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Relentless Propaganda: Ethnic Cleansing in
By Zakaria S Khondker
Response to:http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/nov/18/g18112002.htm#A2
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mukto-mona/message/8658
As long as we fail to recognize our lies, we will have to invent more lies to defend. The more you linger to recognize your faults, the more people will believe that those are deliberate. Caught red-handed with wrong numbers and malignant interpretation, the author is now trying to shift attention; as usual.
“Mr. Zakaria failed to refute any claim data / statistics (all from official census site) except calling "Mayer daak" communal site. Why does he consider Mayer daak communal ? Just because they are supporting Minority rights in BD? He compared "official census data" provided in the document vs. Milli gazette assumption data, some comparison indeed!”- Rahul Gupta.
Here are my rebuttals: 1. The source of my data is BBS (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics) http://www.bbsgov.org/. Dear readers, please check with BBS website and the tables 7.1 and 7.2 to verify my source of information. I would like to challenge Mr. Gupta to prove that my data is wrong. He might still deny them as Milli gazette. I will not be surprised if he considers only Indian census data as “official census data” and deniescensus data as “Milli gazette assumption data”; as he always keeps denying facts. I would like to request the readers to draw their own conclusions. Bangladesh
2. I clearly pointed out in my writing http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/nov/18/g18112002.htm#A2 that Mr. Gupta stated wrong statistics saying "Hindus comprised nearly 30% of the total population inin 1947". As from Table 7.1 below the Hindus were 28% in 1941 and 22% in 1951; from the declining trend of Hindu proportion in Bangladesh one can easily deduce that 30% Hindus in 1947 can't simply be true, the number must be less than 28%. Despite copying of dozens of references Mr. Gupta did not support his data of 30% Hindus in 1947 with any reference. Actually, there was no census in 1947, this data is forged. He should be able to disclose the source of this 30%, unless it was taken from a Hindu fundamentalist site. Bangladesh
3. The author is deliberately stating an already abolished law “Vested Property Act” [out of communalism?].
4. Mayer Dak is communal because they are lying with numbers. This is same as spreading communal hatred. Their statement at http://www.mayerdak.com/edit0205.htm “Hindus and other minority communities in the sovereign geographical entity now calledcomprised nearly 35% to 40% of the total population in 1947. After the great exodus of minorities following the partition of Bangladesh in 1947, the Hindu and other minority population in the said country was drastically reduced to about 24% by 1951.” is false. From Table 7.2 of BBS data we see that total minority proportion was 29.7% in 1941 and 23.1% in 1951. From the declining trend of minority proportion in India one can easily infer that the proportion was somewhere between 23.1% to 29.7. Presumably they are using forged data to spreads hatred. Readers may check out their website for more propaganda. Bangladesh
5. I gave the link to my source for Indian data, and Table 4 was Mr. Gupta’s data. I would be glad to be proved wrong, and correct myself. 6. Citing Janakantha or Awami League’s partisan views does not mean that those are right. Awami League’s statements are presumably politically biased. Inquilab, the fundamentalist newspaper, and Janakantha are the two sides of the same coin. They are both champion in “yellow journalism”. One lies to counter the other; we should be aware of both reporting far-fetched reports. The issue of discrimination and persecution are well known facts. In fact minorities are persecuted all over the world, the difference is of degree. We have been working against the rising communality inSouth Asia . What we need to be careful of was about the use of these issues by the religious fundamentalists in either side. Having total attention on Muslim fundamentalist might cause the penetration of Hindu fundamentalist among us. We should beware of both!
Mr. Gupta is waffling around to avoid answers to my specific questions. Instead of trying to shift the readers’ attention he should answer my question. I would like to reiterate them one more time: 1. Does the percentage decline, while absolute total is increasing, in the data stands as a proof of Ethnic Cleansing? If not why did Mr. Gupta frequently comes up with the same set of arguments with the same data set.2. Does Mr. Gupta see any Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus inWest Bengal ? Why did Hindu proportion declined at the same rate as in? Bangladesh
3. Does Mr. Gupta see any Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus in? Why did Hindu proportion declined then? India
4. Why don’t we see him vocal against riots and inter-caste violence in his own country as frequently as we see in the case of? Bangladesh
Failure to answer these questions will amplify my suspicion that he is working under a hidden agenda. While we must halt the Muslim fundamentalism, we also have to freeze the Hindu fundamentalism. While we criticize one person for profanity and vulgarity for reviling freedom fighters and secular writers, we should also look at the other side of the coin to disclose propaganda of BJP-VHP gong. Both groups can hide among us; we need to unmask their faces. While one is the champion of profanity and vulgarity the other is champion of lies and Goebbles-style propaganda. They have one common agenda to multiply hatred and distrust among communities. Unless we fail to recognize this fact, the path to secularism and elimination of communalism will be far-off. Data Source: Table 7.1: Numerical Distribution and Percentage Variation ofPopulation by Major Religious Communities Bangladesh
(1901-1991).
-------|------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|---------------| | | Muslim | Hindu | Buddhist | Christian | Others || |------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------||Census|Popul-| |Percent| |Percent| |Percent| |Percent| |Percent||Year |ation |Number|Varia- |Number|Varia- |Number|Varia- |Number|Varia- |Number|Varia- || |(000) |(000) |tion |(000) | tion |(000) | tion | (000)| tion |(000) |tion ||------|------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------|------|-------|| 1901 | 28927| 19113| NA | 9545 | NA | .. | NA | .. | NA | 269 | NA || 1911 | 31555| 21202| 10.9 | 9952 | 4.3| .. | NA | .. | NA | 401 | 49.1|| 1921 | 33254| 22646| 6.8 |10166 | 2.2| .. | NA | .. | NA | 442 | 10.2|| 1931 | 35604| 24731| 9.2 |10453 | 2.8| .. | NA | 61 | NA | 359 |(-)18.8|| 1941 | 41999| 29509| 19.3 |11747 | 12.4| .. | NA | 53 |(-)13.1| 690 | 92.2|| 1951 | 41933| 32227| 9.2 | 9239 |(-)21.3| 319 | NA | 107 | 101.9| 41 |(-)94.1|| 1961 | 50840| 40890| 26.9 | 9380 | 1.5| 374 | 17.2 | 149 | 39.3| 47 | 14.6|| 1974 | 71478| 61039| 49.3 | 9673 | 3.1| 439 | 17.4 | 216 | 45.0| 111 | 136.2|| 1981 | 87120| 75487| 23.7 |10570 | 9.3| 538 | 22.6 | 275 | 27.3| 250 | 125.2|| 1991 |106315| 93881| 24.4 |11179 | 5.8| 623 | 15.8 | 346 | 25.8| 286 | 14.4|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Table 7.2: Percentage Distribution of Population by Religious
Communities (1901-1991).-----------|------|-------|-----|--------|---------|-------|CensusYear|Total |Muslim |Hindu|Buddhist|Christian|Others||----------|------|-------|-----|--------|---------|------|| 1901 |100.0 | 66.1 |33.0 | .. | .. | 0.9 || 1911 |100.0 | 67.2 |31.5 | .. | .. | 1.3 || 1921 |100.0 | 68.1 |30.6 | .. | .. | 1.3 || 1931 |100.0 | 69.5 |29.4 | .. | 0.2 | 1.0 || 1941 |100.0 | 70.3 |28.0 | .. | 0.1 | 1.6 || 1951 |100.0 | 76.9 |22.0 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 || 1961 |100.0 | 80.4 |18.5 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.1 || 1974 |100.0 | 85.4 |13.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.2 || 1981 |100.0 | 86.7 |12.1 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 || 1991 |100.0 | 88.3 |10.5 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 0.3 |-----------------------------------------------------------
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