In the last three decades, human rights abuses against the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, have largely gone unreported. Bangladeshi nationalism has failed to accommodate the Hindu minority. The continuance of the Enemy Property (Custody and Registration) Order II of 1965 of the then East Pakistan Government albeit, under a new name, stands testimony to the less than equal status of the Hindu citizen in Bangladesh. The order identified minority Hindus as enemies and it was used as an instrument to take away land from them who were conveniently labelled as supporters of India.

Notwithstanding the fact that India was a determinant factor in the liberation of Bangladesh, the fate of the Hindu minority changed little after independence from Pakistan. The President of Bangladesh in his ORDER NO. 29 OF 1972 changed the nomenclature to Vested Property Act (VPA). Under this order, the Government of Bangladesh vested itself with alleged enemy properties. "Properties" means "properties of any kind, movable or immovable and includes any right or interest in such properties, debt or actionable claim, any security or negotiable instrument, and any right under a contract and any industrial or commercial undertaking." "Security" includes "share, scrip, stock, bond, debenture or debenture stock, or other marketable security of a like nature in or of any body corporate and Government securities." Clause 2 of the Order further states, "Nothing contained in this Order shall be called in question in any court." This Order of the President and the Enemy \ Vested Property Act have not been subjected to any judicial review.

As a result, minority Hindus continue to be deprived of their economic rights. The Law Ministry of Bangladesh in a direction Memo No. Bhu, Ma/7-5/Arpita (Nitimala)/117/42 (Angsha)/638 (61) on 4 November 1993 to all Deputy Commissioners directed "verification of census list of vested Properties." The order further stated that "Though the census list of the Enemy (Vested) Property prepared in 1968-69 is the basis of all activities concerning the vested properties, there is a doubt among the sections of the people about the dependability of the list…..properties in fact belonging to the enemies were not incorporated in the list. Absence of clear ideas among the public regarding the vested properties, incompleteness in the rules and lack of directions and policies have made the issue further complicated and has created confusion amongst the public. The Government is keen to redress the grievances of the public by settling the issue once for all. To attain the objective the following committees have been constituted for the verification of the land which has been incorporated in the census list but have not been leased out or properly recorded or determine whether there are other enemy properties."

Under this order the Government formed "Thana (Police Station) Vested Property Verification

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Committee". The Committee was empowered to verify the listed properties which had not yet

been properly recorded and/or leased out as to whether the properties were vested properties. Instead of addressing grievances of the affected Hindu minority, Government authorities grabbed more lands. Property belonging to 61 Hindu minority families in Ashefpur and Chawkjara village of 14 Ashefpur Union and in Ganda Gram of 10 Sultanganj Union under Bogra Sadar Police station were identified as Enemy Properties under this direction.

According to NGOs in Bangladesh, the estimated total Hindu households affected by EPA/VPA would be 10,48,390. The estimated total land dispossessed would be 1.05 million acres. About 30 per cent of the Hindu households (including the missing households) or 10 out of every 34 Hindu households are the victims of EPA\VPA. These estimates, although based on various plausible assumptions, should be considered as sufficiently indicative of the gravity of the situation.

The Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), an NGO based in Dhaka states that "the implementation of Enemy Property Act \ Vested Property Act has accelerated the process of mass out-migration of Hindu population from mid 1960s onward. The estimated size of such out-migration (missing Hindu population) during 1964-1991 was 5.3 million, or 538 persons each day since 1964, with as high as 703 persons per day during 1964-1971. If the above estimates are close to reality, then it would not be an exaggeration to conclude that the Enemy / Vested Property Acts acted as an effective tool for the extermination of Hindu minorities from their motherland."

ALRD further states, "The size of Hindu population in a "no out-migration" scenario is estimated on the basis of the following assumptions: (a) between 1961 and 1991 the mortality rates were similar, for all religious communities, i.e., mortality rates are secular (religious- neutral), (b) during the same period, the fertility rate among the Hindu population was 13 per cent less than the fertility rates among the Muslim population (estimate based on recent contraceptive use rates). Due to the lack of any reliable fertility estimates, the rate for the Muslims was estimated using an indirect method (Mauldin measure), based on contraceptive prevalence rates. According to the information in the population census, the average annual growth rates of the Muslim population was 3.13 per cent for 1961-1974, 3.08 per cent for 1974-1981, and 2.20 per cent for 1981-1991 period. Assuming a 13 per cent lower fertility rate for the Hindus compared to the Muslims (assumption-b), the average annual growth rates in the Hindu population under "no-out migration" situation would have been 2.72 per cent during 1964-1971, 2.68 per cent during 1971-1981, and 1.92 per cent during 1981-1991."

By extrapolating the above rates, the Hindu population in 1971, would have been 11.4 million, instead of 9.6 million as reported in the official documents. The actual Hindu population in 1981 would have been 14.3 million (12.5 million of 1981 plus 1.8 million missing during 1964-1971), instead of 10.6 million as reported in 1981 census document. Similarly, had there been "no-out-migration", the Hindu population in 1991 would have been 16.5 million (12.8 million as on 1991 plus 3.7 million missing during 1964- 1981), instead of 11.2 million as reported in 1991 census document. Thus, the estimated total missing Hindu population during 1964-1991

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was 5.3 million, i.e., 196,296 Hindus missing every year since 1964. In other words, if out-migration of Hindu population is caused mainly by communal disharmony resulting from the Enemy/Vested Property Acts, the approximate size of the missing Hindu population would be 538 persons each day, since 1964."

The Hindus flee from Bangladesh to neighbouring India after their lands are grabbed by the Government. When people lose their lands, they lose their livelihood. It affects their social security, health, education, standard of living and religious freedom. The Hindus are immediately beset by poverty. Yet, for the last three decades, no Government in Bangladesh has considered its repeal.

The mere holding of periodic elections is not the only yardstick of measuring democracy or health of a society. If gross violation of the economic rights of the Hindu minority is a yardstick, tyranny of the majority rules the roost in Bangladesh. Any society that claims itself as democratic, should have no place for such a discriminatory Act like the Vested Property Act. Repeated calls for its repeal from Hindu religious minority leaders and secular Bangladeshi NGOs have failed to evoke any substantive response from the Government of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is an Islamic country. 87 per cent of its population is Muslim. However, the minority Hindus, Buddhists and Christians have the right to practice their religious beliefs safeguarded by the Constitution.

It is evident that the present government in Bangladesh has neither the political will nor the space to effect the necessary changes in discriminatory laws. An opposition that increasingly relies on fundamentalist rhetoric offers no succour. What is surprising is that the Razakars or Pakistani quislings, who participated in the genocide of Bengalis in 1971 have been politically rehabilitated while those who faced murder and mayhem along with their Bengali Muslim brethren still suffer under the yoke of a pre-liberation law.

The Hindu minority has little effective leadership. Its only response to the situation has been to vote with its feet - the long trek across the border with India. It is evident that land and the hunger for lebensraum or living space is more important than Bangladeshi nationalism.

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