Living on the Margins. Minorities in South Asia - EURAC

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Deprived of any other knowledge of the Sikhs, as indeed of Hindus, Christians or Jews, the student is left with a one-dimensional picture of the ‘other’, the inherently evil Hindu, the conspiratorial Christian, the usurious Jew and the butchering Sikh. The Muslim represents the absence of all that is attributed to these various, shifting and multiple ‘others’. The appeal of Shylock as in ‘when you prick us, do we not bleed’, is not allowed to these ‘others’. They do not suffer, bleed or sacrifice, only we do. They do not have any noble moral intentions, generosity, kindness, justice, fairness or forgiveness – only we do. We do not have any cruel, murderous, imperial or conquering impulse – only they do. In this manipulation of knowledge, textbook tellers of tales, construct our fractured, broken and denuded identities rooted in ‘otherness’, ‘difference’ and alienation. Our common or shared past experience with others is written out of the tale of the two nations. The Back-Stabber: The Bengali Other The national narrative is interrupted at many points by ‘others’ residing within its territory and pushing at its seemingly inviolate boundaries. The stranger in the house comprises the religious, parochial, provincial and regional minorities who have never been fully included into the shifting self. At times, these dangerously close ‘others’ have been rudely catapulted out of the definition of the national Muslim self, for example, when the Qadianis were declared non-Muslims in 1974. At other times, these parts of the self have violently ruptured through the layers of repression built around them and broken away, as the East Pakistanis did in 1971. A nation defined as Muslim has never been at ease with the non-Muslims residing within its territorial boundaries, as their loyalties are forever suspect. While the national self may be engaged in a perpetual war of self-definition in relation to the many inimical and hostile external ‘others’, it is also at war with itself. Its boundaries, both ideological and physical, keep shifting in renewed efforts to define and re-define itself. Pakistan perhaps has the unique distinction of being the only country from which the majority seceded in 1971 and formed a separate homeland. When the quarrel is with a Hindu, Christian or Jewish ‘other’, religious justifications are easily invoked in support of the besieged self. When the quarrel is with fellow Muslims, not only does the story of the two nations become transparently fictional, the religious basis of holy war cannot be invoked. Bangladesh becomes a gaping hole in national memory. The only way to speak about it is through silence. This ‘other’ is a part of the self, is not really an other. It is not really the self. The only way to define it is to not define it. A self so constrained and confined within a religious self-definition, has no language with which to speak of other definitions based on language or ethnicity. They can only be erased from consciousness. This is precisely what the textbooks do – they erase Bangladesh by not telling the tale. There are many ways of not telling. One of these is to tell a different story, to speak half the truth. The story of Bangladesh is silenced between half truths, and full lies. If ever 83
speech is used to create silences, it happens in the case of Bangladesh. One liners and short phrases on Bangladesh at the end of chapters cover up oceans of unspoken horrors. The compulsion to not remember requires the expenditure of energy on the different story. Here is how the untold story of Bangladesh appears in the Civics textbook for Class IX and X produced in 2001: Certain political elements began to propagate that nation depends on language and ethnicity instead of religion. This led to an increase in provincial prejudices. Shaikh Mujib-ur-Rehman took full advantage and started telling the people that the people of West Pakistan were exploiting them. He had the support of India and other enemies of Pakistan to break Pakistan up into pieces. He started to sow hatred into the hearts of the Bengalis. The Bengalis were influenced by this propaganda and as a result the Awami League won the election overwhelmingly. Mujib started to propagate a confederation and said that East Pakistanis can only develop under his 6 point formula. This was an evil design dressed in the garb of provincial autonomy. The Awami Leaguers and the socalled Mukti Bahini began the mass murder of non-Bengalis. They destroyed public property. In this storm of murder and looting, nobody’s life and property was safe. At every step the law of the land was violated. Bangladeshi flags were flown all over the land. Finally in order to overcome this revolt, the Pakistan army was given authority. India started to pass statements to incite the Bengalis against the Pakistan army. India convinced them that the Pakistani army is inflicting cruelty upon them. Finally Mujib-ur- Rehman was arrested and India, which was fully part of the conspiracy by Mujib, made a great noise over this arrest. India used the insurgents and miscreants and started a poisonous campaign against Pakistan all over the world. When India saw that it is achieving its nefarious designs, it attacked Pakistan. The Pakistan army fought with full courage for the sake of the pure land, they sacrificed their lives. If they had been allowed to go on fighting, the enemy would never have succeeded, but because of incompetent leadership in Pakistan, they had to surrender. So, finally East Pakistan became separate from Pakistan due to treason of Awami League, and Indian aggression. The whole Pakistani nation was tormented and writhing in the pain of this deep wound. 21 The entire episode of the formation of Bangladesh is relegated to the dark and insidious realms of conspiracy. The Bengalis ‘stabbed us in the back’ by joining hands with India. They committed the murder of non-Bengalis, they looted and they destroyed property. The Bengalis started the violence and were responsible, along with conniving and scheming India, for the deeply wounding break of Pakistan in 1971. There is a great deal of silencing in this story. Why were the Bengalis so easily misled and convinced by India’s propaganda? Why did they start killing non-Bengalis? Why did they believe that the Pakistan army was committing atrocities upon them? None of these questions are answered. The brevity and compression used here to describe events that have a long history and background in Pakistani politics and economics, forestalls any critical thinking about what parted us. What is absent here is also the role of the Pakistani military, which receives plaudits for its exploits but no disapprobation or condemnation of its well-known acts. In telling half the story, the textbook historians fail to mention that the Awami League of East Pakistan had won the 1970 election overwhelmingly but the elite establishment of West Pakistan refused to transfer power to a duly elected party. This failure was at the center of the crisis of 1971. The myth of the moral and upright self would fall apart if the real story were to be told instead of half truths and full lies. 21 Civics for Class IX and X, Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore, March 2001, pp. 112-114. 84
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Prepared in the frame of EURASIAN
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I - Introduction Rita Manchanda II
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‘powerlessness’. The history of
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theory of the ‘clash of civilizat
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unitary ideology, centralized struc
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Pakistan: Constitution based discri
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their construction process, since t
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Chowdhury explores the dilemma of a
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such a collusion and has systematic
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viii The rights of ‘people’ and
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these make for an egalitarian socie
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Muslims. There are three kinds of w
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Nonetheless, this alignment with se
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the oppressed even while we recogni
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The result was the impoverishment o
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negligence or failure has its roots
Page 33 and 34: Muslims, in other words have joined
Page 35 and 36: xviii Indicators of development her
Page 37 and 38: social identity of the ruling class
Page 39 and 40: Since Bengalis in general were in c
Page 41 and 42: As long as separate electorate exis
Page 43 and 44: their significance as a group and h
Page 45 and 46: it would seem that Bangladeshi Hind
Page 47 and 48: However, the image of Hindus as vot
Page 49 and 50: Trends Production of communalism or
Page 51 and 52: Religious Minorities in Pakistan: M
Page 53 and 54: In the 1981 census, out of a total
Page 55 and 56: the 1998 Census, caste Hindus const
Page 57 and 58: elationship with Sikhs in Afghanist
Page 59 and 60: Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Excerpts of In
Page 61 and 62: many regimes would use the Islamic
Page 63 and 64: The 1956 Constitution largely refle
Page 65 and 66: Christian & Hindu Votes Impact 50 N
Page 67 and 68: across the country. Now, Pakistan
Page 69 and 70: that takes Pakistan’s plural trad
Page 71 and 72: minorities and women. This was evin
Page 73 and 74: Wolpert, S., Zulfi Bhutto of Pakist
Page 75 and 76: ensures that it is fully absorbed a
Page 77 and 78: aggressiveness and Hindus are aggre
Page 79 and 80: community, is subject to the most i
Page 81 and 82: frenzy”. The major absence in thi
Page 83: After the death of emperor Aurangze
Page 87 and 88: Muslims in Sri Lanka: Political Cho
Page 89 and 90: They rarely highlighted their ‘Mu
Page 91 and 92: generation of the Muslim intelligen
Page 93 and 94: Athaullah, Rishard Bathiuddeen, and
Page 95 and 96: forces hoped that the Rajapaksa reg
Page 97 and 98: won 15 seats while the UPFA won 18.
Page 99 and 100: xvii After the general elections of
Page 101 and 102: an equal opportunity law in 1996-19
Page 103 and 104: administration headed by the Eelam
Page 105 and 106: nationalism was that the nationhood
Page 107 and 108: Rights Claims in Muslim Politics Mu
Page 109 and 110: councils for the two provinces. Bot
Page 111 and 112: A subsequent agreement signed betwe
Page 113 and 114: areas where the local majority popu
Page 115 and 116: a scheme for an interim administrat
Page 117 and 118: months later. The de-merger occurre
Page 119 and 120: Meanwhile, the strategies of minori
Page 121 and 122: xvii Cited in Loganathan, 1996, p.
Page 123 and 124: I will just briefly summarize it he
Page 125 and 126: Table 1: Parliament Seats under FPT
Page 127 and 128: under the district governments, the
Page 129 and 130: However, there are other groups whi
Page 131 and 132: The threshold for PR election shoul
Page 133 and 134: controlled by local elite (Harper a
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Likewise, the parliament could deci
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Binswanger, Hans P., and Miranda El
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Stash, Sharon, and Emily Hannum. 20
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The in-migration of labor force fro
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India was divided into two sovereig
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culturally. In the last five thousa
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Meanwhile, the non-Muslim minoritie
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The Current Nationalist Movement in
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leave Karachi. Outward migration re
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are for and against lobbies in Isla
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It is questionable whether the nati
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17 Aitizaz Ahsan, The Indus Saga, A
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wars between the tribes and the Bri
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and ethnocide of indigenous populat
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governments did not allow their NG0
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But even these additional criteria
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the ‘outsiders’ who have strang
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date. In India, despite the protect
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Tribal Land Alienation in Maharasht
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Bhamragad 18 14.76 35.26 13.94 13.1
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name of projects using the colonial
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hands of landlords. (25) The fourth
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means that those who have been depr
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Examination of the case records sho
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While the table appears to be recen
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5. Tribal Research and Training Ins
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Legality and Pragmatism Usha Ramana
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to resolve this problem that, other
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means of livelihood”. 15 The “o
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leasehold rights but only a licence
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public lands was being addressed in
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was in the eighties and the early n
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obligations have devolved upon them
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There is a direct relationship betw
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Living on the Margins. Minorities in South Asia - EURAC

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