Rights of Minorities

Amena Mohsin*

This is an excerpt from Human Rights in Bangladesh 2001,
published by ASK

Amnesty International (AI), in its annual report on human rights in the world during 2001, alleged high level of violence against minorities in Bangladesh before and after the elections of 1 October, 2001. The re- port stated that hundreds of Hindu families were subjected to violent attacks including rape, beating and burning of their property following the elections. It further stated that due to this violence hundreds of families reportedly fled to India¹. The above is a tragic reflection on the state of minorities in Bangla-desh, but it comes as no surprise given the ideological and structural moorings of a modern state.
'Minority’ is a construction of the modern state. The latter, being predicated on the idea of ‘nation’, marginalises and alienates the communities that, for one reason or another, cannot identify them-selves with the nation. The state of being marginalised, alienated and to a large extent derogated is inherent within the very etymology of ‘minority’. It implies something minor as opposed to major, sub-ordinate as opposed to super ordinate or dominant, hence less important. Minority does not necessar-ily have to do with numbers, but is rather a matter of status, role and, more importantly, access to power and resources. Thus one might be a minority in ethnic, religious, linguistic, gender or, for that matter, sexual terms.
Of late the international community has put much emphasis on the idea of minority rights. The effort, though commendable, is essentially a problematic one. It is problematic on two major counts:
[a] the declarations for instance, such as The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities and Draft Minority Declaration take the nation-state as the sole source of all laws and regulations that govern the relationship between ma-jorities and minorities. It states,
Nothing in this Declaration may be construed as permitting any activity contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations, including sovereign equality, territorial integrity and political independence of states².

The notions of sovereignty and political independence, indeed, are very ambiguous. These notions can be and have been used and misused to construct as well as oppress minorities. More importantly the ideas of dominance and hegemony are inherent within the very organisation of the present state system, yet the Declarations only affirm and reiterate this very organising principle, i.e., the nation.
[b] The second problem follows from the first one: it essentializes ‘minorities’. In other words the state system remains an unequal one. This inequality is reflected in the ideological and structural making of the Bangladesh state. The following will make this clear.
State Ideology: the Bangladesh state was predicated on the ideals and spirit of Bengali nationalism. It is argued here that the state, by its very ideals, alienated the non-Bengali/minority population of the state and hence constructed political minorities. The state failed to present itself as an emancipatory force but, by institutionalizing the ideals of nationalism in its Constitution, it became an instrument of hegemony and domination. The state constitution and the institutions following from it did not create any space for the minorities. Ideals of Bengali nationalism were incorporated into the Constitution. Article 9 defined Bengali nationalism as,
The unity and solidarity of the Bengali nation, which deriving its identity from its language and culture, attained sovereign and independent Bangladesh through a united and determined struggle in the war of independ-ence, shall be the basis of Bengali nationalism. (emphasis added)³
Article 6, Part 1 declared that the citizens of Bangladesh were to be known as Bengalis. The imposi-tion of these clauses upon the entire population of Bangladesh turned the non-Bengali population into ethnic minorities, for Bengali after all is a cultural category and Article 9 made it explicit that Bengali nationalism is rooted in the culture and language of the people. Through Article 3, Part 1, Bangla was adopted as the state language. This turned the non-Bengali population into linguistic minorities as well.
The change from Bengali to Bangladeshi nationalism further marginalized and alienated the ethnic communities. Bangladeshi nationalism was based on the elements of race, the war of independence, Bengali language, culture, religion (in this instance, Islam, the religion of the dominant community), land (geographical area) and economy. The state also moved towards an Islamization process. By the proclamation of Order No.1 of 1977, ‘Bismillah-ar-Rahman-ar-Rahim’ (In the name of Allah, the Be-neficent, the Merciful) was inserted before the preamble in Constitution. Through the same proclama-tion the principle of secularism, previously set forth in Article 8 as one of the state principles, was dropped from the Constitution and replaced by the principles of absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah.
The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution adopted on 7 June 1988, declared Islam as the state religion of Bangladesh (Article 2 Clause A). Bengali nationalism had turned the non-Bengali popula-tion into ethnic minorities, while Bangladeshi nationalism with its emphasis on Islam took it further and turned them, as well as the Bengali Hindus, into religious minorities. Now the state has ethnic, relig-ious as well as linguistic minorities.
The Bangladesh state does not officially recognize the existence of any ethnic communities. The Constitution has given no space or recognition to the cultural distinctiveness or special rights of the ethnic people. The only provision that the policy makers often refer to in this context is Article 28 Clause 4, which states,
Nothing in this article shall prevent the State from making special provision in favour of women or children or for the advancement of any backward section of citizens⁴.
This is a very ambiguous and derogatory provision. It does not in any way specify who or what consti-tutes ‘backward’. Even if one is to accept that backward sections are constituted by minorities, then one has to recognize that the Bangladesh state is an hegemonic institution that accepts certain no-tions of ‘development’ as developed, advanced or modern and the rest are relegated to the periphery as backward.


State policies have consciously promoted the culture and language of the dominant community. Article 3 of the Constitution recognizes Bangla as the state language. Article 23 states:
The state shall adopt measures to conserve the cultural traditions and heritage of the people, and so foster and improve the national language, literature and the arts that all sections of the people are afforded the op-portunity to contribute towards and to participate in the enrichment of the national culture⁵.
This national culture is the culture of the dominant community. Article 17(a) of the Constitution calls for the establishment of a uniform system of education. This uniformity hinders plurality and is also problematic since the state promotes a particular culture.
State Institutions
Democracy, a much-lauded ideal and principle has, in effect, turned into an instrument of oppression of the minorities. Based on the principle of majority rule, politics has turned into a game of numbers. Individuals and communities instead of being viewed as human beings are viewed as ‘vote banks’ by political parties. The violent and polarized state of Bangladesh politics has turned the minorities into victims of extreme political violence inflicted upon them by the political parties and their supporters in a bid to either ‘win’ over the ‘vote banks’ or stop them from exercising their voting rights through coer-cion and violence. The institution of majoritarian democracy also does not allow them a voice in the national parliament. There is hardly any scope for a meaningful representation of the minorities in the parliament or other representative institutions. The national parliament is a 300-member body. Previ-ously 30 seats were reserved for women who were nominated by the elected members. This reserva-tion however expired in April 2001. In the last parliament there were only eight members from the Hindu community and three from the Chakma community. Of the eleven elected members, ten were from the ruling party, the AL (one independent candidate joined the Treasury Bench after his election) and one from the BNP. The AL nominated three minority women to the reserved seats. Two of them were Hindu and one was a Rakhaine. In the October 2001 elections, seven minority candidates got elected. Five of them are from the Hindu community, three from the AL and two from the BNP. Two Hill people, one from the Chakma and the other from Marma community were elected from the Chit-tagong Hill Tracts (CHT), one of them being from the AL and the other from the BNP.

Demographic Layout
According to the population census of 1991, Muslims formed 88.3 per cent, Hindus 10.5 per cent, Buddhists 0.59 per cent, Christians 0.32 per cent and other communities 0.26 per cent of the popula-tion⁶. The minority communities of Bangladesh dispute these figures and maintain that their number is higher than those projected in the census. For instance, according to the census of 1991, the ethnic population of Bangladesh is 1.2 million, which constitutes 1.13 per cent of the total population of Bangladesh. Gaps however exist between the official figures and private estimates. Maloney⁷ has pointed out that according to the Monthly Statistical Bulletin of Bangladesh of March 1991, the ethnic population in the five districts in Rajshahi division was 62,000, but various Christian missions in pri-vate censuses found the number to be twice as many. Members of these communities also dispute the official figures and see it as a government mechanism to establish them as numerical minorities.
The exact number of ethnic groups in Bangladesh remains contested. The Bangladesh Census Report 1991 put the number at 29. But Khaleque⁸ quite rightly points out that in the Census Report in two instances, the same group has been listed as two separate ethnic groups. This suggests that there are at least 27 ethnic groups in Bangladesh. Members of the different ethnic communities, how-ever, maintain that there are more than 45 different ethnic groups in Bangladesh, but the Census Re-port does not take the variations into account in order to project Bangladesh as an overwhelmingly Bengali nation⁹.
The ethnic communities of Bangladesh can be divided into two groups based on their geographical habitats: the Plains group and the Hill groups. The plains groups live along the borders of the north-west, north and northeast of the country. For instance, the ethnic groups like the Koch, Munda, Oraon, Paharia, Rajbongshi and Saontal have been traditionally living in certain parts of Bogra, Dinajpur, Ku-shtia, Pabna, Rajshahi and Rangpur districts in the northern border. The greater Sylhet district in the northeastern border is the traditional area of Khasi, Manipuri, Pathor and Tipra community. The Garo, Koch and Hajong people live in Mymensingh and Jamalpur districts in the northern borders and in Tangail¹⁰ district in the north central region. Besides scattered settlements of different ethnic people can be traced in Barisal, Comilla, Dhaka, Faridpur, Khulna, Patuakhali and other districts of Bangla-desh.
The ethnic people of the Hill group live in the southeastern part of the country, the CHT. The in-habitants of this group again live in two distinct ecological zones: the ridge-top and the valley. The Chakmas, Marmas and Tripuras are valley living people; while the Khamis, Mro, Lushai, Banjogees, Kukis, Tanchangya, Chak and Riang live on the ridges of the hills.

Economic Occupations
Most of the ethnic communities in Bangladesh are agriculturists. The ethnic people in the northwest-ern districts practice wet-rice agriculture. In Sylhet, the Khasis have traditionally been involved in trad-ing across the border. This is their main occupation and agriculture is secondary. The Manipuris are traditionally craftspersons, like carpenters and jewelers. The Garos used to practice jhum (slash and burn) cultivation but due to government restrictions, they have now settled down to wet-rice cultiva-tion. They have also taken to pineapple gardening. In the CHT too, jhum cultivation has been discour-aged by government restrictions as well as acquisition of land and forests. In the valleys, people have adopted wet-rice cultivation, but jhum is still practiced in the ridge-tops. In the past most of the ethnic communities had a subsistence economy, but with the intrusion of the ‘state’, they have now been integrated into the market economy.
Violation of Rights
Limitations inherent within the political processes of the state have subjected the minorities to different forms of violations of human rights. A few cases reported in the media are given below. It needs to be pointed out that not all cases are reported. Many of the people do not have access to the media and police. Often they are coerced or compelled not to report the cases. Besides, there is also a general perception among the minorities that the media is not sensitive to their plight, consequently their ac-tual condition remains concealed. This report on violation is divided into two main sections. The first concerns the violations that have generally been taking place and the second focuses on pre- and post-election violence.

General Violence
The following acts of general violence were committed against the minority communities in Bangla-desh during the year.Land grabbing: Nine cases of land grabbing from Hindus were reported by the media. These in-cluded instances of grabbing cremation land sites in Panchbibi¹¹ to large tracts of lands in Langon-band regarded as sacrosanct (Debottar). The Court has intervened in some cases but the process has been slow and enforcement has been weak. This has left the minority community in a vulnerable state.

Desecration of Religious Places:
Attacks on religious places like temples and desecration of the idols is a gross violation of the constitutional freedom to practice one's own religion. In 2001 (apart from the post-election incidents), there were four such reported cases. In the Joy Kali temple area, the truck workers were constantly harassed by the Nazrul Bahini (Nazrul force) which had made life in the area unbearable¹⁶. In Narinda, residential quarters were being built by forcibly occupying temple land and demolishing the temple¹⁷. In Khulna, despite the ruling of the Court, there were attempts of forcible occupation of family temples¹⁸.
Abduction:
There was one reported case of abduction of a Hindu girl. In Habiganj, the terrorists at-tacked and injured three persons and abducted a bride to be¹⁹.
Torture:
Members of minority communities have been tortured on different pretexts. At times, this is done at the direct behest of political parties, both ruling and opposition. For instance, in Nazirpur, a family of a minority community was tortured by the leaders of the ruling AL, as well as the major op-position party, the BNP²⁰. This is indicative of the consensus between the political elite where majori-tarian interests are concerned. Families are often ejected from their homesteads and cannot return for fear of being further tortured. In the village, Jhaluka of Rajshahi district, eight families suffered from the above predicament²¹. People often were scared to take legal measures as they are intimidated and subjected to further torture. There have been instances where refusal to withdraw cases of torture led to further torture of the victims by the perpetrators²².
Terrorist Attacks:
About 23 instances of gang attacks upon minority communities have been reported in different newspapers. These involved acts of arson, destruction of property, robbery and attacks. The following are a few examples of such terrorization of the minority communities. In Ramgonj, a minority populated village, about 50 families had to leave the village and twelve people were injured due to gang attacks²³. In Dumuria and Bottiaghata, Khulna district, within a span of three days, 40 houses of the minority community were robbed²⁴. In Bhola about 300 minority families were affected by terrorist attacks²⁵. In Bagerhat, the houses of the minority community were put on fire²⁶.


Electoral Politics and Violence
It has been suggested earlier that majoritarian democracy has turned politics into a game of numbers. Human beings and communities have been turned into vote banks and constituencies. This dehuman-izing of politics took an extremely ugly form in the parliamentary elections held on 1 October. The mi-nority communities, especially the Hindus, were the major targets. The reasons for this violence are not limited to communal factors; rather the main factor behind this appears to be more political and structural. The Hindus are regarded as vote banks of the AL, so supporters of the BNP and its alliance partners targeted them. In some instances, AL supporters had also attacked them thinking that the local Hindus did not vote for them as expected. In some instances, terrorists took advantage of the situation and indulged in extortion and looting of property²⁷.
The violence started fifteen days prior to the elections on 1 October and continued till about 27 Octo-ber. This dampened the Durga Puja celebrations, the most important religious festival for the Hindus in Bengal. Newspaper scans of ten national newspapers²⁸ indicated that from 15 September until 27 Octo-ber about 330 incidents of violence against the Hindu community were reported. These included cases of rape, killing, physical torture, plunder, damage of property, bomb explosions, arson, extortion. The tables below illustrate the point.
These incidents were reported from 57 districts. The divisional occurrence of violence (Table XIV.4) showed the highest renumber of incidents reported in Dhaka Division. Khulna, Rajshahi and Barisal divisions experienced the next highest number of incidents and 1 to 15 October was the peak period of violence.
Some of the newspaper reports describing acts of violence are given below to capture the plight and horror of the situation for the Hindu community.
15 year old Purnima Rani Shil was gang raped by 25-30 men. An armed gang attacked their house at night in East Delua village, Ullahpura thana, Sirajganj on 8 October. They beat her parents mercilessly when they tried to stop the men. Purnima was taken to a nearby place and gang raped. Her uncon-scious body was rescued after two hours. Her family members were kept under lock and key on 9 Octo-ber, throughout the day to make sure that the incident did not get any publicity. When the members of the family went to the Ullapura thana, the OC refused to register the rape case and instead, tried to rec-ord it as a land dispute. The Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee brought Purnima and her parents to Dhaka, where she and her family members addressed a press conference in a local hotel. She alleged that she had recognized some of the attackers as belonging to the BNP²⁹.

Table XIV. 1: Pre- and Post-election Assault Assault on Property and Persons30

Time period (2001) Assault Threat Physical torture Looting Breaking and torching Extortion 15 Sept -30 Sept 21 52 24 11 19 11 1Oct - 15 Oct 38 42 41 37 54 21 16 Oct-27 Oct 32 16 29 39 57 N/A Total 91 110 94 87 130 N/A Indigenous People 3 9 1 0 1 N/A Christians 1 - - - 0 - Explosions Others Total 4 22 164 3 10 246 2 13 203 9 45 613 0 1 - - - -

Assault on Individual Members of the Hindu Community 31

Time period(2001) Murder Rape Injury Sexual Harassment Kidnap 15 Sept -30 Sept 5 4 110 6 1 1Oct - 15 Oct 4 27 350 16 12 16 Oct-27 Oct 8 30 206 42 1 Total 17 61 666 64 13

Site of Violence 32

Time period(2001) Home Business Temple Others 15 Sept -30 Sept 61 25 5 180 1Oct - 15 Oct 611 91 28 15 16 Oct-27 Oct 291 32 42 1 Total 963 148 70 196

Divisional Breakdown of Violence in six divisions33

Time period(2001) 15 Sept - 30 Sept 1 Oct - 15 Oct 16 Oct - 27 Oct Total Dhaka 20 34 29 83 Chittagong 18 17 11 46 Rajshahi 9 19 36 64 Khulna 20 26 21 67 Barisal 13 32 18 63 Sylhet 0 3 4 7 Total 80 131 119 330

On Friday 19 October, a group of young men entered a temple in old Dhaka and ate beef and bread within the temple premises. Then they hung a large cow’s bone on the roof of the temple. The Hindus of the area complained that this was the first time such an act of violation and humiliation had taken place within a temple. The temple authorities complained to the police and a GD was filed. Later police were deployed in the area³⁴.
A group of 14-15 people wearing masks attacked a Hindu family on 7 October, in Fulhar village, Ra-japur, Barisal. They wounded the inmates of the house, including old men, women and children by beat-ing them mercilessly. They took valuables worth Taka 100,000. Before leaving, they asked the inmates to arrange for payment of another Taka 100,000, else their son, an AL activist, would be killed^35.
Civil Society Responses
The print media played an important role in publicizing the violations of human rights of the minorities. These began to be reported in the newspapers about fifteen days prior to holding of the elections and continued till the end of October. It helped in creating a general awareness both at the national and international levels.
Some of the NGOs and civil society organisations had also sent investigation teams into the af-fected areas. Separate teams from ASK, Sammolito Samajik Andolon, Nijera Kori, BNPS, Nari Ud-dyog, Bangladesh Mohila Parishad, BLAST and SEHD visited the affected areas. Later on a press conference was held on 17 October by ASK, Nijera Kori, Bangladesh Mohila Parishad and Sammolito Samajik Andolon. Through the press conference these organisations appealed to the government, political parties and civil society members to take measures to rehabilitate and properly compensate affected persons. Those who had been arrested by the police and the BDR while attempting to flee the country due to this violence should be immediately released and properly compensated and reha-bilitated. Reports from places where the government had acknowledged the incidents, should be im-mediately published and legal measures taken against the perpetrators. Long-term measures should be adopted for winning the confidence of the minority community and providing them with a sense of security. Finally it observed that the tendency to target and victimize the minority community during different political situations should be immediately resisted³⁶.
Another investigation team sent by Shocheton Nagorik Samaj held a press conference on 21 Oc-tober after its return. Sommolita Samajik Andolon and Bangladesh Mohila Parishad also undertook some rehabilitation programmes in the affected areas. Students of different universities, under the banner of Shocheton Chattra Samaj, organized a hunger strike in protest against the violence on the minorities in the Central Shaheed Minar³⁷. A Citizens' Inquiry Committee was formed to collect testi-monies from survivors and witnesses.
ASK filed a writ petition in the High Court on 21 November arguing that the government had failed to provide security to the Hindu community and thereby had also failed to guarantee citizens their rights provided in Articles 27, 28, 31, 32, 35 and 42 of the Constitution. The High Court directed the Home Secretary and the Inspector General of Police to submit a report regarding the measures they had taken against the perpetrators by 15 January 2002³⁸.


Conclusion
The above review makes it evidently clear that seeds of violence against the minority community are inherent within the structures of the modern state system and majoritarian democracy, which have led to the dehumanization of politics and turned human beings into vote banks and vote constituencies. Lack of accountability and transparency of the state machinery only makes the situation worse. To come out of this vortex of violence, the structures of state have to be democratized in the true sense of the word. Bangladesh ought to recognize the plurality of its culture and people. Undoubtedly, civil society has the major and the most important role to play in this respect. A politically and humanely conscious citizenry can provide the best safeguard for its own security by compelling the government to democratize itself and make its people oriented.

References
Sheth, D.L. & Mahajan G. (eds), Minority Identities and the Nation-State, New Delhi, Oxford University Press. 1999.
Maloney C. T. 'Tribes of Bangladesh and Synthesis of Bengali Culture', in Qureshi M. S. (ed.), Tribal Cultures in Bangladesh, Rajshahi University, Institute of Bangladesh Studies, 1984.
Khaleque K. , 'Ethnic Communities' in Philip Gain (ed.), Land Forest and Forest People, SEHD, Dhaka, 1995.

Notes
* Professor in the Department of International Relations in the University of Dhaka

(1) Daily Star, 29 May, 2002.
(2) D.L. Sheth & G. Mahajan (eds), 1999, Minority Identities and the Nation-State, New Delhi, Oxford University Press, p. 272.
(3) The Constitution of the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh, 1972, Dacca, Government of Bangladesh.
(4) Ibid., 1996, Dhaka, Government of Bangladesh.
(5) Ibid., p.16.
(6) ASK, BLAST & Odhikar, 1998, Human Rights in Bangladesh 1997, UPL, Dhaka, p. 116.
(7) C. T. Maloney, 'Tribes of Bangladesh and Synthesis of Bengali Culture', in M. S. Qureshi (ed.), Tribal Cultures in Bangla-desh, Rajshahi University, Institute of Bangladesh Studies, 1984, p. 8.
(8) K. Khaleque, 'Ethnic Communities' in Philip Gain (ed.), Land Forest and Forest People, SEHD, Dhaka, 1995, p.13.
(9) This has been stated to the author by the Garo Oraon students of Dhaka University.
(10) K. Khaleque, op.cit., p. 13.
(11) Dinkal, 25 January, 2001.
(12) Sangbad, 3 March, 2001, Dinkal, 7June, 2001.
(13) Janakantha, 23 June, 2001.
(14) Banglabazar Patrika, 18 July, 2001.
(15) Prothom alo, 5 April, 2001.
(16) Inqilab, 13 January, 2001.
(17) Ibid., 5 June, 2001.
(18) Jugantor, 14 January, 2001.
(19) Bhorer Kagoj, 24 July, 2001.
(20) Ibid., 30 February, 2001.
(21) Sangbad, 14 February, 2001.
(22) Bhorer Kagoj, 7 May, 2001.
(23) Janakantha, 29 April, 2001.
(24) Sangbad, 21 June, 2001.
(25) Prothom alo, 14 August, 2001.
(26) Sangbad, 22 September, 2001.
(27) Star, Weekend Magazine, 26 October, 2001, p.16.
(28) Prothom alo, Janakantha, Jugantor, Sangbad, Banglabazar, Inqilab, Dinkal, Daily Star, Ittefaq and Bhorer Kagoj
(29) Sangbad, Janakantha, 21 October, 2001.
(30) S. Lutfa and S. Akhtar, 'Shongbadpatra Porjalochona: Hindu Shomprodaer Upor Shamprotik Shohingshota', Bulletin, ASK, Dhaka, December 2001, p.8.
(31) Ibid. p. 9.
(32) Ibid.
(33) Ibid., p. 7.
(34) Jugantor, 20 October, 2001.
(35) Ittefaq, 11 October, 2001.
(36) Press Conference, 'Nirbachonottor Shohingshota O Shonkhaloghuder Opor Akromon Shoho Shamprotik Poristhiti O Bho-bisshot Koronio Proshonge', 17 October, 2001. Organized by ASK, Bangladesh Mohila Porishod, Nijera Kori, Shommilito Samajik Andolon.
(37) Prothom alo, 15 October, 2001.
(38) U. Rahman, 'Shonkhaloghu Nirjatoner Biruddhe Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) Mamla', Bulletin, ASK, December, 2001, p. 10.

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