India wants total surrender
by Zana Ghutekurani in FaceBook
Bhaskar Roy doesn't understand why the people of Bangladesh are not happy with India, though he praises Bangladesh Awami League and Mujib.
In his article Eurasia Review he says : "In 1971, the most common words on the lips of a common Indian was "Joi Bangla", victory to Bangladesh. The India-Bangladesh honeymoon lasted till August 15, 1975, the day Sk. Mujibur Rahman was assassinated" …. that one night India-Bangladesh relations went into a tail spin".
He asks, "Should religion divide Bangladesh and India? If that were so, then East Pakistan would not have broken away from West Pakistan to liberate itself. Language, culture, tradition, blood and history proved much stronger than religion. India has around 18 per cent Muslims and Bangladesh has around 14 per cent Hindus".
Why Mr Roy informed 14% Bangladeshis are Hindus I do not know. Did he make mistake? or over the years the population of Hindu migration into Bangladesh increased, or they have plan to migrate ? Let me not become paranoid now before reading the whole article.
Though Mr Roy gave us wrong data, this is not my problem, the problem is his claim "Language, culture, tradition, blood and history proved much stronger than religion" which sounded very contradictory to me. Because:
1. Urdu was created inside India, yet did not get place.
2. People of Bangladesh, who are Muslims and mixed have blood connection with Afghanis, Middle Eastern gene pole (Muslims are not restricted to marrying within castes).
3. Traditional (e.g.,celebrating EID, Shab-e-Batar) similarities with other Muslim countries. 4. Bangladeshis have clearly afghan and middle eastern influenced eating habits (Polaw,Firni, use of various spices, Halwva etc).
4. Along with many other ancestors (e,g., adivasi tribes ) Bangladeshis have blood connection with Afghan, Persia and other Middle Eastern countries. The blood connection also connects them with Muslims in India and also in Pakistan apart from religion.
5. The most striking difference is suggested by History which suggest that there were a clear difference between East Bengal and West Bengal even before the arrival of the Muslims.
Therefore, when Mr Roy tells, "Historically, in the region of greater India that is Bangladesh there was hardly any religious conflict to talk about between the two communities" I did not have anything to say, as he completely forgot to mention all the conflicts and the struggles that the people of this part were having and how they were subjected to change themselves to adjust with the minority.
But things did not stop here , he surprised me while advises "it would be wise for today's politicians like Begum Khaleda Zia to heed the advice of these roving philosophers of yester years if they really want peace and development."
When the/a Roy tells about the development of Bangladesh, it may scare our people as probably people will not be able to trust it. The article itself contains the main reasons. One obvious reason is that Mr Roy's inability to understand the reasons behind the dissatisfaction of the people of Bangladesh.
Later he accuses two political parties of this country, BNP and Jamaat for harbouring "visceral hate-India mindset" because "After all, they were committed to Pakistan and remain so" . Especially he deliberately accuses Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) and its allied religious groups.
I have no information on if Jamaat and other Islamic parties expressed its hatred towards India, but, if anyone criticise Indian aggression and actions towards its neighbouring countries and if this is interpreted as "visceral hate-India mindset" I question the objective of such articles.
Mr Roy keeps on saying, "In the early part of this decade the JEI leaders appeared to have been confident to form the government in Dhaka on their own by 2012. They also spoke of making Bangladesh a confederate of Pakistan." At this point it seems he is scared of a Bangladeshi Party in Bangladesh for its work inside Bangladesh. I wonder why is that?
The second political party he accuses is BNP. "But what is Begum Khaleda Zia's enduring problem with India?", he asks . "Her late husband President Zia-ur-Rehman was a liberation war hero and fought along with Indian soldiers. But why did he turn against India so viciously? He even banned "Rabindra Sangeet, songs written by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. But he stopped short of changing the Tagore Song "Amar Shonar Bangla" which Bangladesh adopted as its national anthem after liberation. Today, Tagore is more alive in Bangladesh than even in India, clearly underlining how strong culture can be as a cohesive bond surmounting religious barriers."
Again , I am not sure if Mr and Mrs Zia ever expressed their "visceral hate-India mindset" and banned "Rabindra Sangeet? Neither I realised why he was advocating for Tagore written national anthem which was written 100 years ago when the condition of the subcontinent was completely different.
Then he keeps going on, "But she has always suggested by her behaviour and policy a deep emotional link with Pakistan". Yes , Mr Roy mentions current Pakistan's 13 times, expressed his enormous "visceral hate-Pakistan mindset". Completely forgot that in 1947, the people of east Bengal constituted Pakistan willingly along with other present Pakistani provinces. He was completely oblivion of the fact that the present day Pakistan was a part of British India, quite a big number of its population migrated from present India too. If he could not forget expressing his hatred to formation of Pakistan , if India could not remove its animosity towards its own people for choosing and wanting to build a nation and harbour their "visceral hate-Pak mindset", how can how can they expect others to love them?
The article is a packed with wrong information, hatred towards Pakistan, hatred towards the muslims, accusation towards two political parties supported by many Bangladeshi people, alluring people towards development, and showing Bangladeshis the "only way" of development is to suck up India, preparing people not to change national anthem, accusing people for their personal choice (liking or disliking India) and of course trying to make people grateful towards India for the distress caused during 71.
To read the article of Roy:
http://www.facebook.com/l/WAQDkmBh4AQD8uK3HWFAFc48rm4q1eXJVsQnOMJVTdglXkA/www.eurasiareview.com/can-india-find-a-way-to-bangladesh%25E2%2580%2599s-heart-analysis-20072011/
Please note, the writer Mr Roy writes for SAAG. SAAG is the South Asia Analysis Group, a non-profit, non-commercial think tank. It says "The objective of SAAG is to advance strategic analysis and contribute to the expansion of knowledge of Indian and International security and promote public understanding", in other words to influence and change opinion of people according to their goal. In other words this is part of Indian Intelligence.
Personally it is hard for me to hate anyone though I get annoyed by these
types of works. In Bangladesh I have seen many writers are feeding people with their garbage works. And exploiting peoples' trust to satisfy I request those pretending "atel" garbage writers to grow some social responsibility and not to engage in exploiting peoples' trust.
My words will not stop people from working in ignorance, rage, anger, envy , jealousy or even in exchange of tangible interests , but nothing wrong in asking for being sensitive and accept those people who are different and bear their difference.
I also request people from remain alert and aware about the activities of those organisations, such as, SAAG. This is an example of how India keeps its eyes on other countries and influence.
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