"There will be no Hindus left in Bangladesh in the next 30 years,"says Prof. Abul Barkat of Dhaka University, who wrote 'Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh: Living with Vested Property' (published 2008).
Shelley Feldman of Cornell University wrote:
“The rate of the exodus over the past 49 years points to that direction,” he told the Dhaka Tribune.
From 1964 to 2013, around 11.3 million Hindus were compelled to flee Bangladesh due to religious persecution.
Before the Liberation War, the daily rate of migration was 705 while it was 512 during 1971-1981 and 438 during 1981-1991.
The number increased to 767 persons each day during 1991-2001 while around 774 persons left the country during 2001-2012.
Barkat’s study found that most of the Hindus fled Bangladesh during the Pakistani occupation of the country.
Barkat’s study found that most of the Hindus fled Bangladesh during the Pakistani occupation of the country.
According to Shipan Kumer Basu, the President of the World Hindu Struggle Committee, “Pakistan’s feudal and military rulers were born anti Bengali language and anti-Bengali. In any way, if the vast majority of Hindus are displaced, it would be easy to rule by dividing the non-communal Bengali nation. From this point of view, the Pakistani military issued the Enemy Property Act in 1965, using the Pakistan-India war as an excuse.”
“Following that, 2.6 million acres of the original ownership of the Hindu community has been occupied or evicted,” Basu added.
“Following that, 2.6 million acres of the original ownership of the Hindu community has been occupied or evicted,” Basu added.
“Of the 2.6 million acres, about 82 per cent is agricultural land, 29 per cent is homestead, four per cent is gardens, three per cent are waterfalls, one per cent are ponds and 19 per cent of other lands were occupied.
Abul Barkat mentioned in his study that the financial loss of the land and water and transferable assets under the Arms Vested Property Act amounted to Tk 650 million.”
Even though Barkat’s study found that most of the Hindus fled Bangladesh during the Pakistani occupation of the country, Dhaka University Professor Ajoy Roy told the Dhaka Tribune that due to the Vested Property Act, which led to the present government taking over the Hindu properties that the Pakistani regime seized as enemy property, 60 per cent of the Hindus were left landless and this is one of the reasons that prompted their mass migration from the country.
-----------------------Even though Barkat’s study found that most of the Hindus fled Bangladesh during the Pakistani occupation of the country, Dhaka University Professor Ajoy Roy told the Dhaka Tribune that due to the Vested Property Act, which led to the present government taking over the Hindu properties that the Pakistani regime seized as enemy property, 60 per cent of the Hindus were left landless and this is one of the reasons that prompted their mass migration from the country.
Shelley Feldman of Cornell University wrote:
Following the 1947 partition of India into the predominantly Muslim state of Pakistan, including its East and West Wings, and the Hindu majority state of India, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder and first governor general of Pakistan, initially repudiated the theocratic foundations of the Pakistani state, noting that, ‘You may belong to any religion or caste or creed. That has nothing to do with the business of the state. We are starting with this fundamental principle that we are all citizens and equal citizens of the state’.
But despite this proclamation, he soon thereafter attempted to build a nationalist project in an idiom of a shared Urdu language, ostensibly to create a sense of collective belonging that would bring the East and West Wings together.
The argument against Bengali, and for Urdu, was that Bengali did not comport with the construction of a national narrative articulated in the sacralized language and cultural traditions of Islam.
At this time, the Hindu population was estimated to be between 10 and 12 million with Muslims accounting for 32 million.
Thus, introducing Urdu as the lingua franca was a response to the perceived threat of Bengali nationalism in the East, where Bengali language and culture were infused with Hindu religious and linguistic idioms, and a significant proportion of the population was Hindu.
This language initiative can thus be understood as an effort to mark Hindus as a community distinct from East Bengal’s Muslim majority.
In addition to the 1948 struggle against Urdu, the 1949 effort to introduce the Arabic script instead of the Sanskritized Devanagari Bengali script, led to the Language Movement — Bhasha Andolan — in East Pakistan.
In addition to the 1948 struggle against Urdu, the 1949 effort to introduce the Arabic script instead of the Sanskritized Devanagari Bengali script, led to the Language Movement — Bhasha Andolan — in East Pakistan.
The Movement sought recognition of the East as a multi-religious community whose mark of national belonging was shared language rather than religious identity.
A bloody battle ensued following a five-year struggle against the imposition of Urdu as the lingua franca. A number of university students were killed and today, for many Bengalis, Hindus and Muslims alike, Ekushy, 21 February, remains a hallmark of national pride.
Struggles over recognition of the multiethnic character of East Pakistan, and the particular place of Hindus in the body politic, also included the State’s proposal for a separate electorate for minorities.
Struggles over recognition of the multiethnic character of East Pakistan, and the particular place of Hindus in the body politic, also included the State’s proposal for a separate electorate for minorities.
But Bengali Muslims and Hindus alike rejected this proposal, even as a 1956 Constitutional provision only allowed Muslims to serve as the president of Pakistan.
Arguing against the proposal were Basant Kumar Das, Peter Paul Gomez and B.K. Dutta, as well as H.S. Suhrawardy and Mujib-ur-Rahman,all members of the Constituent Assembly that included Hindus, Christians, and Muslims.
They claimed that the proposal would relegate minorities to the status of second-class citizens and, significantly, would put Muslims residing in India at risk, since the politics of the period reflected an implicit or explicit engagement with policies in India.
Passage of The East Bengal (Emergency) Requisition of Property Act (XIII of 1948)13 was Jinnah’s final action aimed at marking Hindus as second-class citizens.
Passage of The East Bengal (Emergency) Requisition of Property Act (XIII of 1948)13 was Jinnah’s final action aimed at marking Hindus as second-class citizens.
The Act empowered the government to ‘acquire, either on a temporary or permanent basis, any property it considered needful for the administration of the state’.
Although claimed to be necessary to meet the administrative needs of the newly independent province, including the need to accommodate government offices and civil servants, it also obfuscated illegal appropriations, particularly of Hindus.
According to Lambert (1950), ‘80 percent of the urban property in East Bengal was in the hands of Hindus’, as were large estates.
The value of real property and other assets assumed abandoned in East Pakistan ‘was officially estimated by the Chief Minister of West Bengal at 870 million rupees (US$ 182,700,000)’.
Such unequal ownership of property helped to publically justify state confiscations without compensation.
--------------------
Jogendra Nath Mandal (1904-1968) was one of the founding fathers of Pakistan. He belonged to a Dalit Hindu community. Mandal served as Pakistan's first minister of law and labour; he was also second minister of commonwealth and Kashmir affairs.--------------------
Mandal migrated to India a few years after Partition after submitting his resignation to Liaquat Ali Khan, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan, citing the anti-Hindu bias of Pakistani administration.
The following is a short excerpt from the lengthy resignation letter, dated 08 Oct. 1950, he wrote to Liaquat Ali Khan.
"What is today the condition in East Bengal? About fifty lakhs of Hindus have left since the partition of the country.
Apart from the East Bengal riot of last February, the reasons for such a large scale exodus of Hindus are many. The boycott by the Muslims of Hindu lawyers, medical practitioners, shop-keepers, traders and merchants has compelled Hindus to migrate to West Bengal in search of their means of livelihood. Wholesale requisition of Hindu houses even without following due process of law in many and non-payment of any rent whatsoever to the owners have compelled them to seek for Indian shelter.
Payments of rent to Hindu landlords was stopped long before. Besides, the Ansars against whom I received complaints all over are a standing menace to the safety and security of Hindus.
Inference in matters of education and methods adopted by the Education Authority for Islamisation frightened the teaching staff of Secondary Schools and Colleges out of their old familiar moorings. They have left East Bengal. As a result, most of the educational institutions have been closed.
I have received information that sometime ago the Educational Authority issued circular in Secondary Schools enjoining compulsory participation of teachers and students of all communities in recitation from the Holy Koran before the school work commenced."
----------------