Minority Consequences in Bangladesh

“Violence against Religious Minorities”

Course Title: Introduction to Sociology

Course Code –SOC 101
Section-09
Submitted By
Md.Tuhin Sarwar
Id: 2017-2-10-207

Submitted To
Manzuma Ahsan
Lecture,

An Assignment submitted to the Department, at East West University,

in partial fulfillment of the course-SOC 101: Introduction To
Sociology.

Date of Submission: 22/9/2020

LETTER OF TRANSMITAL

Date: 12/09/20
Manzuma Ahsan
Lecturer
East West University, Dhaka

Subject: Research paper on Minority in Bangladesh.

Dear Ma’am,
With great gratification, I am submitting sociological overview about minority problem in
Bangladesh. You have assigned several topic among all of them I have chosen this topic
encouraged to write minority problem including with sociological overview like inequality,
stratification and social mobility in Bangladesh. It is really an enormous prospect for me to
congregate vast information and grasp the subject matter in an appropriate way. I have found
the study is quite interesting, beneficial, and informative and tried my level best to prepare an
effective and creditable analysis.
I honestly, not only anticipate that this analysis will assist to provide a clear idea about the
overall condition of “Minority Consequences In Bangladesh” but also optimistic enough to
believe that you will find this analysis worth for all the effort I have put in it. Myself
welcoming your entire query & take pride to answer them.
Yours sincerely,
Md.Tuhin Sarwar
Id.2017-2-10-207
________________

Introduction:
Minority groups describe groups that are subordinate, or that lack power people in society
regardless of skin color or country of origin or religious people that are lower than in total
amount of population of a region. People who have the utmost power in their hand also those
are the ruling community of a society they make connection with minorities. Sometimes they
are blessed for those minorities and sometime they are becoming curse for them. But, the
things is most of the time we have seen that minorities are being deprived more than blessing
in a region. Here I’m going to express all the beneficial as well as complexity that have been
face a Bangladeshi minority in terms of their religion, beliefs languages etc. the conditions
for minority communities of the country's different regions was expected to improve but
unfortunately remained extremely distressing. The scale of violence went up with the
supporters of war criminals further exacerbating the overall situation. Religious and ethnic
minorities of Bangladesh particularly of southwestern region suffered from frequent assaults,
tortures, threats, displacement and marginalization in the last 10 to 12 months. However,
exploiting these vulnerable people is not an entirely new phenomenon in Bangladesh. Having
analyzed the historical context of minority persecution in Bangladesh, we have found that the
trend continued since the riot of 1964; through the liberation war in 1971, the regime of
dictatorship in 1980, in the run up to the 2001and 2008 elections to date. Although recent
incidents received some coverage in the media, however, a thorough investigation on this
issue with necessary measures to take has not yet been done. Some groups, individuals and
researchers have tried to bring the issue to the limelight but those do not seem sufficient for
the government to take the issue in hand ensuring swift and severe punishment of the
miscreants and peaceful co-existence of majority and minority citizens of the country. The
paper blending previous researches, media coverage and our analysis, argues that apparently
there is politics encompassing two major possessions of minority people which are 'vote' and
'land'. Political parties particularly ruling parties during their regimes benefit most out these
two possessions, the reason why politics persists around minority people in Bangladesh.
Other reasons behind violence against minorities range from economic, social, cultural and
religious backgrounds, to ideological standpoint of secular and Islamist parties. The paper
focuses on the adjacent regions, the south-west coastal areas of Bangladesh, given the recent
attacks on minorities in these areas, collecting data primarily from local minority people
belonging mostly to Hinduism and from local journalists. We also collected secondary data
from various researches conducted on minority issues, reports and newspapers. The report
details evidence of violence against Hindu and other ethnic communities, including arsons,
killing, rape, attacks on religious sites; and intimidation, political influence, displacement and
consequential loss of properties. The report suggests that minority Hindus represent the most
vulnerable section of the study area. The ongoing violence has seriously affected their lives
and properties and may inhibit their right to express their religious and ethnic identity. These
limitations may in turn restrict their access to education, health services, and employment and
even threaten their existence in the region. The report highlights how political, economic,
religious and cultural factors are responsible for communal fracas in and how violence helps
influential groups to occupy minority people's lands and properties. It also shows the
migration trend of minorities particularly Hindus to the neighboring Hindu-majority West
Bengal and other parts of the country. Roles of the government, socio-cultural and political
groups and media on minority issues have also been discussed in the paper. In looking for
solutions, the report focuses on the urgent need for formulating a special act and forming a
national minority commission. A constitutional provision to safeguard minority rights is also
urged as the constitution of Bangladesh recognizes no minority in the country and contains no
special provision for their protection and promotion. Forming a separate ministry on minority
affairs and formulation of policy delineating their rights, promotion plan, and stern penalty
for any sort of violence against them are also recommended.
Relevant consequence of the problem:
We all have known that Bangladesh is a Secular country but the problem is though it is a
secular country sometimes a big problem arise for countries minority people. The problem
mainly comes from their religious perspective their belief their lifestyle, ethics, norms and
many more certain things those attribute did not like some section of people and they became
agitated and do some unethical activity that was not expect a single well proper manner
person. In recently we have been seen that Hindu, Muslim riots are in extreme position no
one can tolerate each other they always are try to find scope when which time they can
attacked themselves this work actually has not done by a pure religious person this work done
by those person who did not read their religious book properly no religion is permitted to
anyone that you have to imposed corrective action those people who are not following your
religion. So, the thing is in our country we have been seen that some section of people are
deprived for minority problem I don’t want to blame all but some sorts people they are
creating new law to arise this problem that makes social inequality because of minority did
not get their proper rights they are neglected from job enrolment, political sphere, Business
sector, festival day etc. That actually make a difficulty for minority people for existing in the
society. No only Hindu Muslim riots are happened in our country but also Muslim are divide
into sort of section if we give an example that is Shia, Sunni problem now a days are reach in
climax level no one can see other existence they are blasting boom among each other they
quarreling they always strive on each other personal belief that make society complex that is
why society is facing problem to emerge. In the year 2016 if we back to those days on the
day of Muharram that is called one of the sanctity day for Muslim on this day a group of
people who are believing in terrorism they are not concerning about peace they always
thought the way other living in the society it is totally prohibited so that is why they are
exposed their aggression in 2016 on the day of Muharram they are blasting bomb among
1000 people when people are living for Tajia Procession that is really sad for our nation on
the moment people died instantly. So that kind of thing we have to eradicate for making a
peaceful society otherwise society always be in ignorance and minor people will not get their
proper rights. Bangladesh’s minorities have suffered a series of rapes, arson and vandalism at
the hands of Jamaat-e-Islami ( New has been covered by the New Age in online 2018). So I’m
attaching some glimpse of their news where they are covering some horrible glimpse what
jammat-e- Islami has been done to those minorities. In the run up to the general elections and
its aftermath, Bangladesh has seen a series of attacks on the Hindu minority in different parts
of the country, especially the north. The Islamic fundamentalist group, Jamaat-e-Islami, has
been largely responsible for this violence.

“Jamaat-Shibir (the student wing of Jamaat-e-Islami) has created a situation of panic in and
around the village. They destroyed around 50 shops in my area and we had to flee to another
village to take shelter,” says Jaynto Mondol, a resident of Ramganj, whose family has been
living in the village for generations. Speaking with The Diplomat, the 43 -year-old grocery
shop owner feels that “the fundamentalist forces want to turn the nation into a purely Islamic
country by throwing the Hindus out. We can’t live in peace. For two weeks I have been
taking shelter in a friend’s house in a neighboring village, to save ourselves from the lurking
danger The problem is not the Muslims of Bangladesh; the problem is with Jamaat and
their thought. Violence by the Islamic fundamentalist group makes me feel unsafe. The
administration should protect us from such danger,” says Joy Debnath, a resident of the
neighboring district of Bogra. There is a historical reason for the Islamic fundamentalist
party’s antipathy towards the Hindu minority in Bangladesh; the immediate context,
however, was the recently concluded.
Present Situation:
An Article Published by Daily Star recently in this pandemic situation, “Minority and ethnic
communities attacked during lockdown” IT is shocking that while the whole nation is
grappling with a pandemic, there has been a consistent trend of human rights abuses. Sixteen
noted citizens have demanded justice for the incidents of attacks on minority communities,
violence against women, land grabbing, harassment of common people and torture of
journalists, which happened during the coronavirus pandemic in the country. In particular,
they have highlighted the incidents of violence, harassment and human rights deprivation of
minority communities.
Theoretical Perspective According this Issue:
Social Inequality
Minority problem now a days come forward with biggest challenge so, here I’m going
describe whole matter using sociological perspective. In our county minority problem is not
occur with Hindu Community But also exits with other religious people like Cristian, Sikh
and many more basically they are facing commonly social inequality as well as they did not
get proper rights in the society. If we focused in our countries one kind of people basically
they tribal groups of people they have some uncommon feature their lifestyle, their culture,
religion, education is all is different against majority people of our country. Another things is
one things I have witnessed that In our tribal group of people they are facing difficulty to
admit their children into the school because their language is different from the local people
that is why government could not take any necessary steps to educate themselves.
Conflict Theory:
Before knowing every single matter that I have been describe about minority problem. First
of all we have to know. What is conflict theory how conflict theory relate to minority
problem. In minority problem a majority section of people grab all the power in society they
are dominating less powerful groups. They believe that social inequality prevents and hinders
societal progress as those in power repress the powerful people to maintain the status quo. So
mainly minority circumstances we can describe by using conflict theory. In recent time we
have been seen that Hindu, Muslim riots are increased as a result minority people are much
more afraid to exiting themselves into the society. They are lagging behind compare to other
people in the society it could be education sector, Job sector, Business sector in all the area
they have been facing identity crisis they are always neglected by other sometimes extremist
forced them to live their place that makes me horrified.

Minority Problem Compare to other Country:

Minority problem not only exist in our country but also it exist overseas of Bangladesh like if
you have seen recent incident of India that how much problem are facing Indian Muslim
where we can see social inequality arise day by day Muslims are exploited by community
Hindu people they are making unbearable torcher to the Muslim minority that will result
social inequality that hamper one community to reach his/her desire goal. Here we can see In
Bangladesh Hindu community they are surviving for some religious extremist who are
creating unbearable torture among them on the other hand if we look forward to Indian
minority Muslim we will see how they struggle to cope up there due NRC and CAB law are
enrolled in India Majority of Muslim are now trouble with identity crisis they even did not
get their proper rights all the possible way are going to stop by the government that kind of
law construct a negative view in society if this happened in near future continuously
minority of Muslim will not express themselves in society by proper manner they will lack
behind by other people that make will make social inequality as well as instead of social
mobility rising their social mobility will decrease so that is the main problem. On the above
we have already talked about how minority problem arise in religious perspective if we move
just one steps then another things will come on our analyze that is we know in every region or
every country there are some portion of Schedule cast are exist not only religious minority
are not facing problem but also that type of tribal people they also facing so many problem
they do not get proper education they do not get proper food some extremist or a societies
powerful person grab all the power and forced to those minority they are taking their wealth
that hampers a society to become a good one .
Conclusion
In the conclusion part I will express my opinion that I have been done in the report. I will
prefer some possible solution how to eradicate minority problem and make a peaceful society
forever. Guarantee the security of religious minorities there should be a clear signal, from
parliament and senior officials to local authorities and police, that the protection of the rights
of minority communities is a priority. Enforce legal protections for religious minorities in
addition to ensuring the rights guaranteed in the Constitution for all Bangladeshi citizens are
respected, the government should implement antidiscrimination legislation aimed. Ensure
justice to victims of targeted rights abuses the government should take strict measures to end
the culture of impunity, ensuring that abuses are effectively identified and acted on by police
and the judiciary. Promote the participation of religious minorities positive steps should be
taken to raise the current low levels of representation of religious minorities in parliament,
the security forces, the judiciary and civil administration. While specific measures such as
quotas would be welcome, it is necessary to transform the current environment of
discrimination by removing the many barriers that continue to separate minorities as second-
class citizens at all levels of public life.
References:
https://www.newagebd.net/article/51091/violence-against-religious-minorities
https://www.thedailystar.net/editorial/news/minority-and-ethnic-communities-attacked-
during-lockdown-1907501