From: was@cbnewsm.cb.att.com (wasif.sattar)
Subject: Re: Treatment of Minorities in Bangladesh
Organization: AT&T
Date: Thu, 16 Apr 1992 19:35:27 GMT
Summary: 1964 riots and childhood memories

In article <1992Apr14.202326.1@engvms.unl.edu>, mermmzh@engvms.unl.edu writes:
> In article <samaddar.703262734@orion>, samaddar@siemens.com (Sumitro Samaddar) writes:
> > budaraju@cae.wisc.edu (Srinivas Budaraju) writes:
> > 
> > In contrast, in Bangladesh, damage to non-muslim places of worship has been
> > considerable.
>   ^^^^^^^^^^^^
> 
>  Based on what you are making this remark? I have spent 24 years of my
>  life in Bangladesh, but never seen a Hindu- Muslim riot or damage of
> non-muslim places of worship. In 1990 Ershad's govt. damaged some
> Mandir by hired people. People from all over the country( Including 
> Jamaat) expressed their anger and concern against that action. 
> ... ... ... 
> 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.

The last time there were riots it was 1964. It was instigated by non-
indigenous Muslims (who did not represent the main-stream Muslims of East
Pakistan) and many Hindus were affected. There was a mass exodus to India by
Hindus. I remember vividly a couple of incidents although I was quite young.
We lived in Dhaka in Dhanmondi in one room of our house which was then under
construction. Lalmatia was not yet populated. Mohammadpur was the most 
popular abode of the Biharis. Rayer Bazar had a good many Hindu inhabitants. 
They were mostly potters, cobblers, carpenters and of similar professions.
At that time I had never visited either Rayer Bazar or Mohammadpur. Whatever
I knew of these places was based on heresay. The areas targeted by the rioters
included Rayer Bazar. Two houses away from our house there lived a Bihari
family who were renting. The owner, a Bengali, lived in a second house
built in the rear half of the plot. One evening a group of men and women
fleeing from Rayer Bazar approached our house and sought shelter. My parents
let them in. We used the staircase for storing stuff like cement or iron rods,
etc. that were needed in the construction. At that time that room was empty
and was also the most secure room in the house. We let the whole group 
stay in that room for the night. My dad bolted and locked it from outside.
We feared an attack by Bihari mobs because the fact that a group of 
Hindus had taken shelter in our house wasn't a secret. Our neighbors -
especially the Bihari family, had carefully observed everything. My dad
sat outside the staircase in the little porch or paced up and down our 
driveway with a loaded rifle all night. My brothers and I were eagerly
waiting for the attackers (remembering the scenes from Swiss Family 
Robinson) to arrive and my dad to mow them down with his semi-automatic
rifle. Fortunately nothing exciting happened. 

Another neighbor was a retired Police SP or something. This guy was old
and short and had a definite anti-Hindu bias. He had stopped by our house
and had an altercation with my dad because we had sheltered Hindus. I
remember as he was leaving in an angry mood he told my dad "Amra deke 
nebo". We kids had great faith in my dad and his rifle. We were disappointed
once again because the retired police officer never returned.

Around that time the two kids from the Bihari family seemed to us kids to
be always in a militant mood. The older boy was about my age and the younger
boy was my little brother's age. They were named Choochoo and Pappu. Once
Pappu had flung a metal dart (the kind with a brass body, a steel tip and
plastic vanes) at his brother and it had entered his abdomen. They had to
rush him to the hospital. These brothers would mutter some slogans in Urdu
- one sounded something like "Hindu ka Haal Musalmani". I asked by elder
brother what it meant. He explained to me and my younger brother that the
kids were probably recommending circumcision of Hindus. My younger brother
and I just giggled - our mom had told us that circumcision was not a
topic we could discuss openly. My aunt lived half a block away from our
house so we had a lot of interaction with her family. Their house was on
Satmasjid Road (the main thoroughfare through Dhanmondi). One evening we
were at my aunt's house. We could smell smoke coming from the direction of
Rayer Bazar. It meant more Hindu houses had been set ablaze. My cousin who
was only a little older than me asked me "Do you know what that smell means?"
as she sniffed the air. I said "Why it smells like some bamboo houses are
on fire." I knew the smell of burning bamboo, wood, leaves, paper etc.
My cousin said "Sniff again! It's the smell of people being burnt alive."
I felt really queasy to hear that. I used to believe her blindly as she was
older than me and more experienced in the ways of the world. My older
cousin's husband came to visit them. He reported that a curfew had been
announced for that night and rioters would be shot at sight. My mom, dad,
uncle and aunt heaved a collective sigh of relief.

I had seen people fleeing on foot or rickshaws but had never seen any
actual rioting take place. These incidents took place 28 years ago but I still 
remember everything as if it happened only yesterday. Luckily for us 
Bangladeshis there haven't been any Muslim-Hindu riots until the incidents
of 1990. I would prefer to not call the 1990 incidents riots because these
were orchestrated by the govt. or a political party and had absolutely no
popular support. We hope Bangladesh would continue to remain a bastion of
communal harmony.

> > Sumitro
> ---Zakir

Shubhechhante,
Wasif Sattar
Newsgroups: soc.culture.bangladesh