Demographic shifts in Bangladesh
20 Oct 2012 3:51 AM IST
There has occurred an ‘alarming decline’ in the number of Hindus living in Bangladesh. For the first time since Taslima Nasreen’s explosive book Lajja was published, a Bangladesh-based English weekly has admitted and confirmed what had always been earlier alleged by pro-Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP] circles in India.
On 22 September this year, the weekly Blitz carried a signed article by Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, analysing in depth the nature and extent of the decline in the country’s Hindu population and the reasons thereof. ‘It is the hardest-hitting criticism of the existing political culture of Bangladesh so far,’ says a Kolkata-based security analyst.
Tracing the reduction in the number of Hindus during the past 10 years only, Choudhury points out that a physical shortage of 9,00,000 people remains unaccounted for, building up apparent case of the ‘missing Hindu population.’ In 15 districts, there are almost no Hindus to be found now, he observes.
Citing census figures, the writer points out that in 2001, the number of Hindus was 16.83 million, a figure that was only 9.2 per cent of the total population. In 2011, the population, given its normal rate of growth, should have been 18.2 million by rights. Actually, it was 12.3 million, and the percentage of Hindus had dropped to 8.3. Muslims constituted 90.4 per cent of the total population. There was no similar decline in the numbers of Buddhists, Christians and other segments of the population.
It may be mentioned that in 1947, the percentage of Hindus was between 30 to 35 per cent of the aggregate population in the then East Pakistan.
Choudhury, explaining what had occurred during all these decades, writes, ‘Muslim influential figures in various parts of Bangladesh, irrespective of their political identities, have been continuing to force hundreds of Hindu families in selling their properties at unbelievably cheaper price and migrate mostly to India, to skip numerous forms of repressive actions.’ He adds that the Hindus who tried to fight back or resist had their house set on fire, while girls and women were kidnapped and gang-raped. The Law enforcing agencies, instead of taking action, ‘defended the perpetrators’ on account of their religious identity or social status.
Debunking the familiar myth about the Awami League being more sympathetic to the Hindus, the writer noted that repression against the Hindus never really stopped at any time.
Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, general secretary of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, was quoted in the article as saying, ‘Girls are victims of abductions or rape increasingly. Most families send away the girls for education to India or marry them off early.’ Such attacks on Hindu families and the Hindu temples had continued even after 2009, when the apparently ‘secular’ Awami League was elected to power. In the Gopalganj area, the number of Hindus declined from 3,71,000 to less than 50,000 between 2001 and 2011.
Choudhury pointed out that under the provisions of first the Enemy Property Act, later amended to vested Property Act, the properties of Hindus have been mostly gobbled up by influential people at throwaway prices. Such people belonged to the ‘Awami League, the BNP, the Jamat-e-Islami and the Jatiyo Party.’ He pointed out that despite these developments, Hindus continued to regard the League as being ‘friendlier’ to them.
Kolkata-based analysts pointed out that Choudhury’s views are not novel. ‘Taslima Nasreen was the first major literary figure in Bangladesh to analyse in depth the plight of the beleaguered Hindus in her hard-hitting novel Lajja [shame]. The book has since been banned in Bangladesh and its writer driven out of both Bangladesh and West Bengal, by religious fundamentalists united in their hatred of secular opinion and the facts of life. Strangely, supposedly secular political parties like the Communist Party of India [Marxist] or the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal have tacitly or openly sided with the fundamentalists, instead of standing up for the truth and backing Taslima, for their fear of losing Muslim votes.
And in India, prominent researchers like Arun Shourie had drawn the attention of political circles to the dwindling number of Hindus in Bangladesh, being the first to use the expression ‘the missing Hindus of Bangladesh,’ in a series of analytical articles. His conclusion was that most Hindus had fled to West Bengal or Assam from Bangladesh. For his painstaking work, which has not been authoritatively refuted, Shourie has had to face the considerable ire of non-BJP parties and their followers in the media.
Choudhury’s article uses almost the same arguments as once presented by Shourie – with the major difference that he is a Bangladeshi writing on home turf. [IPA]
On 22 September this year, the weekly Blitz carried a signed article by Salahuddin Shoaib Choudhury, analysing in depth the nature and extent of the decline in the country’s Hindu population and the reasons thereof. ‘It is the hardest-hitting criticism of the existing political culture of Bangladesh so far,’ says a Kolkata-based security analyst.
Tracing the reduction in the number of Hindus during the past 10 years only, Choudhury points out that a physical shortage of 9,00,000 people remains unaccounted for, building up apparent case of the ‘missing Hindu population.’ In 15 districts, there are almost no Hindus to be found now, he observes.
Citing census figures, the writer points out that in 2001, the number of Hindus was 16.83 million, a figure that was only 9.2 per cent of the total population. In 2011, the population, given its normal rate of growth, should have been 18.2 million by rights. Actually, it was 12.3 million, and the percentage of Hindus had dropped to 8.3. Muslims constituted 90.4 per cent of the total population. There was no similar decline in the numbers of Buddhists, Christians and other segments of the population.
It may be mentioned that in 1947, the percentage of Hindus was between 30 to 35 per cent of the aggregate population in the then East Pakistan.
Choudhury, explaining what had occurred during all these decades, writes, ‘Muslim influential figures in various parts of Bangladesh, irrespective of their political identities, have been continuing to force hundreds of Hindu families in selling their properties at unbelievably cheaper price and migrate mostly to India, to skip numerous forms of repressive actions.’ He adds that the Hindus who tried to fight back or resist had their house set on fire, while girls and women were kidnapped and gang-raped. The Law enforcing agencies, instead of taking action, ‘defended the perpetrators’ on account of their religious identity or social status.
Debunking the familiar myth about the Awami League being more sympathetic to the Hindus, the writer noted that repression against the Hindus never really stopped at any time.
Gobinda Chandra Pramanik, general secretary of the Bangladesh National Hindu Grand Alliance, was quoted in the article as saying, ‘Girls are victims of abductions or rape increasingly. Most families send away the girls for education to India or marry them off early.’ Such attacks on Hindu families and the Hindu temples had continued even after 2009, when the apparently ‘secular’ Awami League was elected to power. In the Gopalganj area, the number of Hindus declined from 3,71,000 to less than 50,000 between 2001 and 2011.
Choudhury pointed out that under the provisions of first the Enemy Property Act, later amended to vested Property Act, the properties of Hindus have been mostly gobbled up by influential people at throwaway prices. Such people belonged to the ‘Awami League, the BNP, the Jamat-e-Islami and the Jatiyo Party.’ He pointed out that despite these developments, Hindus continued to regard the League as being ‘friendlier’ to them.
Kolkata-based analysts pointed out that Choudhury’s views are not novel. ‘Taslima Nasreen was the first major literary figure in Bangladesh to analyse in depth the plight of the beleaguered Hindus in her hard-hitting novel Lajja [shame]. The book has since been banned in Bangladesh and its writer driven out of both Bangladesh and West Bengal, by religious fundamentalists united in their hatred of secular opinion and the facts of life. Strangely, supposedly secular political parties like the Communist Party of India [Marxist] or the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal have tacitly or openly sided with the fundamentalists, instead of standing up for the truth and backing Taslima, for their fear of losing Muslim votes.
And in India, prominent researchers like Arun Shourie had drawn the attention of political circles to the dwindling number of Hindus in Bangladesh, being the first to use the expression ‘the missing Hindus of Bangladesh,’ in a series of analytical articles. His conclusion was that most Hindus had fled to West Bengal or Assam from Bangladesh. For his painstaking work, which has not been authoritatively refuted, Shourie has had to face the considerable ire of non-BJP parties and their followers in the media.
Choudhury’s article uses almost the same arguments as once presented by Shourie – with the major difference that he is a Bangladeshi writing on home turf. [IPA]
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