Home ›› 24 Oct 2021 ›› Opinion
Bangladesh has a rich and time-honored tradition of communal harmony cemented through the thousand years of Bengali culture, spirit of Liberation War and secular constitutional practices. However, a country which was born in 1971 with the legacy of communal violence during the partition of India in 1947 cannot remain free from politics of communalism. Since 13 October 2021, Bangladesh has been in the grip of communal tensions and violence. Fear and panic gripped people in some places of Bangladesh due to arson attack on houses, shops and temples belonging to members of Hindu communities. The communal violence was triggered by allegations of the blasphemy incident at a Durga Puja pavilion on October 13, 2021 in Cumilla district. Protests and incidents of vandalism erupted at Hindu temples across Bangladesh particularly when photos showing a copy of the Holy Quran —Islam’s holy book—at the feet of a statue in a Hindu temple in the district of Cumilla.
Communal forces and fanatics in the country and their international sponsors have always taken the opportunity to spread rumors and misinformation to vitiate the common people who have no idea of social media engineering and politics. The incident has drawn considerable attention of international media, United Nations agencies and human rights groups. More importantly, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, law enforcing agencies, political leadership, civil society groups, intellectuals, and students have come forward to condemn the raging communal violence. Country-wide protests and human chains have been organized against these attacks and have demanded punishment of the culprits. Investigation committee has been formed to unearth the Cumilla incident and the subsequent violence against the members of the Hindu communities. In more than 28 cases filed against the perpetrators, 9,525 people have been alleged and 4000 are arrested. So far two Hindus and at least four Muslims have died in the ensuing violence.
Independent and sovereign Bangladesh emerged in 1971 as an antithesis of communal politics and violence that the then Pakistan regimes perpetrated through the 1950s and 1960s in the name of religion. The entire Liberation struggle of the Bengalis under the Pakistan state was solely focused on creating a secular and a democratic nation where there would be no place for fanaticism, fundamentalism and violent extremism. The Constitution of Bangladesh declared secularism as a state principle and banned politics in the name of religion. This was the journey that Bangabandhu started to transform Bangladesh into a non-communal society and polity. Bangladesh succeeded in achieving the recognition from the world that the country is a place of communal harmony. Anybody visiting Bangladesh can vouch on it.
The government of Sheikh Hasina coming to power for the second time in 2008 prioritized this issue and followed a policy of ‘zero tolerance’ to militancy and violent extremism. This has further enhanced religious and communal harmony and tolerance in the country. Fanatics and religious extremists faced a hostile environment to perpetrate communal violence. The Durga Puja celebrations, considered to be the biggest festival of the minority Hindu community in Bangladesh have expanded every corner in the country. According to leaders of Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad, the Puja was celebrated at 29,395 permanent and temporary mandaps across the country this year, including 229 in Dhaka. In 2021, nearly 36,000 Durga Pujas were organized in West Bengal, including around 2,500 in Kolkata. The increase in number of Puja pandals in Bangladesh has been visible due to harmony that Hindus, Muslims and members of other religious groups are enjoying in the country. Shaymal Pal, president of Banglabazar Durga Puja celebration committee, said: “We are celebrating Puja for the last 83 years and it is a festivity that goes beyond the Hindu community.”
Why is the communal violence in Bangladesh? Although every country having religious and ethnic diversity and majority-minority divide suffers from communal hatred to a varying degree, Bangladesh has been successful and widely lauded for maintaining communal peace and harmony. However, there have been incidents of communal violence that causes to tarnish the image of Bangladesh. The current episode of communal violence in some districts of Bangladesh merits an explanation. First of all, a key force behind the communal violence is the fanatics and violent extremist groups who bear the legacy of communalism injected in the 1940s centering on partition politics in the British India. They enjoy implicit and explicit support from religion-based and right-wing political parties or groups in Bangladesh. These groups are mainly proxy of political forces who are engaged in politics in the name of religion. Second, over the past fifteen years, social media has become a key platform of perpetrating rumors, propaganda and misinformation at individual and social levels. Internet instruments such as Facebook are widely used for this purpose. A temple attendant says, “We don’t know who wrote what on Facebook, we didn’t deserve this. They set fire to both of the temples in our village.”
Third, in many cases communal violence has been used by the vested forces to apply it in a “planned” way in a bid to destabilize the country. Conspiracies against the government may foment and sponsor these forces to use religion and religious symbols to overthrow the political leadership. Fourth, the development success of Bangladesh has transformed the country from a least developed nation to a developing one. Geopolitical advantages of Bangladesh have given a wider autonomy to the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to promote national interests of the country when global powers are engaged in intense rivalries. The pursuit of independent and balanced foreign policy has enhanced the image of Bangladesh when many nations are struggling to survive amid acute global competition. Finally, communal violence always provides an opportunity for right wing political forces to harm stability, harmony and peace in a country. These forces also use regional and global situations where the Muslims are being discriminated and persecuted. The rise of right political forces across the globe is also a contributing factor to spread communal violence and extremism.
The commitment of the government and people in Bangladesh against communalism and violence is unbroken and indivisible. The Prime Minister says, “The incidents in Cumilla are being thoroughly investigated. Nobody will be spared. It doesn’t matter which religion they belong to. They will be hunted down and punished.” The home minister of Bangladesh said that the attacks on Durga Puja pavilions were ‘pre-planned’ and aimed at destroying communal harmony in the country. It is important that all incidents of communal violence must be thoroughly investigated and a speedy and effective punishment of the real culprits and perpetrators must be ensured in the country.
Why cannot we follow the people of Juri Upazila of Moulvibazar in Bangladesh? In this Upazila, the celebration of Puja at Bhuai Durga Mandap was different. There is a mosque for the Muslim community to say prayers and a temple for the Hindu community to worship standing side by side in the same yard. This is a rare emblem of communal harmony. Every incident of communal violence is dangerous for the nation. There is no doubt that the recent incidents were stray in nature. But the fanatics, political conspirators and unholy international forces are out to destabilize and impede the progress of Bangladesh. People have to be vigilant and aware of toxic and destructive politics in the name of religion or ethnicity. No activity in the name of religion can destroy temples, houses or business in any part of the country or the world at large.
Professor of Department of International Relations, University of Dhaka. He can be contacted at h.delwar@gmail.com
