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'''Persecution of Biharis in Bangladesh''' refers to the [[persecution]] and [[discrimination]] carried out by the [[Bengali people|Bengali]] majority mainly against the minority [[Urdu]]-speaking [[Bihari Muslims|Bihari]] community (also referred to as [[Stranded Pakistanis]]) in [[Bangladesh]], starting after the [[Fall of Dhaka]] in 1971. Due to their opposition to the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] and pro-Pakistan stance, Biharis were considered symbols of [[West Pakistan]]’s dominance and were attacked in retaliation for [[1971 Bangladesh atrocities|the atrocities]] committed by the [[Pakistani Army]] during the war. The attacks were not just limited to Urdu speakers but also to many other non-Bengalis living in [[Bangladesh]]. According to Aquila Ismail, "Bihari was a loose term used for people who came from [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Poona]], [[Maharashtra]], for [[Punjabi people|Punjabis]], [[Pashtun people|Pathans]]. Every non-Bengali was a Bihari."<ref name="zehra1">{{cite web|last=Zehra |first=Batool |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/340653/the-other-side-of-history/ |title=The other side of history |publisher=Tribune.com.pk |date= |accessdate=2013-05-25}}</ref> The estimated number of people killed varies from 1,000<ref name=MAR-1/> to 500,000.<ref name="Democide" />
'''Persecution of Biharis in Bangladesh''' refers to the [[persecution]] and [[discrimination]] carried out by the [[Bengali people|Bengali]] majority mainly against the minority [[Urdu]]-speaking [[Bihari Muslims|Bihari]] community (also referred to as [[Stranded Pakistanis]]) in [[Bangladesh]], starting after the [[Fall of Dhaka]] in 1971. Due to their opposition to the [[Bangladesh Liberation War]] and pro-Pakistan stance, Biharis were considered symbols of [[West Pakistan]]’s dominance and were attacked in retaliation for [[1971 Bangladesh atrocities|the atrocities]] committed by the [[Pakistani Army]] during the war. The attacks were not just limited to Urdu speakers but also to many other non-Bengalis living in [[Bangladesh]]. According to Aquila Ismail, "Bihari was a loose term used for people who came from [[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Poona]], [[Maharashtra]], for [[Punjabi people|Punjabis]], [[Pashtun people|Pathans]]. Every non-Bengali was a Bihari."<ref name="zehra1">{{cite web|last=Zehra |first=Batool |url=http://tribune.com.pk/story/340653/the-other-side-of-history/ |title=The other side of history |publisher=Tribune.com.pk |date= |accessdate=2013-05-25}}</ref> The estimated number of people killed varies from 1,000<ref name=MAR-1/> to 500,000.<ref name="Democide" />


Revision as of 15:43, 7 June 2013

Persecution of Biharis in Bangladesh refers to the persecution and discrimination carried out by the Bengali majority mainly against the minority Urdu-speaking Bihari community (also referred to as Stranded Pakistanis) in Bangladesh, starting after the Fall of Dhaka in 1971. Due to their opposition to the Bangladesh Liberation War and pro-Pakistan stance, Biharis were considered symbols of West Pakistan’s dominance and were attacked in retaliation for the atrocities committed by the Pakistani Army during the war. The attacks were not just limited to Urdu speakers but also to many other non-Bengalis living in Bangladesh. According to Aquila Ismail, "Bihari was a loose term used for people who came from Uttar Pradesh, Poona, Maharashtra, for Punjabis, Pathans. Every non-Bengali was a Bihari."[1] The estimated number of people killed varies from 1,000[2] to 500,000.[3]

Causes

Protests in Shahbag, Bangladesh against the Razakars

Biharis supported the Pakistan Armed Forces in the Bangladesh Liberation War. Due to their support of Pakistan, they were referred to as Pro-Pakistanis. Biharis had immigrated from the Indian State of Bihar to East Pakistan after the partition.[1]

They largely constituted the East Pakistani paramilitary groups like Al-Shams, Razakars, and Al-Badr, becoming a major cause for the discontent among the Bengalis.[4][5]

For the hatred

The main reasons for the communal violence between Biharis and Bengalis was opposition to the adoption of Urdu as a national language, resulting in Bengali Language Movement[6] and the economic downtroddenness by the West Pakistani dictatorial leadership. The comparatively secular attitude in East Pakistan increased the tensions among the two communities and between the two provinces of the country.[7]

Migration from Bihar

Partition

671,000 Bihari refugees were in East Bengal according to the 1951 census in Dominion of Pakistan.[8] By 1961 the numbers reached 850,000. Crude estimates suggest that about 1.5 million Muslims migrated from West Bengal and Bihar to East Bengal in two decades after partition.[9][10] The religiously based Partition of India displaced up to 12.5 million people with huge loss of life, resulting in a mass influx of Muslims, migrating to the Dominion of Pakistan for Two-nation theory,[11][12] and Hindus from the modern-day Pakistan to India.[13] As per the theory, Muslims should have an independent homeland in the Muslim majority areas of India, where they can spend their lives according to the teachings of Islam, and this became the basis of th emass migration of the Muslims to Dominion of Pakistan.[14]

Fall of Dhaka

There have also been various allegations against Mukti Bahini regarding killings of non-Bengali people, mainly West Pakistanis and Bihari people.[15]

Qutubuddin Aziz dedicated his book Blood and Tears to "Those Hundreds of Thousands of Innocent Men, Women and Children who were killed or maimed in the Awami League’s rebellion and genocide and the Mukti Bahini's reign of terror in East Pakistan in 1971."[16]

Aziz cites accounts of 170 eye-witnesses, picked from amongst nearly 5000 families repatriated to Pakistan from Bangladesh between autumn 1973 and spring 1974. They hailed from 55 towns of East Pakistan.[16]

Sarmila Bose, in her book Dead Reckoning: Memories of the 1971 Bangladesh War, accused Bangladesh liberation accounts of ignoring atrocities against Urdu-speaking people in East Pakistan. However, Bose's book has been controversial and its accuracy has been questioned.[17]

Casualties and events

Various estimates provide different figures of Bihari and Urdu-Speaking killings. Pakistani authorities estimate a minimum of 100,000[15] to 500,000 non-Bengali killings. Whereas the Bengali sources claim the deaths of non-Bengalis from "a few thousand"[15] to 40,000[15] killed. According to The Minorities at Risk Project the number of killed Bihari is about 1000.[2] According to R.J. Rummel, the number of killed Biharis is estimated to be between 50,000 to 500,000, more likely 150,000.[3]

Bengali mobs were often armed, sometimes with machetes and bamboo staffs. Biharis were massacred in areas like Jessore, Panchabibi and Khulna. In March 1972 in Khulna, at least 300 to 1000 Biharis were killed, including women and children. The bodies were thrown in the nearby river.[18]

Aftermath

Immigration

See also: Muhajir people

As a result of this discrimination and prejudice, the Biharis have consistently repeated their wish to be repatriated to Pakistan. Initially 83,000 Biharis, which were former civil servants and military personnel were evacuated to Pakistan. By 1974, 108,000 had been transferred to Pakistan, mainly by air, and by 1981, about 163,000. The two countries have signed several agreements on the repatriation of these stateless people, but only a few hundred have managed to go to Pakistan.[19] The Government of Pakistan received some $14 million as of 1992 and had been asking for more from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states for the repatriation and rehabilitation of the Biharis in Pakistan.[20] However, the sufferings of the Biharis didn't end even after their immigration to Pakistan. The lands allocated to the Biharis in Pakistan (known as Bihari colony) are nothing more than slums. The Biharis were targeted by the ethnic Sindhi people during the deadly riots in the 1980s that took place in Karachi. In the Punjab province of Pakistan, the ethnic Punjabis forcefully occupied the shelters that were allocated to the Biharis.[21] These demeaning situations have even prompted some Biharis to return back to Bangladesh.[19]

Communal violence

The communal violence also resulted in widespread avenge, and many Bengalis were also killed in the conflict.[22] There is a great disparity in the casualty figures. India and Bangladesh claim that three million people were killed.[23] The figures put forth by Pakistan on the other hand are 25,000, as reported in the Hamoodur Rahman Commission[22]

Present condition

According to one estimate, at least 250,000 are still left in urban camps in Bangladesh.[24]

Efforts for repatriation

In May 2008, a Bangladeshi court ruled that Biharis who were either minors in 1971 or born after 1971 are Bangladeshi citizens and have the right to vote.[25][26] As a result of the ruling, an estimated 150,000 of the 300,000 who were living in the refugee camps are eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship.[26]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Zehra, Batool. "The other side of history". Tribune.com.pk. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  2. ^ a b "Chronology for Biharis in Bangladesh". The Minorities at Risk (MAR) Project. Retrieved 27 March 2013.
  3. ^ a b Statistics Of Pakistan's Democide
  4. ^ Siddiqui 1990, p. 153.
  5. ^ A. R. Siddiqui, East Pakistan - the Endgame: An Onlooker's Journal 1969-1971, Oxford University Press, 2004, p. 171.
  6. ^ (Al Helal 2003, pp. 263–265)
  7. ^ James Heitzman and Robert Worden (eds), ed. (1989). "Pakistan Period (1947–71)". Bangladesh: A Country Study. Government Printing Office, Country Studies US. ISBN 0-16-017720-0. Retrieved 2007-06-16. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Hill et al, page 13
  9. ^ Chatterji - Spoils of partition. Page 166
  10. ^ Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar (1 January 2007). The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0-231-13846-8. Retrieved 7 June 2013.
  11. ^ "Two-Nation Theory Exists". Pakistan Times.[dead link]
  12. ^ Carlo Caldarola (1982), Religions and societies, Asia and the Middle East, Walter de Gruyter, ISBN 978-90-279-3259-4, ... Hindu and Muslim cultures constitute two distinct, and frequently antagonistic, ways of life, and that therefore they cannot coexist in one nation ...
  13. ^ Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, pp. 221–222
  14. ^ "Two Nation Theory: The Myth, The Reality". Story of Pakistan. Retrieved 2013-06-07.
  15. ^ a b c d Christian Gerlach (14 October 2010). Extremely Violent Societies: Mass Violence in the Twentieth-Century World. Cambridge University Press. pp. 148–. ISBN 978-1-139-49351-2. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  16. ^ a b Qutubuddin Aziz (1974). Blood and tears. Publications Division, United Press of Pakistan. Retrieved 4 June 2013.
  17. ^ "Controversial book accuses Bengalis of 1971 war crimes". BBC News. 05 June 2013. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  18. ^ "Massacre of Biharis in Bangladesh". The Age. March 15, 1972. Retrieved 2013-06-04.
  19. ^ a b "Bangla Biharis weary of wait to migrate to Pakistan". Rediff.com. Retrieved 2013-06-05.
  20. ^ Shah, Mehtab Ali (1997). The Foreign Policy of Pakistan: Ethnic Impacts on Diplomacy 1971-1994. I.B.Tauris. ISBN 1860641695.
  21. ^ "Will Nitish's visit boost Biharis in Pakistan?". Times of India. Retrieved 2013-06-05.
  22. ^ a b Hamoodur Rahman Commission, Chapter 2, Paragraph 33
  23. ^ "3 MILLION Slaughtered Sheik MUJIB Charges 'Greatest Massacre'" The Portsmouth Herald, Monday, 17 January 1972, Portsmouth, New Hampshire
  24. ^ "Biharis of Bangladesh, World Directory of Minorities". Faqs.org. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
  25. ^ "Court rules that young Biharis are Bangladesh citizens". Reuters. 19 May 2008.
  26. ^ a b "Citizenship for Bihari refugees". BBC News. 19 May 2008.

Further reading

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