India’s War in
Bangladesh
Dr. Firoz Mahboob Kamal
The War in New Phase
Enemy’s
war never ends: only changes its strategies and frontiers. India’s war against
the subcontinents’ Muslims did not end in 1947, 1965 or 1971. It still
continues. And Bangladesh is the perpetual battleground. The Muslims of
Bangladesh are given no time to relax. They can only survive such on-going onslaught
if they can identify and defeat the enemy strategies, and purge their
foot-soldiers. A body cannot live a long life with killer bugs inside. And
Bangladesh has enough of them. The political border between Bangladesh and
India still exist -even after the break-up of Pakistan in 1971. But Bangladesh
Awami League (BAL) and their ally have been very successful to remove the
country’s cultural boundary –especially between the BAL followers and
the Indians. And culture has a dominant and defining role on politics. Hence,
the vision of BAL leaders is seldom different from that of a Bengali Hindu. Bangladesh’s
international border has been made irrelevant to belittle such mutual cultural and
political bondage. Recent 3 days’ official visit of Mr. Pranab Mukharjee –the
Indian President, to Dhaka amidst 3 days’ dawn to dusk wheel-jam strike was
primarily arranged to demonstrate India’s commitment to such bondage. Mr.
Mukharjee directly delivered the promise of India’s unrelenting support to the
troubled Prime Minister Mrs. Hasina Wajed.
Like an Indian
Hindu, the BAL people too, attribute Bangladesh’s independent entity on the
world map as a legacy of Pakistan and its Muslim heritage. This map itself reminds
them the unwanted division of 1947. Such
Pakistani legacy is hindering BAL and it ally to fully fall into Indian lap. However
the political map of 1947 is so much deeply rooted in the Bengali Muslims’
psyche that India could not change it in 1971 –even after a full military
occupation. They realised, they can undo such legacy only through deleting it
from Muslims’ mind-set-only possible through a complete de-Islamisation. And
that needs a full cultural conversion. Hence, they brought a full-fledged
cultural war in Bangladesh. They consider it a key strategy, and the sure way
of isolating its 150 million Bengali Muslims from the whole Muslim Ummah; and
thereby to bring their total subjugation to Indian hegemony. Their worry, if
Islam survives in Bangladesh, not only the border will survive, rather will get
strengthened to build a citadel of Islam on her eastern flank. One on her
western flank is already giving her a lot of troubles; hence can hardly afford another
one on her eastern border. Therefore, dismantling such a possibility in
Bangladesh is India’s most important priority. As a part of the same coalition,
India’s crony government in Bangladesh has already launched on her behalf an all-inclusive
war against the Islamists. Recent events in Bangladesh must be studied with
such holistic perspectives.
Pakistan's
division in 1971 was not the endgame. Rather starting point of the next
phase of Nehru doctrine – the Indianisation of the separated East Pakistan.
India’s vision is clear. Pakistan has disappeared from its eastern border. But
Bangladesh didn’t, and still survives. They believe, if Bangladesh with its 160
million populations sustains as an independent Islamic state, it will work as
India’s security threat for ever. The country’s rapidly resurging Islamists can
take over at any point of time. That will pose against India not only a
strategic threat, rather a civilizational challenge. Threat to mighty Roman and
Persian empires did not come from mighty kingdoms, rather came from the poor
people of Arabia. Hence they argue, if USA and the Western Europe could
consider an emerging Islamic Afghanistan -with less than 30 million people in
another part of the glove, a security threat, why Islamic Bangladesh on her
border cannot be the same for India? If
USA and her European ally can massively bomb and occupy Afghanistan, why can’t
India do the same in Bangladesh? India is selling this view to the anti-Islamic
coalition of the west and getting a full support -as evidenced by their support
for India’s extremely brutal occupation of Kashmir. India has deployed more
than 600,000 forces to suppress the Kashmiri up-rise. India is speculating the
same scenario in Bangladesh. Hence, India is getting more aggressive towards her
anti-Indian Bangladeshi neighbours. Its Border Security Force (BSF) has killed
more than 400 Bangladeshis only in last 4 years. They did not kill even a quarter
of that on its Pakistan border in last 60 years. Bangladesh’s weaker military power
might have contributed to make her people more vulnerable. Moreover, the crony
government of Hasina paid blind eye to that.
The Cultural War
India’s
current war is not for physical occupation of Bangladesh; rather occupation of the
people’s conceptual and cultural territory. India wants to mould Bengali Muslims’
mind and mentality prior to any all invasive war. That is through cultural
conversion. India is working day and night on such scheme. It has deployed
thousands of foot-soldiers on Bangladeshi soil to launch a huge cultural war. Thousands
of them are working as music teachers, dance teachers, art teachers and in many
other forms in almost all over the country. Highly paid Indian agents are
working as university teachers, newspaper editors, TV presenters, columnists,
reporters in almost all government and non-government TV channels and
newspapers. Most of the country’s media organisations are indeed the Indian
occupied territories. They are the real Trojan horses inside Bangladesh. Recently
they launched an aggressive media and internet warfare against Islam and the
Islamists. Their real picture came to the forefront while the Shahbag drama unfolded
against the Islamists. When the huge number of the cultural war foot-soldiers demonstrated
the strength in Dhaka’s Shahbag roundabout, these Indian agents cum
professionals could not remain hidden in their holes. They came out with their
real colour as warrior activists –especially while playing their role as
reporters, news casters, talk-show presenters and newspaper columnists. Their
colleagues in the internet blogs became so much emboldened by the government support
that they did not hesitate to cross the red line. They not only raised slogans for
total annihilation of Islamic parties and their leaders, but also started huge
abusive campaign against the Almighty Allah Subhana Wa Taala, His great prophet
Muhammad (peace be upon him), the prophet’s wives and his great companions. To
their surprise, this caused a huge Islamic resurgence in the silent majority. Millions
of people came to the street. As a consequence, their bubbles quickly fizzled
out. They retreated back to their workplaces under the government’s security
shield.
The
Bengali people are indeed divided into two nations since day one of Muslim
advent in this land. Hence, after the end of British rule, both the Hindus and
the Muslims are pursuing two incompatible political visions. In 1947, Bengal’s Muslim
leaders tried to create an undivided greater Bengal -separated from greater
India. But the Hindu Bengali watered down such a nationalist project with a
fear that it would bring dominance of the majority Bengali Muslims. In 1947, in
Bengal’s parliament in Calcutta, the Hindu members opted for joining greater Hindu
India with a pan-Hindu vision. The Bengali Muslims had two options: either to
form independent East Bengal or to join Pakistan. In those days, the East
Bengal Muslims were known for its non-existent military power and poor economy.
If separated as an independent state in 1947, its army would have been much
weaker than that of Nizam of Hyderabad. The Bengali Muslims’ presence in civil
administration and other areas was also very scanty. Hence the wise Bengali
Muslim leaders of 1947 could clearly anticipate Kashmir or Hyderabad-like
Indian invasion of an independent East Bengal, thereby quick accession to
India. That invasion and accession of East Bengal too, like invasion and
accession of Kashmir and Hyderabad could go unnoticed by the world powers.
India could have found hundreds of reasons to justify that. Even to catch a
thief, one needs to invest huge energy, even endanger his life. Therefore, who
would have come to invest their lives and money to save Independent Bengal from
such Indian invasion? Did anyone come to save Hyderabad or Kashmir? In those
days, the zeal of pan-Islamism in Muslim youths in Bengal was very high, hence inspired
to work for Pakistan. This was indeed the background that led the Bengali
Muslims to join Pakistan. Indeed, in the making of the greatest Muslim country in
the world, the Bengali Muslims’ contribution was the greatest. Even All India Muslim
League –the organisation which led Indian Muslims to make Pakistan was born in
Dhaka. In 1946 election on Pakistan issue, Muslim League got the strongest
support from Bengal –not from any other province of India. But BAL’s
thoughtless jingoists have little strategic depth in their thought or
intellectual calibre to understand such crucial survival interests of Islam and
the Muslims in Bengal. Hence they detest the Bengali Muslims’ decision of 1947.
With such a distance from Islamic belief
and non-commitment for the Muslim interests, these BAL’s cultural and
intellectual converts now sing the same song with the Indian Hindus.
The Hindu Vision & the
Lie
The Hindu
Bengalis had a vision. They wanted a united Bengal only if merged with India. That
way, the Bengali Muslims were offered the slavery of Hindu majority rule in
undivided India. The British left in 1947. But since then, the slavery under
the Hindu rule has proved to be much worse than the slavery under the British. The
brutality has already been much revealing in systematic anti-Muslim genocide in
Kashmir, Gujarat, Assam, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Meerat, Aligarh, Allahabad and many
other Indian states and cities. So the
anticipation of Allama Iqbal and the Muslim League leaders about the danger of
Hindu rule against Muslims proved to be 100% true. So with such anticipation, in
1947, the Hindu project of united Bengal under Indian Hindu majority rule was
out-rightly rejected by the Muslims.
But still
the Hindu protagonists of undivided India did not move a single inch from their
pre-1947 idea, rather they working day and night on the same project. The whole
paradigm of India’s current cold war in Bangladesh –even in the remaining part
of Pakistan, is based on that pre-1947 Hindu concept. The Indian Hindu accepted
the division of Bengal and creation of Pakistan in 1947 for the time being; their
next move was to divide Pakistan and then engulf the weaker half –the East
Pakistan. This is India's much proclaimed Nehru doctrine. So far, India has
taken every calculated move to pursue that strategy. Since 1947, they were
waiting for a right opportunity, and even Nehru himself made a move to annex
East Pakistan in his life time. But that failed. The real opportunity came in
1971. India skilfully manipulated Pakistan’s internal political crisis to
manufacture a full-fledged war to invade and occupy East Pakistan. But in 1972,
India had to withdraw its occupying troops under tremendous international
pressure. Moreover in 1972, the cultural and political situation of Bangladesh
was not ripe enough for India to go further for a full annexation. India needed
to do much home works to make the ground quite ripe for a full harvest.
Since the
political map of Bangladesh draws its legitimacy from 1947’s division of India,
the Indian agents are doing concerted propaganda against the sanity of such
division. Even Dr. Zakir Naik –the famous Muslim preacher of India argues openly
in his speech that the division of India in 1947 was wrong. It indeed owes to his
tunnel vision and gross inadequacy in his political understanding. With such personal
constraints, people cannot see a bigger picture. In his public speech, he
boasts India as the fast growing superpower and rejoices that India will go far
superior to the USA. As if, the Indian Muslims are going to gain much from India’s
super-power status. Like an average Hindu Indian, here he turns to a nationalist
chauvinist. Such speeches are getting huge audience all over the subcontinent. This
way he is doing a great job as India’s cold war warrior against Bangladesh and
Pakistan. In fact, India’s such relentless cold war has made millions of such
converts not only in India, but also in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Blessings of a Muslim
State
But the
truth is different. The creation of Pakistan in 1947 brought enormous blessing –both
material and spiritual, not only to Pakistan, but also to the people of
Bangladesh. India’s Muslim Population is larger than that of Bangladesh. But
the number of Muslim doctors, engineers, scientists, academics, lawyers, army
and police men, religious scholars, industrialists and big businessman living in
only one city of Bangladesh like Dhaka is much larger than the total number of
such value-added people in India’s whole Muslim population. Indian Muslims are
almost invisible amidst the overwhelming Hindus in the overseas, where as the
overseas Bangladeshi are almost ten million. The success of Pakistani Muslims
is much higher, because the creation of this largest Muslim country with a
pan-Islamic vision worked with much better image among the world’s Muslim
population. The middle-eastern rulers, developers and business establishments
helped Pakistan in many ways. After 1971’s debacle, they not only opened gates
for millions of Pakistani workers to their countries and built hospitals and
mosques in Pakistani cities, but also financed Pakistan’s costly nuclear
projects. Whereas Bangladesh had to carry the status tag of India-midwifed vassal
state for many years.
These are
only few material gifts of an independent Muslim majority state. More blessings
come in other ways. The Muslims build states not for mere raising homes and
businesses, nor for growing cattle and crops. They can do such things even in
non-Muslim countries. In life time, Muslims must play the most important role
to fulfil the Divine obligation as Allah’s viceroy on earth. That is to bring
ultimate supremacy of His law in His land, and contribute his own share to raise
an Islamic civilisation. If the land is grabbed by the enemies, a Muslim must
do something to end such occupation. The early Muslims made most of their
sacrifices not in raising homes or businesses, rather to establish and defend
such Islamic state. Indeed, this is the greatest teaching of the prophet (peace
be upon him). The Muslims of other times and other lands have a duty to follow
such an indispensable prophetic tradition. Living in a non-Muslim state, a
Muslim does not enjoy any space to practise such tradition. This is why
migration to a non-Muslim state never got appreciation from a true believer. It
has been only justified for security reasons; like the migration of early
Muslims to Ethiopia. Hence, all Muslims are faith-bound to establish Muslim
majority states; then move on to convert those into Islamic state. Indeed, in
1947, the creation of Pakistan was deemed as an obligation to address such a
basic Muslim political as well as a spiritual need.
The Muslim
majority Bangladesh and Pakistan are not still Islamic; but the opportunities for
such change are still profound. The Muslims in these two countries can still
dream about that. But such dream is unthinkable in Hindu majority India -even in
coming thousand years. At best, the Indian Muslims can practise Islam as devout
follower of Tabligh jamaat. But Tabligh jamaat does not replicate Prophet’s complete
Islam. They cannot practise Islam as a full Muslim with all the dimensions of
prophetic teachings. For that, a Muslim needs to enter into full sharia rule,
into Islamic culture, into full Islamic education, into Islamic administration,
into jihad, into Muslim brotherhood, so on and so forth. Hence, for such a full
Islamic practice, Muslims need an Islamic state. The prophet of Islam and his great
companions needed that. Hence today, how a Muslim can be full Muslim without
that?
The
Indian Hindus may enough reasons to tell a lot of lies against 1947’s division of
India. They blame it a British ploy in conjugation with Muslim communalists!
But how a Muslim can repeat the same lie? Muslims can commit to such lie only
with intense ignorance. This owes to their ignorance of Islamic vision of a
true believer. The enemies have a motive. They want to take the Muslims out of
the Divine mission; hence they relentlessly tell lies against Islam and the
Muslim history. Bangladesh is the home of more than 150 Million Muslims. So the
enemies cannot be oblivious of such huge Muslim populations. Indeed they have an
agenda. So the country has turned not only to homes of thousands of anti-Islamic
NGOs, but also breeding ground for thousands of anti-Islamic bloggers and cultural
warriors. They have gained so much strength under the current government that they
are now demanding the prohibition of all Islamic parties and their activities. For
the Islamists, the life was not so difficult even in British rule. It was
unthinkable even 60 years ago.
The Indian Objectives
India’s
political investment in Bangladesh has always been massive. In 2008 election,
it went to a diabolic proportion. London’s weekly “the Economist” gave a
testimony to that. So far, India’s key strategy has been to replicate its
successfully executed Sikkim strategy: that entails buying the political
leaders as well as the players in the key positions in the army, media, police and
civil administration. In 2006, after the end of Khalida Zia’s BNP rule, India
worked with other anti-Islamic foreign stakeholders to install a pro-Indian
proxy-military government to manipulate the forthcoming election results in
2008. Their plan worked very well and
their stooges won a landslide victory. After the election victory and quick installation
of a coalition government, the AL and its 14 party-alliance were entrusted with
the second phase of the work. This time, India and her cronies in Bangladesh did
not want to miss this hard-earned opportunity in any way. After analysing the
past 4 years’ BAL administration, it is now clear that the government has worked
with two-pronged main objectives. These are: a). Rapid de-Islamisation of the
people –especially Muslim youths and the school-going children, and b). Breaking
down the backbones of the Islamic organisations and their Islamist leaders.
The
Strategies
To fulfil
the stipulated objectives, BAL and its ally are working on some planned
strategies. These can be easily understood from the last four years’
activities. These are as follows:
Strategy
1: Re-framing a secular education policy at all level and re-writing all
text books with a special emphasis on curtailing the amount of Islamic
knowledge and infusing sentiments against country’s Islamic values and
personalities. Raising acceptability and compatibility with India’s Hindu
worldviews has been other strategic goal. The Hindu political, intellectual and
literary figures like Gandhi, Nehru, Tagore and others were placed in limelight
as the figure of highness to be followed by the students. Whereas Islam’s great
prophet like Hazrat Muhammad (peace be upon him) and other prophets, the great
companions of the prophet, the great Muslim rulers, the thinkers and the reformers
who contributed decisively to Islamise Bengal’s landscape were given very
little or no importance in the education policy. For eyewash, they added some
Islamic flavour by incorporating some stories of folklore fakirs and sufi
saints in the textbooks.
Strategy
2: Reducing and restricting the learning of the Holy Qur’an, the prophetic
tradition and Islam’s history in both the state run secular schools and in the
religious madrasas. With such an objective against Islam, the government reduced
the emphasis of learning Arabic language in religious madrasas: made it optional
from its previous compulsory status. Moreover, the amount of dis-information on
fundamentals of Islam that are passed on to the students through the text books
is also huge. Recently it came to the press that it is written in year 9’s text
book that meats of animals sacrificed in the name of other deities are also
halal.
Strategy
3: Projecting Shaikh Mujib as the greatest personality in thousands of
years’ Bengal history. “Bangla academy” and other government bodies run by the
tax-payers money were entrusted to publish hundreds of books on Mujib and his
family –both for adults and for the youths. Millions of Taka was granted to
public libraries to purchase those books. TV, radio and other mass media were
used to publicise Mujib’s life and his speeches. Whereas, publishing books on Qur’anic
teachings, the prophet’s life, great Muslim personalities and Islamic history were
much restricted.
Strategy
4: Keeping constant vigilance on religious sermons in mosques,
prohibiting and restricting Quranic tafsirs classes in open-field mass gatherings
by the scholars, and prohibiting publication and circulation of books on jihad
and sharia. The police and the Rapid Action Battalions (RAB) were the key tools
for suppression of any Islamic propagation. They raided houses, offices and
bookshops to confiscate Islamic books –especially on jihad and Islamic movement.
The books written by Moulana Syed Maudoodi and Syed Qutb are the special
target. In Bangladesh, it is a common practice that the people form committees to
organise Quranic tafseer sessions in open fields. These happen in almost every
nook and corner of the country around the year. In such gatherings, the eminent
religious scholars are invited to deliver long speeches on Islamic teaching. Indeed,
the Qur’anic knowledge and prophetic tradition survived among people through
such public speeches for ages; and thus Islam reached to the doorsteps of the
common people in Bengal. But Hasina’s regime has turned its government
machinery against such popular tradition. She and her political ally rebuke it
as a tool of spreading fundamentalism. Moulana Dilawar Hussain Sayeedi is widely
known as the most famous religious speaker that Bangladesh has ever produced. His
speech inspired scores of non-Muslims to accept Islam. But such extraordinary skill
and Islamic knowledge of Moulana Sayeedi did not impress the government. He was
put him behind the bar for more than two years. The government alleged him as
murderer, arsonist, rapist and above all anti-liberationist in the war of
independence in 1971. Recently the subservient judiciary of the government has
passed a verdict to hang him. After such pronouncement, the country has entered
into a virtual civil war like state. Already more than 100 people are killed by
the police; several thousands are wounded and tens of thousands of people are imprisoned.
Strategy
5: Annihilation of Islamic parties by banning their organisation, killing
their leaders, imprisoning their workers, closing their offices and confiscating
financial resources. The BAL government has already banned Hezbut Tahrir as a
part of the strategy. In Bangladesh, people are dying every day by terrorist
attacks. BAL’s student cadres openly carry firearms; they kill people in front
of the police. But the police do not touch them; let alone arresting them and
putting them behind the bar. Although there is no proof that Hezbut Tahrir has
taken part in any terrorist activities, the Government has disbanded them. At
Shahbag roundabout of Dhaka, the BAL cadres are openly raising slogan to kill
every razakar without any trail, instigating people to destroy the Islamists’ banks
and other financial institutions. They have clogged the busy roads for more
than a month. In a civilized country, all these are punishable criminal crimes.
But in Bangladesh, they are getting government’s blessing. The government not
only asked the local schools to supply children to continuously feed Shahbag’s
gathering, but also deployed hundred police constables to protect these
hooligans day and night from public anger. The government and non-government TV
channels have been asked to show day-long live casts to spread their venomous
speech. One the other hand, if Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) or Shibir (JI’s student
force) or any other Islamic party bring out any peaceful procession, police would
apply every possible means to dismantle them. In several occasions, they even opened
fire arms to kill the protesters. The Home Minister has ordered the police to resist
JI and Shibir where ever found - even if found in peaceful rally or procession.
Dhaka’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner has been reported to ask his police to
shoot JI and Shibir worker instantly if found anywhere. In a civilised country,
a police constable is never given the authority to kill any man or woman on the
street. Even Bangladesh’s own law does not allow even a district judge to hang
a worst criminal; his judgement needs to be ratified by the high court. But the
current government has given such power to political foot soldiers on the
street. So the war like situation had returned to Bangladesh’s street. So JI is not allowed to hold any rally in any
part of the country. Already police has killed more than 100 people, and tens
of thousands of JI and Shibir workers are arrested. The government is not still
happy with such brutal suppression; they now want to ban JI.
Strategy
6: Using cultural activities like open air concerts, dance show, drama
show, film festivals, village theatres, TV shows to deflect people away from
Islamic belief and practices. To make this cultural war a big success, India’s
investment is huge. It has extensively deployed its cultural foot-soldiers in
every nook and corner of the country. India’s film stars, singers, dancers are
making continuous visits to Bangladeshi cities. Thousands of people attend
those shows. Bangladesh is a country of foreign-funded NGOs. Thousands of these
NGOs are working exclusively to train boys and girls in dancing and singing. Along
with hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindu girls, thousands of Muslim girls from
secular families have joined this huge army of cultural warriors against
Islamic faith and practices. All these are happening in the name of cultural
activities.
The
Imminent Danger
The enemy
of Islam understand that the full conversion of Bengali Muslims to
non-Islam is difficult. But they also understand that it is very easy make them
cultural converts. It is no less harmful either. Indeed, this way they are pulling
the Muslims away from Islam’s fundamental belief and practice, and making easy
inroads into Muslims’ inner circles of politics and other activities. Since
culture itself is the expression of Muslim faith; and many Bengali Muslims are indeed
mere cultural Muslim with little Islamic knowledge and aqeeda, such cultural
conversion will be highly detrimental to Islam in Bangladesh. Ultimately, that
will lead to massive de-Islamisation. And such de-Islamisation would adequately
serve the enemy’s political and strategic purpose.
In the
past, the Muslims have experienced the calamities caused by this de-Islamised
brand of the Muslims. They worked as the most obedient collaborators of the
enemies. They fought with the British colonial army to extend their rule in most
of the Muslim lands. Like any non-Muslim army, they did not hesitate to
slaughter the fellow Muslims. The same brand of people joined British army in
World War-I to snatch the Muslim Iraq and Palestine from Muslim Khelafa and
placed them in the alter of the British Empire. In 1971, the same de-Islamised brand
went to India to get training and arms to dismember Pakistan and slaughter both
Bengali and non-Bengali Muslims in Bangladesh. Now they want to hang the remaining
Islamists. India still wants the same lot of collaborators with same
anti-Islamic zeal. They are working very hard to get them in enough number. The
gathering in Shahbag, indeed gave a vivid display of these products. This is
the core point of India’s current cold war in Bangladesh. If India continues to
win the war with current pace, she will not need any conventional war to
colonise this Muslim land. The time will come when these Bangladesh converts, like
Bengali Hindu, will ask for the merger. India is cunningly waiting for such a moment.
17/03/13
http://www.
