Debate, without Demonising
December 7, 2024
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(The article was originally published in Indian Express on December 07, 2024 as a part of Dr Madhav’s column titled ‘Ram Rajya’. Views expressed are personal.)
South Asia, according to the World Bank, is on track to be the fastest growing region in the world, “supported by strong domestic demand in India and faster recoveries in most South Asian countries”. The Bank projected that growth in the region will remain at a robust 6.4 per cent for the next couple of years. Instability is likely to slow down growth in Bangladesh to within the range of 5.2 to 3.2 per cent this year. But India’s growth will remain robust at above 7 per cent. Bhutan is expected to grow at 7.2 per cent, Maldives at 4.7 per cent, and Nepal at 5.1 per cent. Even Pakistan and Sri Lanka, struggling with political and economic turmoil, are expected to recover well, riding on new economic initiatives and the rebound of tourism and industrial activity in the coming years.
The World Bank’s outlook may sound fairytale-like to many. How is it possible that a region mired in demographic complexities, political rivalries and communal conflicts should be the fastest-growing region in the world? The region has witnessed massive popular revolts in recent years in countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the mob succeeded in toppling an elected government and replaced it with an ad hoc arrangement with no democratic process in sight. In Pakistan, the most popular leader of the country is behind bars with his supporters taking to the streets in a major face-off with the country’s army.
On top of it, the region inherited the worst form of inter-religious rivalry thanks largely to the machinations of the British colonialists, but also due to the Indian leadership’s poorly thought-out decision to accept the country’s partition in 1947. Strife between Hindus and Muslims became an everyday reality in the Indian Subcontinent since then.
India sought to address this challenge through a robust and inclusive Constitution, determined government action and an independent judiciary. The inclusive nature of the majority Hindu population too helped this process. Occasional incidents like Sambhal notwithstanding, this vast country with 1.4 billion people, with almost 20 per cent minority population, has largely maintained stability and harmony. Where challenges arose, the judicial process, free media and socio-political activism helped the victims. Minority politics too flourished over the decades, sometimes helping the communities in need, but often seeking to make political capital out of it.
But in its neighbourhood, the situation remained precarious for minority Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and even some Muslim denominations, like Ismailis and Ahmadis. With Islam becoming the state religion in both Pakistan and Bangladesh, minority communities were subjected to many restrictions and denial of rights. Pakistan forcefully evacuated most of its minorities through oppressive state action, like blasphemy laws, coupled with aggressive behaviour of the religious leadership.
But what is worrying is that Bangladesh, a nation born out of a rejection of the politics of religion, should turn into an Islamist state. Hindus and other minorities, who sacrificed equally and enormously in the struggle for the creation of the Bengali nation five decades ago, are being subjected to atrocities in that very country today.
The unspeakable barbarism of the Pakistan Army during the liberation struggle of the Bengali nationalists during 1970-71 was well documented by authors such as eminent American academic Gary J Bass, who wrote the book The Blood Telegram. In one of the first major incidents, the Pakistan Army attacked Jagannath Hall, a Hindu dormitory in Dhaka University, on March 25, 1971. Killings, rapes and other atrocities against Hindus continued until the liberation of Bangladesh, leading to the deaths of millions of people and a whopping 10 million refugees fleeing to India.
Ted Kennedy, a US Senator, who visited the refugee camps in 1971, described the war as a “systematic campaign of terror” by the Pakistan army. “Hardest hit have been the members of the Hindu community, who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered and in some places painted in yellow patches as H,” he said.
The Indira-Mujib Accord in 1972 included terms that promised to take care of the minorities in Bangladesh. Many refugee Hindus returned home in that country. Sadly, despite some efforts by successive governments, Hindus continued to face persecution and violence on regular intervals, with major incidents occurring in 1992, 2001, and 2021. Under Sheikh Hasina, the Awami League government sought to extend protection to the minorities. It brought several Hindu MPs into Parliament and even made a Hindu the chief justice of the Supreme Court. It provided support to the famous Hindu shrine in Dhaka, the Dhakeshwari Temple. Yet, anti-Hindu violence persisted.
As instability in the country continues, the attacks on Hindus and Buddhists have again reached a crescendo. Even Muslim Bangladeshis, mostly leaders of the Awami League, are being subjected to many atrocities. As the episode of the arrest of Iskcon priest Chinmoy Das has proved, Hindus cannot even depend on the country’s judiciary for justice.
I talked about the economic growth in the region only to point out that with all this around us too, we may still grow. During World War II, the US Army, which went to Europe to crush the Nazis and their racial hatred, was itself a thoroughly segregated institution. Black and White soldiers did not live together, fight together, or even share the blood supplies. Yet, they won the war. Racial discrimination continued until President John F Kennedy rose to proclaim that “race has no place in American life or law”.
Can the subcontinental leadership similarly stand up and declare that communalism has no place in the life or law of our countries and, of course, act accordingly?
