India was partitioned in 1947. The partition of India is one of the greatest tragedies in human history. More than a million people were killed. 12 million people were uprooted from their homeland and crossed the boundaries between India and Pakistan.
But not all Muslims left their homeland India and not all Hindus left their homeland Pakistan.
A Pakistani soldier was inspecting whether the man had circumcised penis during Bangladesh war in 1971. If circumcised, you may survive, if not , you are dead.
Muslim fundamentalists killed Gopal Krishna Muhuri, Principal of Nazirhat College in Bangladesh.
‘The rise of religious fundamentalists and terrorists under state patronage in Pakistan has made their growth smooth as is the case of India, which has become a threat to the existence of the Hindus in Bangladesh and Pakistan.’
In 1951, Hindus constituted 22% of West Pakistan (Pakistan) and East Pakistan (Bangladesh). Today, the Hindus are only 1.7 percent in Pakistan, and 9.2 percent in Bangladesh.
Hindus are persecuted in Pakistan. They are forced to convert to Islam.
Hindus have been leaving Pakistan. Religion kills and divides people. It always does.
Religion divides.
England has never had a social revolution since 1640s. The question of rich versus poor has always been manipulated. In the late 1700s both London and Paris saw convulsive street demonstrations. In London the Gordon Riots were days of outrage, but the target was Catholic people from Ireland who were accused of undercutting wages by working cheaply.
In Paris the traget of the people’s anger was the regime itself, and to a lesser extent the power of the Catholic church.
When Marx wrote that religion was the ‘Opium of the People’ science did not know much about steroids. Nowadays the cynical person would suggest steroids or even hashish since Isreali scientist isolated the active ingredients of hashish while researching steroids for the Israeli army.
With the 1800s idea of ‘Class War’ ruling oligarchies became very concerned and the British, already experts in manipulating religion in their own country and experienced in playing people off in South Asia enthusiastically supported reactionary forces in Russia. These were called Bashi Bazook, and included defeated Turkish leader Enver.
In the 1920s COMINTERN tried to spread the Russian Revolution to China.
This was opposed in Central Asia by a muslim army leader, General Ma.
Protestant / Catholic sectarianism is still around in the UK today. Manchester United was the ‘protestant’ team, and Manchester City was ‘catholic’. Rangers-Celtic and Liverpool-Everton are sectarian pairs and social observers point out that domestic violence often spikes after these ‘derby’ matches. There is still discussion as to whether some of the sectarian songs should be banned.
In my opinion many leaders would prefer to see the poor people destroyed in sectarian conflict rather than face a united working class, hence the way that the capitalist press works on these divisions.
I am sure Bengali Marxists have followed these issues, although from reading your blog they are not always that keen to see free dicussion once they are in power ?
Dear Tony (assuming you are British)
Open up Your history book to read British Empire role in dividing India. Your hero Churchill a racist, hated Indian, wanted to divide India and Keep it managed. Don’t forget he created Bengal famine ..
British intelligence funded Pakistani newspaper DAWN & financed and helped Jinnah. Mountbatten did not give enough time for the people to cross over in planned way.
He just wanted to finish it as quickly as possible because MI5/MI6 realized Jinnah was dying. I can go on..
British have blood in their hands and It was genocide. You call it now -‘inciting racial and religious hatred‘ now. Hardly anyone mention this divisive role of the British.
“I was not elected by his majesty Govt. to give away empire….. Indians are not capable of ruling themselves…’ -Churchill
I agree wholeheartedly on this. The partition was the biggest human tragedy and people are still suffering from it, with mistrust and shabby treatment of minorities in Bangladesh and Pakistan. One man’s ego led to this and there is no solution in sight.
Hi Taslima, I find your blog really interesting as your posts come from very different perspective from the other blogs on FtB — and a depressingly underrepresented perspective in the atheist community (speaking as a South Asian female atheist myself).
I just have one request: I find the images really disturbing sometimes, which are the only things preventing me from reading your blog as frequently as I read a couple other FtBlogs. I was wondering if you could put in a warning in the post heading, like they do over at Huffington post (“Graphic images”)… either that, or place graphic images below the fold. I would really appreciate that.
Thanks. Done.
Congratulations Taslima,
on the release of your latest book of poetry. I plan to read the telugu translation of your famous book Lajja. Good Job, Keep going. May the almighty bless you in your brave efforts to highlight and bringdown male chauvanism world over in the name of religion..
Thank you, That’s very interesting blog. I need to share it……
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