We were originally Hindus, says Bangladeshi author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed

[bluesky]

I mean it’s not for me to say who’s actually intellectual and who’s not... people can look up
Many were just writers, journalist etc... there were some engineers and doctors and like I said many were cut off the list because they had friends in Pakistan military and just mind their own business in Dhaka.
Most of my family from both sides haven’t experienced any war to speak of... only one or two who actually went to fight could say there was war otherwise Dhaka was pretty secured until it’s eventual fall

As far as I know, the so-called intellectual guys were rounded up and killed by the Muhajir Biharis. As for the war in Dhaka, the City was full of machine gun sounds throughout the first night and probably 10,000 people were killed in the haphazard firing. After that, it was quite different as you have stated.

About the total killing, I do not know about the real figures. I only know about two who were killed by the Biharis. One in or near Mirpur. He along with others were dragged out from a bus and were killed. Another, in Rajbari/Faridpur who was killed by the slaughtering of his neck by the Biharis.

 

[313ghazi]

We were originally Hindus, says Bangladeshi author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed

Author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed during an even in Bengaluru recently. | Photo Credit: Sampath Kumar G.P.
PTI
KOLKATA 01 JANUARY 2020 10:47 IST
UPDATED: 01 JANUARY 2020 11:04 IST

The people of her country are more alike than different from Indians, she says

U.S-based Bangladeshi author and playwright Sharbari Zohra Ahmed feels that the people of the country of her origin are more alike than different from Indians as they were originally Hindus.

But Bangladeshis now want to forget their Hindu roots, said the author, who was born in Dhaka and moved to the United States when she was just three weeks old.

Ahmed, who is the co-writer of the Season 1 of Quantico, a popular American television drama thriller series starring Priyanka Chopra, rues that her identity as a Bengali is getting lost in Bangladesh due to the influence of right-wing religious groups.

“How can Bangladesh deny its Hindu heritage? We were originally Hindus. Islam came later,” Ms. Ahmed said while speaking to PTI here recently.

“The British exploited us, stole from us and murdered us,” she said about undivided India, adding that the colonialists destroyed the thriving Muslin industry in Dhaka.

Ms. Ahmed said the question of her belief and identity in Bangladesh, where the state religion in Islam, has prompted her to write her debut novel Dust Under Her Feet.

The British exploitation of India and the country’s partition based on religion has also featured in her novel in a big way.

Ms. Ahmed calls Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War II, a “racist”.

“He took the rice from Bengal to feed his soldiers and didn’t care when he was told about that.

“During my research, I learnt that two million Bengalis died in the artificial famine that was created by him. When people praise Churchill, it is like praising Hitler to the Jews. He was horrible,” she said.

The author said her novel is an effort to tell the readers what actually happened.

“Great Britain owes us three trillion dollars. You have to put in inflation. Yet, they (the British) still have a colonial mentality and white colonisation is on the rise again,” Ms. Ahmed, who was in the city to promote her novel, said.

The novel is based in Kolkata, then Calcutta, during World War II when American soldiers were coming to the city in large numbers.

The irony was that while these American soldiers were nice to the locals, they used to segregate the so-called “black” soldiers, the novelist said.

“Calcutta was a cosmopolitan and the rest of the world needs to know how the city’s people were exploited, its treasures looted, people divided and hatred instilled in them,” she said.

‘Direct Action Day’
“Kolkata was my choice of place for my debut novel since my mother was born here. She witnessed the ‘Direct Action Day’ when she was a kid and was traumatised. She saw how a Hindu was killed by Muslims near her home in Park Circus area (in the city),” Ms. Ahmed said.

Direct Action Day, also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, was a massive communal riot in the city on August 16, 1946 that continued for the next few days.

Thousands of people were killed in the violence that ultimately paved the way for the partition of India.

Dust Under Her Feet is set in the Calcutta of the 1940s and Ahmed in her novel examines the inequities wrought by racism and colonialism.

The story is of young and lovely Yasmine Khan, a doyenne of the nightclub scene in Calcutta.

When the US sets up a large army base in the city to fight the Japanese in Burma, Yasmine spots an opportunity.

The nightclub is where Yasmine builds a family of singers, dancers, waifs and strays.

Every night, the smoke-filled club swarms with soldiers eager to watch her girls dance and sing.

Yasmine meets American soldier Lt Edward Lafaver in the club and for all her cynicism, finds herself falling helplessly for a married man who she is sure will never choose her over his wife.

Outside, the city lives in constant fear of Japanese bombardment at night. An attack and a betrayal test Yasmine’s strength and sense of control and her relationship with Edward.

Ms. Ahmed teaches creative writing in the MFA programme in Manhattanville College and is artist-in-residence in Sacred Heart University’s graduate film and television programme.

www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/we-were-originally-hindus-says-bangladeshi-author-sharbari-zohra-ahmed/article30449150.ece/amp/

It's not too late for people like her. They can still do ghar wapsi.

----

Some people are arguing you cannot have roots and Islamic identity. I disagree entirely. Look at the example of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh and the society of that time. They did not abandon thier identity.

Did the Prophet Muhammad pbuh and some of his companions stop identifying as members of the tribe of the Quraish? Did the original inhabitants of Madinah who became Muslim not identify themselves as the Ansar? Do we not recognise those from his beloved lineage as Syed?

When you accept Islam you gain an identity you'll take with you into the hereafter (InshaAllah). You do not lose all the different elements of your identity you already had, or will have in this world (other than that of your previous religion, if you're a convert).

 

[Clearly]

Just an observation.. there is always one thread daily opened about Bangladesh and India’s connection. We understand they are buddies but I dont know why so many reminders are given on daily basis.. (ps. Im not objecting to these threads..)

 

[Avicenna]

Just an observation.. there is always one thread daily opened about Bangladesh and India’s connection. We understand they are buddies but I dont know why so many reminders are given on daily basis.. (ps. Im not objecting to these threads..)

Some people's agenda.

 

[xyxmt]

don't get any ideas princess, you still are!!

 

[Surya 1]

I have seen this kind of views among Iranians. Some even said things like Arab culture was imposed on them or don’t call them Muslim.

Rightly Iranians cannot cheer the religion of invader which was imposed on them with sword.. No person having any dignity can cheer that.

 

[Black_cats]

Rightly Iranians cannot cheer the religion of invader which was imposed on them with sword.. No person having any dignity can cheer that.

Lol this is among few so called Iranians who have migrated to west. It’s the population of Iran who during the revolution overthrown western backed Shah to make Iran a Islamic republic. Don’t forget it’s the Iranian who spread Islam in sub continent and shown the backward polytheist the path to progressiveness.

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

I have seen this kind of views among Iranians. Some even said things like Arab culture was imposed on them or don’t call them Muslim.

Hate of Arabs and Turks is from Pre-Islamic era, i.e. Jahiliyya. Many Iranians are prejudiced to Afghans (Pukhtoons) for this reason as well.

Those who call themselves Non-Muslim are usually Zoroastrians or Atheists.

It's not too late for people like her. They can still do ghar wapsi.

----

Some people are arguing you cannot have roots and Islamic identity. I disagree entirely. Look at the example of the Prophet Muhammad pbuh and the society of that time. They did not abandon thier identity.

Did the Prophet Muhammad pbuh and some of his companions stop identifying as members of the tribe of the Quraish? Did the original inhabitants of Madinah who became Muslim not identify themselves as the Ansar? Do we not recognise those from his beloved lineage as Syed?

When you accept Islam you gain an identity you'll take with you into the hereafter (InshaAllah). You do not lose all the different elements of your identity you already had, or will have in this world (other than that of your previous religion, if you're a convert).

Exactly. Hazrat Abu Bakr RA was the Prophet's SAWS Arab genealogist and historian. This is why he always brought him when going to meet a new Arab tribe.

Having a racial, ethnic identity is not racist, it is as plan as skin color, language, or any other incidental trait about a person. You can still be proud of your heritage, as long as it does not conflict with your Islam or force you to hate other Muslims solely on race.

 

[TheGreatMaratha]

Taslima Nasrin got kicked out of BD for her views, just as you WOULD.



Because Hindus were known as being two-faced and snakes during the miserable colonial era. Many of your Hindu Chowdhuris bent their backs, many of your zamindars were traitors whilst the likes of Hada and Wada Miah were drawing their swords out to the Scotsmen and Eng men that came.

Why would I get kicked out of BD as I'm a proud Indian?

Hindus were known as being two-faced and snakes. Ok. Your hate is pretty evident over here.

 

[bluesky]

Rightly Iranians cannot cheer the religion of invader which was imposed on them with sword.. No person having any dignity can cheer that.

Whatever you want to say is clear in your statement. But, if you are right about forced conversion, you yourself would have been born in a Muslim family and not in a Hindu one. In pre-partition India, out of 400 million people, only 25% or 100 million people were Muslims. Why so many Hindus?

It seems the sword holding Muslims forgot to convert you although the Muslim group was politically above the Hindus for many centuries. Ask this question and you will know how the Muslim community was formed. It is certainly not under compulsion.

 

[Surya 1]

Whatever you want to say is clear in your statement. But, if you are right about forced conversion, you yourself would have been born in a Muslim family and not in a Hindu one.

That would have happened if we would have been as week as Zoroastrians . It has already happened in Iran. So if it has not happened in India, it is our strength.

 

[hussain0216]

That would have happened if we would have been as week as Zoroastrians . It has already happened in Iran. So if it has not happened in India, it is our strength.

Because it was never the intention of Muslim empires to convert every Kaffir Hindu
Occasionally a emperor or king went out his way to do his Islamic duty to spread the faith but mostly it was up to individuals and Sufis etc


India today is. 1.4 billion slum

Hundreds of years ago the population was less but compared to the rest of the world the population difference was just as high

This and nothing else allowed the Hindus to practice their faith

We thankfully got the chance to dump Hinduism

 

[OldenWisdom...قول بزرگ]

That would have happened if we would have been as week as Zoroastrians . It has already happened in Iran. So if it has not happened in India, it is our strength.

No. You are a living example of incorrigible dogma... Persians saw the light of day and became Muslim... those who didn't or wouldn't are still there a very small minority... but they are there, and in periphery.

And, you should be the last one calling zoroastrians week, as they, unlike, any part of south Asia were a superpower at that time and for a long long time. Something, no one in south Asia ever was and continues to this very day. Persians have an indelible cultural, linguistic, culinary and genetic imprint on south Asia from time immemorial.

Something that south Asia never imparted to Persia.

Maybe come down from your pedestal just a notch, perhaps?

 

[Michael Corleone]

As far as I know, the so-called intellectual guys were rounded up and killed by the Muhajir Biharis. As for the war in Dhaka, the City was full of machine gun sounds throughout the first night and probably 10,000 people were killed in the haphazard firing. After that, it was quite different as you have stated.

About the total killing, I do not know about the real figures. I only know about two who were killed by the Biharis. One in or near Mirpur. He along with others were dragged out from a bus and were killed. Another, in Rajbari/Faridpur who was killed by the slaughtering of his neck by the Biharis.

Biharis got what they deserved by the kaderias, I thought kaderia bahini was full of savages but now I know why

 

[bluesky]

Biharis got what they deserved by the kaderias, I thought kaderia bahini was full of savages but now I know why

In reality, The Biharis and Bengali Razakars were more vicious and savages than the PA troops who only arrived recently. While the Biharis acted in their localities, the Razakars acted throughout the country.

However, I must also say that the Bengalis acted more heinous after the 7 November speech by Mujib. Bengalis could do nothing in places like Mirpur or Muhammedpur because of nearby military camps. They did wrong in places like Parbatipur, Syedpur, and Shantahar. Bengalis were no less savage than other groups.

I think we should not act victims. It was a two-way action perpetuated by both groups.