Published On:Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Posted by Celebrate Life Style information Blog
The Plight of Buddhist Minorities in Bangladesh
Upali SRaman: During last few years, there have been a
number of reports of communal violence against Buddhists in Bangladesh.
Although such tensions have always existed, recently we have seen an
increase in the vandalization of Buddhist houses and temples or murders
and displacements of people. It is not improbable to surmise that many
smaller events go unreported in the popular media.
These incidents have mostly been shown in
terms of extremist Muslim hatred against minority religious communities.
While this might be partially true, there are various other factors
that must be considered in order to understand the overall situation.
There is also little quantifiable data about Buddhism in Bangladesh.
Here, depending merely on the news reports and my limited knowledge, I
will only briefly touch upon two important points.
Firstly, it is important to understand these
events in the context of the contemporary political situation in
Bangladesh. Since Buddhists and Muslims co-existed peacefully for many
years, the sudden outburst of extremist hatred during the Ramu events
(where 22 Buddhist monasteries and many houses were burnt down to ashes
by the end of September), 2012 seems an aberration. Of course,
subsequently the political links operating at the background have not
gone unreported. It was a well-planned attack by certain section of
political groups in order to achieve some devious gains. Political
parties use all sorts of techniques to gain and sustain power. In the
Ramu events, Buddhists have clearly been used. It is hard to know for
certain what exactly the perpetuators’ motivations were. But given the
context of upcoming elections, each of the political parties are using
various tactics to secure support or to create distrust against their
opposition. Reconstructing many of the Buddhist temples within a period
of ten months, the present government has regained some trust from
Buddhists. It will, however, take long to cure the wounds of insecurity
and fear inflicted on their hearts.Although similar violence happened
for a long time in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Ramu incident is among
the very first major attacks targeted to Buddhists in the plain lands.
Recently a popular daily newspaper in Bangladesh also reported a similar
incident against a Buddhist family in Comilla district. This
geographical expansion of the violence against Buddhists from CHT to the
plain lands puts the entire Buddhist community in anxiety and
insecurity.
Secondly, it is important to understand that
there is a very important economic link to these attacks. The reason
for many of the communal clashes in CHT has been due to land disputes.
The government statistics themselves show that there has been an
increasing growth in the number of Muslim settlers in CHT. These poor
settlers brought from various other parts of Bangladesh have admitted
that governments helped them to make houses in CHT and gave them
military protection. The lands where they build the houses originally
belonged to indigenous people who are mostly Buddhists. Therefore
disputes are bound to happen. The governments of Bangladesh in the last
four decades have either consciously avoided this issue or addressed it
poorly and unsuccessfully. Violence still continues. Settlers given
military protection, the indigenous people have only the choice to run
away from their homelands. Thousands of indigenous people have fled to
neighboring states of India seeking shelter and living a miserable life.
Indian states themselves having problems express reluctance to welcome
new troubles. A handful of the refugees face unspeakable difficulties
trying to migrate to various countries of Europe and America. Therefore,
neglected by government, dismissed from their own lands and unwelcome
by their neighbors, the minority Buddhists have nowhere to go.
In spite of these two points operating
at the background the truth is that the ethnic and religious minority in
Bangladesh is suffering. Thousands of miles apart sitting in our
comfortable sofas, we hear or read headlines of whatever the little is
reported in the international media. But the actual situation is very
severe. The existence of a community is severely threatened by religious
discrimination, devious political motives, and economic deprivation. It
is my sincere plea to the international community to express their
concerns, put pressure on relevant authorities in Bangladesh, and take
protective measures to save the oppressed Buddhist minority.
