Stunned eerie Silence
No books, films or literature had mentioned about such a huge number of influx of refugees within ashort time.Ther might be some without analysing the source of the misery,as in the case of the famous film maker Ritwik Ghatak. There were some societies such as, Chattagram Sammilani, Sylet Sammilani, Mymensing Sammilani but none had raised a voice of these refugges. Tathagata Roy summed up nicely as :
"In such circumstances one would expect the exodus of Hindus from East bengal to be hot issue in the State of West Bengal . One would expect hundreds of books to be written on the subject , articles appearing in the news papers every now and then , research being conducted on the political , sociological, and economic reasons for the exodus , as well as the fall out in these fields, debaes on the questions..."
No news from Bangladesh is a good news :
Average Bengali has no idea about the situation of Bangladesh. After Independence on 1971, Bangladesh changed its secular constitution adopted in 1972 to include in 1977 (5th amendment) " absolute trust and faith in Allah as guiding principle of all state acivities " in fundamental principles clause 8(1) and removed the whole cause 12 on secularism. It didn't touch the mind of West Bengal people. Then in 1988, Bangladesh constitution was amended ( 8th amendment)to declare Islam as State religion. In 1990, after an attack on Babri Masjid (it was not abolished then) a country wide rioting took plce in Bangladesh.Bengali Muslims not only damaged hundreds of temples through out the country, looted Hindu shops, and houses, also famous temples like Dhakeswari Temple in Dhaka , Kaibalyadaham of Chittagong were daamaged and ransacked. The pogrom of larger scale took place in 1992 after demolition of Babri masjid 28,000 houses were destroyed, 3600 religious places and 2500 commercial establishments were demolished, many people were killed. The news papers observed a self-censor about the Islamic violence. Even the killing of Humayun Azad or assault on Shahriar Kabir did not find any place in West bengal media. A study of BRAC researcher summed up the situation as ;
Violence against minority was in the process being institutionalized in Bangladesh.
After the election of BNP-Jamat coalition under Begum Zia in Oct 2001, a massive onslaught came down on the Hindu community. Several lakhs of people fled to india. Hundreds of women were raped days after days. The atrocities on the Hindus contrinued for next three years. Ekattarer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (committee for resisting killers and collaborators of 1971) have published a three volumes report on it by eminent Human rights activists Shahriar Kabir .A case has been filed in the Supreme Court Of Bangladesh in 2006. But there was no news in West Bengal. Even aprocession 10,000 strong people with a deputation in Bangaladesh High commissioner found no place in bengali media.
