Present violence has its roots in the past
A great Indian socialist leader Yusuf Meherally once asked Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah if he was preaching for Islamic nationhood and whether he would make Pakistan a religious state. Mr. Jinnah replied that Pakistan will be a democratic state and there would be a Muslim majority.
The only difference would be that it would be a Muslim majority state where all other religious minorities would have their full rights. The socialist leader asked after establishing a state on the basis of religion how could Mr. Jinnah expect that it would remain a democratic state?
His fear was that eventually religion will grab the democratic procedure and establish its hegemony.
Though Mr. Jinnah did not agree with his socialist friend, after establishing Pakistan he was aware of the pitfall of religious dominance over democratic procedure. He placed white colour in the National flag with the green part as a symbol of the rights of other religious minorities and declared in the first constituent assembly of Pakistan that now Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims-they will make a great nation as Pakistanis.
Even before his death he wanted to drop the word ‘Muslim’ from the name of the ruling party and wanted to make it ‘National League’, not Muslim League. He wanted to open the door of the party to other religious communities.
But he could not succeed in changing his party from a communal one to a secular one. His close associates like Liaquat Ali Khan and Khawaja Nazimuddin opposed it tooth and nail and Mr. Jinnah could not proceed with his proposal and died shortly after the creation of Pakistan.
But the prophecy of Jinnah’s socialist friend Yusuf did not take long to come true. After the death of Jinnah and the assassination of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali in 1951, a fundamentalist leader, who established Jamaat-e-Islam, a pseudo religious political party in India, came to Pakistan and demanded that Pakistan will be a religious state based on Shariah. He demanded that only Sunnis would be treated as true Muslims. Other sects like Shia, Ahmedyya etc. will be declared non-muslims and their rights as citizens should be curbed in Pakistan. At that time Sir Zafarullah was the powerful foreign minister of Pakistan and he was a member of the Ahmeyya sect.
Jamaat started a movement to remove Sir Zafarullah and other Ahmedian (Qadiani) leaders from important government posts. They instigated a riot against the Ahmedias and 50,000 Muslims were killed in that riot in Punjab alone. For instigating the riot and the killings, Moulana Maududi was arrested and put on trial. He was sentenced to death by the Lahore High Court. The Jamaat tired to organise a movement against this sentence and to release Moulana Maududi; but they failed miserably. When General Ayub came to power the-then king of Saudia Arabia requested the military junta to grant state pardon for Maududi and that saved his life.
In Bangladesh the Jamaat became a strong political party under the leadership of Ghulam Azam. The first ameer of Jamaat in then East Pakistan was Maulana Abdur Rahim, a moderate Muslim leader. He was ousted by Ghulam Azam, a diehard Wahhabist and hardliner. With Saudi patronization he established Jamaat as a cadre-based party with people who came from madrassas and trained them to create terror among their opponents. In the 1970s when people of then East Pakistan fought for creating an independent state on the basis of democracy and secularism, Jamaat opposed it not only politically but militarily. They took side with the invading Pakistani army and joined in the brutal genocide.
After independence Jamaat was banned in Bangladesh with other religious parties but again the scenario of Pakistan was almost re-enacted in the country. The democratic government was overthrown and a military junta took over power. They lifted the ban on Jamaat and other religious parties, allowed Ghulam Azam and other war criminals to come back from Pakistan and live in Bangladesh again. This time with Middle Eastern money and Pakistan’s patronization Jamaat grew as a financially strong party but without public support; people did not forget their crimes during the Liberation War. Long ago, Yusuf Meherally predicted that by using the two-nation theory based on religion Mr. Jinnah knowingly or unknowingly sowed the seeds of a religious state not a democratic one. Within a short time the collaboration between the mosque and military transformed Pakistan from a democratic state to an autocratic religious state.
During General Zia ul Haq’s regime they introduced Shariah law and declared Ahmidias as non-Muslims and Pakistan became an orthodox Muslim state on the pattern of Saudi Arabia.
Now with the revival of medievalism, mixed with ruthless political Islam in Pakistan the country is facing a complete devastation. The country is now being ravaged by religious terrorists on one hand and American drone attacks on the other. This scenario could have been re-enacted in Bangladesh also but we are fortunate that our strong secular cultural heritage and democratic norms in our body politic has prevented this occurrence and saved Bangladesh.
But the long absence of democratic rule and the alliance between the mosque and military has helped the rise of fundamentalism and communalism. After the assassination of the founder of the state the secular forces in Bangladesh became very weak and were in a retreating process. This process was reversed after the Awami League’s massive victory in the general election of 2008. With the change in world situation and politics the secularist parties in Bangladesh gradually united themselves and took a stand against the fundamentalist and religious terrorists. This helped their demand for the trail and punishment of the war criminals of 1971.
This is the only demand on which the Bangladeshi people in spite of their many social and political differences are united.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which was born in the cantonment was not a fundamentalist party but a communal one like the Muslim League in Pakistan. Pakistan gradually became a religious state when communalism had to give way to fundamentalism and joined hands with it.
In Bangladesh also we are noticing that the BNP could neither retain its democratic character nor remain a communal party like the Muslim League but is swallowed by Jamaat because Jamaat has strong links with the Middle Eastern countries.
As the secularist forces are strong and combined now and are also in power, now the BNP’s communalism and Jamaat’s fundamentalism have virtually merged together to fight these forces.
The recent political disturbances in Bangladesh created by Jamaat and assisted by the BNP are marked by communal violence and attack against religious minority communities. Jamaat was not accused of communal violence before but now as they are a retreating force against a secular democratic process they have also become communal and have started attacks on minorities.
At present Bangladesh is not a battleground of two political opponents; rather it is a fight between two strong rooted ideologies- one is medieval fundamentalism and another is modern secularism. Apparently it may seem as clash between people demanding punishment of the war criminals and the supporters of those war criminals.
The BNP’s open solidarity with Jamaat has completed the polarization of Bangladesh politics. Now there are two camps: one is communal and fundamentalist and the other democratic and secularist.
This fight is not a new one. We have inherited this legacy of politics from the 1940s when Jinnah demanded the creation of Pakistan on the two-nation theory on the basis of religion. For some time communalism and fundamentalism were triumphant in the whole subcontinent.
Now with the change in world politics that trend is a retreating force. Especially in Bangladesh the democratic and secular forces are now aware of the danger of religious terrorism and its medieval methods and have become united to fight this demon. The Shahbagh movement is the best proof of the revival of the strong secularist camps through peaceful resistance. The continuous practice of terrorist methods jointly by the BNP and Jamaat are now almost failing.
The terror tactics of the Jamaat in collusion with the BNP for the last few days is neither getting public support nor succeeding in combating the forces of law and order. Bangladesh may have to face this turmoil for sometime longer.
But this time the victory of the democratic and secularist forces in the country is almost a certainty. Otherwise, not only Bangladesh but the entire subcontinent will face a very disturbing and destructive future.
London, 8 March 2013
The only difference would be that it would be a Muslim majority state where all other religious minorities would have their full rights. The socialist leader asked after establishing a state on the basis of religion how could Mr. Jinnah expect that it would remain a democratic state?
His fear was that eventually religion will grab the democratic procedure and establish its hegemony.
Though Mr. Jinnah did not agree with his socialist friend, after establishing Pakistan he was aware of the pitfall of religious dominance over democratic procedure. He placed white colour in the National flag with the green part as a symbol of the rights of other religious minorities and declared in the first constituent assembly of Pakistan that now Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims-they will make a great nation as Pakistanis.
Even before his death he wanted to drop the word ‘Muslim’ from the name of the ruling party and wanted to make it ‘National League’, not Muslim League. He wanted to open the door of the party to other religious communities.
But he could not succeed in changing his party from a communal one to a secular one. His close associates like Liaquat Ali Khan and Khawaja Nazimuddin opposed it tooth and nail and Mr. Jinnah could not proceed with his proposal and died shortly after the creation of Pakistan.
But the prophecy of Jinnah’s socialist friend Yusuf did not take long to come true. After the death of Jinnah and the assassination of the first Prime Minister Liaquat Ali in 1951, a fundamentalist leader, who established Jamaat-e-Islam, a pseudo religious political party in India, came to Pakistan and demanded that Pakistan will be a religious state based on Shariah. He demanded that only Sunnis would be treated as true Muslims. Other sects like Shia, Ahmedyya etc. will be declared non-muslims and their rights as citizens should be curbed in Pakistan. At that time Sir Zafarullah was the powerful foreign minister of Pakistan and he was a member of the Ahmeyya sect.
Jamaat started a movement to remove Sir Zafarullah and other Ahmedian (Qadiani) leaders from important government posts. They instigated a riot against the Ahmedias and 50,000 Muslims were killed in that riot in Punjab alone. For instigating the riot and the killings, Moulana Maududi was arrested and put on trial. He was sentenced to death by the Lahore High Court. The Jamaat tired to organise a movement against this sentence and to release Moulana Maududi; but they failed miserably. When General Ayub came to power the-then king of Saudia Arabia requested the military junta to grant state pardon for Maududi and that saved his life.
In Bangladesh the Jamaat became a strong political party under the leadership of Ghulam Azam. The first ameer of Jamaat in then East Pakistan was Maulana Abdur Rahim, a moderate Muslim leader. He was ousted by Ghulam Azam, a diehard Wahhabist and hardliner. With Saudi patronization he established Jamaat as a cadre-based party with people who came from madrassas and trained them to create terror among their opponents. In the 1970s when people of then East Pakistan fought for creating an independent state on the basis of democracy and secularism, Jamaat opposed it not only politically but militarily. They took side with the invading Pakistani army and joined in the brutal genocide.
After independence Jamaat was banned in Bangladesh with other religious parties but again the scenario of Pakistan was almost re-enacted in the country. The democratic government was overthrown and a military junta took over power. They lifted the ban on Jamaat and other religious parties, allowed Ghulam Azam and other war criminals to come back from Pakistan and live in Bangladesh again. This time with Middle Eastern money and Pakistan’s patronization Jamaat grew as a financially strong party but without public support; people did not forget their crimes during the Liberation War. Long ago, Yusuf Meherally predicted that by using the two-nation theory based on religion Mr. Jinnah knowingly or unknowingly sowed the seeds of a religious state not a democratic one. Within a short time the collaboration between the mosque and military transformed Pakistan from a democratic state to an autocratic religious state.
During General Zia ul Haq’s regime they introduced Shariah law and declared Ahmidias as non-Muslims and Pakistan became an orthodox Muslim state on the pattern of Saudi Arabia.
Now with the revival of medievalism, mixed with ruthless political Islam in Pakistan the country is facing a complete devastation. The country is now being ravaged by religious terrorists on one hand and American drone attacks on the other. This scenario could have been re-enacted in Bangladesh also but we are fortunate that our strong secular cultural heritage and democratic norms in our body politic has prevented this occurrence and saved Bangladesh.
But the long absence of democratic rule and the alliance between the mosque and military has helped the rise of fundamentalism and communalism. After the assassination of the founder of the state the secular forces in Bangladesh became very weak and were in a retreating process. This process was reversed after the Awami League’s massive victory in the general election of 2008. With the change in world situation and politics the secularist parties in Bangladesh gradually united themselves and took a stand against the fundamentalist and religious terrorists. This helped their demand for the trail and punishment of the war criminals of 1971.
This is the only demand on which the Bangladeshi people in spite of their many social and political differences are united.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) which was born in the cantonment was not a fundamentalist party but a communal one like the Muslim League in Pakistan. Pakistan gradually became a religious state when communalism had to give way to fundamentalism and joined hands with it.
In Bangladesh also we are noticing that the BNP could neither retain its democratic character nor remain a communal party like the Muslim League but is swallowed by Jamaat because Jamaat has strong links with the Middle Eastern countries.
As the secularist forces are strong and combined now and are also in power, now the BNP’s communalism and Jamaat’s fundamentalism have virtually merged together to fight these forces.
The recent political disturbances in Bangladesh created by Jamaat and assisted by the BNP are marked by communal violence and attack against religious minority communities. Jamaat was not accused of communal violence before but now as they are a retreating force against a secular democratic process they have also become communal and have started attacks on minorities.
At present Bangladesh is not a battleground of two political opponents; rather it is a fight between two strong rooted ideologies- one is medieval fundamentalism and another is modern secularism. Apparently it may seem as clash between people demanding punishment of the war criminals and the supporters of those war criminals.
The BNP’s open solidarity with Jamaat has completed the polarization of Bangladesh politics. Now there are two camps: one is communal and fundamentalist and the other democratic and secularist.
This fight is not a new one. We have inherited this legacy of politics from the 1940s when Jinnah demanded the creation of Pakistan on the two-nation theory on the basis of religion. For some time communalism and fundamentalism were triumphant in the whole subcontinent.
Now with the change in world politics that trend is a retreating force. Especially in Bangladesh the democratic and secular forces are now aware of the danger of religious terrorism and its medieval methods and have become united to fight this demon. The Shahbagh movement is the best proof of the revival of the strong secularist camps through peaceful resistance. The continuous practice of terrorist methods jointly by the BNP and Jamaat are now almost failing.
The terror tactics of the Jamaat in collusion with the BNP for the last few days is neither getting public support nor succeeding in combating the forces of law and order. Bangladesh may have to face this turmoil for sometime longer.
But this time the victory of the democratic and secularist forces in the country is almost a certainty. Otherwise, not only Bangladesh but the entire subcontinent will face a very disturbing and destructive future.
London, 8 March 2013
Courtesy: The Independent
