Bank P. K.

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Jan 20th, 2015

Religion Tension in Bangladesh

Majority and minority make a huge effect in every situation. We, people have different
purposes and beliefs to follow, either one of them. Some want to obey laws, and live with their own
life. On the other hand, some want to liberate, or conquer the country because of unfairness,
religion, and inequality. In this case, Bangladesh has provided vital information about this. A
densely populated country with two religions that cause conflicts for decades.
Bangladesh is situated in Southern Asia. It was part of India, and formerly Pakistan. The
majority of the ethnic group in this country is Bengali that has 98%, and the rest is other including
tribal groups and non-Bengali Muslims. In Bangladesh, there are 166,280,712 people according to
CIA Factbook in July 2014. Every Bangladeshi uses Bengali, a native first language of the
country, and English came the second due to the colonisation of Britain, thus people are able to use
it as a communicated language. However, their dialect is quite similar to Indian people, which it
makes us confused with sometimes, unless you pay a high attention to what they say. In this
country, it has conflicted with the flood and cyclone due to the closest to the Indian ocean. Also
natural disasters can lead to wars as well. In 1970s, there was a conflict between Bangladesh and
Pakistan, because the latter did not help Bangladeshis from a giant cyclone. This is just a national
conflict, but the civil fight is caused by many sources. One of them is religion.
According to CIA Factbook in 2004, there are two main religions, in which people highly
believe in; 9.6% is Hindu, 89.5% is Muslim, and the remaining is other religions. Between the two,
they have unique perspective and idea. Islam believes that killing people will let the killer become a
god. On the other hand, Hinduism makes people blessing when they worship to the gods.
Nonetheless, both religions have been established for a very long time ago. Religions can influence
people in both good and bad ways. A part of a group of people would look at Islam in a good
religion, but some would opposite to the perspective. Moreover, it goes with the same to Hinduism.
We try to defend our subject from fault, and persuade others to believe it is quite right to be so.
In Bangladesh, the majority is Muslim, and the minority is Hindu. Hindus are disadvantaged
in every way such as perspective, behaviour, and motivation for various reasons. First, most of the
party are Muslims, which they can outnumber weak Hindu parties in the government. Additionally
according to Geneva Academy, prior to 1990, this country was regulated by Muslim military, and
it made the minority powerless. In post-1990, democratic system was established, and everyone
believed it could bring fairness and equality. Yet, its expectation was not justified. There are
violences occurring around the country that either can or cannot be solved. Secondly, there is a
belief in Islam textbooks. Hindus are immigrants from other regions, and they are outcast to our
land. The Hindus have no idea to govern the country effectively. In addition, they only worship
gods for blessing only, but Islam kills people for becoming the god. Comparing to two points, if I
am an ordinary person, I would choose Islam, because of the majority who would look at me like
one of them. However, what if I pick the other side, they would definitely look at as the outcast. Do
I fear of being it? I do fear. It is human nature that we do not want to be a weird human being in the
huge society. We wish to be included, not excluded. Thus, a small proportion of minority starts to
against the authority of the majority. There are various news about the tension in Bangladesh
between religion, people, and authority.
In reference to NBC news, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, there was a crash between Islamists and
police. The Islamists demanded for religious laws, however the government rejected the demand.
Thus, this made them angry, and they began to fight police forces. There was a bloodshed; 20
Muslims were killed, and hundreds were injured from the police forces. During that time, the
government was Hindu, and this government accused them as talibanisation. The authority feared
that Islamists would convert people into terrorists. Also, Islam would dominate all religion in
Bangladesh, and thus the slight proportions would need to flee away from the country. In the end of
this incident, it was resolved by negotiation between the Islamists leader and the government in a

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good deal of both factions. The reason that the Islamists did this, to obtain freedoms to their own
kind. I presume there was an unfair treatment to them in the past. Thus, they need to start an
uprising.
There is another news that has occurred in 1980s. There was an election for the prime
minister seat in the Bangladeshi government. Every Bangladesh citizen was called upon to have
have the right of voting. Actually, it was really happened. People went to vote. However, when the
result was in the process of being told, it was shocked to everyone; the Islamic Nationalist Party got
the seat, and so did the Muslim prime minister (whom I cannot tell the name). This made the people
shocked, but there was a shocker point. One of the staffs in charging the election, had got ridden of
non-muslims voting paper, and counted the muslim papers instead. After the news was exposed,
every non-muslim people were enraged, and started a violent riot against the newly-assign
government. In the aftermath, many non-muslims died from this massive bloodshed chaos. Also, the
person who caused this mess, had been detained for life, and later be executed for treason. A year
afterward, there was a fresh fair election, and the final announcement was the Hindu prime minister
and the party as well. This incident is an example of discrimination in which the minority got an
undeserved treatment. I think if the committer did not do so, the Hindu government would take over
the country, treat Islamic people unfairly, and forcefully convert people to be Hindu, not Muslim.
Or there would be more chaotic collisions than that, the eradication of Hinduism, and other
religions in Bangladesh.
After many bloodshed events happened in the past between diverse religions, there would
have some organisation coming up an absolute deal for them. I think there is a way to sort things
out once for all. First, we have to have a peaceful negotiation from both majority and minority
religions. In this case, we need to understand wills from them, and it possibly could be resolved by
balancing between each of them. For example, if Hindu officials want to be in the government, but
some of Muslim officers do deny this demand, then we shall have a fair vote among Bangladeshis
who believe in any religion, and no bad treatment to the minority religions. An another solution, the
Hindu officials must be in the government office with the Muslims, because it could bring peace
among the citizens of Bangladesh, if they corporately work as a team for driving the country to the
modern nation.
In conclusion, Bangladesh was a former area of Pakistan, and India. It has two principal
religions, and others that have been settled for long decades. Majority and minority create chaos in
the country, and countless dead bodies. Despite of unfairness, inequality, and religious tension
among them, this country still holds the bond strongly, even it needs times to set things in a good
standing.