Brothers of a lesser parent

We were taught in school in Pakistani days about the origin of the Lahore resolution of the Muslim League. Jinnah, a secular gentleman according to BJP leader Advani, had tried for many years with Indian Congress to work for a free united India, but gave up when he realised the impossibility of having a country with equal rights for both the principal communities. AK Fazlul Huq, the chief minister of Bengal, proposed in the Lahore convention that independent sovereign states be formed in the north-western and eastern parts of India with Muslim majority.

However, the final outcome was a geographically, ethnically, and linguistically fragmented Pakistan, and an India with a Hindu majority but with significant Muslim population in Assam, Bihar, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and other areas. It also grabbed Muslim-majority Kashmir and Hyderabad, adding more to its future problems. After communal riots, the Bihari Muslims migrated to nearer East Bengal, not well-received by the local people, but hoping it would eventually work out on the basis of a common religion. There was a general perception that the immigrants from India found more co-operation than the local Bengalis in getting jobs and establishing businesses from the central government of Pakistan, dominated by the Punjabis.

On my first plane flight in 1967 from Chittagong to Dhaka on a small Fokker plane carrying about 45 passengers, I discovered that my companion, a cousin, and I were the only two Bengali passengers though the fare was only Rs.45, the same as the first class train fare. My cousin was carrying a packet, very tightly sealed in multiple layers of covering. At the check-in counter the non-Bengali PIA officer asked grimly if it had dried fish. I too disliked the odour of dried fish, and had ensured that the sealing was perfect. Despite entreaties from my cousin, the item had to be left behind. It appeared to me that Muslim brothers could also have differences in eating preferences, which could make co-habitation difficult.

Higher caste Hindus migrated from East Bengal to West and the best of them became leaders in every field there. Many lower caste Hindus thought it would not make much difference if they migrated, and stayed put. They were harassed, more by Bengali Muslim neighbours eager to grab their lands, than by the smaller number of Bihari immigrants who preferred living together in areas like Muhammadpur  and Mirpur in Dhaka, or in Saidpur, in North Bengal, which became something like a Chinatown of the USA with a large number of railway employees.

Non-Bengalis thrived and Bengalis remained economically stagnant. After the Language Movement, the Muslim League was soundly thrashed in East Bengal. But the components of the United Front — Awami League and Fazlul Huq's Krishak-Shramik party soon became arch-enemies. A deputy Speaker died in the Assembly House. General Iskander Mirza became the martial law administrator and dissolved the Parliament. Ayub Khan took over soon and formed his own political party and model of 'basic democracy'. The top foreign Sandhurst graduate, now President of Pakistan, also earned some infamy by calling the majority Bengalis 'machchar' or mosquitoes. Like British India, with two distrusting unfriendly principal communities, Pakistan also became the same, and a separation seemed to be only a matter of time.

During the Liberation War, Bengalis became divided into three main classes (with some grey mixtures) – the committed freedom-fighters, the razakars, and the 'Bangladesh is a good idea but I hate Indian rule' group. In successive years, all the major political parties had members coming from each of these classes, though the proportion varied.

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Minorities are not necessarily weak. Money, education and internal networking or powerful external allies can make them formidable. Israel is strong in the Middle East, and the Jews in the USA, Ismailis are business leaders in many countries. Christians are seldom touched in Bangladesh.

Exceptions do not make a rule. Despite the wealth of many Muslim countries, the lack of any networking power, Muslim minorities get trampled even in countries which lag behind Bangladesh in many ways. Hindus of Bangladesh can migrate to India, either because they feel they are underprivileged, or to protect their cultural identity. Buddhist temples are raged in Ramu, Hindu idols are ravaged by religious fanatics, or muscleman agents of godfathers with land-grabbing plans. When they migrate, with a heavy heart, leaving the land of their forefathers, possibly with no compensation, at least they know they have somewhere to go. The Rakhains find themselves unwelcome in both Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Biharis still living in the camps in Mohammadpur, Mirpur and elsewhere also have nowhere else to go.

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Children of non-Bengali parents born in Bangladesh must be considered Bangladeshi citizens by birth. Many of them speak fluent Bangla and are indistinguishable from Bengalis. The only Urdu I hear occasionally now is in the barber shop, and I cannot be sure if it is Bihari or Dhakaiya Kutti Urdu. What some of their parents or grandparents did in 1971 has nothing to do with their rights. There is no original sin to be attributed down generations.

However, in the contemporary case i.e. Kalshi incident, the question of patriotic zeal is irrelevant. It was obviously a case of local political powerful land-pirates trying to grab the land they live on in miserable slum dwellings.

We make a lot of noise when Bengali settlers in Assam are killed, when BSF opens fire on  cattle-smugglers refusing to pay bribe, when Myanmar border and coast guards shoot at Bengalis trying to smuggle themselves into Malaysia in small boats. Are we human enough to defend these unfortunate people with no friends, from the villains who enjoy impunity coming from political sponsorship, and get rich quick in land-starved Bangladesh by spreading unfounded hatred against weak minorities and eliminating them?

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Ahmed Shafee is a columnist.