The Hindu Minority in Bangladesh: Legally Identified Enemies
In the last three decades, human rights abuses against the Hindu minority in
Bangladesh, have largely gone unreported. Bangladeshi nationalism has failed to
accommodate the Hindu minority. The continuance of the Enemy Property (Custody
and Registration) Order II of 1965 of the then East Pakistan Government albeit,
under a new name, stands testimony to the less than equal status of the Hindu
citizen in Bangladesh. The order identified minority Hindus as enemies and it
was used as an instrument to take away land from them who were conveniently
labelled as supporters of India.
Notwithstanding the fact that India was a determinant factor in the
liberation of Bangladesh, the fate of the Hindu minority changed little after
independence from Pakistan. The President of Bangladesh in his ORDER NO. 29 OF
1972 changed the nomenclature to Vested Property Act (VPA). Under this order,
the Government of Bangladesh vested itself with alleged enemy properties.
"Properties" means "properties of any kind, movable or immovable and includes
any right or interest in such properties, debt or actionable claim, any
security or negotiable instrument, and any right under a contract and any
industrial or commercial undertaking." "Security" includes "share, scrip,
stock, bond, debenture or debenture stock, or other marketable security of a
like nature in or of any body corporate and Government securities." Clause 2 of
the Order further states, "Nothing contained in this Order shall be called in
question in any court." This Order of the President and the Enemy \ Vested
Property Act have not been subjected to any judicial review.
As a result, minority Hindus continue to be deprived of their economic
rights. The Law Ministry of Bangladesh in a direction Memo No. Bhu,
Ma/7-5/Arpita (Nitimala)/117/42 (Angsha)/638 (61) on 4 November 1993 to all
Deputy Commissioners directed "verification of census list of vested
Properties." The order further stated that "Though the census list of the Enemy
(Vested) Property prepared in 1968-69 is the basis of all activities concerning
the vested properties, there is a doubt among the sections of the people about
the dependability of the listÂ…..properties in fact belonging to the enemies
were not incorporated in the list. Absence of clear ideas among the public
regarding the vested properties, incompleteness in the rules and lack of
directions and policies have made the issue further complicated and has created
confusion amongst the public. The Government is keen to redress the grievances
of the public by settling the issue once for all. To attain the objective the
following committees have been constituted for the verification of the land
which has been incorporated in the census list but have not been leased out or
properly recorded or determine whether there are other enemy properties."
Under this order the Government formed "Thana (Police Station) Vested
Property Verification Committee". The Committee was empowered to verify the
listed properties which had not yet been properly recorded and/or leased out as
to whether the properties were vested properties. Instead of addressing
grievances of the affected Hindu minority, Government authorities grabbed more
lands. Property belonging to 61 Hindu minority families in Ashefpur and
Chawkjara village of 14 Ashefpur Union and in Ganda Gram of 10 Sultanganj Union
under Bogra Sadar Police station were identified as Enemy Properties under this
direction.
According to NGOs in Bangladesh, the estimated total Hindu households
affected by EPA/VPA would be 10,48,390. The estimated total land dispossessed
would be 1.05 million acres. About 30 per cent of the Hindu households
(including the missing households) or 10 out of every 34 Hindu households are
the victims of EPA\VPA. These estimates, although based on various plausible
assumptions, should be considered as sufficiently indicative of the gravity of
the situation.
The Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), an NGO based in Dhaka
states that "the implementation of Enemy Property Act \ Vested Property Act has
accelerated the process of mass out-migration of Hindu population from mid
1960s onward. The estimated size of such out-migration (missing Hindu
population) during 1964-1991 was 5.3 million, or 538 persons each day since
1964, with as high as 703 persons per day during 1964-1971. If the above
estimates are close to reality, then it would not be an exaggeration to
conclude that the Enemy / Vested Property Acts acted as an effective tool for
the extermination of Hindu minorities from their motherland."
ALRD further states, "The size of Hindu population in a "no out-migration"
scenario is estimated on the basis of the following assumptions: (a) between
1961 and 1991 the mortality rates were similar, for all religious communities,
i.e., mortality rates are secular (religious- neutral), (b) during the same
period, the fertility rate among the Hindu population was 13 per cent less than
the fertility rates among the Muslim population (estimate based on recent
contraceptive use rates). Due to the lack of any reliable fertility estimates,
the rate for the Muslims was estimated using an indirect method (Mauldin
measure), based on contraceptive prevalence rates. According to the information
in the population census, the average annual growth rates of the Muslim
population was 3.13 per cent for 1961-1974, 3.08 per cent for 1974-1981, and
2.20 per cent for 1981-1991 period. Assuming a 13 per cent lower fertility rate
for the Hindus compared to the Muslims (assumption-b), the
average annual growth rates in the Hindu population under "no-out migration"
situation would have been 2.72 per cent during 1964-1971, 2.68 per cent during
1971-1981, and 1.92 per cent during 1981-1991."
By extrapolating the above rates, the Hindu population in 1971, would have
been 11.4 million, instead of 9.6 million as reported in the official
documents. The actual Hindu population in 1981 would have been 14.3 million
(12.5 million of 1981 plus 1.8 million missing during 1964-1971), instead of
10.6 million as reported in 1981 census document. Similarly, had there been
"no-out-migration", the Hindu population in 1991 would have been 16.5 million
(12.8 million as on 1991 plus 3.7 million missing during 1964- 1981), instead
of 11.2 million as reported in 1991 census document. Thus, the estimated total
missing Hindu population during 1964-1991 was 5.3 million, i.e., 196,296 Hindus
missing every year since 1964. In other words, if out-migration of Hindu
population is caused mainly by communal disharmony resulting from the
Enemy/Vested Property Acts, the approximate size of the missing Hindu
population would be 538 persons each day, since 1964."
The Hindus flee from Bangladesh to neighbouring India after their lands are
grabbed by the Government. When people lose their lands, they lose their
livelihood. It affects their social security, health, education, standard of
living and religious freedom. The Hindus are immediately beset by poverty. Yet,
for the last three decades, no Government in Bangladesh has considered its
repeal.
The mere holding of periodic elections is not the only yardstick of measuring
democracy or health of a society. If gross violation of the economic rights of
the Hindu minority is a yardstick, tyranny of the majority rules the roost in
Bangladesh. Any society that claims itself as democratic, should have no place
for such a discriminatory Act like the Vested Property Act. Repeated calls for
its repeal from Hindu religious minority leaders and secular Bangladeshi NGOs
have failed to evoke any substantive response from the Government of
Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is an Islamic country. 87 per cent of its population is Muslim.
However, the minority Hindus, Buddhists and Christians have the right to
practice their religious beliefs safeguarded by the Constitution.
It is evident that the present government in Bangladesh has neither the
political will nor the space to effect the necessary changes in discriminatory
laws. An opposition that increasingly relies on fundamentalist rhetoric offers
no succour. What is surprising is that the Razakars or Pakistani quislings, who
participated in the genocide of Bengalis in 1971 have been politically
rehabilitated while those who faced murder and mayhem along with their Bengali
Muslim brethren still suffer under the yoke of a pre-liberation law.
The Hindu minority has little effective leadership. Its only response to the
situation has been to vote with its feet - the long trek across
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