Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

Communal harmony largely exists in Bangladesh 

Published : Thursday, 24 October, 2024 at 12:00 AM  Count : 467
Protno Prithu Biswas
South Asia has a past of both communal harmony and communal tensions. As multiple religions coexisted in the region for a long time including Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, etc, Conflicts and tensions were often observed throughout history. Since the partition of British India, Pakistan, and India emerged as two new nations which were divided on the lines of religion. The Muslims of South Asia wanted a homeland of their own due to the insecurity of being disproportionately dominated by the majority of Hindus.

Time has passed since and inter-communal conflicts have rocked both countries. Riots, looting, and violence have existed in both countries. But, a slightly different story exists in liberated Bangladesh. Although Bangladesh, when it was East Pakistan, did see large-scale communal violence, Since its inception as an independent state, it has largely been able to provide its citizens equal rights regardless of their ethnic and religious identity. While other nations of South Asia had been rocked by conflicts on ethnic and religious identity, Bangladesh became resistant to communalism for the most case. Delving deep into the situation of Bangladesh's neighbors will show us that the situation of minorities in Bangladesh is significantly better if not the best in the region. 

Secular India's struggle with right-wing extremism and violence: South Asia's conflicts seem inherently identity-backed. For example, the conflict between India and Pakistan is often considered to be a Hindu-Muslim war. Yet, in reality, India has a significant portion of Muslims in their country who receive equal rights according to the constitution although the contemporary situation is that India has a right-wing Hindutva government that often discriminates against their minorities especially Muslims and Christians, both part of Abrahamic creed which The followers of Hindutva consider to be foreign and thus justify discriminating them through various means.

India has also repeatedly inflicted brutal methods to suppress dissent in Kashmir, North East, and Red Corridor. There were many instances of Religious and Ethnic communal violence in India where the state played a silent role including the 1992 Ayodha riots (2000 deaths), 2002 Gujrat riots (1000 deaths), and later in Muzzafarabad, Delhi, and Manipur which all targeted Muslims and Christians. India also suffers from caste & ethnicity-based violence among its Hindu majority population.

Bangladesh, a divergent tale?: Yes, Bangladesh has suffered from instances of communal tensions and violence but its intensity was far lower than its neighboring states. Moreover, the Bangladesh government has always taken strong steps to ensure the harmonious nature of the country remains intact. 

Although incidents happened like the 1992 anti-Hindu violence which saw attacks on the Hindu community due to the Babri Mosque demolition in India. There was post election violence in 2001. in 2021, ruling party members reportedly instigated violence against Hindus, and in 2024, after the collapse of the authoritarian government, there were reports of some attacks in remote areas based on political affiliations. But in all instances, the interim government strongly opposed the attacks and took strict measures to ensure the protection of its minority population.

Although the number of Hindus in Bangladesh since independence has dropped, as in 1974, the population percentage was 13.5% and in 2022, the percentage was 7.96%. However, this drop in population percentage is mostly attributed to lower birth rates in the Hindu community and voluntary outward migration to India and other nations.

But this doesn't portray Bangladesh as alienating its Hindu citizens as every Bangladeshi regardless of their religion and ethnicity experiences equal rights and opportunities. Moreover, Bangladeshi Hindus enjoy their religious festivals with great extravagance judging from the number of Durga Puja Pandals in Bangladesh which is much higher than in West Bengal though the Indian state of West Bengal has the highest number of Bengali Hindus.

The Buddhist community of Bangladesh notably from Chakma, Marma, and Rakhine ethnicity also saw instances of violence particularly during the Chittagong Hill Tracts insurgency and during The Ramu violence in 2012, but these were also strictly dealt with in order to provide the backward ethnic communities with more facilities, the government of Bangladesh issues quotas in education and job sector.

The Conclusion is that, although there are some elements in society that try to disrupt communal harmony in Bangladesh, the government and the majority of citizens of Bangladesh always stand against them. Moreover, although surrounded by nations that have intense communal violence and civil conflict, Bangladesh is still a beacon of communal harmony in the South Asian region. The casualty level of the incidents occurring in Bangladesh is also way smaller than other nations in the vicinity. Though the number of violent incidents is small, the goal of Bangladesh should be to eradicate any incidents of communal violence. Through creating an inclusive framework in society, education, and media and through enhancing security infrastructure,  this can surely be achieved. We hope the future of Bangladesh will be more inclusive and harmonious.

The writer is a student of International Relations Department, University of Dhaka



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