The rampage in Sunamganj has been coloured in faith identity lines, common in Bangladesh and as expected. It’s not about the general state of social and political intolerance but the traditional Hindu-Muslim divide and conflict. Thanks to Facebook this confusion will grow and the scenario will remain as they have always been- a people looking for answers to such questions in the wrong street.
Research conducted in the Sunamganj area shows a huge asymmetry between the powerful and the powerless. The land grabbers are very active in Sunamganj and form inter-faith community bond to grab land. In fact, local poor Muslims are as much victims as the Hindus. Many land grabbers come from the Hindu community too. It’s not being seen as a vulnerability issue but that of a religious communal divide. ( Land grabbing trends in Sunamganj: Afsan Chowdhury and others 2015)
Bangladeshis are not a very analytical people and we take pride in being emotional rather than intellectual. Hence we don’t seek answers but confirm our cultural dogma.. We are not only interested in thinking this way but insist that it’s the only way. The result is a long standing scenario of suffering that never changes. The poor and the powerless continue to suffer.
It doesn’t mean that Hindus – anywhere in Bangladesh- don’t suffer but that they rarely do so as a religious construct. It’s linked to creating violence in order to take over their property and cause suffering so that even as an affected community they are unable to protest. What we are seeing today is a carefully crafted social policy of community marginalization for economic gain. But being of the cultural stream, we like to see everything through such lenses only. That social violence is located in social causes is not noted.
Nobody seems to remember that most property grabbed by the criminals are Muslim owned property and it’s grabbed by Muslims too. A person’s faith identity determines his personal beliefs running down the family but not his criminal propensities. However, we continue to nurse the belief as it makes us feel better that it’s all about faith community identity not an act against the poor and the vulnerable.
One reason we don’t do so is that we shall be thrown into the logical space and that probably makes us uneasy. Our notion of the state is very simplified and we believe it exists in the constitution and that our society is based on that. That we don’t live by it is something we don’t want to accept. Living by the book , holy or secular is great but few do it. Society functions at a far more brutal level and there, power and force operates.
Sunamganj is a terrible tragedy but this will continue because we have allowed a social fiction to rule our mind. Unless the fight is about empowerment of all the vulnerable, we shall be weeping on social media for many years as it is repeated everywhere.
