Latest news with #Hefazat-e-Islam
News18
07-08-2025
- Politics
- News18
Bangladesh arrests senior professor, analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah
Dhaka [Bangladesh], August 7 (ANI): The Detective Branch (DB) of Bangladesh Police on Thursday arrested senior professor, writer, and analyst Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah on charges of corruption, police Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah was produced before the court, the court ordered him to be sent to jail, a lawyer Ahsan Kalimullah is a professor in the Public Administration Department at Dhaka University. He is also the former Vice Chancellor of Begum Rokeya University in Rangpur. He is known as a political commentator, writer, and election Bangladesh Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a case against him, the lawyer said. Earlier this year, on February 7, Nazmul Ahsan Kalimullah, Professor, Department of Public Administration, University of Dhaka, had admitted that Islamist groups in Bangladesh have got more freedom after Sheikh Hasina left the while speaking to ANI, said that several banned Islamist outfits are active in Bangladesh and are even holding press conferences.'Of course. You know, Islamists, they have succeeded in carving out larger space in the public domain. And Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has strengthened its position. Hefazat-e-Islam movement has become more strong. Personalities such as Peer of Charmoni has gained prominence. Even Hizb ut-Tahrir, they are an outlaw organization, but they're visible. They are coming up with leaflets, posters and also in different places they are waving their flags, they're marching in the streets even convened press conferences. So officially this outfit is not a legal entity till now and their media coordinator is behind the bar. So, officially the ban is still there but in reality they are functioning," he to the incident of a mob vandalising the founding father of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's residence, Kalimullah said that the mob was seen waving flags and putting posters there.'On the fateful day of February 5, in Road No 32, in Sheikh Mujib's residence, which was turned into a museum, they were seen there waving flags and putting up posters on the wall," he told ANI. (ANI)
News18
17-07-2025
- Politics
- News18
Rabindranath Tagore Has No Place In ‘New' Bangladesh
Last Updated: Rabindranath Tagore's association with East Bengal was a deeply intertwined one and it can hardly be eradicated The vandalisation of the historic Rabindra Kachharibari in Shahjadpur, Sirajganj, last week proves that Mohammed Yunus's interim regime and its functioning has entrapped Bangladesh like a curse. Since August 2024, there has been a concerted attempt to erase and decimate cultural and intellectual symbols that had sustained the struggle for identity and cultural assertion in East Bengal during the dark days of West Pakistan's occupation. The symbols of Bangladesh's Liberation War and of its creation were attacked, leaving Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib's Dhanmondi House gutted and bulldozed and the memorials to the Liberation War vandalised. Similarly, the attack on the Rabindra Kachharibari Museum in Sirajganj is a clear assault on those cultural symbols and icons that have inspired, sustained and defined Bangladesh's aspiration to remain distinct from the sapping tentacles of Pakistan and its proxies who wish to erase, beyond redemption, Bangladesh's cultural and linguistic identity and core. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, till the other day, was the tallest cultural icon of Bangladesh. In a sense, he still continues to be an icon, for the beleaguered and imprisoned intelligentsia of that country. For generations his poems, songs, essays and thoughts have sustained the East Bengali intelligentsia. He stood as a perennial source of solace in the dark days of the struggle against a marauding West Pakistani dispensation which was determined to erase the Bengali identity and texture in East Pakistan. That unfinished agenda of Pakistan, stymied by the Liberation War and the formation of Bangladesh, has now been set rolling. Pakistan's proxies such as the Jamaat, Hefazat-e-Islam and other lesser-known radical outfits, propping up the Yunus regime, are in overdrive now to destroy Bangladesh's cultural symbols and icons. The Bangladesh that these forces envisage will be dark and monotonous. It will be shorn of colours, devoid of elevating thoughts and emotions, bereft of all music which has flowed out of the soil of Bengal, representing her soul and its deeper aspirations. They want a Bangladesh in which Tagore will be an outcast, fit to be dumped and relegated as haram. The students who organised and participated in the August protest and insisted that they represented a 'new" Bangladesh, have been complicit in this demolition of Bangladesh's cultural symbols. Realising that their path to survival is through the creation of a political identity and outfit, these youth leaders have joined hands with radicals in order to gain and maintain a political space. An assault on Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore's persona and legacy is thus the surest way to gain political space and legitimacy in Bangladesh today. The attack on the Rabindra Kachharibari has been passed off as a spontaneous reaction to a local dispute and yet the manner in which an organised and armed mob invaded the sacred premises, hardly lends credence to that alibi. It was as if the vandals were lying ready, awaiting an opportunity to attack the Museum. Prof Yunus's Bengali Nobel Laureate friends and admirers, led by Prof Amartya Sen and Prof Abhijit Banerjee, or famous Bengali writers like Amitava Ghosh, ought to educate him on the imperative of protecting Tagore's legacy in Bangladesh. Some of them as self-styled 'global citizens", have been conspicuously silent on the happenings in Bangladesh. Their silence on attacks such as these, their passivity when Hindus were being bullied and assaulted under the Yunus's regime's watch, is especially astounding and stunning. Rabindranath Tagore's association with East Bengal was a deeply intertwined one and it can hardly be eradicated. Despite seeing it as a task that stood completely opposite to his nature, Tagore deftly managed their landed properties, primarily in East Bengal, that fell to his lot to handle. Some of his most enduring poems, stories and essays were composed and written while he was in East Bengal. But Tagore was no dreamy poet and rent-extracting landowner. The 'zamindar" Rabindranath Tagore was a unique personality. He stood completely apart from the genre of his time. Leading Bengali litterateur, poet and essayist of the Tagore era Pramatha Chaudhuri (1868-1946), observes that as a zamindar Tagore was as unique as he was as a poet. The welfare of the cultivators, village reform and development, improvement of local infrastructure, public health, roads, education constantly preoccupied Tagore on his sojourn in East Bengal in places like Silaidaha, Patisar, Sirajganj, places in which he had estates and houses. It was in Patisar that he put his entire Nobel Prize money of then Rs. 1 lakh to start a cooperative bank for the benefit of peasants and cultivators. His travels, stay and work as a zamindar and poet in East Bengal, span a period of nearly five decades. The vandals of Sirajganj or their ideological patrons would hardly know of this past or care for it. In their 'new Bangladesh" both Tagore and his anthem are to be exiled. In a captivating Bengali tract 'Zamindar Rabindranath," veteran journalist Amitabha Choudhuri tells us that Tagore did not go to rural Bengal with a zamindari mindset, he went there and took up the responsibility as a worker for his country's welfare, as a 'swadesh-hitaishi." The ryots were surprised to see a 'Babumoshai" who did not fit the usual image of an extractor and entertainer. Tagore came as their guardian and carer. He worked to make these ryots and those dependent on him self-reliant. He strove to awaken their inner strength – atmashakti and to make them stakeholders in the mission of enriching Bengal's unique soil. Tagore developed most of his ideas of rural development and empowerment during these years. In Shilaidaha, for instance, Choudhuri writes, he set up, in memory of his father Maharshi Debendranath Tagore, the Maharshi free dispensary which treated the rural poor through homeopathy, Ayurvedic and allopathic medicines. Quinine would be distributed for free and Tagore would himself treat patients at times. In Patisar, Tagore established a large hospital. The first ever health cooperative in India to be started was the one set up by Tagore in his estate in East Bengal. Writing to Pramatha Chaudhuri in 1917, Tagore observed how the hospital was catering to a large population beyond his estate and benefiting them. 'This joy rises above all my wants," Tagore wrote to Pramatha Chaudhuri. Gurudev's letters during this period describing the work in his estate, indicate, writes Amitabha Choudhuri, that Tagore worked with the aim of establishing a 'dharma-rajya" among the peasants and never calculated his losses and gains. He was pledged to their welfare alone. In every village in his estate Tagore founded a free school and in Patisar came up a minor school which later became high school. Village roads were improved, drinking water arrangements were made and the villagers were imparted training in weaving. Tagore's varied initiatives saw a visible improvement in the condition of the people. In later years Gurudev would recall the deep satisfaction that this work gave him. He kept an open house for the cultivators and peasants. His doors were never closed for them. They in turn adored and admired him. 'For one who grew up cloistered in the corners of a room, to me the experience of a village was new. But this work has given me great satisfaction; it enthused me, I acquired the joys of carving out a new path…" Gurudev wrote years later. Reams can be written on his work among the people of East Bengal. top videos View all Who knows, perhaps the Rabindra Kachharibari vandals are descendants of those same families who must have once benefited from Gurudev's benign presence and work? Who knows, perhaps Mohammed Yunus's ancestors were cultivators and ryots in Tagore's estate. Who knows, perhaps they were the recipient of his elevating vision and of his sublime action. But that memory is being forcibly erased, the possibility of it being resisted. In the 'new Bangladesh" that the self-styled August 'revolutionaries" wish to create, Rabindranath Tagore has no place. He is being driven out. The author is chairman, Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, and a member of the National Executive Committee, BJP. The views expressed are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18's views view comments Location : New Delhi, India, India First Published: June 20, 2025, 18:01 IST News opinion Opinion | Rabindranath Tagore Has No Place In 'New' Bangladesh Disclaimer: Comments reflect users' views, not News18's. Please keep discussions respectful and constructive. Abusive, defamatory, or illegal comments will be removed. News18 may disable any comment at its discretion. By posting, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
NDTV
02-07-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
No, Bangladesh's Islamist Descent Is Not Yunus' Doing Alone
In April, the brutal killing of a member and leader of an organisation of a minority community. In May, mass protests against proposed legal reforms for women. In June, the demolition of a prominent place of worship of a minority community. In the same week in June, a brutal attack on another member of the minority community over charges of "blasphemy". It may read like a litany straight from ISIS (Islamic State) lands. But sadly, and rather ominously, this is happening in neighbouring Bangladesh. While attacks on Hindus - all the aforementioned attacks were against members of the minuscule Hindu community, which now makes up a mere 8% of Bangladesh's population - have increased manifold since August last year, when the government of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown. Violence against other minority communities, such as Buddhists in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, has also grown since then. Bangladesh is hurtling into an Islamist cesspool under the watch, ironically, of Nobel laureate Yunus Mohammad. One of the most recent acts of the Yunus-led interim government was to register the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JIB) as a political party. That means it can now contest elections in Bangladesh. The outfit's reinstatement in Bangladesh's political life bodes ill not only for Hindus but also for the country's Muslim majority. The Origins Of The Jamaat The organisation has a complex and tortuous history. Born in undivided India in 1941, the Jamaat is the subcontinental twin of the Middle East's Muslim Brotherhood, with which it maintained close ties. Founded by ideologue Syed Abul Ala Mawdudi, it advocated for the establishment - even by force, if required - for an Islamic sharia state in India. Mawdudi, often hailed for opposing the Partition of 1947, did so only because he wanted to see Sharia established in all of the subcontinent, not just a part. During the Partition, he moved to Pakistan and subsequently led the JeI Pakistan, from which later sprang the Bangladesh Jamaat. True to its goal, the Bangladesh Jamaat played a significant role during the 1971 liberation war, collaborating closely and extensively with the Pakistani army. Many of its leaders were later imprisoned and executed on charges of war crimes, and many Bangladeshis, especially older generations, remain wary of it. Nevertheless, the Jamaat remained a potent force in both Bangladesh's society and politics, often aligning itself with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, a major political force in the country. In fact, its student wing, the Bangladesh Chatro Shibir, was at the forefront of the protests - and the ensuing violence - that led to Hasina's ouster last year. The Hefazat-e-Islam In 2013, a court ruling revoked the organisation's registration as a political party. But soon, other groups such as the Hefazat-e-Islam sprang up as fronts. The Hefazat, launched in 2010 to "protect Islam" from the then-ruling party, the secular Awami League, was spurred into action particularly by a proposed policy to confer equal inheritance rights to women. It was the Hefazat that in 2021 had mounted protests when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Bangladesh to celebrate the golden jubilee of its Independence and the birth centenary of its founder, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The protests had left 12 people dead across different districts. Last year, the Hasina government banned the Jamaat for its role in fomenting the violent protests against her. However, within a month of coming to power, the new interim government in Dhaka lifted the ban. Recently, the Jamaat was at the forefront of nationwide protests against a bill for legal reforms for Muslim women. Against this background, it may be tempting to lay all the blame for the 'Talibanisation of Bangladesh' at Yunus's doorstep. But that may not be entirely correct. The truth is that this shift has been underway in Bangladesh for a long time now, and was visible - even ignored - under the regime of Hasina, India's 'great friend'. The Emboldening Of Radicalists For many Bangladeshis, the event that is most etched in memory and emotion is not the 1947 Partition of India, but the 1971 war with Pakistan, which had been the country's western wing. Having faced brutality and genocide at the hands of their co-religionists, the 1971 liberation struggle had envisaged Bangladesh as a secular, plural state. Yet, the first attack on Hindus in independent Bangladesh occurred just the next year in 1972, targeting Durga Puja celebrations, a festival important to Bengali Hindus. Over the years, such persecution continued, and the percentage of Hindus in the country dwindled from over 20% to 8%. When hardly any convictions followed, it emboldened the perpetrators of such attacks, which included vandalism of temples, desecration of deities, arson, and plunder. Often, these attacks have been carried out on the flimsiest and sometimes non-existent grounds, often under the excuse of 'blasphemy' or 'hurting the feelings of Muslims'. When The Constitution Was Tweaked The roots for the institutionalisation of Islamism were undoubtedly laid down by General Ziaur Rahman, who, through a military proclamation, amended the 1972 Constitution and inserted ' Bismillah-Ar-Rahman-Ar-Rahim ' ('in the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful') in the preamble. The principle of secularism was removed from the Constitution in 1977 through the Fifth Amendment. In 1988, Islam was declared the state religion. A few major factors that strengthened the cause of Islamism were the Iranian revolution and the discovery of oil in the Arab Gulf. The latter drove many to migrate from Bangladesh to the Gulf in search of work, where an ideological indoctrination took place. On their return home, these workers would implement similar rules in their homes and communities. Simultaneously, many Gulf countries began to export Wahabism in order to counter Iran's Shiite theocracy. Bangladesh did not remain immune to these shifts underway in the larger Muslim world. Slowly, money started pouring into Bangladesh for the construction of newer, swankier mosques, more and more madrasas, more 'dawah', and, in general, for more culturally Arabised and puritanical ways. All of this ultimately translated into intolerance for alternative ideas and views. Ghosts Of The Taliban The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan gave yet another fillip to Islamism in Bangladesh. During the Soviet-Afghan war - or the Afghan jihad - many Bangladeshis had travelled to Afghanistan to fight the Soviets. The slogan "Amra hobo Taliban/ Bangla hobe Afghan' ['We will be Taliban, Bangla(desh) will be Afghanistan'] came to be a popular slogan in the 1990s in Bangladesh. For instance, Mullah Omar, the founding leader of the Taliban, was said to have 200 recruits from Bangladesh amongst his personal guards. After the war, many of these hardened jihadists returned to Bangladesh and helped spread their radical ideology. In fact, next month, Bangladesh will mark the 20th anniversary of the nationwide bombings on August 17, 2005, which targeted 63 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, including government buildings, train stations, courtrooms, etc. The attacks, which saw over 500 bombs going off at 300 locations, were the handiwork of the Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), whose founder and spiritual leader Shaykh Abdur Rahman had participated in the Soviet-Afghan war. When Hasina Looked The Other Way Through all these years, the slow disenfranchisement of minority groups in Bangladesh has continued. No commissions to protect their rights were instituted - not even by the Awami League, which was in power for much of Bangladesh's history. The first major violence against Hindus in Bangladesh took place in 1992 after the Babri Masjid demolition in India, when the BNP government led by Khaleda Zia was in power. By 2001, when her government was re-elected, attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh had peaked. The situation didn't improve under Hasina's rule either. While the attacks were certainly not orchestrated by the Awami League, her government was happy to look the other way. While it cracked down on terror groups such as the JMB, other outfits, like the Ansar ul Islam - said to be the Bangladesh chapter of Al Qaeda - and those linked to ISIS, mushroomed. Attacks against women, Hindus, secular groups, members of the LGBT groups, writers, artists increased. Many Bangladeshis, even entire families in some cases, migrated to the Islamic State caliphate that had been established for a brief period from 2014-2017 in Syria and Iraq. Amidst all this, Sheikh Hasina, otherwise trying to live up to the ideals of her father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - his house-museum was recently vandalised, by the way - turned a blind eye to the Islamist fundamentalism taking root in Bangladeshi society. Ironically, this was the same Hasina who would crush legitimate political opposition with a heavy hand. Under her watch, Bangladesh witnessed several ISIS-like lone wolf attacks on journalists, bloggers and reformists, targeting of Hindus over trumped-up blasphemy charges, and disruption of Durga Puja celebrations. The Undoing Of A Secular Bangladesh Critics have pointed out how the Hasina government's 2018 Digital Security Act targeted mediapersons and political activists but not religious radicals or communal activists, whose hate speech against non-Muslims often went viral on social media. A particularly glaring shortcoming of her government that history will record with great astonishment is the failure to institutionalise corrective mechanisms for protecting the rights and addressing the grievances of minority communities, who had offered her their unwavering support for years. In the run-up to the 2018 elections, the General Assembly of the Bangladesh Hindu-Buddhist-Christian Unity Council presented various demands to all political parties, including the formation of a National Minority Commission, a minority ministry, and the formulation of laws for the protection of minorities and against discrimination. Nothing came of this initiative even though Hasina remained in power for six more years after that. Today, under the Yunus administration, extremist elements in Bangladeshi society have been emboldened to act freely without fear or even a fig leaf of the tolerance and pluralism that the Awami League had somewhat defended. Not just minorities, but even majority Muslims will have to bear the brunt of this growing radicalisation. The protests against the women's bill will ultimately affect Muslim women, while the enfranchisement of the JIB could contribute to tensions within the community as radicalists push the canon of an 'ideal Muslim'. Bangladesh, once a shining beacon in the Muslim world, may just have become a textbook case of how not to go about a regime change. (The author is a journalist and political analyst)
Mint
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Mint
‘Behaviour of Yunus govt is not right': BJP urges global outrage over Rabindranath Tagore's home vandalism in Bangladesh
BJP MP Sambit Patra on Thursday urged the international community to condemn the reported vandalism of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral residence in Bangladesh and further slammed the Muhammad Yunus-led Bangladesh government. Tagore wrote the national anthem of Bangladesh, titled 'Amar Shonar Bangla' (My Golden Bengal) in 1905. Addressing media persons at the BJP headquarters in the national capital, Patra said, 'Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral house, located in Bangladesh, was attacked and damaged... His Kacharibari, built by his grandfather, has been attacked. We are getting to know that the people of Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam carried out this attack. It is also coming to light that this was a pre-planned attack. For five days, it was planned that the house of Rabindranath Tagore, the foundation and pillar of our civilisation and culture of Bengal, would be attacked so that they could send a big message to the world. It was a planned attack.' Patra further condemned the interim government in Bangladesh led by Muhammad Yunus, saying that the international monument could not be protected. "Today's topic is about Bangladesh. We are not intruding on any international domain. But this is Rabindranath Tagore's topic, so the BJP takes it very seriously and sensitively. The behaviour of the interim government of Muhammad Yunus is not right. The international monument could not be protected," he said. According to media reports, a mob vandalised the ancestral home of Rabindranath Tagore in Bangladesh's Sirajganj district on Wednesday, leading authorities to form a three-member committee to investigate the incident. The violence reportedly stemmed from a dispute on June 8, when a visitor accompanied by his family arrived at the Kachharibari—also known as Rabindra Kachharibari or the Rabindra Memorial Museum—and got into an argument with a staff member at the entrance over a motorcycle parking fee, reported. Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral house was attacked... This was a planned attack. Situated in Shahzadpur in the Rajshahi division, Kachharibari is the ancestral home and revenue office of the Tagore family. Rabindranath Tagore created many of his literary works while living in this mansion, PTI reported.
The Print
12-06-2025
- Politics
- The Print
BJP calls for global condemnation after Tagore's ancestral home vandalised in Bangladesh
BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra cited media reports to say that Jamaat-e-Islami and Hefazat-e-Islam were behind the attack, noting that Tagore is an iconic symbol of Bengal, and Indian culture and civilisation. New Delhi : The BJP on Thursday condemned the interim government in Bangladesh over the vandalisation of Rabindranath Tagore's ancestral home in that country and called for global denunciation of the incident targeting the legacy of the iconic Indian personality. He also slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for not raising the issue, alleging that she saw infiltrators from the neighbouring Bangladesh as a vote bank and has opted to keep quiet for political reasons. 'She is driven by vote bank politics. We are driven by cultural politics,' he told reporters. The interim government headed by Muhammad Yunus has not taken any action, and its conduct has not been appropriate, Patra said. He appealed to the world community to come together against it, adding that his party believes in inclusivity. 'We are giving a global call to all the countries which value morality, civilisational thoughts, creativity and culture. They should all come together to denounce what has happened in Bangladesh,' he said. Patra said Tagore created many of memorable works in this ancestral home, known as Kachharibari and is recognised by the government there as a museum. The BJP MP noted that he not only wrote India's national anthem but also that of Bangladesh, which has seen a surge in the activities of Islamic hardlines following the deposition of Sheikh Hasina last year. This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content. Also read: Builders, politicians, civic officials under lens—what's the Vasai-Virar illegal buildings case
