Thoughts on the Dhaka terror attack

The connection with Bangladesh runs very deep into the Bengali community of India. For long Bengalis had been one of the worst impacted because of the political division which the sub-continent had witnessed in the past century based on religious and lingual demarcations.
The idea of partitioning Bengal was first implemented by Lord Curzon in 1905. Bengal at that time was a huge province and Bengalis were dreaded as a community by the Brits. They had understood that Bengalis had the ability to provide intellectual and political guidance to rest of India. The partition of Bengal in 1905 was withdrawn after sometime because of huge protests.

Then came 1947. This saw a massive migration of people from Bangladesh into India and vice versa. And then again 1971. One of the main reason why India justified its entry into the Bangladesh Liberation War was the refugee crisis it had to face. It resulted in the displacement of some 10 million refugees from Bangladesh into India.

It took a lot of time for all these refugees to settle down but the emotions attached with the roots were hardly uprooted. The romanticism attached with Bangladesh still persists. The dialect (even though Bengali of West Bengal is distinctly different from how Bengali is spoken in West Bengal), the food habits, the ghoti-bangal debate, the debate over Mohun Bagan – East Bengal are all testimony to the deep connect which still runs between Bengalis on either sides of the border.

Whenever we leave our native roots with which a lot of our fine memories are associated, we always expect the place to remain the same as it was when we left it. When we return back to our roots and witness the sea-change we feel bad. Whether the change is good or bad, since we are not able to associate the change with our memories the feeling is not the best.

Bangladesh has also changed. It is no longer tolerant and pluralist society which it used to be. One of the losses which Bangladesh suffered was first the calculated elimination of Bengali intellectuals by Pakistani Army followed by the migration of a lot others to India. In 1971 though a nation was born, it was depleted. Thereafter intermittent periods of despotic regimes of military dictators and the propagation of extremist Islamic ideology ensure Bangladesh went down the path of societal degradation

And now there is the unknown animosity towards India and Indians. False propaganda by Bangladeshi leaders and obviously some incorrect political moves by Indian leader has ensured that the hatred for India runs very deep. The depth of the animosity was visible when just before the India – Bangladesh clash in the recently concluded T20 World Cup a picture of a Bangladeshi cricketer surfaced holding Dhoni’s head. In fact India’s defeat in the semi-final was actually celebrated by a national team cricketer of Bangladesh. If thus can be the attitude from sportsmen belonging to the national team you can well understand what the under current is.

Today’s Bangladesh is not the place where Hindus and other minority communities can live in peace. With every passing decade the Hindu population of Bangladesh has shown a steady decline. There is a systematic persecution of Hindus by way of destruction of places to worship, conversion by force and very recently systematic killings. The recent months have seen a spurt in the killing of Hindus, Buddhists and secular individuals in the country. And the killings have been really gruesome. Most of the cases the victims are hacked to death using machetes, so that death is slow and painful; driving home the specter of fear.

The recent attacks in Dhaka at a popular café (Holey Artisan Bakery) frequented by foreigners should not be a bolt from the blue. The ground work for all this was taking place for quite some time.
In the past few months many secular bloggers were categorically eliminated. These bloggers are the ones who held progressive views and dreamed of a secular society. This was closely followed by the killing of Hindu priests and Buddhist Monks. Unfortunately the administration is yet to put to trial any of the people involved in these crimes. In fact the reactions from Bangladeshi PM are quite surprising.

The Bangladeshi PM has expressed her remorse for the recent attack and has claimed that such an act has nothing to do with religion. But that is just a way trying to escape the problem at hand. Such acts have got everything to do with religious extremism and unless the democratic nation state takes on the problem head on it is just going to spread and be more acute with time. Today it is the blood of foreigners and non-Muslims being shed but in no time it would be common man of Bangladesh, the man irrespective of being a Hindu or Muslim has the same basic aspirations and expectations. Bangladesh is a growing economy and it has got all potential to provide its citizens an enhanced standard of living. It will be only worse if religious zealots succeed in transforming it into an Afghanistan or Pakistan.

As I write this article a second bomb attack has taken place at an Eid gathering in Dhaka.