When Bangladesh Was So Different
By Sumit Paul, New Age Islam
23 December 2025
What's going on in Bangladesh at the moment saddens me no end. Anti-India and also anti-Hindu sentiments have swept the country. But things were different until 6/7 years ago. I've visited Bangladesh a number of times on my teaching assignments at the premier universities in Bangladesh, viz, Dhaka University, Rajshahi University, University of Chittagong, Khulna University, among others. Since I converse in impeccable Bengali because of my Bengali father, I've always been received by the Hindus and Muslims in Bangladesh wholeheartedly.
I taught Kazi Nazrul Islam, Syed Shamsul Huq, Al Mahmud and Shamsur Rahman's Bengali poetry at almost all the varsities in Bangladesh and was always applauded. I'd visit Bangladesh every year. But when a couple of years ago, a leading University in Bangladesh sent a letter and politely stated that henceforth they were unable to invite me to teach at their university, I got a whiff that a change was on the cards. This made me terribly sad. Even in a country like Pakistan, no one ever objected to my presence but here in Bangladesh, I was a Kafir (non-Muslim) despite speaking in their mother tongue.
My senior Bengali Muslim friends in Bangladesh are still very thankful to India because it was India, Mrs Indira Gandhi, the Indian Chief of Army Staff General Sam Manekshaw and the Eastern Army Commander General Jagjit Singh Aurora who contributed to creating Bangladesh which was known as East Pakistan at that time. Those senior Bengali Muslims were completely against the Pak Army and its excesses. They sang paens to Mrs Gandhi and the Indian Army. Alas, gone are those days.
Once I visited Dhaka during Durga Puja. It was in 2010. Whole Dhaka and other parts of Bangladesh were so euphoric and ecstatic that it reminded me of Calcutta during Durga Puja. Even Muslim youth were participating in Puja and serving bhog (almost like langar in Sikhism)! That was a very heart-warming sight. There was no religious discrimination, at least, ostensibly and the bonhomie between the Hindus and Muslims was indeed admirable. I went to a Puja mandap (pandal) along with a Muslim friend of mine who introduced me as a guest from India. I had tasty khichri, laabda (a mixed veg preparation), kheer, slices of sauteed brinjal and potato and sweet tomato chutney. It was sumptuous and wholesome. My Muslim friend also relished the bhog without any prejudice.
But now hardly any Muslim visits a Durga Puja in Bangladesh. Moreover, all Puja mandaps have been instructed to celebrate the festival without much fanfare and noise as namaaz is disturbed by the 'noise' coming from Puja pandals. This is so sad. Hindus in Bangladesh live in the penumbra of constant fear. Now all Muslims in Bangladesh say Allah Hafiz instead of Khuda Hafiz. The latter sounds so pleasant and euphonic and the former grates on the ears. This is the influence of Pakistan from where Allah Hafiz originated during General Zia ul-Haq's oppressively religious regime. Moreover, Allah Hafiz is used only by the Sunnis. No Shia Muslim will say Allah Hafiz. They still say Khuda Hafiz because Khuda (Khoda in Bengali) is a Persian word and Allah is an Arabic word. Sunnis always look towards Arab. By the way, Sunni Muslims make up the vast majority of the Muslim population in Bangladesh, accounting for approximately 91% of the total population, or around 153 million people. What an irony! It was Pakistan that massacred innumerable Bengali Muslims in East Pakistan. But the Bangladeshi Muslims have forgotten that and consider India to be its biggest enemy, not Pakistan. This is a perfect example of how a religion binds people of the same religion together and this is very obvious in Islam. Its so-called universal brotherhood is limited only to the Muslims. B R Ambedkar observed this long ago.
To the younger generation of Bangladeshi Muslims, India is an enemy country. How things change so soon and also so drastically! I miss my Hindu and Muslim friends in Bangladesh. They too miss me. But I don't visit that country any longer despite facing no problem in procuring a visa. I feel like an outsider in Bangladesh, though I still don't feel like that in Pakistan. I hold religion responsible for this permanent rift and rancour. Can't we all live like humans sans any labels? Think over it.
A regular columnist for New Age Islam, Sumit Paul is a researcher in comparative religions, with special reference to Islam. He has contributed articles to the world's premier publications in several languages including Persian
URL: https://newageislam.com/current-affairs/when-bangladesh-was-different-/d/138124
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