Hindus are under continuous and relentless attack in Bangladesh because of being in a minority. Recently, on the occasion of Mujib Barsha, the government of Bangladesh decided to give a gift to the Santal Hindus of the country.

In the village of Chonguria, members of the local tribal community were full of joy for the first houses built under a housing program launched by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for the Year of Mujib. 

A group of 50 ethnic Santal in Chonguria, a village in the Gaibandha district,  received a brick house from the Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina. The beneficiaries include 12 Christians. The initiative is part of a national program for the distribution of 70,000 new houses for more than 880,000 people that the Bangladeshi government launched on the occasion of the Year of Mujib.

The celebrations include a series of events marking the centenary of the birth of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Overall, some 3,500 houses were supposed to go to members of tribal communities, half of them Christians.

In Chonguria the gift was welcomed with joy. “I lived in a dilapidated house,” said Amra Mardi, a 70-year-old Christian Santal widow. “During the rainy season, I couldn't properly sleep. Now I have a new home.”

Bahula Hasda, another ethnic Santal woman, thanked Prime Minister Hasina. “Every year my shack was destroyed by the storm. I repaired it and the following year the same thing happened again. I hope this house will last a long time now.”

The village of Chonguria is located in the Catholic parish of Mariampur, Diocese of Dinajpur. Many people in Bangladesh are homeless and landless due to soil erosion caused by river floods.

“No one will be left homeless,” Prime Minister Hasina promised on 23 January, as she inaugurated the Mujib Year program. Each new house had to have two rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a veranda with an estimated cost for the government of 175,000 taka (about US$ 2,000).

But this time there is an allegation that their shelter was being occupied. As reported in Sriti O Chetona, the Santal Hindu community is now spending their days in other people’s backyards due to house encroachment. The area around Fazilpur of Dinajpur Sadar Upazila has become quite noisy around this incident. The victim Santals complained that some Islamist families of the local Chilmon Khan Dighi had occupied their houses. This has led to a clash between the two communities.

Santal Hindus complained about the matter to the Nirbahi officer of the upazila last Tuesday. In the written complaint, they said that after getting the house documents from the government, when they went to the house, the local Islamists threatened the Santal Hindus and locked the houses.

Although the house deeds are with them, the houses are occupied by the Islamists. It is known that Chilman Khan Dighi covers an area of 9 acres. Houses were constructed for 52 Santal Hindu families under the shelter project on three banks of the Dighi. On the eastern half of the Dighi is a Muslim cemetery. The remaining part is the crematorium and temple of the Santal Hindus. On about an acre of land, Kodaildhoya Dighi is next to it. Already, 40 Santal Hindu families have moved into 40 homes. However, 12 families in the houses allocated in the third phase are not able to go home due to the obstacles of the Islamists.

Abhijit Basak, chairman of Fazilpur Union Parishad, said that the houses were allotted to Santal Hindus living across Chilmon Khan Dighi from the upazila. But some people forcibly occupied some of their houses. Since the victims are Hindus, the Upazila Nirbahi Officer was informed to settle the matter.

Local Santal Hindu representative Robin Murmu said, “more than a hundred Santal Hindu families have been living in Pargaon village for three generations, including Chilmon Khan Dighir Par. Among them, 167 people live in 30 families. All had mud houses. They were in a lot of trouble. The hardship was relieved to some extent after the government built the houses. 40 families were able to get into the house, but the remaining 12 families were not able to get up. A few families of Islamists occupied their houses for the sake of the cemetery.”

Previously, on September 9, police arrested Pritam Das, the Hindu leader of the tea workers’ movement in Sylhet, Bangladesh, on charges of insulting Islam. The police filed a case against him under the Digital Security Act, accusing him of insulting Islam. Pritam Das is currently in police custody

Bangladesh’s history of how it treats its Hindu minority is not just embarrassing but shameful for a self-avowed liberal democracy that was born out of a mass struggle for equal rights and social justice and is ruled by the acclaimed revolutionary Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s Awami League now headed by his daughter Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

Sriti O Chetana