fascination
	and fear in my child mind. But I couldn't see it because it was
	surrounded by a tall wall. Once, after much cajoling, a family
	friend agreed to show me the inside, he took me to the wall and
	held me high. I think what I saw was an impenetrable jungle
	with dense foliage and I felt I was looking down into a valley.
	Then I saw two men carrying a bamboo stick, with something 
	attached to it, on their shoulders. They disappeared into the forest.
	Since then I have been many times to this graveyard (during
	21st February), but I haven't found any sign of the forest or
	a narrow path through which those men disappeared. The Azimpore
	picture has always remained surreal in my adult mind thinking
	it was only conjured up by a child's mind gripped with the fear of
	death and beyond.