A STRANGE CLIMATIC PREDICAMENT, EH ?

A STRANGE CLIMATIC PREDICAMENT, EH ?

Why do Hindus go down in number in Muslim majority states like Pakistan and Bangladesh while the reverse happens for Muslims in Hindu majority India where they keep on increasing at a faster pace than Hindus? Does the fertility rate of Hindus decrease somehow in Pakistan and Bangladesh because of climatic conditions and Indian climatic conditions are specifically suited for better propagation of Muslims nonetheless? What is the reason for Hindu decrease in numbers really in parts of erstwhile India where the civilisations of the Indus (Sindhu) and the Ganga once had allowed ample proliferation of both Hindu culture and their numbers till the Islamic invasions took place?

Pakistan is a state that would never have been had Bangladesh, then East Pakistan, not come into existence at the edge of the sword. Remember the Great Calcutta Killing of 16 August, 1946 when mutilated bodies of Hindus on the streets of Calcutta had horrified Sister Teresa to transform her to Mother Teresa? And, thereafter, the carnage that the Bengali Muslims then did to Bengali Hindus in Noakhali for two months? Yes, Bangladeshis today claim their 'Bhasha Andolan' (Language Movement) for the creation of their country but in truth it was originally carved out of undivided Bengal at the edge of the sword. This must never be forgotten. Partition and Pakistan would never have been had it not been for the Bengali Muslims who amputated the motherland by the dagger and the sword.

And despite all the help, civil and military, that India gave to liberate Bangladesh from the tormenting grip of Pakistan, what did Bangladesh give back to India in return? Why, the same torment to the Bangladeshi Hindus whose diminishing numbers there are evidence enough for all to infer all that is there to infer after all.

Written by Sugata Bose

Photo : Mujibur Rahman with mentor Hussain Shaheed Suhrawardy and Chinese Premier Zhou En Lai in Dhaka, 1957.