Attacks on religious minotirties in Bangaladesh

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Minority:

‘Minority’ is a construction of the modern state. The latter, being predicated on the idea of ‘nation’, marginalizes and alienates the communities that, for one reason or another, cannot identify themselves with the nation. The state of being marginalised, alienated and to a large extent derogated is inherent with in the very etymology of ‘minority’. It implies something minor as opposed to major, subordinate as opposed to super ordinate or dominant, hence less important. Minority does not necessarily have to do with numbers, but is rather a matter of status, role and, more importantly, access to power and resources. Thus one might be a minority in ethnic, religious, linguistic, gender or, for that matter, sexual terms.

Religious Minorities:

Religious Minority means specific religious group who are ignorable in number status and role. In this essay I have focused on the religious minorities in our country and their rights. There are 4 religions in Bangladesh – Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and more. The majorities are Muslims and Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and other religious groups belong to the minorities.

International bill of rights regarding minorities:

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR):

Article – 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, social origin, property, birth of other status.

Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or status of the country or territory to which as person belongs, whether it be trust, non-self-government or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

International Covenant for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR):  

Article 18

  1. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in worship, observance practice and teaching.
  2. No one shall be subject to coercion which would impair his freedom to have or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice.
  3. Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamentals rights and freedom of others.
  4. the parties to the present Covenant undertake to have respect for the liberty of parents and, when applicable, legal guardians to ensure the religious and moral education of their children in conformity with their own convictions.

International Covenant on Economic, Social and Civil Rights (ICESCR):

Article 2

2. The state parties to the present covenant undertake to guarantee that the rights enunciated in the present Covenant will be excercised without discrimination of any kind as to race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Constitution of Bangladesh and rights of minorities:

In part one, article 3, of the constitution states that:


" The state language of the republic is Bengali" 


In part two, article 23, it is stated that:


" The state shall adopt measures to converse the cultural traditions and heritage of the people, and to foster and to improve the national language, literature and the arts that all sections of the people are afforded the opportunity to contribute towards and to participate in the enrichment of the national culture." 


The Eighth amendment to the constitution further commented that trend by making Islam the state religion. This amendment clearly abandoned the secular principle on which Bangladesh founded in 1972. 


However, Article 28(1) of the constitution states that:


"The state shall not discriminate against any citizens on grounds of only religion, race caste, sex, or place of birth." 
Thus, we see that the constitution recognizes the presence of indigenous communities like the Santals and guarantees their rights to culture and religion. In reality however, it is not so. Violations of human rights are commonplace.


Significantly, the Bangladeshi government chose not to observe 1994 as the year of the indigenous people as declared by United Nations.


State institution:

Democracy, a much lauded ideal and principle has, in effect, turned into an instrument of oppression of the minorities. Based on the principle of majority rule, politics has turned into a game of numbers. Individuals and communities instead of being viewed as human beings are viewed as ‘vote banks’ by political parties. The violent and polarized state of Bangladesh politics has turned the minorities into victims of extreme political violence inflicted upon them by the political parties and their supporters in a bid to either ‘win’ over the ‘vote Banks’ or stop them from exercising their voting rights through coercion and violence.

The institution of majoritarian democracy also does not allow them a voice in the national parliament. There is hardly any scope for a meaningful representation of the minorities in the parliament or other representative institution. The national parliament is a 300- member body. Previously 30 seats were reserved for women who were nominated by the elected members. This reservation is however expired in April 2001. In the last parliament there were only eight members from the Hindu community and three from the chakma community. Of the eleven elected members, then were from the ruling party, the Al ( one independent candidate joined the treasury bench after his election) and one from the BNP. The AL nominated three minority women to the reserved seats. Two of them were Hindu and one was a Rajhaine. In the October 2001 elections, seven minority candidates got elected. Five of them are from the Hindu community, three from the AL and two from the BNP. Two Hill people, one from the Chakma and the other from the Marma community were elected from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). One of them being from AL and the other from BNP.

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Demographic Layout:

According to the population census of 1991the percentage of different religious group in the population------

                        

Vanishing Minority population:

In Bangladesh, hindu population was 28% in 1941; 22% in 1951, 18.5% in 1961; 13.5% in 1974; 12.2% in 1981 and 10.5% in 1991. Hindu population decreased by 8% from 1961 to 1991.

The vanishing minority population is understood from researching the census documents published the government. Fifty years ago in 1941, 28.3 per cent of the total population was minorities. The population of Hindu was 11.88 millions, while 588 thousand was ...

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