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Minorities in Bangladesh

23 October 2005, 18:00 PM
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
By Commodore AMA Alam (Retd). BN New DOHS, Dhaka
23 October 2005, 18:00 PM
The article written by Mr. Subir Kumar Bhattacharya (DS 11-10-05) on minorities in Bangladesh deserves a historical analysis, at the least. A section of the very people who are the members of minority community today, namely the zamindars, subjected the Muslim peasants of this part of the geographical entity to humiliations during the colonial period. During partition in 1947 except for Calcutta (now Kolkata) riots, rest of the Bengal was reasonably calm except Noakhali, compared to the volatile situation prevailing during that period in some parts of India. The Hindus started migrating from East Bengal not under any duress but perhaps in anticipation of repercussions of the past. It is not correct to make a sweeping statement, as there are exceptions also.

Nineteen-seventy-one gave a chance to erase that image. Rightly, the majority of people forgot the pre-1947 era. New generation Bangladeshi youths have little knowledge of humiliations that their forefathers were subjected to at the hands of Hindu zamindars.

Now coming to post-1971 period, it is perhaps the scarcity of resources that has caused the social instability of today. If the country could prosper economically, most of today's unrest would be over.

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It hurts everybody in Bangladesh if someone thinks that he or she is a second class citizen. We have many VIPs, intellectuals, writers, and poets from minority group whom we all adore and the country is proud of them. So I would request Mr. Bhattacharya not to degrade his community. Let us not divide the people further; the nation is already fragmented into pieces.

Remember the story of an old man who had ten children and who gave each a stick and told them to break it, which they easily did individually. But when all sticks were bundled, it was not possible even when all ten tried together. Let us be human first and rest will be automatically taken care of.