Disclaimer – This blog is not against any religion or does not intend to spread hatred against followers of any religion.
Specific Disclaimer – This blog is only for the people with minds open to perceptions and for those who seek truth from every angle.
Introduction
The historic, yet a very disheartening runaway of Shaikh Haseena from Bangladesh marked another milestone in the history of Indian Subcontinent. We need to delve into history, as far as 2000 years or even more. We need to understand sociology. We need to understand geo-politics before we comment anything on this matter. But it does give a feeling after a thorough analysis, that the entire Indian subcontinent is sitting on a time bomb. Actually, two time bombs. One is environmental and another is Socio-Political, driven by demographic changes. For the sake of this larger aspect, we are not even looking at the so called “student protests” that resulted into this chaos. Those were very much engineered.
Historic Aspect
The recorded history of India from an Indian perspective tells us that this subcontinent has the oldest living civilization even today. Practices to reach God and seek knowledge evolved in India much prior to anywhere in the world. It can safely be said that India is at least 5,000 years old if not more than 10,000. Now why is this aspect important? First is to see how humanity evolved in India and enriched itself. Religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikkhism directly originated here. Zoroastrianism as well, was greatly inspired by Sanatan Dharma. These are all the ways of living a life, to seek its meaning. Nowhere in any of these religions was a provision that people of another faith are subordinates or they don’t deserve to live. Fast forward to different eras where the economical arrangement of Varna Vyavastha became a birthright and culminated into Jati Vyavastha causing social divide. If we were to mark Kingdoms throughout the history, the Mauryans, especially Chandraguta and his grandson Ashoka did a great job in social harmony of India. In both of their eras, present day Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan and almost entire India was a one nation. Like an ECG report, the frequency of social divide in India kept going upwards and downwards throughout the history. Kingdoms fought amongst themselves. People died of war. But it never occurred that people were killing each other only because they did not worship the God of their choice.
With great despair, and in the most neutral tone, it has to be said that Abrahamic religions, especially some sects of Christianity and Islam have this tendency to bully over people of other faiths. When both of them hit the Indian subcontinent, the results are before us. Iran, which was once Persia, full of Atesh Gahas of Zoroastrians, became Islamic. Afghanistan which was once known as Upganasthan or Gandhar, and happened to be a Buddhist nation, is now a fundamentalist Islamic nation. Karachi used to have the biggest Mahashivratri festival in India and was full of Sindhi people, Lahore was the most sacred city of Sikhs and more than half of 51 Shaktipeeths of Hindu Goddesses hailed in the land we call “Islamic Republic of Pakistan” today. With Pakistan went our very own East Bengal which later separated itself from Pakistan to form Bangladesh. A large section of Hindus were living there. They were persecuted in all these years but Bangladesh was at least prone to protect Hinduism in their nation. With this recent episode of military overthrow of power, we are witnessing persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh for one more time. As a fellow Hindu, isn’t it my right even to be afraid of these circumstances, or am I to be labelled an Islamophobe to call this out? Let’s go deeper into understanding the human nature now, because it has very much to do with what is happening and will happen if steps are not taken to prevent it.
Co-Existence and Human Psychology
It is in human nature to kill each other. We call ourselves civilised because we avoid violence. That’s the base upon which societies are built. Religion is nothing but a society. The implied agreements of co-existence are followed in a society. Another thing human has in its nature is compassion and love. So these are bipolar qualities. They need a balance. Once any of them takes a heavier place, human tends to initiate violent actions. For example, too much love for their own society may bring up hatred or intolerance for another society. Through the route of corruption, injustice, conflicts, invasions, falsehood etc., humans gradually turn to a mass violence. Can I give you a perfect example? If you believe in Mahabharat, remember what happened? Too much love for his own sons, Dhritarashtra did not give up his throne to Pandavas when they returned from the jungles after the Laksha Griha chapter. That caused a divide in Kingdom. Too much hatred for Pandavas made Duryodhan plot a conspiracy in which Pandavas lost their part of Kingdom. Even after returning from the exile, Duryodhan refused to give them back their Kingdom. What happened next? A giant war that wiped out 60% of global population in 5561 BC. This is how humans kill each other.
The Europeans wiped out every culture they invaded. Hitler tried to wipe out Jews from earth. The Communists, so called believers of equality, tried to kill everyone who disagrees with them. Even the Japanese inculcated so much hatred for the Chinese and committed atrocities against them. Look at every page of history and you’ll find humans killing each other for varied reasons, but primarily hatred.
So the bottom line is, it is not anything different with fundamentalist Islam. So is Hinduism any different? Only in the aspect that it doesn’t believe in killing people based on their faiths, otherwise I can cite examples where two Hindu kings fighting pointless wars for centuries just because one of them wanted to overpower another. Primary example is the destruction of Rashtrakutas. All of their enemies united against them and they wiped their capital city, Manyakheta, out from the map of India. So all-in-all, we have this conclusion that whatever is happening even now, is nothing but human tendency to not coexist with each other.
The Geo-Political Aspect
A thriving economy with so much water, vegetation and dense, young population… Bangladesh was developing rapidly. The textile industry was top-notch in Bangladesh. The location of Bangladesh has its own significance and its friendly relations with India benefitted both the nations in economic development. Guess who’s jealous of such positivity? The dear “Superpower” which wants to spread “Democracy” in world with military invasions and the wannabe superpower “Dragon” which cannot withstand India doing anything good. Establishing their areas of influence, both nations tried their best to influence Bangladesh’s policies in their interests. The Haseena Government did not bow to any of them and kept an independent policy. So the obvious thing that happened with Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Venezuela…happened in Bangladesh as well. In order not to be noticed, these nations engineered “protests” to overthrow the elected government and they were successful. So who won the game here? Doesn’t matter. Bangladesh lost.
As far as India is concerned, it can be anticipated that India will use the situation to its advantage at least for now. Even in the 2021 Taliban Chapter of Afghanistan, it was anticipated that Taliban will befriend Pakistan and we’ll lose Afghanistan as a friend but happened otherwise. Afghanistan and Pakistan are more in conflict than before and India-Afghanistan friendship is intact. Same thing can be expected in Bangladesh but either the Superpower or the Wannabe Superpower, will take Bangladesh to their side in their larger game to exploit the Asian wealth. It is very much important that we are vigilant and prepare ourselves for a 3.5 front war in any scenario, as opined by Ex-IAS Avinash Dharmadhikari. For the time being, relations with Bangladesh should be kept friendly but with a distance.
The Socio-Political and Environmental Time Bombs
We’ll analyse the Socio-Political time bomb as it is clearly evident. East and West Pakistan could be formed because the areas were Muslim majority. South Pakistan could not be formed because the area wasn’t a Muslim majority and the people of Hyderabad province fought for the victory. No matter the circumstances, the majority population does not want the minorities with them. They kill them, do their ethnic cleansing, rape their women and loot their houses and lands. This sad truth isn’t just limited to Pakistan and Bangladesh, but extends to India as well. West Bengal and Kerala are living examples whereas Kashmir has been a recent bloodbath in this regard. It is worrisome. Changes in demography are very much prone to such conflicts.
Whatever the differences are, can be solved in peace but what if they just don’t want to solve the issues, rather using them to their victimhood until they overthrow us? Mistakes have been from both sides but it is only their intention to co-exist which will decide the fate of India. We very much want to, I’m sure many of them would also want peace and coexistence. It is for them to assure us that nothing of any sort which happened in Bangladesh and Pakistan, will happen in India, instead of playing victim everytime. But the reality seems quite different. An Act giving citizenship to persecuted minorities of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan offends them so much that they unite against it nationwide. Naming a city after a good King instead of a tyrant offends them just because the tyrant belonged to their faith. It is for them to settle these differences and set the priorities right before coming to dialogue. For us, they’re brothers. But we remember that the Mahabharat war was fought against brothers. If they try becoming Pandavas, we’ll be as much Pandavas to them. If they’re happy being Kouravas, we have Lord Krishna on our side. As of now, the population divide is 75-20-5 in terms of percentage. If the same is changed to 35-60-5, a worldwide history of conflicts tells us that a Civil War is evident. This nation is great and if both sides believe in the greatness, nothing of this sort will happen, but the time bomb is on. Time will only tell if this bomb defuses, or blasts.
Another time bomb which we have, and is quite intertwined with the trans-national socio-political issues of entire Indian subcontinent, is the environmental issue. Almost all of the North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are fed on the waters of rivers originated from the Himalayas. The Himalayas are melting. The rivers are prone to dry up. This process may take a century or two to happen but it involves massive floods, water shortage, food grain shortage and spread of diseases with time. Indian subcontinent is the most populous region on earth with so many conflicts. Such environmental issues will only worsen the situation. Pakistan is the first nation to get hit by droughts. Where will the Pakistanis go if the droughts continue and there’s no water left? As said by legends, wars will be fought over water and it seems evident.
Conclusion
The remarkable event of Bangladesh is underlining the foreseeable future of conflicts. It is not limited to Bangladesh. It affects India and the world. At the same time, the dirty power play of the so called Super Powers is killing the prosperity of nations and causing ruckus amongst people. To preserve the democracy, a vigilant eye is required, not just for the Government, but for everyone. It is our problem and we are meant to solve it together. Turning a blind eye to the risks and conspiracies result in situations like Bangladesh. We won’t let that happen in India, ever!
Jai Hind!
Warm Regards,
Dnyanesh Make “The DPM”
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