Daily Star, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Says law minister
A colourful procession was taken out from Mahanagar Natyamancha in the city yesterday to mark the International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination. Photo: STARStaff Correspondent
Law Minister Shafique Ahmed yesterday said discriminatory laws against Dalit and Harijan communities will be repealed, if there is any.
"If you can show me any laws discriminating against your (Dalit and Harijan) communities, such laws will no longer remain in the law books. I will repeal those," he said.
If necessary, new laws will be enacted to remove discriminations and obstacles both the communities have been facing during admission into educational insinuations and in the professional fields, he assured.
"Every citizen of the country has equal rights. So, no one will face any discriminations for economic, educational and social reasons," he said.
The minister made these assurances at the concluding ceremony of a 10-day campaign organised on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The National Committee to Celebrate the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination in association with Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) organised the programme at Mohanagar Natyamancha in the city.
Speaking as the chief guest, the minister said that legal rights of Dalit and Harijan communities will be ensured to establish their rights as people of these communities also participated in the liberation war and sacrificed their lives.
The law ministry is going to set up a directorate soon for providing legal and economic assistance for these marginalised people, he added.
In his keynote paper, PARITTRAN Director Milon Das said though the constitution ensures equal rights of every citizen, but Dalit and Harijan communities are deprived of education, health care, habitation and employment facilities and living in a humiliating condition.
There are about 55 lakh Dalit and Harijan people, who are known as untouchables in the society, live under marginal conditions in the country.
Milon demanded enactment of laws eliminating racial discrimination against them, formulation of a national development policy for incorporating the communities in the mainstream development programmes and ensuring their participation in all social activities.
Speaking as the special guest, lawmaker Rashed Khan Menon said Dalit and Harijan communities live in inhuman conditions.
The constitution ensures their rights, but it is not implemented properly, he said, urging the community members to launch their own organisational move on the rights.
Prof HKS Arefin said this is not racial discrimination, rather the discrimination is ideological and involved with religion, adding that mere formulating a law is not enough, the prevailing social structure that deprives them of their rights need to be changed.
Narrating difficulties the women of the communities face, Dipali Das, a member of Dalit community, said the condition of women in the country is volatile and the condition of women of Dalit community is worst.
“We want to live like other human beings. We have the right to franchise and we want to live with self-dignity. Let us give the right,” she said.
With Bangladesh Harijan Oikya Parishad President Krishna Lal in the chair, the programme was also addressed by Whip Shagufta Yasmin, MJF Executive Director Shaheen Anam and Research Initiatives Bangladesh Executive Director Dr Meghna Guha Thakurata.
Friday, March 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
In Bangladesh, an Islamic Movement With Al-Qaeda Ties Is on the Rise
A New Hub for Terrorism?In Bangladesh, an Islamic Movement With Al-Qaeda Ties Is on the Rise
By Selig S. Harrison
Wednesday, August 2, 2006; A15
While the United States dithers, a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement linked to al-Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence agencies is steadily converting the strategically located nation of Bangladesh into a new regional hub for terrorist operations that reach into India and Southeast Asia.With 147 million people, largely Muslim Bangladesh has substantial Hindu and Christian minorities and is nominally a secular democracy. But the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) struck a Faustian bargain with the fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami five years ago in order to win power.In return for the votes in Parliament needed to form a coalition government, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has looked the other way as the Jamaat has systematically filled sensitive civil service, police, intelligence and military posts with its sympathizers, who have in turn looked the other way as Jamaat-sponsored guerrilla squads patterned after the Taliban have operated with increasing impunity in many rural and urban areas.To the dismay of her business supporters, the prime minister gave the coveted post of industries minister to Matiur Rahman Nizami, a high-ranking Jamaat official who has helped promote the growth of a Jamaat economic empire that embraces banking, insurance, trucking, pharmaceutical manufacturing, department stores, newspapers and TV stations. A study last year by a leading Bangladeshi economist showed that the "fundamentalist sector of the economy" earns annual profits of some $1.2 billion.Now the BNP-Jamaat alliance is rigging the next national elections, scheduled for January, to prevent the return of the opposition Awami League to power. Voter lists are being manipulated, and the supposedly neutral caretaker government and the commission that will run the election are being turned into puppets.The BNP argues that coalition rule helps moderates in the Jamaat to combat Islamic extremist factions. But the reality is that Jamaat inroads in the government security machinery at all levels, starting with Home Secretary Muhammad Omar Farooq, widely regarded as close to the Jamaat, have opened the way for suicide bombings, political assassinations, harassment of the Hindu minority, and an unchecked influx of funds from Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf to Jamaat-oriented madrassas (religious schools) that in some cases are fronts for terrorist activity.With some 15,000 hard-core fighters operating out of 19 known base camps, guerrilla groups sponsored by the Jamaat and its allies were able to paralyze the country last Aug. 17 by staging 459 closely synchronized explosions in all but one of the country's administrative districts. When the key leaders of these groups were captured, they were kept by the police in a comfortable apartment, where they were free to receive visitors. A cartoon in the Daily Star of Dhaka on July 24 showed them lounging on a rug, conducting classes in bombmaking. Their fate and present place of confinement is uncertain, and all of the major guerrilla groups are back to business as usual.The bitterness of Bangladeshi politics is often attributed to a personal vendetta between two strong women, Prime Minister Zia and the Awami League leader, Sheikh Hasina Wajed. But the roots of the current struggle go back to 1971, when Bengali East Pakistan, led by the Awami League, broke away from Punjabi-dominated West Pakistan to form the nation of Bangladesh. The Jamaat, which originated in the western wing, opposed the independence movement and fought side by side with Pakistani forces against both fellow Bengalis and the Indian troops who intervened in the decisive final phase of the conflict.For Pakistan's intelligence agencies, especially Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the legacy of the independence war has been a built-in network of agents within the Jamaat and its affiliates who can be utilized to harass India along its 2,500-mile border with Bangladesh. In addition to supporting tribal separatist groups in northeast India, the ISI uses Bangladesh as a base for helping Islamic extremists inside India. After the July 11 train bombings in Bombay, a top Indian police official, K.P. Raghuvanshi, said that his key suspects "have connections with groups in Nepal and Bangladesh, which are directly or indirectly connected to Pakistan."A State Department report cited evidence that one of the Jamaat's main allies, the Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami, also headquartered in Pakistan, "maintains contact with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan." Bangladesh Harakat leader Fazlul Rahman was one of the six signatories of Osama bin Laden's first declaration of holy war against the United States, on Feb. 23, 1998. Since the October 2002 Bali bombings led to repression of al-Qaeda, some of its Indonesian and Malaysian cells have shifted their operations to Bangladesh.What makes future prospects in Bangladesh especially alarming is that the Jamaat and its allies appear to be penetrating the higher ranks of the armed forces. Among many examples, informed journalists in Dhaka attribute Jamaat sympathies to Maj. Gen. Mohammed Aminul Karim, recently appointed as military secretary to President Iajuddin Ahmed, and to Brig. Gen. A.T.M. Amin, director of the Armed Forces Intelligence anti-terrorism bureau.The respected journalists in question cannot write freely about the Jamaat without facing death threats or assassination attempts. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists has published extensive dossiers documenting 68 death threats and dozens of bombing attacks that have injured at least eight journalists. "We are alarmed by the growing pattern of intimidation of journalists by Islamic groups in Bangladesh," the committee said recently. "As a result of its alliance with the Jamaat-Islamiyah, the government appears to lack the ability or will to protect journalists from this new and grave threat."The Bush administration has yet to speak with comparable candor. The latest State Department annual report on terrorism mentioned only one of the three Jamaat militias as a terrorist group and avoided direct criticism of the BNP for its coalition with the Jamaat, referring only to the "serious political constraints" that explain the government's "limited success" in countering "escalating" terrorist violence. On July 13 the U.S. ambassador called Bangladesh "an exceptional moderate Muslim state."The United States and other donors gave Bangladesh $1.4 billion in aid last year. There is still time for the administration to use aid leverage and trade concessions to promote a fair election by calling openly and forcefully for nonpartisan control of the Election Commission and the caretaker government. In addition to implicitly threatening an aid cutoff if it is rebuffed, the administration should offer the powerful incentive of duty-free textile imports from Bangladesh if Prime Minister Zia cooperates.In Pakistan, the United States has been gingerly pushing Gen. Pervez Musharraf for democratic elections because it needs the limited but significant support he is giving against al-Qaeda and fears what might come after him. But what is the excuse for inaction in Bangladesh, where the incumbent government coddles Islamic extremists and a strong secular party is ready to govern?
The writer, a former South Asia bureau chief of The Post and the author of five books on South Asia, has covered Bangladesh since 1951. He is the director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy and a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
By Selig S. Harrison
Wednesday, August 2, 2006; A15
While the United States dithers, a growing Islamic fundamentalist movement linked to al-Qaeda and Pakistani intelligence agencies is steadily converting the strategically located nation of Bangladesh into a new regional hub for terrorist operations that reach into India and Southeast Asia.With 147 million people, largely Muslim Bangladesh has substantial Hindu and Christian minorities and is nominally a secular democracy. But the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) struck a Faustian bargain with the fundamentalist party Jamaat-e-Islami five years ago in order to win power.In return for the votes in Parliament needed to form a coalition government, Prime Minister Khaleda Zia has looked the other way as the Jamaat has systematically filled sensitive civil service, police, intelligence and military posts with its sympathizers, who have in turn looked the other way as Jamaat-sponsored guerrilla squads patterned after the Taliban have operated with increasing impunity in many rural and urban areas.To the dismay of her business supporters, the prime minister gave the coveted post of industries minister to Matiur Rahman Nizami, a high-ranking Jamaat official who has helped promote the growth of a Jamaat economic empire that embraces banking, insurance, trucking, pharmaceutical manufacturing, department stores, newspapers and TV stations. A study last year by a leading Bangladeshi economist showed that the "fundamentalist sector of the economy" earns annual profits of some $1.2 billion.Now the BNP-Jamaat alliance is rigging the next national elections, scheduled for January, to prevent the return of the opposition Awami League to power. Voter lists are being manipulated, and the supposedly neutral caretaker government and the commission that will run the election are being turned into puppets.The BNP argues that coalition rule helps moderates in the Jamaat to combat Islamic extremist factions. But the reality is that Jamaat inroads in the government security machinery at all levels, starting with Home Secretary Muhammad Omar Farooq, widely regarded as close to the Jamaat, have opened the way for suicide bombings, political assassinations, harassment of the Hindu minority, and an unchecked influx of funds from Islamic charities in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf to Jamaat-oriented madrassas (religious schools) that in some cases are fronts for terrorist activity.With some 15,000 hard-core fighters operating out of 19 known base camps, guerrilla groups sponsored by the Jamaat and its allies were able to paralyze the country last Aug. 17 by staging 459 closely synchronized explosions in all but one of the country's administrative districts. When the key leaders of these groups were captured, they were kept by the police in a comfortable apartment, where they were free to receive visitors. A cartoon in the Daily Star of Dhaka on July 24 showed them lounging on a rug, conducting classes in bombmaking. Their fate and present place of confinement is uncertain, and all of the major guerrilla groups are back to business as usual.The bitterness of Bangladeshi politics is often attributed to a personal vendetta between two strong women, Prime Minister Zia and the Awami League leader, Sheikh Hasina Wajed. But the roots of the current struggle go back to 1971, when Bengali East Pakistan, led by the Awami League, broke away from Punjabi-dominated West Pakistan to form the nation of Bangladesh. The Jamaat, which originated in the western wing, opposed the independence movement and fought side by side with Pakistani forces against both fellow Bengalis and the Indian troops who intervened in the decisive final phase of the conflict.For Pakistan's intelligence agencies, especially Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the legacy of the independence war has been a built-in network of agents within the Jamaat and its affiliates who can be utilized to harass India along its 2,500-mile border with Bangladesh. In addition to supporting tribal separatist groups in northeast India, the ISI uses Bangladesh as a base for helping Islamic extremists inside India. After the July 11 train bombings in Bombay, a top Indian police official, K.P. Raghuvanshi, said that his key suspects "have connections with groups in Nepal and Bangladesh, which are directly or indirectly connected to Pakistan."A State Department report cited evidence that one of the Jamaat's main allies, the Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami, also headquartered in Pakistan, "maintains contact with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan." Bangladesh Harakat leader Fazlul Rahman was one of the six signatories of Osama bin Laden's first declaration of holy war against the United States, on Feb. 23, 1998. Since the October 2002 Bali bombings led to repression of al-Qaeda, some of its Indonesian and Malaysian cells have shifted their operations to Bangladesh.What makes future prospects in Bangladesh especially alarming is that the Jamaat and its allies appear to be penetrating the higher ranks of the armed forces. Among many examples, informed journalists in Dhaka attribute Jamaat sympathies to Maj. Gen. Mohammed Aminul Karim, recently appointed as military secretary to President Iajuddin Ahmed, and to Brig. Gen. A.T.M. Amin, director of the Armed Forces Intelligence anti-terrorism bureau.The respected journalists in question cannot write freely about the Jamaat without facing death threats or assassination attempts. The U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists has published extensive dossiers documenting 68 death threats and dozens of bombing attacks that have injured at least eight journalists. "We are alarmed by the growing pattern of intimidation of journalists by Islamic groups in Bangladesh," the committee said recently. "As a result of its alliance with the Jamaat-Islamiyah, the government appears to lack the ability or will to protect journalists from this new and grave threat."The Bush administration has yet to speak with comparable candor. The latest State Department annual report on terrorism mentioned only one of the three Jamaat militias as a terrorist group and avoided direct criticism of the BNP for its coalition with the Jamaat, referring only to the "serious political constraints" that explain the government's "limited success" in countering "escalating" terrorist violence. On July 13 the U.S. ambassador called Bangladesh "an exceptional moderate Muslim state."The United States and other donors gave Bangladesh $1.4 billion in aid last year. There is still time for the administration to use aid leverage and trade concessions to promote a fair election by calling openly and forcefully for nonpartisan control of the Election Commission and the caretaker government. In addition to implicitly threatening an aid cutoff if it is rebuffed, the administration should offer the powerful incentive of duty-free textile imports from Bangladesh if Prime Minister Zia cooperates.In Pakistan, the United States has been gingerly pushing Gen. Pervez Musharraf for democratic elections because it needs the limited but significant support he is giving against al-Qaeda and fears what might come after him. But what is the excuse for inaction in Bangladesh, where the incumbent government coddles Islamic extremists and a strong secular party is ready to govern?
The writer, a former South Asia bureau chief of The Post and the author of five books on South Asia, has covered Bangladesh since 1951. He is the director of the Asia program at the Center for International Policy and a senior scholar of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/01/AR2006080101118_pf.html
Sunday, February 8, 2009
October 16, 1905: A Forgotten Date of Indian/Bengali History
October 16, 1905: A Forgotten Date of Indian/Bengali History [1]
Sachi G. Dastidar
October 16 is a very important date in the Indian calendar but very few people in the Subcontinent — India, Bangladesh or Pakistan — will remember this day as mythology- and ancient tradition-influenced Hindu culture is not readily influenced by date-specific historic events. On that day one hundred years ago in 1905 the Colonial British Administration mandated a Muslim-Hindu (non-Muslim) partition of mixed, tolerant Bengal Province in eastern India when there was no such demand from either community. In Indian history this date is possibly more profound than 9/11 for America, but very few in the Subcontinent talk about that. This is may also be the beginning of the modern Islamist movement of the world. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Calcutta, the British Colonial capital, and Bengal of which Calcutta was also the capital, was leading an intense struggle for Indian independence joined by India’s diverse religious and linguistic groups — Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Brahmo. Bengal was then evenly divided between Muslim and non-Muslim. Colonial ruler Lord Curzon devised a divide-and-rule policy to create a cleavage among Indians, starting with the Bengalis first. He proposed the creation of a majority-Muslim East Bengal Province with extra privileges for ‘backward Muslims,’ and a Hindu-majority (West) Bengal. The British Raj sanctioned huge sums of money to a non-native Urdu-speaking Muslim landlord, Nawab Salimullah, of Dhaka of East Bengal, now Bangladesh, to promote an anti-independence Muslim League Party to counter the more numerous Hindus and other non-Muslims in the independence struggle. After an intense effort by mostly-non-Muslim Indians of the entire Subcontinent the province was reunited in 1912 but that communal impetus gave rise to intolerant, separatist Islamism. Muslim-non-Muslim killings became ‘a part of life’ in Bengal and Indian Subcontinent. Success of the first ever use of divide-and-rule policy would make Britain use that tool later in Ireland, Cyprus, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Other European colonial powers would use similar policies elsewhere. The Islamism that the British Raj nurtured in Indian soil eventually partitioned Bengal in 1947, almost along the same geographical line that Curzon devised in 1905, along with partitioning of India, Punjab, Assam and Kashmir and creation of Islamic Pakistan and Bangladesh. One could easily argue that this was the beginning of the making of the minds of extremism. Ironically for the creation of these Islamic states another October 16 in 1946, is intimately associated with. To galvanize public opinion for Muslim-non-Muslim partition of India a ghastly anti-Hindu pogrom was initiated on a Hindu holy day in its remote eastern Noakhali district when Bengal’s Muslim League Premier Surahwardy was in charge of the province. British Army and Police watched as thousands of Hindus were killed and tens of thousands of girls and wives were converted which is known as Noakhali Danga pogrom. Gandhiji went to Noakhali to stop that carnage. This killing followed the August 16 Hindu-Muslim killing also in 1946, known as Great Calcutta Killing, as the British Police, Premier Surahwardy and Calcutta Mayor Osman (Usman) remained in the sidelines. Yet in the typical Indian, Bengali or Hindu psyche there in neither any memorial to those carnages nor to the millions of people killed in the 1947 pre- and post-partition-related violence. Today in Bengal there won’t be any commemoration for that British-invented event that has had untold human sufferings and enormous geo-political impact as Bangladesh is run by a coalition of pro-Islam, pro-Taliban parties and West Bengal by hard-line communists. Since the second British partition of Bengal in 1947 Bangladeshi Hindus have come down from a third of the population to below 10% now, a loss of over 48 million people from Bangladeshi Census! Minority Muslim populations in both Hindu-majority West Bengal and India have risen since 1947; yet feels vulnerable by that partition. On this important day let us take a moment to pray for the innocent victims of that Colonial 9/11. Let us hope that such divisiveness would never be used for national governance.
[1] From a Calcutta, India newspaper
Sachi G. Dastidar
October 16 is a very important date in the Indian calendar but very few people in the Subcontinent — India, Bangladesh or Pakistan — will remember this day as mythology- and ancient tradition-influenced Hindu culture is not readily influenced by date-specific historic events. On that day one hundred years ago in 1905 the Colonial British Administration mandated a Muslim-Hindu (non-Muslim) partition of mixed, tolerant Bengal Province in eastern India when there was no such demand from either community. In Indian history this date is possibly more profound than 9/11 for America, but very few in the Subcontinent talk about that. This is may also be the beginning of the modern Islamist movement of the world. In the late 1800s and early 1900s Calcutta, the British Colonial capital, and Bengal of which Calcutta was also the capital, was leading an intense struggle for Indian independence joined by India’s diverse religious and linguistic groups — Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Brahmo. Bengal was then evenly divided between Muslim and non-Muslim. Colonial ruler Lord Curzon devised a divide-and-rule policy to create a cleavage among Indians, starting with the Bengalis first. He proposed the creation of a majority-Muslim East Bengal Province with extra privileges for ‘backward Muslims,’ and a Hindu-majority (West) Bengal. The British Raj sanctioned huge sums of money to a non-native Urdu-speaking Muslim landlord, Nawab Salimullah, of Dhaka of East Bengal, now Bangladesh, to promote an anti-independence Muslim League Party to counter the more numerous Hindus and other non-Muslims in the independence struggle. After an intense effort by mostly-non-Muslim Indians of the entire Subcontinent the province was reunited in 1912 but that communal impetus gave rise to intolerant, separatist Islamism. Muslim-non-Muslim killings became ‘a part of life’ in Bengal and Indian Subcontinent. Success of the first ever use of divide-and-rule policy would make Britain use that tool later in Ireland, Cyprus, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean. Other European colonial powers would use similar policies elsewhere. The Islamism that the British Raj nurtured in Indian soil eventually partitioned Bengal in 1947, almost along the same geographical line that Curzon devised in 1905, along with partitioning of India, Punjab, Assam and Kashmir and creation of Islamic Pakistan and Bangladesh. One could easily argue that this was the beginning of the making of the minds of extremism. Ironically for the creation of these Islamic states another October 16 in 1946, is intimately associated with. To galvanize public opinion for Muslim-non-Muslim partition of India a ghastly anti-Hindu pogrom was initiated on a Hindu holy day in its remote eastern Noakhali district when Bengal’s Muslim League Premier Surahwardy was in charge of the province. British Army and Police watched as thousands of Hindus were killed and tens of thousands of girls and wives were converted which is known as Noakhali Danga pogrom. Gandhiji went to Noakhali to stop that carnage. This killing followed the August 16 Hindu-Muslim killing also in 1946, known as Great Calcutta Killing, as the British Police, Premier Surahwardy and Calcutta Mayor Osman (Usman) remained in the sidelines. Yet in the typical Indian, Bengali or Hindu psyche there in neither any memorial to those carnages nor to the millions of people killed in the 1947 pre- and post-partition-related violence. Today in Bengal there won’t be any commemoration for that British-invented event that has had untold human sufferings and enormous geo-political impact as Bangladesh is run by a coalition of pro-Islam, pro-Taliban parties and West Bengal by hard-line communists. Since the second British partition of Bengal in 1947 Bangladeshi Hindus have come down from a third of the population to below 10% now, a loss of over 48 million people from Bangladeshi Census! Minority Muslim populations in both Hindu-majority West Bengal and India have risen since 1947; yet feels vulnerable by that partition. On this important day let us take a moment to pray for the innocent victims of that Colonial 9/11. Let us hope that such divisiveness would never be used for national governance.
[1] From a Calcutta, India newspaper
Centenary of Colonial Religious Bengal Partition: 2005
Centenary of Colonial Religious Partition [1]
Sachi G. Dastidar
A century ago today, October 16, 1905, the Colonial British Administration in India partitioned a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, tolerant Bengal into a ‘Muslim’ East Bengal and ‘Hindu’ West Bengal: sort of bureaucratic 9/11 in India with devastating long-term consequences. Its polarizing result was the rise of intolerant Islam and religious politics that the British Administration promoted till it resulted in the partition of India and Bengal in 1947. (Indian provinces of Assam, Punjab and Kashmir were also partitioned.) In 1905 Bengal was not much different from the rest of Colonial India in terms of her Muslim-non-Muslim relation — which was rather amicable — but for its intense pro-Indian independence activism. Bengal of eastern India was the first to be colonized by the British, and she was the first to rebel against colonial slavery. In Bengal, Muslims and Hindus, with their small Buddhist and Christian cousins, shared not only the language but also religious festivals, dress, music, food and social bond. A large number of Bengali Hindus, Brahmos, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists — scholars, social reformers, spiritualists, nationalists, poets, musicians — from early 1800s to mid-1900s championed Mother India’s freedom. Among them were Raja Ram Mohon, Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore, W.C. Bonerjea, Vivekananda, Michael Madhusudan, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sri Aurobindo, Begum Rokeya and Pritilata Waddedar. Lord Curzon witnessing the rise of Indian nationalism devised the first Colonial divide-and-rule policy by enticing a non-native Urdu-speaking Muslim feudal lord, Nawab Salimullah, of Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, to promote a Muslim party against Indian independence movement with huge funds — 300,000 rupees — from the treasury. He argued that Bengal was too large to govern from its capital Calcutta, also India’s capital then, but no explanation was given why a geographical separation was not proposed instead of communal division when every village was inhabited by Muslims and Hindus. Curzon also proposed to give some favors to ‘backward Muslims’ instead of proposing a one-man one-vote democracy which could have brought Muslim-majority to power through ballot box. Moreover, there were other large provinces which were not partitioned. After much agitation by mostly non-Muslim poets, writers and activists Bengal was reunited in 1912 but that partition would energize a separatist, intolerant Islamist movement and a separatist Muslim identity that would take millions of lives and displace tens of millions from East Bengal, now called Bangladesh, alone. By 1947 the East Bengali Muslim majority would became a champion of partition of India. At India’s independence in 1947 Bengal was partitioned following the same 1905 British-invented line. Later Britain would use divide-and-rule from North Ireland to South Africa, from Ceylon to Cyprus. That tolerant Muslim East Bengal of 1905 is now Bangladesh where ‘Islam is the Official Religion’ with pro-Taliban parties as ruling partners, and West Bengal is a state of India run by hard-line Bangladeshi Hindu privileged-caste bhadralok refugee communists. Since that fateful day in 1905 Muslim-non-Muslim conflict became routine in the Subcontinent. On the eve of India’s independence in 1946, also on October 16, on the auspicious Hindu Lakhsmi Puja day a ghastly anti-Hindu pogrom began in the eastern Noakhali district under the watchful eyes of British Raj, Colonial Army, Bengal’s Muslim League Premier Suhrawady and it’s capital Calcutta’s (Muslim) Mayor Osman to polarize the nation. The pogrom was led by a Muslim Legislator Golam Sarwar that took life of thousands of Hindus and tens of thousands of Hindu girls and wives were abducted and converted. The pogrom followed a Muslim-Hindu riot in Calcutta two months earlier. Both these killings were to convince the British Raj and Indian public that Muslims and non-Muslims cannot live together. Successive anti-Hindu pogroms in East Pakistan/ Bangladesh have dwindled her Hindu minority from a third of the population in 1947 to less than 10% now resulting in over 48 million ‘missing from the Census.’ Minority Muslim population in Hindu-majority West Bengal has risen from 18% to 26% in spite of massive influx of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. With the steady rise of intolerant Saudi Islamism in Bangladesh (Pakistan and Afghanistan) for the past 100 years common tradition of festivities, literature, food and dress have been changing with serious repercussion for non-Muslims and secularist Muslims. Ironically in 1971 the same Islamically-charged East Bengal/East Pakistan, then the majority of Pakistan, rebelled for a secular state — first ever by a Muslim-majority nation — opposed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, other Muslim nations, China and the Administration of President Nixon-Kissinger. In 1975 Islamists took revenge by brutally murdering the pro-secular Founding Father Mujibur Rahman with 25 others of his family and friends, many there believe, with our support. In a twist of fate from that British-created event, tragedies hit British soil exactly 100 years later in July of this year through the children of Britain’s former intolerant allies. Spirit of Curzon must be wondering if Britain would have been better off with ethnically cleansed, religiously pure society or with pluralism and tolerance.
[1] News-India Times (a New York weekly), October 14, 2005; 2-3
Sachi G. Dastidar
A century ago today, October 16, 1905, the Colonial British Administration in India partitioned a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-linguistic, tolerant Bengal into a ‘Muslim’ East Bengal and ‘Hindu’ West Bengal: sort of bureaucratic 9/11 in India with devastating long-term consequences. Its polarizing result was the rise of intolerant Islam and religious politics that the British Administration promoted till it resulted in the partition of India and Bengal in 1947. (Indian provinces of Assam, Punjab and Kashmir were also partitioned.) In 1905 Bengal was not much different from the rest of Colonial India in terms of her Muslim-non-Muslim relation — which was rather amicable — but for its intense pro-Indian independence activism. Bengal of eastern India was the first to be colonized by the British, and she was the first to rebel against colonial slavery. In Bengal, Muslims and Hindus, with their small Buddhist and Christian cousins, shared not only the language but also religious festivals, dress, music, food and social bond. A large number of Bengali Hindus, Brahmos, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists — scholars, social reformers, spiritualists, nationalists, poets, musicians — from early 1800s to mid-1900s championed Mother India’s freedom. Among them were Raja Ram Mohon, Vidyasagar, Bankim Chandra, Rabindranath Tagore, W.C. Bonerjea, Vivekananda, Michael Madhusudan, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sri Aurobindo, Begum Rokeya and Pritilata Waddedar. Lord Curzon witnessing the rise of Indian nationalism devised the first Colonial divide-and-rule policy by enticing a non-native Urdu-speaking Muslim feudal lord, Nawab Salimullah, of Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, to promote a Muslim party against Indian independence movement with huge funds — 300,000 rupees — from the treasury. He argued that Bengal was too large to govern from its capital Calcutta, also India’s capital then, but no explanation was given why a geographical separation was not proposed instead of communal division when every village was inhabited by Muslims and Hindus. Curzon also proposed to give some favors to ‘backward Muslims’ instead of proposing a one-man one-vote democracy which could have brought Muslim-majority to power through ballot box. Moreover, there were other large provinces which were not partitioned. After much agitation by mostly non-Muslim poets, writers and activists Bengal was reunited in 1912 but that partition would energize a separatist, intolerant Islamist movement and a separatist Muslim identity that would take millions of lives and displace tens of millions from East Bengal, now called Bangladesh, alone. By 1947 the East Bengali Muslim majority would became a champion of partition of India. At India’s independence in 1947 Bengal was partitioned following the same 1905 British-invented line. Later Britain would use divide-and-rule from North Ireland to South Africa, from Ceylon to Cyprus. That tolerant Muslim East Bengal of 1905 is now Bangladesh where ‘Islam is the Official Religion’ with pro-Taliban parties as ruling partners, and West Bengal is a state of India run by hard-line Bangladeshi Hindu privileged-caste bhadralok refugee communists. Since that fateful day in 1905 Muslim-non-Muslim conflict became routine in the Subcontinent. On the eve of India’s independence in 1946, also on October 16, on the auspicious Hindu Lakhsmi Puja day a ghastly anti-Hindu pogrom began in the eastern Noakhali district under the watchful eyes of British Raj, Colonial Army, Bengal’s Muslim League Premier Suhrawady and it’s capital Calcutta’s (Muslim) Mayor Osman to polarize the nation. The pogrom was led by a Muslim Legislator Golam Sarwar that took life of thousands of Hindus and tens of thousands of Hindu girls and wives were abducted and converted. The pogrom followed a Muslim-Hindu riot in Calcutta two months earlier. Both these killings were to convince the British Raj and Indian public that Muslims and non-Muslims cannot live together. Successive anti-Hindu pogroms in East Pakistan/ Bangladesh have dwindled her Hindu minority from a third of the population in 1947 to less than 10% now resulting in over 48 million ‘missing from the Census.’ Minority Muslim population in Hindu-majority West Bengal has risen from 18% to 26% in spite of massive influx of Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. With the steady rise of intolerant Saudi Islamism in Bangladesh (Pakistan and Afghanistan) for the past 100 years common tradition of festivities, literature, food and dress have been changing with serious repercussion for non-Muslims and secularist Muslims. Ironically in 1971 the same Islamically-charged East Bengal/East Pakistan, then the majority of Pakistan, rebelled for a secular state — first ever by a Muslim-majority nation — opposed by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, other Muslim nations, China and the Administration of President Nixon-Kissinger. In 1975 Islamists took revenge by brutally murdering the pro-secular Founding Father Mujibur Rahman with 25 others of his family and friends, many there believe, with our support. In a twist of fate from that British-created event, tragedies hit British soil exactly 100 years later in July of this year through the children of Britain’s former intolerant allies. Spirit of Curzon must be wondering if Britain would have been better off with ethnically cleansed, religiously pure society or with pluralism and tolerance.
[1] News-India Times (a New York weekly), October 14, 2005; 2-3
Monday, January 26, 2009
Strike Against Gaza Attacks, Calcutta, 2009
A state, West Bengal, India, and a city, Calcutta (Kolkata), ruled by privileged-caste Communist elites of Bangladeshi Hindu refugees, and privileged-class opposition Congress Party and Trinomool (Grassroots) Congress Party who chose not to live with their Muslim or oppressed-caste Hindu neighbors in their Bangladesh homeland, goes on for a just protest in the faraway Middle-East, yet since 1947 haven't held even one protest against atrocities on their own Hindu-Buddhist families or for establishing a secular, non-racist regime in Bangladesh. This are examples from 2009.
Bandh (general strike) against Gaza attacks
The Times of India
13 Jan 2009, 0323 hrs IST, TNN
KOLKATA: A four-hour bandh from 12 noon to 4 pm has been called by the Milli Ittehad Parishad West Bengal, a forum of 13 Muslim organisations to protest Israel's strikes on civilian targets in Gaza City of Palestine. Lawyer Idris Ali, who had moved high court against bandhs earlier, is himself a party to the bandh call. On Monday, he and Haji Abdul Aziz gave the call after a rally. The organisers will invite prominent leaders CPM* state secretary Biman Bose, Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee and state Congress working president Pradip Bhattacharya to a downtown protest gathering on Friday, hoping that none of them can ignore the invitation with the Lok Sabha election around. Although Left parties have already condemned the attacks on Palestine, it is not certain whether Bose will join Friday's gathering. Speakers at Monday's press conference came down heavily on Israel for the way it has targeted Hamas, the largest and most influential Islamic organisation in Palestine, killing women and children. They insisted that Israel was leading the attack at the prodding of the US.
* CPM - Communist Party of India-Marxist, rulers of Bengali states of West Bengal and Tripura and of the City of Kolkata (Calcutta), India
webindia 123.com
Kolkata Muslims protest against Israeli air strikes Kolkata
January 03, 2009 12:09:21 PM IST
Muslims here staged a massive demonstration to protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza that has claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent Palestine civilians. The demonstrators, who gathered outside Tippu Sultan's mosque, also set the Israeli flag on fire. Noorur Rehman Barkati, the Shahi Imam of the mosque said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA* chairperson Sonia Gandhi would be urged to snap bilateral ties with Israel immediately. "We have declared Israel a terrorist nation. We will burn their diplomatic offices all over India. If the war doesn't stop now, then their diplomatic consulates will be burnt in India and in other countries also," warned Barkati.
"America and the United Nations are corrupt because Muslims are bleeding and no action is being taken against the Israeli attackers. We Muslims have called it a Jihad. We will eradicate Israel for which plans are going on," Barkati added. In New Delhi , protestors gathered outside the Jama Masjid, to burn the Israeli and American flags, as well as an effigy. The Government of India has joined international calls for a halt to the conflict, and promised a million dollars in financial aid to affected families in Gaza.
Diplomats said the deadliest conflict in the Gaza Strip in four decades appeared close to a crucial stage after four days of cross-border fire had killed over 400 Palestinians and four Israelis.
Foreign powers have increased pressure on both sides to halt hostilities, whereas reports indicate that public anger in Israel could move the Government in Tel Aviv to hit the Hamas even harder. (ANI)
*UPA - United Progressive Alliance, the governing coalition in Delhi
Israeli hanar protibadey pathey Mamata (Protest against Israeli attack)
(Translated from a Calcutta Bengali Paper)
Trinomool (party) leader (Ms) Mamata Bandyopadhyay is begining a street protest today, Tuesday, against Israeli attack. In the afternoon there will be a protest meeting at the foot of Gandhi statue (in Calcutta), then march. At the begining of the protest Kabir Suman will sing songs of humanity. There will be leaders of (protection of) agcultural land, Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque Nur Barkati and leaders of Trinomool minority (Muslim) leaders. Mamata has given responsibility to Trinomool Youth Congress leader (Mr) Madan Mitra. Trinomool's Youth Brigade will also be on the street.
Udayan (New York), February 1, 2009; 29
Bandh (general strike) against Gaza attacks
The Times of India
13 Jan 2009, 0323 hrs IST, TNN
KOLKATA: A four-hour bandh from 12 noon to 4 pm has been called by the Milli Ittehad Parishad West Bengal, a forum of 13 Muslim organisations to protest Israel's strikes on civilian targets in Gaza City of Palestine. Lawyer Idris Ali, who had moved high court against bandhs earlier, is himself a party to the bandh call. On Monday, he and Haji Abdul Aziz gave the call after a rally. The organisers will invite prominent leaders CPM* state secretary Biman Bose, Trinamool Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee and state Congress working president Pradip Bhattacharya to a downtown protest gathering on Friday, hoping that none of them can ignore the invitation with the Lok Sabha election around. Although Left parties have already condemned the attacks on Palestine, it is not certain whether Bose will join Friday's gathering. Speakers at Monday's press conference came down heavily on Israel for the way it has targeted Hamas, the largest and most influential Islamic organisation in Palestine, killing women and children. They insisted that Israel was leading the attack at the prodding of the US.
* CPM - Communist Party of India-Marxist, rulers of Bengali states of West Bengal and Tripura and of the City of Kolkata (Calcutta), India
webindia 123.com
Kolkata Muslims protest against Israeli air strikes Kolkata
January 03, 2009 12:09:21 PM IST
Muslims here staged a massive demonstration to protest against Israel's offensive in Gaza that has claimed the lives of hundreds of innocent Palestine civilians. The demonstrators, who gathered outside Tippu Sultan's mosque, also set the Israeli flag on fire. Noorur Rehman Barkati, the Shahi Imam of the mosque said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA* chairperson Sonia Gandhi would be urged to snap bilateral ties with Israel immediately. "We have declared Israel a terrorist nation. We will burn their diplomatic offices all over India. If the war doesn't stop now, then their diplomatic consulates will be burnt in India and in other countries also," warned Barkati.
"America and the United Nations are corrupt because Muslims are bleeding and no action is being taken against the Israeli attackers. We Muslims have called it a Jihad. We will eradicate Israel for which plans are going on," Barkati added. In New Delhi , protestors gathered outside the Jama Masjid, to burn the Israeli and American flags, as well as an effigy. The Government of India has joined international calls for a halt to the conflict, and promised a million dollars in financial aid to affected families in Gaza.
Diplomats said the deadliest conflict in the Gaza Strip in four decades appeared close to a crucial stage after four days of cross-border fire had killed over 400 Palestinians and four Israelis.
Foreign powers have increased pressure on both sides to halt hostilities, whereas reports indicate that public anger in Israel could move the Government in Tel Aviv to hit the Hamas even harder. (ANI)
*UPA - United Progressive Alliance, the governing coalition in Delhi
Israeli hanar protibadey pathey Mamata (Protest against Israeli attack)
(Translated from a Calcutta Bengali Paper)
Trinomool (party) leader (Ms) Mamata Bandyopadhyay is begining a street protest today, Tuesday, against Israeli attack. In the afternoon there will be a protest meeting at the foot of Gandhi statue (in Calcutta), then march. At the begining of the protest Kabir Suman will sing songs of humanity. There will be leaders of (protection of) agcultural land, Imam of Tipu Sultan Mosque Nur Barkati and leaders of Trinomool minority (Muslim) leaders. Mamata has given responsibility to Trinomool Youth Congress leader (Mr) Madan Mitra. Trinomool's Youth Brigade will also be on the street.
Udayan (New York), February 1, 2009; 29
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Bangladesh Census and Loss of Hindu Population
Note: Comulative loss adjusted with the rate of growth of population 
Note: Cumulative loss is adjusted with the rate of growth of population
Source: Empire's Last Casualty: Indian Subccontinent's Vanishing Hindu and Other Minorities, Firma KLM Publishers, Kolkata (Calcutta), India; 2008
Bombay Massacre 2008 and India's Past
“Bombay Massacre”
In the aftermath of Bombay massacre many Indian think tanks are urging government of India to invade Pakistan. But in reality that’s not a sensible option. Both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers. At some stage of the war either of the country might consider using this deadly weapon system. It will not only bring total destruction in the region, but also encourage the West to denuclearize entire Indian Sub-continent. In the process, Indian and Pakistan might lose their sovereignty also. The biggest threat to Indian integrity and security does not come from Pakistan or Bangladesh; rather it comes from home-grown terrorism. In recent Bombay massacre only 10 Pakistani terrorists participated and at least 40 or more local sleeper cells supported them on the ground. The best possible remedy for India would be to integrate its Moslem population in the main stream development by enforcing western education system and closing down Muslim madrasas.
Does radical Islam Hate India?Many Islamic revivalists believe that India should be converted into a Muslim country. They argue that IN 712 A.D Mohammad Bin Qasim and his Muslim descendants ruled India until British takeover in 1757. Although Mohammad Bin Qasim had conquered India with only a couple of thousand soldiers, yet they successfully held this vast land for hundreds of years with fierce force and sheer terror. Lack of unity among Hindus and absence of a strong Central government gave Muslim invaders an upper hand over Hindus.
After the end of Second World War, Independence of India became inevitable. But, the British wanted a political control over the region even after independence. So, they planted a permanent trouble in the region by creating the first Islamic Republic state of this planet, Pakistan, before leaving India. To legitimize this misdeed, British organized a referendum in 1946. In that historical referendum 90% of Muslims in undivided India voted for Pakistan and other 10% who did not vote for Pakistan were Punjab and North East Frontier province of Pakistan. Almost one hundred percent Muslims of East Bengal now called Bangladesh voted for Pakistan. Hindus of East Bengal largely voted for a secular state in 1946 for which they were slaughtered by the fundamentalist Muslims after Partition. In other word 90% Muslims rejected the idea of a secular India. That still is the mindset of the descendants of those Muslims who voted for the creation of Pakistan.
The same mindset is seen in Bangladesh and Pakistan also. In spite of voting for the creation of Pakistan, ironically, only 8% of Indian Muslims migrated to Pakistan and the rest remained inIndia with their radical ideology. Indian political leaders exploited minority Muslims in their meanest vote politics. Muslims were never given an opportunity to integrate with the main stream culture; rather Muslim law board was created parallel to western law for a permanent division in the society. The most damage to Indian unity has been caused by Muslim madrasa education system.To turn the page of the history back to pre-British occupation, India militarily created Bangladesh in 1971 without a political and cultural orientation. Because of thousands of year’s Islamic mindset Bangladesh turned anti Indian soon after 1971 and ISI of Pakistan has used this situation in their interest. Because of the mindset, Indian Muslims didn’t support Bangladesh independence / war of cessation in 1971. Bangladesh will soon turn into a proxy battle ground between India and Pakistan. Radical Islam is gaining ground in Bangladesh every day and in a fine morning it will declare itself an Islamic Republic. The aim and objective of Bangladesh and Pakistan aboutIndia are the same, either make it an Islamic republic or disintegrate it. Many in Bangladesh believe that cessation in 1971 was a conspiracy of India to weaken Islam and Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The best way to resist Indian domination in the region is by helping cessations andterrors inside India; that’s what Bangladesh and Pakistan are doing today. Why India has become frequent target of Islamic terror: in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh women and downtrodden are the most vulnerable to physical and sexual torture. Because of religious, social and economical reasons women and poor are defenseless in these countries and forced to submit to the brutality of men. In the process of nonresistance from the victims, menof this region often go wild and take torture as pleasure. Due to passive reaction of people and government, Islamic terrorism in India is a wild fantasy today. Muslim terrorists can strike any target of their choice at any time without the fear of retaliation. After 9/11 America lunched a massive campaign against Islamic terrorism worldwide and kept its land safe from new terror attack.
During cold war Pakistan received military, diplomatic and financial support from the West and used its territory against India and USSR. At that time Pakistan was considered equal or superior to India, but at the end of cold war everything changed rapidly. Afghan mujahedeen onceconsidered an asset to Pakistan, soon turned into liability. After the fall of USSR Pakistan reorganized mujahedeen’s for liberating Indian occupied Kashmir. Srinagar of Indian occupied Kashmir was soon compared with Kandahar of Afghanistan. But everything changed on 9/11. America declared war on terror with zero tolerance and Pakistan soon became a terrorist country. Once Pakistan rupee was stronger than Indian rupee but present exchange rate against US Dollar is 99 Pakistani rupees compared to 49 Indian rupees. You may recall the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulficar Ali Bhutto’s call to his countrymen to acquire nuclear weapon even at the cost of starvation to match India. Today Indian is positioned among the top ten economic powers with a trillion dollar economy and on the other hand, Pakistan is considered a failed orfailing state with unmanageable debt. This contrast between India and Pakistan has caused a great deal of frustration among the people of Pakistan, and there will an outburst in the form of terrorism in the region. “If we cannot match India why not to destroy them, since they are incapable of defending themselves and it is very easy for us?” say Pakistanis.The same pattern of mindset is seen within Indian Muslims and that has made the situation worse for the Indian government. There are innumerable homegrown Islamic terrorist cells active in India today. Like Bombay, many more terrorist attacks will be carried out countrywide to demoralize Indian citizens and slow down India’s economic growth. In the process, India will be disintegrated like USSR or will succumb to Militant Islam. In past India never stood firm and united against any foreign aggression. Political parasites will act as fifth columnist in foreign interest like communists did during Chinese invasion in 1962.
Sachin Karmakar
Writer is an ex Defense officer and current affair analyst and comes from a Hindu-Muslim family background
December 03, 2008.
New York
In the aftermath of Bombay massacre many Indian think tanks are urging government of India to invade Pakistan. But in reality that’s not a sensible option. Both India and Pakistan are nuclear powers. At some stage of the war either of the country might consider using this deadly weapon system. It will not only bring total destruction in the region, but also encourage the West to denuclearize entire Indian Sub-continent. In the process, Indian and Pakistan might lose their sovereignty also. The biggest threat to Indian integrity and security does not come from Pakistan or Bangladesh; rather it comes from home-grown terrorism. In recent Bombay massacre only 10 Pakistani terrorists participated and at least 40 or more local sleeper cells supported them on the ground. The best possible remedy for India would be to integrate its Moslem population in the main stream development by enforcing western education system and closing down Muslim madrasas.
Does radical Islam Hate India?Many Islamic revivalists believe that India should be converted into a Muslim country. They argue that IN 712 A.D Mohammad Bin Qasim and his Muslim descendants ruled India until British takeover in 1757. Although Mohammad Bin Qasim had conquered India with only a couple of thousand soldiers, yet they successfully held this vast land for hundreds of years with fierce force and sheer terror. Lack of unity among Hindus and absence of a strong Central government gave Muslim invaders an upper hand over Hindus.
After the end of Second World War, Independence of India became inevitable. But, the British wanted a political control over the region even after independence. So, they planted a permanent trouble in the region by creating the first Islamic Republic state of this planet, Pakistan, before leaving India. To legitimize this misdeed, British organized a referendum in 1946. In that historical referendum 90% of Muslims in undivided India voted for Pakistan and other 10% who did not vote for Pakistan were Punjab and North East Frontier province of Pakistan. Almost one hundred percent Muslims of East Bengal now called Bangladesh voted for Pakistan. Hindus of East Bengal largely voted for a secular state in 1946 for which they were slaughtered by the fundamentalist Muslims after Partition. In other word 90% Muslims rejected the idea of a secular India. That still is the mindset of the descendants of those Muslims who voted for the creation of Pakistan.
The same mindset is seen in Bangladesh and Pakistan also. In spite of voting for the creation of Pakistan, ironically, only 8% of Indian Muslims migrated to Pakistan and the rest remained inIndia with their radical ideology. Indian political leaders exploited minority Muslims in their meanest vote politics. Muslims were never given an opportunity to integrate with the main stream culture; rather Muslim law board was created parallel to western law for a permanent division in the society. The most damage to Indian unity has been caused by Muslim madrasa education system.To turn the page of the history back to pre-British occupation, India militarily created Bangladesh in 1971 without a political and cultural orientation. Because of thousands of year’s Islamic mindset Bangladesh turned anti Indian soon after 1971 and ISI of Pakistan has used this situation in their interest. Because of the mindset, Indian Muslims didn’t support Bangladesh independence / war of cessation in 1971. Bangladesh will soon turn into a proxy battle ground between India and Pakistan. Radical Islam is gaining ground in Bangladesh every day and in a fine morning it will declare itself an Islamic Republic. The aim and objective of Bangladesh and Pakistan aboutIndia are the same, either make it an Islamic republic or disintegrate it. Many in Bangladesh believe that cessation in 1971 was a conspiracy of India to weaken Islam and Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The best way to resist Indian domination in the region is by helping cessations andterrors inside India; that’s what Bangladesh and Pakistan are doing today. Why India has become frequent target of Islamic terror: in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh women and downtrodden are the most vulnerable to physical and sexual torture. Because of religious, social and economical reasons women and poor are defenseless in these countries and forced to submit to the brutality of men. In the process of nonresistance from the victims, menof this region often go wild and take torture as pleasure. Due to passive reaction of people and government, Islamic terrorism in India is a wild fantasy today. Muslim terrorists can strike any target of their choice at any time without the fear of retaliation. After 9/11 America lunched a massive campaign against Islamic terrorism worldwide and kept its land safe from new terror attack.
During cold war Pakistan received military, diplomatic and financial support from the West and used its territory against India and USSR. At that time Pakistan was considered equal or superior to India, but at the end of cold war everything changed rapidly. Afghan mujahedeen onceconsidered an asset to Pakistan, soon turned into liability. After the fall of USSR Pakistan reorganized mujahedeen’s for liberating Indian occupied Kashmir. Srinagar of Indian occupied Kashmir was soon compared with Kandahar of Afghanistan. But everything changed on 9/11. America declared war on terror with zero tolerance and Pakistan soon became a terrorist country. Once Pakistan rupee was stronger than Indian rupee but present exchange rate against US Dollar is 99 Pakistani rupees compared to 49 Indian rupees. You may recall the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Zulficar Ali Bhutto’s call to his countrymen to acquire nuclear weapon even at the cost of starvation to match India. Today Indian is positioned among the top ten economic powers with a trillion dollar economy and on the other hand, Pakistan is considered a failed orfailing state with unmanageable debt. This contrast between India and Pakistan has caused a great deal of frustration among the people of Pakistan, and there will an outburst in the form of terrorism in the region. “If we cannot match India why not to destroy them, since they are incapable of defending themselves and it is very easy for us?” say Pakistanis.The same pattern of mindset is seen within Indian Muslims and that has made the situation worse for the Indian government. There are innumerable homegrown Islamic terrorist cells active in India today. Like Bombay, many more terrorist attacks will be carried out countrywide to demoralize Indian citizens and slow down India’s economic growth. In the process, India will be disintegrated like USSR or will succumb to Militant Islam. In past India never stood firm and united against any foreign aggression. Political parasites will act as fifth columnist in foreign interest like communists did during Chinese invasion in 1962.
Sachin Karmakar
Writer is an ex Defense officer and current affair analyst and comes from a Hindu-Muslim family background
December 03, 2008.
New York
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