Do the Hindus of Bangladesh on the path of Sure Extinction?
In 2012, at Ramu in cox’s bazaar district, the fanatics destroyed 22 Buddhist temples and destroyed many houses as a reaction to some facebook post. The political atmosphere of Bangladesh is taking more and more communal turn over the years. The word secularism was deleted from the constitution in 1977. Islam was declared as state religion in 1988. As a result there are only 15 Hindu members of parliament today out of 350. Generally Awami league was considered as a party accommodative of minorities. Even today, out of 15 Hindu members of parliament, 13 are from Awami league and two are independent. All other parties together have zero representation of Hindu members. Another reason which is not so apparent is that in last for so many decades the Hindus have lost their properties due to the unfair provisions and biased implementation of the so called Enemy Property Act or Vested Property Act. Prof. Abul Barkat, an economist and professor of Dhaka University, through his in-depth studies ‘Political Economy of Vested Property Act in Rural Bangladesh’ and ‘An Inquiry into Causes and Consequences of Deprivation of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh through the Vested Property Act’ has exposed the devastating effect of this act and its many versions over the period has on Hindus in Bangladesh. According to his study 43% of Hindu households which comes to about 1.2 million families have been affected by the EPA or VPA. Total land acquired under this act is about two million acres which is 5% of total Bangladesh land but it is almost 45% of land owned by Hindu community. The study has also documented other land grabbing techniques, such as—the death of one family member or migration of one family member being used as an excuse to enlist and grab the property of the entire family. There are many instances where influential parties are known to have grabbed ownership of land through violent methods like hiring local thugs to threaten the family, and forged documents. For example an investigation by ‘Jugantor’ in 2009 revealed that of the 30,000 acres of land appropriated by Chittagong administration as ‘vested property’ only 5000 acres is in government control.
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