02-15-2008, 10:07 PM
Pioneer Book review, 15 feb 2008
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dhaka's Islamic turn </b>
In the early days in Dhaka, Krishnan Srinivasan got the impression that New Delhi was not clear about what approach it should have towards Bangladesh; that holds true even today, notes Saradindu Mukherji
The Jamdani Revolution: Politics, Personalities and Civil Society in Bangladesh, 1989-1992
Author: Krishnan Srinivasan
Publisher: Har-Anand
Price: Rs 595Â
<b>Krishnan Srinivasan, a former Foreign Secretary, was India's High Commissioner in Dhaka.</b> Naturally he has a lot in his kitty. <b>He rightly suggests that during Partition, the majority of Muslims were more conscious of their Islamic identity than anything else. However, up to the 18th century they were reluctant converts on whom Islam sat very lightly till the Faraizis/Wahaabis compelled them to turn into full-fledged 'Believers' by abandoning their Hindu-Buddhist heritage.</b> He notes the "local indifference" to the Hindu-Buddhist past of Bangladesh -- its only authentic ancient cultural heritage". Nothing surprising, since the denial of the pre-Islamic past (jahiliya) is a must for the convert. <b>Subsequently, rapid Islamisation, petro-dollar and the failure of civil society have further strengthened this mindset.</b>
<b>Hence, the writer foresees the "possible exodus from Bangladesh of the 10 million or more Hindus", its political repercussions in India and how it was "preying on the minds of our Home Ministry".</b> <b>Of the 500 Bangladeshis illegally moving into West Bengal everyday, 25 per cent of them could be Hindus.</b> Srinivasan told the authorities in Dhaka that they must ensure that the minorities "had a secure future" there. Not many "progressive" politicians and buddhijibis in India, despite being refugees from eastern and western parts would say such things lest their 'secular' image was dented.
Srinivasan mentions the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council and the unprecedented deprivation of the landed properties of Hindus through the draconian Vested Property Act. Though this has been scrapped, the hapless Hindus have not yet been restored their land. He met Maj Gen CR Dutta, the founder president of the HBCUC, without mentioning that he was the first and last Hindu commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army, senior to Gen Ershad, and should have been its Army Chief. This reviewer had met this General at Dhaka, decorated with the Bir Uttam award for his heroic role in the war of liberation. Similarly, he mentions Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's visit to his ancestral village in Dinajpur without telling if he found any of his relatives or other Hindus there and the condition in which they survive.
On illegal migration of Muslims, Srinivasan wanted a "team of international correspondents taken to the places of self-evident migration along the West Bengal borders". <b>While accepted by officials, this was rejected by Jyoti Basu, because that would cause "communal disharmony". The fact, however, is that it would have exposed the complicity of Basu's Government in the demographic aggression. No wonder Basu is highly respected in the fundamentalist circles in Bangladesh.</b>
On Bangabhumi agitation for a homeland for the evicted Hindus from Bangladesh to be carved out of its western parts, <b>Srinivasan correctly attributes it to the frustrations of Hindu refugees and the "deprivations of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh", which numbered about 30 per cent in 1947 but have been reduced to 10 per cent. Exchange of population, as repeatedly demanded by the Muslim League in the 1940s, might still be the only answer to this ongoing tragedy.</b>
Srinivasan could have provided more details about the trauma and tragedy of the "beleaguered" Hindus and their systematic elimination. <b>He visited the Dhakeshwari temple (Dhaka itself is named after this), but does not mention why the hallowed Ramna Kali Bari (destroyed by the Pakistanis) could not be re-built by Sheikh Mujib. His impressions of desecrated Hindu temples and dilapidated Hindu homes/palaces might bring tears in many eyes.</b>
As for the disaster in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and the repatriation issue, Srinivasan has missed the total picture, especially when the oppression, torture, forced conversion, assault on their women, forced seizure of their land and the settlement of Bengali-speaking Muslims in the CHT, culminating in the exodus of the Jumma people to India is well-documented. He mentions them cursorily in the Appendix but not in the diary-part. He is unduly harsh on Shanti Bahini. He calls Upendra Lal Chakma a "rascal", but this gentleman whom this reviewer had met at Takumbari camp in Tripura was a genuine leader and a fearless campaigner for the Jumma people. In fact, he went over to Shanti Bahini only after the genocidal pogrom of the Jumma people after the Longadu massacre of May 1989.
Srinivasan completely overlooks the brutal role of the paramilitary forces and the village guards, which this reviewer had detailed in his Subjects, Citizens and Refugees: Tragedy in the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1947-1998 (Delhi, 2000). After all, they are a minority in the CHT now, having been 97 per cent in 1947.
<b>In bracketing the non-existent "Hindu fundamentalism" in India with Muslim fundamentalism and Hindu hardliners setting the Indian agenda towards Bangladesh, Srinivasan sounds superficial. </b>When 16 BSF jawans were mercilessly killed by the Bangladeshis, the BJP-led NDA Government far from taking any penal action dispatched the coal supplies the following day, and Brajesh Mishra did not utter a word for the persecuted Hindus of Bangladesh when he visited Dhaka following their pogrom in 2001. So much for the "Hindu hardliners"!
<b>The writer has interesting comments</b> on guests pounce on the food like hungry wolves in the Indian parties, Chandrashekhar having a "miserable bunch of Ministers", politically well-connected females holding sway in Delhi durbar, etc. Gen Ershad's Government making Islam the state religion to give the "nation a distinctive identity', its distrust of increased cultural contact with India to "emphasise their separate identity" and various facets of the public life in Bangladesh, including Gen Ershad's downfall have been well-sketched. On bilateral aspects like Tin Bigha, Farakka water, gas supply from Bangladesh and other issues, he has many details. He also points the uninhibited growth of Pakistani and other pan-Islamic anti-liberation forces in Bangladesh.
In the early days in Dhaka, the writer got the impression that New Delhi was not clear about what approach it should have towards Bangladesh. That holds true even today.
-- The reviewer is a Delhi University professor and an expert on Bangladesh
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<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Dhaka's Islamic turn </b>
In the early days in Dhaka, Krishnan Srinivasan got the impression that New Delhi was not clear about what approach it should have towards Bangladesh; that holds true even today, notes Saradindu Mukherji
The Jamdani Revolution: Politics, Personalities and Civil Society in Bangladesh, 1989-1992
Author: Krishnan Srinivasan
Publisher: Har-Anand
Price: Rs 595Â
<b>Krishnan Srinivasan, a former Foreign Secretary, was India's High Commissioner in Dhaka.</b> Naturally he has a lot in his kitty. <b>He rightly suggests that during Partition, the majority of Muslims were more conscious of their Islamic identity than anything else. However, up to the 18th century they were reluctant converts on whom Islam sat very lightly till the Faraizis/Wahaabis compelled them to turn into full-fledged 'Believers' by abandoning their Hindu-Buddhist heritage.</b> He notes the "local indifference" to the Hindu-Buddhist past of Bangladesh -- its only authentic ancient cultural heritage". Nothing surprising, since the denial of the pre-Islamic past (jahiliya) is a must for the convert. <b>Subsequently, rapid Islamisation, petro-dollar and the failure of civil society have further strengthened this mindset.</b>
<b>Hence, the writer foresees the "possible exodus from Bangladesh of the 10 million or more Hindus", its political repercussions in India and how it was "preying on the minds of our Home Ministry".</b> <b>Of the 500 Bangladeshis illegally moving into West Bengal everyday, 25 per cent of them could be Hindus.</b> Srinivasan told the authorities in Dhaka that they must ensure that the minorities "had a secure future" there. Not many "progressive" politicians and buddhijibis in India, despite being refugees from eastern and western parts would say such things lest their 'secular' image was dented.
Srinivasan mentions the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council and the unprecedented deprivation of the landed properties of Hindus through the draconian Vested Property Act. Though this has been scrapped, the hapless Hindus have not yet been restored their land. He met Maj Gen CR Dutta, the founder president of the HBCUC, without mentioning that he was the first and last Hindu commissioned officer in the Pakistan Army, senior to Gen Ershad, and should have been its Army Chief. This reviewer had met this General at Dhaka, decorated with the Bir Uttam award for his heroic role in the war of liberation. Similarly, he mentions Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi's visit to his ancestral village in Dinajpur without telling if he found any of his relatives or other Hindus there and the condition in which they survive.
On illegal migration of Muslims, Srinivasan wanted a "team of international correspondents taken to the places of self-evident migration along the West Bengal borders". <b>While accepted by officials, this was rejected by Jyoti Basu, because that would cause "communal disharmony". The fact, however, is that it would have exposed the complicity of Basu's Government in the demographic aggression. No wonder Basu is highly respected in the fundamentalist circles in Bangladesh.</b>
On Bangabhumi agitation for a homeland for the evicted Hindus from Bangladesh to be carved out of its western parts, <b>Srinivasan correctly attributes it to the frustrations of Hindu refugees and the "deprivations of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh", which numbered about 30 per cent in 1947 but have been reduced to 10 per cent. Exchange of population, as repeatedly demanded by the Muslim League in the 1940s, might still be the only answer to this ongoing tragedy.</b>
Srinivasan could have provided more details about the trauma and tragedy of the "beleaguered" Hindus and their systematic elimination. <b>He visited the Dhakeshwari temple (Dhaka itself is named after this), but does not mention why the hallowed Ramna Kali Bari (destroyed by the Pakistanis) could not be re-built by Sheikh Mujib. His impressions of desecrated Hindu temples and dilapidated Hindu homes/palaces might bring tears in many eyes.</b>
As for the disaster in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and the repatriation issue, Srinivasan has missed the total picture, especially when the oppression, torture, forced conversion, assault on their women, forced seizure of their land and the settlement of Bengali-speaking Muslims in the CHT, culminating in the exodus of the Jumma people to India is well-documented. He mentions them cursorily in the Appendix but not in the diary-part. He is unduly harsh on Shanti Bahini. He calls Upendra Lal Chakma a "rascal", but this gentleman whom this reviewer had met at Takumbari camp in Tripura was a genuine leader and a fearless campaigner for the Jumma people. In fact, he went over to Shanti Bahini only after the genocidal pogrom of the Jumma people after the Longadu massacre of May 1989.
Srinivasan completely overlooks the brutal role of the paramilitary forces and the village guards, which this reviewer had detailed in his Subjects, Citizens and Refugees: Tragedy in the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1947-1998 (Delhi, 2000). After all, they are a minority in the CHT now, having been 97 per cent in 1947.
<b>In bracketing the non-existent "Hindu fundamentalism" in India with Muslim fundamentalism and Hindu hardliners setting the Indian agenda towards Bangladesh, Srinivasan sounds superficial. </b>When 16 BSF jawans were mercilessly killed by the Bangladeshis, the BJP-led NDA Government far from taking any penal action dispatched the coal supplies the following day, and Brajesh Mishra did not utter a word for the persecuted Hindus of Bangladesh when he visited Dhaka following their pogrom in 2001. So much for the "Hindu hardliners"!
<b>The writer has interesting comments</b> on guests pounce on the food like hungry wolves in the Indian parties, Chandrashekhar having a "miserable bunch of Ministers", politically well-connected females holding sway in Delhi durbar, etc. Gen Ershad's Government making Islam the state religion to give the "nation a distinctive identity', its distrust of increased cultural contact with India to "emphasise their separate identity" and various facets of the public life in Bangladesh, including Gen Ershad's downfall have been well-sketched. On bilateral aspects like Tin Bigha, Farakka water, gas supply from Bangladesh and other issues, he has many details. He also points the uninhibited growth of Pakistani and other pan-Islamic anti-liberation forces in Bangladesh.
In the early days in Dhaka, the writer got the impression that New Delhi was not clear about what approach it should have towards Bangladesh. That holds true even today.
-- The reviewer is a Delhi University professor and an expert on Bangladesh
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->