Time to take a stand
WHAT next -- Aparajayo Bangla? The Shaheed Minar? The Smriti Shoudho? Wait, what happens to all those "statues" in our temples and churches? What is at stake here is not only the future of these important monuments to our history and our faiths, but the daily rituals that constitute our way of life.
The agitation which culminated in the removal of the five baul sculptures in front of Zia International Airport strikes at the heart of a society built on the foundations of religious tolerance that has developed over a thousand years of adaptation of a diverse set of cultural and religious practices.
The Islamists have already threatened to shut down Pahela Baishakh and they came mighty close by bombing the Ramna Batamul in 2002. Who knows what or who they are going to attack next.
If we are to believe Fazlul Haque Amini, the head of the IOJ and a group that calls itself the Islamic Law Implementation Committee, then don't expect to see any of this when Islamists take over. Most people say, well, they will never take over. Fine. But, the problem is that they don't have to. They are being handed out favours for free.
The government's concession to the Islamists on Wednesday is part of a larger victory for the hard-liners hell-bent on transporting Bangladesh back to the middle ages in the Middle East. What's worse, the middle ages in the Middle East were perhaps more tolerant and liberal than the society envisioned by these radical Islamists in Bangladesh.
This government, along with its democratic and non-democratic predecessors, has consistently conceded and cravenly acquiesced to the slightest and strangest demands made by Islamist fringe groups who seemingly pull more weight than the vast majority here who do not prescribe to their radical agenda.
This has been facilitated by an appeasement policy run by mainstream political parties. The governing principle apparently being that appeasing the hard-line Islamists, along with a nominal number of arrests, would repel the greater threat of terrorism.
But, even though they object to the full installation of the Islamist agenda, in the long run, by conceding these ostensibly small but significant defeats, the appeasers are conceding and participating in the slow but steady erosion of the tolerant and secular soul of Bengali culture.
This practice of Islamising Bangladesh (and, that too, a narrow interpretation of Islam that is peddled for political ends) at the cost of a secular society is not new. In the 1970s and 1980s, this was represented by the changes in constitution. In the last decade, the attacks have become more bold, more outrageous, and more violent.
Successive governments have not only maintained silence about these attacks, but at times actively encouraged the attacks on other religious communities and secular intellectuals.
The last BNP-led government not only silenced but arrested journalists for publishing news on the violence against Hindu communities in 2001-2002. The same government banned Ahmadiyya religious texts, and also tacitly encouraged the attack on the Ahmadiyya community by the same group that tore down the baul statues. The attackers of Humayun Azad were never really chased.
This isn't really unexpected in a country when most politicians and administrators refer to it as a "moderate Muslim nation." How the country became a "Muslim" nation, no one knows. But in reality it has and it's not far from the truth. But to call it moderate? Please!
The double standards here are farcical. The Election Commission has been haranguing over the need for religion-based parties to adapt secular constitutions. Every time the government needs a cultural symbol, it boasts of the grand historical achievements of the country's writers, playwrights, artists, singers and (surprise!) baul music.
Yet, when push came to shove, the government didn't waste a second to dispense with the country's pride and joy when pushed by the Islamists.
The fact that Wednesday's event took place in front of the airport takes on added significance because the location offers the visitor his or her first impression of Bangladesh.
The signs and symbols leading out of the airport are meant to showcase the best of Bangladesh. Instead, the statue-wreck outside the airport showcases the worst of a country at war with itself.
Wednesday's event is scarily reminiscent of the Pakistani government ban on Rabindranath Tagore in the 1960s. He wasn't Islamic enough, they said. Now after nearly 50 years, people are again being provided a false choice of Bengali versus Islam.
It's a false choice because Bengal, and later Bangladesh, has seamlessly combined religious and cultural practices. One of its richest and most potent expressions is found in baul philosophy, which espouses religious tolerance and the power of humanity to heal the wounds of religious divisions. That's why the demolition of baul figures is a potent reminder of our larger threats.
The artists and intellectuals who came to protest in the aftermath of the demolition need to be lauded for their efforts. They are rare and courageous at a time when the government has wilted in the face of fear.
But, sadly, this is not enough. The calling to act is an agonising and dangerous vocation in Bangladesh. We don't have to act with guns or platitudes. If they take down one statue, we must erect another ten as symbols of our firm dissent when faced with fear.
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