Lajja (8 page)

The humiliation of Hindus and the attacks on their temples did not begin with the attack on the Babri Masjid in October 1990. Suronjon remembered that on 21 April 1979 a man called Ayub Ali broke the image of Kali in the historic Kali temple in Saheb Bazar in Rajshahi. And after that he also destroyed shops owned by Hindus.

In that year on 16 April, the idol of Ramgopal, which signified much cultural history, was stolen from the Ramgopal temple in Ramgopalpara in the sub-district of Shoilokupa in Jhinaidoho. Later, the badly damaged idol was found near the crematorium at Shoilokupa. However, the gold and silver ornaments of the idol were never found.

The Joygopalhat Kali temple in Purno Lalanagar village of Sitakundo was burnt to a cinder. The idol at Durgabari in Kuraisha Chandgaon in North Chandgaon was also destroyed.

Two months after the National Religion Bill was passed, the black-stone idol belonging to the old Kalachand temple, near the Dokkhindihi village in the Phultola sub-district of Khulna, was stolen along with all the gold jewellery that adorned it. The police arrested and tortured the secretary of the temple committee when he went to the police station to complain. Arrest warrants were issued for each member of the temple committee. The assistant superintendent of police went to the locality for investigations and threatened the Hindus, accusing them of stealing the idol from the temple.

On the night of 8 December, a marble image of Shiva, idols of Radhagobindo and Annapurna, and another stone image of Shiva were stolen from the ancient temple of Dwimukha village in the Kalihati sub-district of Tangail. A team from the police station found out that the idols were stolen by Noor Mohammad Talukdar but they did nothing to recover them.

In Comilla, an organization called Bishwo Islam or World Islam wrote to the Hindus of Moynamoti Union of the Burichong sub-district of Comilla that Hindus should immediately leave this country. The letter warned that unless Hindus stopped their worship and religious rituals there would be riots. On 14 April, the banyan tree next to the Kali temple was doused with petrol and set alight. In Moynamoti Bazar, a man called Ali Ahmed announced that a riot was needed to evict all the Hindus.

On 11 March, a mob of more than a hundred attacked the Sri Sri Modonmohon Akhara in the Lalmohan sub-district of Bhola, where people had gathered to sing religious songs. They stormed into the temple, broke the idol and beat up the devotees there. They entered various temples in Dattapara and broke idols, plundered temples and set them on fire, as if they were playing a game.

In Borotia village in the Ghior sub-district of Manikganj, a tombstone for the advocate Jillur Ahmed and a mosque were to be built right next to the ancient Sri Sri Kali Mata temple. The Hindus felt apprehensive that this would create obstacles for their rites of worship. In Kalirhat in the Union of Mohammadpur, in the sub-district of Chatkhil in Noakhali, the Hindus had been worshipping at a particular temple for a long time. The local Muslims conspired amongst themselves, usurped the temple and now ran businesses from there.

On the night of 26 May, people broke the idol in the Lakshmi temple of Faukal village of the municipality of Gajipur and they took the idol’s head with them.

During the Chaitra Sankranti observances in Kashtoshagra village, in the sub-district headquarters of the district of Jhinaidoho, when the Charak Puja was on at night at the Mothbari, a gang of men launched an attack. They thrashed the priest, messed up the religious offerings and snatched away the ceremonial drum. A case was registered but no one was arrested.

At nine o’clock at night on 14 March 1979, several Muslims attacked and damaged the Kali temple in Purbopara in the Nijra sub-district of Gopalganj. They broke the lock on the Shiva temple in Ulpur and stole the Shivalinga and many other valuable things.

On 17 October 1988, in Thanapara in the Kushtia district headquarters, an image of the goddess Durga was broken.

Before the Durga Puja, the most important festival of the Bengali Hindus, the images of the goddess and her children were smashed by some Muslims in Paler Bazar in the Khulna district headquarters. The image of Durga was destroyed in Gobra in Joshor.

The ashram or monastery of the religious leader Sri Sri Pronobanondoji Maharaj is an important cultural landmark in Khulna. On 1 October 1988 the image of the goddess Durga in the monastery was destroyed.

On 30 September, at the Kaliganj bus stop in Satkheera the image of Durga was ground to dust.

The imam of the Jam-e-Masjid of Modhugram, in the Dumuria sub-district of Khulna, sent out a letter to all the local organizers of the Durga Puja saying that Puja rituals would have to come to a stop during azan and namaz. The letter reached its recipients on 17 October.

The communal forces marched in a procession in Khulna in early October, chanting ‘Down with idol worship! Smash the idols! Break them!’

On 23 October, in the village of Mohishkola in the sub-district of Kumarkhali in Kushtia district, the image of the goddess in the Kali temple was smashed.

An idol of Durga that was being made in the Kali temple in Kaliganj Bazar in the Kaliganj sub-district of Gajipur was destroyed just before the Puja.

On 30 September, in Nokipur village in the Shyamnagar sub-district of Satkheera, they broke the image that had been created for the Puja in the temple in Horitola.

The wall of the Kali temple was broken in the Bhandaria sub-district of Pirojpur and a drain was built in its place.

On Bijoya Dashami, the last day of the Durga Puja, fundamentalists damaged the image of the goddess Durga in Phuljhuri Bazar in Borguna district. In the Bukabunia Union of the Bamna sub-district they broke the image of Durga a few days before the Puja. And no judgement was pronounced on these acts.

Bangladesh was apparently a country where there was harmony amongst communities. As he thought this, Suronjon began to laugh. He was alone in the room, Kironmoyee was no longer there. There was a cat lying by the door and it was startled by the sound of Suronjon’s laughter. Did the cat not go to the Dhakeshwari temple today? What creed did this cat belong to? Was it Hindu? It probably was, because it lived in the home of Hindus. It was a mixture of black and white with enchanting blue eyes that held pity. So, the cat must be Muslim! It was obviously a broad-minded Muslim with a conscience, the kind who had now taken to looking at Hindus with eyes full of pity. The cat moved away. More often than not, there was no cooking in this house these days and so it was possible that the cat was making itself comfortable in the kitchen of the Muslims next door. Hence, obviously, the cat had no community or religion. Such things are for humans only. Human beings have temples and mosques. Suronjon saw that the sun was on the steps; it was late and it was 9 December. He wished he were a cat! He had never been one for worshipping as Hindus are, or for going to temples. He had vowed to bring socialism to the country, had at one time roamed the streets and said impressive things at meetings. He had thought about farmers, about workers and the country’s economic and social development. He had hardly ever thought about himself or his family. But now he, Suronjon, was being singled out as a Hindu. If the young men of his neighbourhood saw him they’d yell, ‘Grab him. Grab the Hindu.’ They had not beaten him up yet but they probably would quite soon. Goutom was assaulted when he went to buy eggs. It was likely that on one of Suronjon’s trips to Moti’s shop at the end of the road, where he bought cigarettes, he would suddenly be punched hard on his back and the cigarette would go flying from his lips and fall to the ground. He would turn around and see Quddus, Rohoman, Belayet and Sobahan standing around with strong sticks and sharp knives in their hands. As Suronjon imagined this, he shut his eyes. His skin prickled and his hair stood on end. Was Suronjon scared? He was not the kind of man who was easily frightened.

He got out of bed and looked for the cat. The house was so quiet. It felt like it had been empty for a long time. In 1971 when they came back from the village they found that the Brahmopolli house had been taken over by tall grass. There was a sombre silence all around. There was nothing in the house; Suronjon could not find his tops, marbles, kites, chessboard, carrom board or books. Going into that terribly empty house had shaken him deeply. He felt shaken like that now. Did Sudhamoy lie in bed all day? Suppose his blood pressure was high, who would call the doctor? Suronjon had never done tasks like going to the market, buying medicines, calling workmen or buying newspapers. He ate his meals at home, sometimes all three. He usually came home quite late at night. It was possible to enter into his room from the outside, so on nights when he was very late, he did just that. When he needed money he took money either from Kironmoyee or Sudhamoy. He felt embarrassed to ask them for money. He was thirty-three years old but did not have an income.

‘I’m retired,’ Sudhamoy said. ‘You need to do something.’

‘I can’t do a job, work for someone,’ Suronjon replied and thus avoided responsibility.

Sudhamoy saw patients in his drawing room and tried to keep the home fires burning. And Suronjon came home late in the evening. He’d go to the Party office, Modhu’s canteen, to the office of the Ghaatok-Dalal Nirmul Committee, the Press Club, or No. 32, and come home tired. His food would be covered and kept for him on the dining table. Some nights he ate and some nights he went straight to bed. And this is how a distance had been created between him and his family. This morning, however, when Kironmoyee had brought him tea and sat on his bed, Suronjon realized that his parents still relied greatly on their indifferent, irresponsible and almost vagabond son. What had he given his family? A formerly affluent Sudhamoy was now reduced to belching contentedly after eating a simple meal of dal and rice. Those simple meals pleased Suronjon too but he remembered that as a child they used to clamp his nose and he had to perforce gulp down his milk. His refusal to eat butter would bring on spankings. Suppose he were now to tell Kironmoyee that he wanted full-cream milk and butter; and in the afternoons he wanted fish and meat and parathas fried in ghee—would Sudhamoy be able to provide them? It was indeed true that Suronjon did not hanker for luxury or comfort and this was because of Sudhamoy. In the days when Suronjon’s friends were busy getting clothes tailored in the latest designs, Sudhamoy would bring his son books about the lives of Einstein, Newton and Galileo, the history of the French Revolution, of the Second World War, and the works of Gorky and Tolstoy. Sudhamoy wanted his son to grow up to be the right kind of person. That morning, as he searched for the cat without community or religion, Suronjon wondered whether he had become the right kind of person. He felt no greed, he did not hanker after property or things. He thought more about the good of the community than about benefits for himself. Was this kind of human being the right kind of person? Suronjon began to pace aimlessly in the veranda.

Sudhamoy was reading a newspaper. ‘Suronjon,’ he called out as soon as he saw his son.

‘Yes, what is it?’ Suronjon said and went to stand by his bed.

‘Have you heard that eight people have been arrested in India including Joshi and Advani? More than four hundred people have died there. Kalyan Singh of UP will be tried too. The US and in fact the entire world has condemned the destruction of the Babri Masjid. There’s a curfew at Bhola. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party [BNP], Awami League and many other parties will be taking to the streets to maintain communal harmony. They are making statements too.’

Sudhamoy’s eyes were like the cat’s eyes, full of enchantment.

‘And you know it,’ he continued. ‘Those who are creating the riots are not in tune with their religion. They want to plunder and destroy. Don’t you know why the sweet shops get ravaged? People hanker after sweets. And gold shops too, because of greed for gold. It’s the criminals and hoodlums who are on this spree of loot and plunder. There’s really no conflict between the communities. And look at the surfeit of peace processions! Something good will come of this! In 1990 Ershad fell because of this issue. Suro, Ershad had said that the Hindus would be compensated. Were they?’

‘Have you gone mad, Baba?’

‘I don’t know. I can’t remember things these days. Do you know that the culprits of the Nidarabad murder case will be hanged?’

Suronjon realized that Sudhamoy wanted to say that Hindus did get justice in their country. In the Nidarabad village of Brahmonbaria, Birojabala Debnath and her five children—Niyotibala, Subhash Debnath, Minotibala, Sumon Debnath and Sujon Debnath—had been taken to a pond called Dhopjuri Beel and hacked to pieces. The pieces were put in two large drums and sealed with lime paste and salt and flung into the pond. Eventually the drums had floated up. They had been killed because the killers wanted to avoid punishment for taking over more than three acres of Biroja’s husband Shonkor Debnath’s property and then murdering him. The murderers, Tajul Islam and Chora Badshah, had been sentenced to be hanged to death by the Supreme Court. The verdict was now four months old. Was Sudhamoy bringing it up to console himself? He was trying to tell himself that it was possible for Hindus to get justice in this country. He wanted to say that Hindus and Muslims were equally respected and Hindus were not second-class citizens.

‘Did you go to the procession for communal harmony yesterday, Suronjon? How many people were there?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘All the parties except the Jamaat had taken to the streets, hadn’t they?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘The government is providing police protection, right?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Have you seen the truckloads of police personnel guarding both ends of the Shakhari Bazar area?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘The Hindus have opened their shops again, haven’t they?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Things in Bhola are very bad, aren’t they? Is that really so, Suronjon? Or are the reports exaggerated?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘They probably beat up Goutom because of personal enmity, didn’t they? Did he smoke hashish and such stuff?’