An Analysis

on

Stereotype of Bangladeshis are intolerant in general on religion

Submitted By
Bishwajit Ghosh

Id- 16109032

Course- Eng490

Submitted to
Afsan Chowdhury

Professor

Date of Submission
26th June 2019
 Stereotype

Introduction: Bangladesh is a Muslim Majority nation with Islam as its Official religion of the

country professed by the majority and freedom of religion is guaranteed by its constitution in

which it gives equal rights to all citizens irrespective of religion. The major religion in

Bangladesh is Islam (90%), but a significant percentage of the population adheres to Hinduism

(9%). Other religious groups include Buddhists 0.6%, (mostly Theravada), Christians (0.3%,

mostly Roman Catholics), and Animists (0.1%). Bangladesh was founded as a secular state, but

Islam was made the state religion in the 1980s. But in 2010, the High Court held up the secular

principles of the 1972 constitution. The High Court also strengthened its stance against

punishments by Islamic edict (fatwa), following complaints of brutal sentences carried out

against women by extra-legal village courts.

History also shows that there had been many inter-religion clashes and countries were divided

based on religion which leads to the fact that whether people from different religion can stay

together as one community or not, are they sympathetic towards other religion or not in

Bangladesh perspective.

Stereotyping statement: The statement which shows the presence of stereotyping mentality is

“Bangladeshis are intolerant in general on religion”.

Objective: Stereotyping basically starts with discrimination and ends with exclusion. People

start stereotyping from the fear that their rights and positions will be taken away from them.
From this belief, people start stereotyping minority groups and it starts with discrimination.

When this discrimination phase gets bigger and minority people cannot take anymore, they have

to leave that place. This process is called exclusion. This is the main objective of those people

who are intolerant towards other religion.

The most common positive and negative stereotypes of Bangladeshis are intolerant in general on

religion are given below:

Stereotyped
Finding Points Why Analysis
Social  Festivals People from different religion enjoy Enjoying each other’s

 Nationalism their religious festivals together which religious festival and the

makes them tolerant to each other. essence of Nationalism

When the time of any festivals come in Bangladeshi people

people from different religion enjoys makes them tolerant to

that occasion all together. Again, in each other’s religion.

Bangladesh nationalism gets priority

over religion as we focuses more on

the nationalism rather than bragging

about religion.
Historical  From In this sub-continent hindu-muslims Hindu-Muslim fought

Colonial are living together for centuries. There towards all injustice

period to now are evidence that there had been riots hand in hand in difficult

and clashes between two religious situations and

communities. However, if we look at continuing it for the

 Bangladesh, a large number of greater benefit.

minority people are living with their

proper rights and social dignity in the

society.
Political  Not a Political party does not use religion as As equality is

concern for a weapon. If we look at the job sectors established in almost

common in Bangladesh, there is equality. A every sectors of our

people large number of people from Hindu, country, Bangladesh can

 Equality in Buddhist and Christian people are be regarded as

job sector holding high administrative position. politically tolerant to

For example, our ex-chief justice was religion.

S.K. Sinha who was from Hindu

background.
Religious  Knowledge No religion in our country allows As we do not live in an

from religion violence and disrespecting of other extremist religion based

religion. As most of the Bangladeshi country, all of the

people are religious and their religion religion in Bangladesh is

teaches them to be tolerant and tolerant towards each

sympathetic towards others religion, other.

they are already maintaining those

norms and values from their religion.

Stereotyper

Findings Points Why Analysis

Social  Muslim As Bangladesh is a Muslim based Intolerance grew as the

based country, they try to take advantage from majority always wants to

country the other religious groups. In every suppress the minority

sectors their mentality towards other people by demeaning

people from different religion is that them in different socio

minority people should be in demeaning perspective.

position and they will always suppress

them in terms of education, job sector

and enjoying own rights.

Historical  Hindu Hindu-Muslim riot is not a new thing in Riots and clashes

Muslim this subcontinent. This is the clear between different

Riot evidence that they are intolerant towards religious people and

each other. From British period till now, destroying religious

 Political
we have seen lot of political parties were places from time to time
parties
established based on religion. If we have proved intolerance

consider the partition of Pakistan and towards other religion.

India it was also based on religion. Even,

the partition of Bengal in 1905 was also

based on religion.
Political  Agenda Religion is often used as weapon for the Using religious parties in

in politics political purpose. To gain more vote politics is the clear

religion is always used. In our country evidence that how

 Business
our two big political named Awami- Bangladeshi politics is
using
league and BNP used Jamayate Islami intolerant towards other
religion
and Hefajat-e-Islam for their political religion.

purposes. These two religious political

parties have always been against the

minority people.

Religious  Access Rigid mind setup and believing without Not getting proper

to religion clarifying whether the statement is true or religious knowledge and

not. In our country there are many blind trust towards

 Lack of
spiritual leaders (e.g: pirs, mollas, hujurs) preachers have made
religious
who spread hatred and wrong perceptions people intolerant towards
knowledg
against other religion in the name of their other religion.
e
religion. People in general who are

blindly trusting on them accept those

perceptions without even justifying.

Overall analysis: By analyzing both the stereotyper and stereotyped chart it can be seen that

stereotype is dependent upon different aspects and different terms regarding every religion

people. Whether that stereotype is negative or positive that cannot be determined as every time

this issue is will be a debatable one. However, some perspective is same from both types of

people which are they all have focused on the history of Bangladesh and the political

perspectives of Bangladesh. 100% of Bangladeshi people are not literate. For this reason, the

question comes whether they are getting proper religious knowledge or not. People depended on

social, political, religious and historical perspective to determine whether they consider that

statement as a stereotype or not.

Conclusion: Stereotyping over simplifies the traits of a group. Often times this stereotype turns

out to be wrong and causes good harm than good. For this reason, the process of discrimination

and then exclusion should be stopped as this is not a good practice. People should understand

diversity and accept another’s differences.