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THE representation to the World Bank, made by the US-based organisation -- Bangladesh Human Rights Watch, hardly known to anyone outside the handful of persons who formed it purportedly to serve their narrow political interests at the cost of the nation -- merits attention. The so-called rise of militant Islam in Bangladesh, as noted in that representation, is not the dominant trend in the Bangladesh polity. Bangladesh is a tolerant and a pluralistic society. The people of this
country are exercising adult franchise since 1937. Political powers are
being transferred through general election and three successive governments have been formed on the basis of the people's mandate since 1991. Even the election victory by Awami League in 1970 was the basis of war of independence in 1971. We are having elections at different levels of the State organs.
The print and electronic media in Bangladesh are enjoying full freedom and there is no restriction whatsoever. There is freedom of movement within Bangladesh for the foreigners.
All the civil rights, irrespective of religions, cast and creed, have
been guaranteed under the constitution of Bangladesh. (Interestingly there is no mention of this constitutional guarantee in the representation
under reference though its 'sponsors' are vocal about the Eighth Amendment). The number of girls student in Bangladesh is proportionately at the highest level in the entire south Asian region. A large number of females are working in administrative departments, police, engineering and technical fields, army and navy. We have a large number of female factory workers and only in garment sector there are 1.5 million such workers. Almost one third of the total number (about 25,000) of doctors/physicians are females.
There are 64,000 villages in Bangladesh -- not 64,000 madrashas (as
mentioned in fact sheet of the so-called Bangladesh Human Rights Watch). The number of students attending madrashas constitute roughly 10% of the total number of students attending schools, colleges, universities and other institutions.
Through the Eighth Constitutional Amendment, Islam has become the state religion and, through the same amendment, the religious rights of other communities have also been guaranteed. The mere declaration of a State religion does not make Bangladesh a theocratic state. There are many countries in the world with such state religions (more than 80 countries). In the UK, the King/Queen is the ex-officio chief of the Church of England and in addition they have Blasphemy law applicable only for Christianity. The US President has to take oath by touching the Bible. The recently-framed European Union (EU) constitution has accepted the importance of Churches within the union. The recognition of religion has not made these countries theocratic. These are the hard realities.
In the month of January US State department has published the list of
terrorist/fundamentalist organisations of various countries of the world. According to this list, Bangladesh is the only country in south Asia which does not have any terrorist/fundamentalist organisation. But many organisations from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal have appeared in this list. The publication of articles in NY Times magazine or any other newspaper makes a very little difference after the announcement of the US State Department. The then US President Clinton in a press conference during his visit to Dhaka stated that Bangladesh "is a moderate Muslim Country". The US Government is consistent about this policy.
In this scenario, comparing Bangladesh to that of former Taleban Afghanistan or any other fundamentalist country is simply ridiculous and this sort of malicious propaganda must be the work of the vested quarters.
Bangladesh inherited communal tension since the days of partition of India in 1947, in line with the two-nation theory. There was a mass exodus of population from the both sides of the border. A huge number of Hindus crossed to India and about three to four million Muslims (both Bengali speaking and non-Bengalees) crossed over to Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan).
On the other hand, population was increasing rapidly as a section of them were reluctant to adopt family planning system (however population growth rate has brought down significantly in recent years). As a result, the Hindu population have decreased tremendously, in percentage wise.
One must remember 140 million people are living in Bangladesh in such a small place. Options are very limited for such a vast population. In the recent times, a sizeable number of Muslim population have migrated to many countries of the world. Already about one million have become citizens in the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia and other countries in Europe. Another three to four million are living in the Middle Eastern countries, Malaysia, Japan, Korea etc., as expatriates and trying for citizenship. It has nothing to do with politics, persecution or deprivation; rather, this is simply economics. So there is no wonder that huge non-Muslims are also migrating to many countries of the world including India. Moreover, in the days of globalisation when there is free movement of goods, there should also be free movement of manpower.
The communal harmony in Bangladesh is fairly good -- perhaps the best in the subcontinent. We sincerely hope it would improve further in the coming days. But we cannot remain immune to the developments in India. Communal tension and riots there are very common. This naturally affects the situation -- causing tension -- in other parts of South Asia. Bangladesh is also affected.
Still there was no communal riot in Bangladesh during the last 40 years. Even there was hardly any reaction to the destruction of the Babri Mosque in Ayodha and the killings of Muslims following the incidents of Godhra in Gujarat. However, it is possible that there are some scattered incidents of communal persecution in some parts of Bangladesh, but it can in no way be generalised.
The non-Muslims of the country are living fairly peacefully in Bangladesh with their participation in all walks of life -- administration, education, business, armed services and politics. A pamphlet recently published by the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council has claimed that 65% of their community members are educated, though the national literacy rate is less than 50%. This is no picture of deprivation or persecution.
Economically Hindus, Buddhists and Christians are more solvent than the majority Muslims. In support of this statement, this scribe wants to bring the following facts to the notice of all concerned: hardly, any Hindu, Buddhist or Christian beggar is found in the street; non-Muslims are no more involved in any odd job; even Hindu sweepers and scavengers are on the way out though it was the traditional way of living for the low-cast Hindus; there are about one million rickshaw pullers in the country and 500,000 alone in Dhaka city but hardly any one of them belong to the non-Muslim community; there are about two million slum-dwellers in Dhaka and this scribe has never seen any Hindu, Buddhist or Christian living in slums; and, all maid servants or boy servants engaged for household works are Muslims and even when a non-Muslims engages a servant, he or she has to be a Muslim.
These examples should speak aloud about the socio-economic conditions of the non-Muslims in Bangladesh.
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