Deprivation of Hindu Minority in Bangladesh: Living With Vested Property

Enactment and implementation of the Enemy property Act and its continuation in the name of Vested property Act has its distinct historical root doctrined in the religion-based statecraft of Pakistan. The feudal-military autocratic rulers of Pakistan in their quest for Pakistanization of Pakistan, from the very outset, wanted to get rid of the majority-Benga-lees and Bangali culture. The consequences of operation of Enemy/vested property Act have been, simply, gross denial of freedom and liberty, and institutionalization of systematic socio-culture, economic, and political deprivation of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh. The national disaster has been so huge that during the last four decades (1965-2006) approximately 1.2 million (out of the total of 2.7 million) households or 6 million people belonging to Hindu religion are directly and severely affected by the Enemy/vested property Act and have lost 2.6 million acres of their own land property. They have lost, in addition to land property, other immovable and movable property. The approximate money value of such loss (US $ 55 billion) would be equivalent to 75 percent of the GDP of Bangladesh (in 2007 price). In addition, there has been unmeasurable extent of national loses of human capital formation evident in forced mass-outmigration of Hindu minority, breaking of family ties, stresses and strains, mental agonies, loss of human potentials, disruption in communal harmony, unfreedom, cultural disintegration, and fueling of non-secular mindset and rise of religious fundamentalism. For the hindu community, all these have created a perpetual cycle of deprivation including powerlessness, vulnerabillity, physical and psychological weakness, poverty, and isolation. The whole issue has been instrumental in producing and reproducing distress and deprivation among Hindu minority as well as institutionalizing communal mindset in a historically secular context.