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Abstract
Partition and the legacy of the two-nation theory have shaped the history of the subcontinent. The division of two nation-states into Hindus and Muslims had formalized this divide in a way that one religious community dominated the other, that is, the Hindus in India and the Muslims in Pakistan. The partition of the subcontinent along religious lines with accompanying communal violence produced a politics that was reproduced consecutively in the day-to-day lives of religious minorities of the region. In this article, I discuss how Hindus came to be constituted as minorities in the state of Bangladesh, in the context of its Constitution, legal structure, demography and ideology. It charts the trajectory of their journey as a minority in Bangladesh, the politics of minority vote banks, its interplay with electoral politics, the intricacy of property laws and the reasons for their resultant exodus into India. In describing the growing vulnerability of Hindus, I locate their responses in the context of present-day national, regional and global politics.
Notes
1. Field visit by author.
2. Though India was not created as a Hindu state and its laws guaranteed equality to all religions, the interplay of minority and majority politics remained a major factor in its polity.
3. Bhasin, India Bangladesh Relations Documents 1972–2002, vol. V.
4. Ibid.
5. Government of Bangladesh, Constitution of Bangladesh (Dhaka: GoB, 1972).
6. Mohsin, Chittagong Hill Tracts.
7. This notion of secularism was similar theoretically to that in the Indian Constitution, though a detailed discussion of the comparison is outside the scope of this essay.
8. Government of Bangladesh, Constitution of Bangladesh (Dhaka: GoB, 1972), 27.
9. Government of Bangladesh, Constitution of Bangladesh (Dhaka: GoB, 1991), 9.
10. Government of Bangladesh, Parliament Debates (Dhaka: GoB, 1988).
11. In a report by Ain O Salish Kendra, a legal aid organization, the total number of violent incidents in six Divisions of the country was estimated to be 330. In a later estimate the figure rose to 391. For a Divisional breakdown of figures see http://www.askbd.org/humanrights_monitories.html (accessed January 16, 2012).
12. Barkat et al., Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh.
13. Ibid., 62–75.
14. Ibid., 67.
15. Guhathakurta, ‘Two Women, Divided Nations’.
16. Barkat et al., Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh, 49–51.
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid., 121–61.
19. Ibid., 127.
20. Asian Tribune, December 5, 2011, http://www.asiantribune.com/news/2011/12/04/bangladesh-vested-properties-return-act-2011 (accessed January 16, 2012).
21. Guhathakurta, ‘The Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Accord and After’.
22. Mohsin Amena, Rights of Minorities, http://www.askbd.org/humanrights_monitories.html (accessed January 16, 2012).
23. Guhathakurta, ‘Nature of the Bangladesh State’.
24. Daily Dinkal, September 17, 2001.
25.Hossain, ‘Protection of Minority Voters during the Elections to the Ninth Parliament in Bangladesh’.
26. Reports were collated on a regular basis by human rights defenders located in various places in Bangladesh and brought together and reported through NETZ Bangladesh.
27. Guhathakurta, ‘Mindereheiten warhend der Parlamentswahl’, 16–17.
28. The Chittagong Hill Tracts occupies a physical area of 5093 square miles in southeastern Bangladesh, bordering Mizoram and Tripura borders of India and Myanmar. It is inhabited by about 14 ethnic groups among whom the Chakmas Tripuras and Marmas constitute the majority. According to the 1991 Census, 49% are reported to be Bengalis from the plain land. From 1973 to 1997, the indigenous people of the CHT have been involved in a struggle for autonomy from the Bangladesh state, the main roots of the conflict being the land issue, the transfer of population from the plain lands to the hills and the control of administration by non-hill people. In 1997, an accord was reached between Government representatives and the armed wing of the resistance, the Shanti Bahini, which brought an end to the armed struggle, but in subsequent years the non-implementation of accord, especially those dealing with the devolution of power to hill people, failed to address the root causes of the conflict, thereby perpetrating continued violence in the region.