Why Secularism In Bangladesh Was Never More Than A Mask For Its Deep-Rooted Islamism

Now the veil has been fully removed. Some of us had spoken about the face before, for which we were condemned and isolated. Today, that face has come out in public. The ruling political party of West Bengal, which had adopted the slogan "Joy Bangla" and perhaps moved towards transforming West Bengal into West Bangladesh, seems to have halted somewhat.

Those who raised hypocritical waves of kinship between the two Bengals (West Bengal and Bangladesh) through the Bengali language and culture, covering the ugliness with a beautiful veil of secularism for seven decades, have been completely exposed when the veil was torn away by the storm generated by the zikirs (Islamic prayers) of eighteen crore faithful.

I have witnessed this ugly face for a long time. Today, all Bengalis and people worldwide are seeing it. TV channels show how minority Hindus are attacked, temples and idols desecrated, lawyers assaulted, a monk imprisoned on sedition charges, and his legal team attacked, with the lead lawyer hospitalised and battling for life. The details of these events now fill the pages of various dailies. The average Bengali in West Bengal is shocked. This is the true face of East Pakistan/Bangladesh — the face without the secular veil. I have seen the face of Bangladesh.

Left-Secular Veil — East Pakistan Phase

At the time of independence, Punjab was divided, and there was an exchange of populations. As a result, within a few years, the communal problems and violence between Hindus, Sikhs, and Muslims in the two Punjabs ended forever. Unfortunately, this did not happen in Bengal. B R Ambedkar specifically stated in 1940, long before Partition, that “minority exchange is undoubtedly the permanent solution to the communal problem” (B R Ambedkar, Pakistan or Partition of India, pp. 116, Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings and Speeches, Vol. 8, Education Department, Government of Maharashtra, 1990).

The last chance came in 1950, during the Hindu genocide in East Pakistan, when a flood of refugees came to West Bengal. A proposal for an exchange of populations was brought up in Parliament, but Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru dismissed it with contempt. Instead, he implemented the infamous Nehru-Liaquat Pact, which stated that minorities would return to their respective countries, and the states would ensure their rehabilitation and security.

In opposition to this pact, two Bengali ministers in Nehru's cabinet, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee and Kshitish Chandra Niyogi of the Congress Party, resigned. Shyama Prasad warned: "Hindus will continue to come in large numbers, and those who come cannot even think of going back. On the other hand, all the Muslims who had left (West Bengal) will return, and we firmly believe that the Muslims will not leave India due to the unilateral implementation of the pact. Our economy will be destroyed, and the conflict within our country will increase.”

Like Ambedkar's prophecy, Shyama Prasad's words remain true today. West Bengal began its journey towards darkness on that day.

As predicted, refugees from East Pakistan continued to arrive regularly in India. Due to Delhi's indifference, the leadership of these refugees shifted from Congress to the Leftists. The Leftists organised these refugees, leading several movements championing demands for jobs, shelter, and education, but ensured that no one spoke against Islamic persecution — the very reason for their displacement. Under this directive, West Bengal's refugee history, literature, films, plays, and drawings were systematically sanitised.

The most famous poster boy of this trait was Ritwik Ghatak. He is still today a guru for many film critics and film lovers, and a producer of melodramas for others. He occupies a special place as a compassionate film director of refugee life. However, his sympathy and compassion led to films portraying only the misery and poverty of the refugees, without ever questioning why they became refugees or who forced them to leave their ancestral land. He consciously did this to cover the heinous crimes carried out by the Muslims of East Pakistan. 

Let me cite just two examples in the short space of this article.

Destruction and Construction – Self-Portrait of the Bengali Refugee Society (2007) is a research book published by the School of Cultural Texts and Records of Jadavpur University. Extensive interviews were conducted with 26 Bengali Hindu refugees, 19 men and 7 women. They were mainly residents of the refugee colony adjacent to South Kolkata. Almost all of them were not poor; many were well-off. Why did they leave everything and come to Bijaygarh Colony to live a life of extreme poverty? Why did their mothers and sisters, who were from well-to-do respectable families, start washing dishes in the local pond or bathing in public?

Finding answers to these questions from the research materials by Jadavpur University leads to nowhere or amusing situations. Going through the interviews, it would seem that becoming a refugee is nothing special but quite a common affair. Almost all of them said that "relations with Muslims were very good" or "nothing happened to us there."

The book is called Destruction and Construction, but there is no news of destruction in it. For example, in the first interview, Phatik Chandra Basak said, "When Hindustan-Pakistan has become, then it will not be possible to stay in this country anymore. I got an idea." What a great investigation. Another refugee, Rathindranath Bhattacharya, was from Srihatta district. Why did he move? He said, "Communal? It has not happened much. Hindus are naturally fleeing; they are slowly moving away. I did not get the communal thing." (p. 66)

What a wonderful reaction from the Hindu Brahmin — Hindus are fleeing, so where does the communal issue come in? This is natural, this is the rule. Obviously, that is why even the “researchers” did not ask him any additional questions about it.

Sunil Gangopadhyay was (and is) the most popular writer in West Bengal and East Pakistan/Bangladesh. When he was writing his autobiographical novel, he was careful not to annoy his large number of captive readers in East Pakistan/Bangladesh.

After devoting several pages to Churchill, Stalin, Roosevelt, and World War II, which were almost unrelated to his life, in his autobiography, he writes: "A lot has been written about the partition of the country, I don’t want to add to that rubbish." (Ordhek Jeebon, p. 85, Ananda, 2002, 6th printing, 2010).

Tarapada Roy, who was a poet of the Sunil-Shakti group, wrote some facts about East Pakistan/Bangladesh in his autobiographical writings and even apologised for writing the truth. He wrote, "These things may not be written like this. I wrote them out of sorrow. If anyone finds even the slightest communalism in them, I urge them to forgive me, thinking of the sorrow in the hearts of people like me who are without a home, and who are forever displaced." (Tarapada Roy – Kothay Jacchen Tarapadababu, p. 25-29, Ananda, 2005).

After seizing power in West Bengal, the Leftists started making Bengalis forget their history in an official manner. A circular from the then Leftist government in 1989 (Circular No. SYL/89/1) clearly mentioned: “Muslim rule should not attract any criticism. Destruction of temples by Muslim invaders and rulers should not be mentioned.” Fake history began, much like fake news.

The main educational and cultural worldview of West Bengal remained left-secular even after the Leftists exited power in 2011, as the main base of the Trinamool Congress party is the Muslim vote. As a result, fake history is gaining more ground day by day.

Bangladesh — Merely A New Name For East Pakistan

East Pakistan becoming Bangladesh was an accident. In 1970, the Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was supposed to come to power in Pakistan after obtaining a single majority in the first general election of Pakistan, that is, East and West Pakistan. Mujib’s party won all but one seat in East Pakistan, courtesy of the NAP (National Awami Party) of Maulana Bhashani, which declined to take part in the election due to a natural disaster at that time. The army and the West Pakistanis did not want Mujib as the Prime Minister of Pakistan and refused to hand over power to him. As a result, civil war broke out in East Pakistan.

The Hindu community had no special or direct role in this East-West conflict. But in the Pakistani mind, the real source of this conspiracy against the Islamic State was the existence of the Hindu community (20 per cent at that time) in East Pakistan. The army thought one of the ways to contain the unrest was by completely eradicating the Hindu community. To achieve this goal, the Pakistani army started one of the most brutal genocides in the history of the world. One example is enough: on May 20, 1971, 10 to 12 thousand Hindus were killed in a single day in Chuknagar, Khulna.

A saying is very common in Bangladesh; it is said in songs, poetry, plays, and cinemas — we won freedom at the cost of 2.5 million lives. This is not exactly true. Almost all of these victims were Hindus; none of them went to fight any liberation war and were not confronted in any protest march or meeting. They were killed in cold blood, in a planned genocide by the Pakistani army simply because they were Hindus. As a result, one crore (10 million) refugees took shelter in India.

An armed liberation guerrilla war cannot be started and lead to victory in months, especially against a British-trained, disciplined army like Pakistan's. It takes years and decades, as may be seen in the history of liberation wars in other countries around the world. Especially when the Awami League is a political party engaged in electoral politics and had no armed wing at all. But India cannot bear the burden of ten million refugees for decades. The economy and security of India, especially that of West Bengal and North East would collapse.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi understood this, took nine months to do the necessary groundwork, and then invaded East Pakistan on 3 December 1971. In just 13 days, on December 16, 1971, the Pakistani Army surrendered to the Indian army, and she created a new country and presented it to the people of Bangladesh. Almost all the refugees returned. This is a brief history of the liberation war; most of the other stories about Muktijuddho (the liberation war) championed by Bangladeshis are mere stories only.

A new country was born. Was it really a new country? Or the same country with a new name? The basis for the creation of Pakistan was The Lahore Resolution of 1940. That resolution did not contain the word Pakistan. The Resolution stipulated the establishment of several independent Muslim states in the Muslim-majority regions of British India.

Abul Mansur Ahmed, an important politician of United Bengal and Pakistan, said very clearly in his book: "Instead of one Pakistan, there have been two Pakistans. The Indian government has helped us in implementing the Lahore Resolution... The Lahore Resolution does not mention the word 'Pakistan'; only the Muslim-majority states were mentioned. That means the name of the state could be decided later by the people. The Western people have named their state 'Pakistan.' We, the Easterners, have named it 'Bangladesh.' There is no reason for confusion in this." This is the real identity of Bangladesh – East Pakistan with a new name.

To hide this truth that Bangladesh is the same East Pakistan with a new name, the pro-Islamic left in West Bengal started a new propaganda. It was said that Bangladesh was established on the basis of Bengali language and culture. The basis of the election victory of the Awami League was the 6-point (Chhoy Dafa) demand. In the famous 6-point election demands of the Awami League, there was no demand related to the Bengali language and culture. The Awami League had presented this demand in 1966 itself, not in 1970, and had no demand for any independence.

The first sentence of its first point was: "Pakistan will be a true federation based on the historic Lahore Resolution." In other words, the Awami League never deviated from the main philosophy of the creation of Pakistan.

In short, these 6 points were: Pakistan will be a federal state, the centre will be responsible only for defence and foreign relations, a separate currency system for the two parts of the country to prevent capital laundering, provinces will be responsible for tax and wealth collection, separate accounts for the two parts to earn foreign exchange, and a separate military force for East Pakistan. The Awami League did not ask for changing the Islamic constitution of Pakistan; the demand for secularism was never there.

Bengali Language And Culture

Now, let’s talk about Bengali language and culture. Discussions about the place of the Bengali language in Pakistan started after the creation of Pakistan. But was it out of any love or loyalty to the Bengali language and culture? After the partition of the country, the names of the Bengali newspapers that were published in East Pakistan and spoke in favour of the Bengali language were Paygam, Dainik Azad, Ittefaq, Insan, Insaf, etc.  

The organisation that was formed at that time and was active in this campaign was called Tamaddun Majlis. Note, none of these publications or organisations bear Bengali names. This is an Islamic example of love for the Bengali language. Bengali-speaking Muslims still today name their children in Arabic. The movement to make Bengali the state language gained strength because it was need-based, and entirely economic.

In the words of Abul Mansur Ahmed, "If Urdu is made the state language, the educated society of East Pakistan will overnight become ‘uneducated’ and ‘unfit’ for government jobs. By replacing Persian with English as the state language in the mid-nineteenth century, British imperialism made the Muslim educated society ‘uneducated’ and unfit for government work overnight." This was the essence of the Bengali language movement.

In an article published in December 1947, renowned linguist Muhammad Shahidullah wrote: "After the mother tongue, the next place is taken by the religious language. For this reason, I will say with all my might, we want Arabic like Bengali... The birth of the state of Pakistan will be successful on the day Arabic is adopted as the state language of entire Pakistan… But at present, there are enough obstacles to adopting Arabic as the only state language other than the variant languages of the state of Pakistan." As a result, the logic and application of the Arabisation of the Bengali language have been going on since then.

In 1954, Bengali was recognised as the state language of Pakistan. Bengali found a place in all government notices, from currency notes to postage stamps. The language movement ended. There were Bengali language departments in the universities of West Pakistan. The Pakistani rulers' dislike was no longer there for the Bengali language, but they were concerned about the Hindu influence on the Bengali language. To eliminate this Hindu influence forever, the Pakistani rulers organised the Hindu genocide in 1971.

In the introduction to the book "The Minds of Pakistani Generals (2010)" written by historian Muntasir Mamun, who visited Pakistan and talked to army men, he quoted from a book written by Pakistani Major General Fazal Mukim Khan: "The seeds of crisis between East and West Pakistan were planted by professors and teachers from the minority communities, which bore good fruit. The type of education provided with continuous Indian propaganda in the last twenty-four years has transformed East Pakistanis into Bengalis" (translation by this author).  

So, Pakistan consciously conducted the genocide to eliminate Hindu influence. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus has now restarted the work of fulfilling the unfinished task of the Pakistanis. All the left-secular historians, sociologists, politicians, and even the Hindu religious leaders of West Bengal are silent about this Hindu genocide. People of West Bengal are still submerged in the false emotional ties between Bengals on both sides of the border.

Hindu Oppression In Bangladesh – just an ongoing habit

Narrating stories of the persecution of Hindus in East Pakistan/Bangladesh will generate volumes bigger than the Mahabharat. To be precise, Hindu oppression in East Pakistan/Bangladesh is a routine habit practised by Islamic society as its pious duty, and therefore the emigration of Hindu families is a regular occurrence.

Hiranmoy Banerjee, a government official in charge of refugees, described one example of harassment: "When Hindu women go to bathe in the pond, people from the majority community stand on the bank. Among them are young men as well as old men. Standing, they sing rhymes. People on one side sing: Pak Pak Pakistan, people on the other side say – Hindu women will be married to Muslims" (Hiranmoy Bandyopadhyay, Udvastu – Sahitya Sangsad, 1970). This is the description from the Pakistan period; its variations have been going on for the last seventy-five years.

For example, here is a story by the renowned writer Humayun Ahmed. Himu, his famous character, wears a yellow kurta without pockets and walks around barefoot at night in the streets of Dhaka. His uncle brings a marriage proposal for him. Himu says, how will I feed my wife? I am unemployed. I have no money; hence my kurtas have no pockets. The uncle's simple answer is: "No problem. I’ll threaten Saha, the Hindu grocer of the village. He will flee to India. Then all you have to do is to take over their grocery store." In this way, the Hindus are going to India, leaving everything from the grocery store to womenfolk for the Muslims.

Apart from such low-key (but highly effective) routine activities, they are always waiting to exploit something, even in foreign lands, to do large-scale visible harm to Hindus. For example, during the Pakistani period in 1964, on the false claim of theft of hair from Hazratbal Mosque in Kashmir 2,500 kilometres away, a Hindu genocide took place across East Pakistan.

In 1990, after the attack on the Babri Masjid, 1,500 kilometres away, attacks on Hindu temples and properties continued throughout Bangladesh. After the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992, 3,600 temples, 28,000 houses, and 2,500 shops were attacked and damaged in Bangladesh. Thirteen people were killed. (Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council – Communal Discrimination in Bangladesh: Facts and Documents, Dhaka 1993).

After Begum Zia returned to power in 2001, a new phase of Hindu persecution continued for five years. This has been documented in a 3,000-page, three-volume work – 1500 Days of Minority Persecution – White Paper, edited by Shahriar Kabir, Ekattarer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, Dhaka, 2005. However, the difference in the persecution of Hindus during the rule of Sheikh Hasina, Begum Zia, or Ershad is only marginal. Most recently, during Hasina’s tenure in 2021, Durga Puja pandals were ransacked across Bangladesh. Only one person was arrested, and he was not punished.

The essence of this series of persecutions can be found in Professor Abul Barkat's extraordinary research (Abul Barkat et al – Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh – Living with Vested Property, Pathak Samabesh, Dhaka 2008). He showed that 6.3 million Hindus disappeared between 1971 and 2001, which averages out to 575 Hindus leaving Bangladesh every day. In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, the primary habitat of Buddhist tribes, 98 per cent of the population was Buddhist, with some Hindu tribes, in 1948. Now, through oppression and forced occupation, 50 per cent of the population there is Muslim.

Anti-India And The Future Of West Bengal

From Bangladeshi writer Al Mahmud's novel Subcontinent:

"I looked at the panwala, an old man in his sixties. A shaggy beard, a cap on his head. He was rubbing the betel leaves he had cut with great skill. At this opportunity, I asked, ‘Which way is Balu Hakkak Lane?’

‘Whose house are you going to there?’ The man asked in surprise. ‘Have you come from East Pakistan?’

Nandini and I answered together, ‘Yes.’

Hearing our answer, the man sat down in a strange manner. He threw the two betel leaves in his hand into the bucket in front.

I asked in surprise, ‘What’s the matter?’

‘Take betel from the shop in front. I will not sell you betel. You have come to Hindustan to commit treason, to break Pakistan. We Hindustani Muslims hate you. Go.’"

This was the attitude of Muslims in West Bengal (and India too) in 1970/71. It has not changed much. Recently, TMC leader and minister Sidikulla’s support for the Yunus government in Bangladesh helped to clarify which side the Bengali-speaking Muslims of West Bengal are on. This is a conflict of civilisation and culture. Just after Bangladesh gained independence, in October 1972, Durga Puja was attacked in Dhaka and Chittagong.

The legendary writer of Bangladesh, Humayun Ahmed, writes in his novel A Few Blue Lotus in His Hand published three decades ago:

“Dhaka Mayor Hanif Sahib has constituted the people’s group… Khaleda Zia and her followers have formed the democracy stage. It is being claimed from both platforms – we are anti-India. Anti-India is emerging as a driving force in our politics. We had to take their help for our independence. Are we suffering from any inferiority complex because of this? We have innumerable memorials all over the country – but we have not built any memorial for the Indian soldiers who gave their lives for our independence. Why not? If we did, would we become weak as a nation?”

This anti-India sentiment was the essence of the creation of Pakistan. Anti-India sentiment here is not only against the Indian state but signifies opposition to 5,000 years of Indian culture, opposition to the pluralistic thinking of Indian culture. Bangladesh was created by breaking away from Pakistan, but the current anti-India sentiment has always flowed in the arteries of Bangladesh. Hence, religious minorities have decreased from 22 per cent to 7 per cent in the last 75 years in East Pakistan/Bangladesh. I have seen the face of Bangladesh.

In the general elections of Pakistan in February 2024, US and Western groups were able to sabotage Imran Khan’s attempt to form a government, and a coalition government without Imran came to power in Pakistan. A month before that, in the elections in January, the government in Bangladesh did not change as per the US wishes. Sheikh Hasina formed the government again. As a result, their next plan was launched. The so-called student movement of Bangladesh in July was transformed into a violent movement to change the regime by bringing Islamic fundamentalist forces into the field.

The Western shield behind them was Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus. On September 26, 2024, in his speech at the annual conference of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, Muhammad Yunus, the chief advisor to the interim government of Bangladesh, left no room for ambiguity, stating that this ‘revolution’ in Bangladesh was well-thought-out and pre-planned. He also introduced the mastermind of this pre-planning, Mafuz Abdullah, to the audience. Mafuz Abdullah is a well-known Islamic organiser. So now Bangladesh is being run by an Islamic fundamentalist government.

To finish the unfinished work of the Pakistani army, the attack on Hindus and Buddhists has started to erase the traditional culture of the subcontinent from Bangladesh.

What Should India Or West Bengal Do?

Anti-India parties are now in power in all the neighbouring countries of India: the Maoist party in Nepal, the declared anti-India Marxist-Leninist party in Sri Lanka, the eternal enemy Pakistan, and the new enemy Bangladesh. Such a plight of Indian diplomacy has never been seen before.

The citizens of all these countries are surely seeing how indifferent the large country, India, is to the helpless people of the neighbouring countries. Therefore, the Indian government now needs a bold decision, not just for refugee camps, but also appropriate, strong steps to permanently solve the persecution and expulsion of minorities in Bangladesh. It can be done. Indira Gandhi demonstrated this fifty-five years ago.

The situation in West Bengal is even more pathetic. It seems that the efforts of those who have been covering up Islamic fundamentalism in West Bengal for so long will increase because they are also against Indian culture and civilisation.

It should be remembered that during the Left era, Taslima Nasrin was expelled from Kolkata not by Islamic fundamentalists of Bangladesh, but by the left-Islamic fundamentalists of West Bengal itself. To this day, no party, right or left, has dared to invite Taslima Nasrin to any event in Kolkata. The question, ‘Will West Bengal become West Bangladesh?’ is blowing in the wind.