Why our Lives not Matter? Our Lives since Noakhali Genocide of 1946 of Colonial British India
Human Rights of Indigenous Minorities
The 2nd ANNUAL ICHRRF (International
Committee for Human Rights and Religious Freedom) CONVENTION ON FORGOTTEN
GENOCIDES at George Mason University organized by ICHRRF was led by Dr.
Adityanjee. There were twenty-two eminent speakers. Three individuals spoke on
atrocities against indigenous Hindu minorities in Bangladesh starting in pre-1947
British colonial era including Prof. Dr. Dwijen Bhattacharjya and Mrs. Priya Saha. Other genocide discussion included Hindus, Muslims,
Christians, Yazidis, and in Rwanda/Burundi’s Tutsi genocide, Hindu-Sikh-Christian
genocide of Pakistan, sexual atrocities of Hindu girls in Pakistan, Portuguese
atrocities in Goa, Uighur genocide and women’s oppression of China, Roma
Genocide and some others, but ignored by the Western and Eastern media and
politicians.
ICHRRF, the International
Commission for Human Rights and Religious Freedom, is a US-based non-profit
focused on promoting human rights, religious and philosophical freedom and a
polycentric worldview through continuous monitoring, education, policy research
and collaboration. (www.ichrrf.org) Below is one of the presentations.
********
Why our Lives not Matter? Our Lives since Noakhali Genocide of 1946 of Colonial British India
Prof. Dr. Sachi G. Dastidar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus, State University of New York Founder, Probini Foundation educating the Poor and the Orphaned, N.Y.; Founder, South Asia Forum, U.S.A.; Founder, ISPaD: Indian Subcontinent Partition Documentation Project, N.Y.; Founder, Nassau (County) Pathshala (School), NY
I thank Dr. Adityanji and ICHRRF for
the forum on indigenous Hindus or Indians as we never protected our families unlike
rest of the world. It is a life-churning issue, highlighted in many of my books
and writings. I wish there were more scholars like him with unified Hindu or
Indian identity, not a sectorial one. This is very important because we are
breaking our fatalistic-tolerant-indigenous-suicidal-coward-divisive identity.
Our wholistic identity is necessary for progress. I have received threats for
defending our people, and for opposing our extermination. Luckily my family and
friends support me, including secular Muslims. In decades of work, I can go for
long time, but I won’t. Thus, when Hindus are killed in Bangladesh, Tamils,
Assamese or Marathas say it is Bengalis being killed, not Hindus, or when they
are exterminated in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bhutan, Burma, Tibet, Afghanistan we
say the same. To me it is extremely sad and self-destructive.
One
more thing as to why our genocides and pogroms do not get world attention because
India is the only surviving indigenous culture. Monotheistic Christianity,
Buddhism, Islam and atheists get together and defend each other, but sole polytheistic
tradition has no defender.
Growing
up in a refugee family in Kolkata in 1960s we supported Left, but I realized our
racism after visits to our and their homeland in Bangladesh. This was true for
parties on the Right. Can I ask how many of you know that there are 50-60
million Bengali Hindu refugees in India, and West Bengal and Tripura states are
run by East Pakistani-Bangladeshi-Hindu-Refugee Indians? We call them Bangal
or East Bengali or Refugee. I evolved into the issue, as I visited our
homeland and wrote about my experience and our hypocrisy. My parents were
highly educated. In 1919 Ma stood first in school exam in today’s Bangladesh,
and got the highest number in Bengali at college-level joint exam in today’s
Bangladesh and West Bengal combined in 1934 – with more population than U.S –
winning two medals.[1]
Dad graduated possibly in the first batch of Dhaka University in 1920s, then
got engineering degree from Britain, yet had no money to send me to school for
the first 4 years, as they had to take care of refugee families of uncles,
aunts, grandparents and more. My wife’s mother died because of Partition as
they came to India when my wife was a toddler. Her early-teen sister became
mother of the family remaining bachelorette. This was very normal for refugee
families. I will end the painful topic with positive note. After our first
visit in 1982 we started to build schools-dorms-orphanages run by oppressed
minority. Muslims didn’t want to take help from kefirs.
1919 British Era Gold Medal for Mrs. Nihar Kana Ghosh
Mass
killing started by British oppressors in 1943-44 Churchill’s Bengal Famine. 3
to 7 million died during a bumper crop season when he took all crops out of the
country and destroyed over 65,000 boats in the world’s largest delta to punish
Bengal and India. [2]
Another genocide started in 1946 in Noakhali district of Bengal, killing and abducting thousands of Hindu mothers and daughters. Gandhiji went to stop that but failed to recover any. I interviewed the person who went with Gandhiji to be a Gujarati-Bengali interpreter for 46 days of walking mission. Interview is on YouTube. Why our schools in India do not teach British oppression, Noakhali genocide and more? Tyrants censored it, but why free India is doing that? I understand that my maternal grandma, grandpa, two uncles spent over 17 years in British prison as they marched for India’s freedom, but when they entered India penniless and homeless from East Pakistan, they couldn’t receive any help from India because of racist Nehru-Liaquat Treaty, that denied Bengali refugees any help, for which two Bengali M.P.s Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherji and Mr. K.C. Neogy resigned. Dr. Mukherji was prisoned and lost his life in Kashmir under Nehru.
Swami Purmatmananda assistant of Gandhiji in 1946 Swami Purnamatananda-ISPaD Interview (youtube.com)
My journey deepened as we
started Probini Foundation to help the poor and the orphaned in Bangladesh,
then in West Bengal, Assam and Mizoram. We have built 14 schools, dorms and
orphanages in Bangladesh and 2 more for the oppressed Buddhists in Christian
Mizoram. PROBINI
FOUNDATION with ISPaD: PARTITION DOCUMENTATION PROJECT: 2024
(empireslastcasualty2.blogspot.com) Would you believe that
Christian Mizoram drove quarter of her population to Tripura state because they
didn’t convert, and even today don’t allow buying property in capital city by
non-converts. Empire's
Last Casualty: Tuichawng, Mizoram, India (empireslastcasualty.blogspot.com) Let
me invite you to join our Partition Documentation Project. Please write for our
journal and newsletter, confront censorship of destruction of our families,
homes, and shrines. Milita is translating another of my books in Bengali.
Please send your address and email to Partition Center.
I want to share a few slides to show what I have seen through my own eyes to cover such a vast world-neglected issue, but more importantly, censored by Hindus, Indians, Muslim majority nations, the world, even by sheltered victims in India, Left and Right.
Bengal’s Hindu Holocaust: Partition of India and Its Aftermath, India; 2021
Would you be surprised if I tell you that over 3.1 million Hindus have been killed since Bengal’s partition in 1947? Or, would you be surprised if I tell you that over 50 million indigenous Hindus are missing from East Pakistan-Bangladesh from 1941 to 2001 census? By 2024, it is easily over 60 million cleansed. There are more write ups of our oppression by Muslims in Bangladesh, than in India or West Bengal or America!
Would you be surprised if I tell you that every single nation around India – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Tibet – has killed and/or cleansed its indigenous minority without any protest from us, and at times minority Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Muslims for India. This is awful. Do you know that the first Left Government in West Bengal was headed by Hindu refugees had Muslim League Party member – promoter of Partition and ethnic cleansing of Hindus and other minorities, but no one from Hindu party who struggled for united India was asked to join! Can you tell me if India has any party with Hindu name? Do you know that large number of Muslims from Bangladesh get Indian document, including the 6 killers of a Bangladesh senator who was slaughtered in Kolkata recently? I had individuals who visited me in India from Bangladesh without visa. Do you know minority Christians and illegal migrants are killing Hindus in Manipur state in Northeast India?
Ethnic Indigenous Cleansing for India by Nations all around India
All neighbors cleansed
its indigenous people by calling them Hindu and driving to India, by default
India has become a Hindu nation. I want a secular nation as Hinduism is a
secular, pluralistic, tolerant tradition. Hindus ignored science of “To every
action there is an equal and opposite reaction,” and old Sanskrit guidance, “shathey
shattam samacharet.”
Life changes when you see
through your own eyes:
Destroyed Cremation Area, 1992, Bangladesh, one of six I Witnessed
Complete Destruction site of the Temple. 100 Poor Hindu Priests, Nuns, and Devotees were Slaughtered, then Burned Alive at 9th Century Ramna Mandir Temple and Ma Anandamoyee Ashram, Dhaka City Destroyed in 1971 by Islamic Republic of Pakistan Army
A Dirt-poor Mrs. Birajbala Debnath
Family of 7 Slaughtered into Pieces at Brahmanbaria, eastern Bangladesh, while
Others Watched as they Didn’t Give up their small Home and Flee to India
Visited Hundreds of Indigenous pre-Islam Hindu homes Burned to Nothing
Abhoy Ashram, Comilla after 1992
Pogrom. Hundreds of Temples and Ashrams Destroyed
In
the midst of pogroms, I was able to find some life turning events. So, I would
end with those positive notes. I started this journey with my wife and babies,
that helped me a lot. In addition, we were never afraid of Islamists, and in
every situation in Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka or Burma we never hid our
identity. We found great locals.
The extermination of Bangladeshi Hindus is unparalleled in human history, yet rarely mentioned in Bengal, India, and the world. Why? After 1971 Dhaka University’s Hindu Jagannath Hall massacre in East Pakistan by the Army of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and its Bengali allies, 3 million were killed in Bangladesh in only 9 months, a very high killing rate. Yet, no Pakistani or Islamist was tried. Why didn’t we ask for it? Pakistan, Muslim-majority nations, U.K., Canada and the U.S. gave asylum to mass Hindu killers. Our Nixon Administration sent U.S. Navy to Bay of Bengal to support Hindu genocide. Should we forget that? Why no one protested? I call this our disease and polytheistic amnesia as most of the victims are indigenous Hindu minority. We did not and do not protest. Sad! Shocking! I am very glad that you are doing this. Why are we different from living animals? Even a docile cow fights back if you take her calf, but we do not, and dogs, pigeons, snakes fight back. I am inspired by your fight. Most Bangladeshi secular Muslims are demanding 1971 genocide recognition. Why not us? I have written from presidents to ministers to editors to politicians about that. I testified in Congress twice.
Names
of 64 Hindu Students of Dhaka University Hostel killed by Army of Islamic
Republic of Pakistan and their Bengali Islamist allies starting the 1971
Genocide
Over
100 Poor Hindu Devotees Murdered by Army of Islamic Republic and Bengali
Islamists at Ramna Kali Temple. Dr. Malek’s, a Muslim, report Details the Unbelievable
Brutality
There
are lots of outsiders who are with us. On last August 18, 2023 we rebuild a
1700s Kali Temple in Bangladesh destroyed in 1950s. We are pleased to inform
you that the project has received 30 donations from Americans, Indians,
Bangladeshis, Bangladeshi Hindu refugees, Singaporean, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim,
and Christian supporters.[3]
Destroyed 1700s Shrine of Ma Kali (Black Mother)
Here
are few examples of positive development in the midst of sectarian oppression:
Dedication of Mother’s Shrine
Rededication of 1500s Temple in 1987
Building a Student Hostel at SriRamKathi
Monk Nayan's Orphanage Ashram, Netrokona, Bangladesh built by Probini Foundation
U.S. Consul General Hon. Lee Alison Sibley & Wife at the Orphanage in southern Calcutta at Probini's Invitation. Dr. Shefali Sengupta Dastidar, Probini Co-Founder of N.Y. is in the Middle.
Assam Buddhist Vihar School and Orphanage, India. Probini is Supporting Teachers and Students
Mizoram School Students, Faculty, and guest S G Dastidar
Student Hostel at Madaripur with Donation from Hispanic Student Association of the State University of New York at Old Westbury
Peshawar, Pakistan pre-Islamic Hindu Shiv Temple Restoration by local Muslims, 2008, with Author’s Moral Support sought by NW Frontire Province Citizens
Mahatma (Great Soul) Dr. Sabyasachi Ghosh Dastidar Sanskrit College Building at Malikanda, Uzirpur, Bangladesh,
named by Locals without Informing Him
I
believe we must establish full rights everywhere. We must have coalition. Just
doing Puja is not enough for me. Even in puja nobody gives a sermon to tell us
what the puja means, unlike sermons in synagogue, church, masjid and Vihar.
Please
inform the media like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, NY Times, Wash Post, BBC, PBS, Amanpour,
etc. to address our pain without censorship.
Empire’s Last Casualty: Indian Subcontinent’s Vanishing Hindu and Other Minorities, 2008
By
the way recently some folks took revenge on me by destroying my laptop, then
our Partition Center web, then stealing my iPhone, then censoring me from
Facebook for my post of rededication of destroyed temple. In 1990s I was
attacked by a New York Muslim radio operator for helping oppressed minorities
as he said “Your parents were driven out and you are Indian, so why are you
helping minority Hindus? No Hindu does that.” Dr Dwijen Bhattacharya went and
confronted him in his radio station. Plus, we need more brave persons like Mrs.
Priya Saha who complained directly to President Trump, but paid heavily for
that, and Mr. Rajiv Verma of Texas, is a non-refugee or Bengali who invited me
to present my book, followed by others. This was a huge break, like ICHRRF, who
broke our narrow identity. Please thank them.[4] [5]
Presentation at New Jersey, U.S.A.
Book
Reading at Texas
Please
protest, share with world media, politicians and intelligentsia in multiple
languages. Always ask for return of all refugees like us. Help the oppressed. I
will be happy to answer any question.
Let me end by inviting
you to join Partition Center’s annual forum on Sunday, October 19 at 10:30 am
in New York:
1. We
also rebuild a 1500s Sri Bishnu Temple destroyed in 1950s.
2. I
helped rebuild by Muslims a pre-Islamic Shiv Temple in Pakistan.
3. Please
visit the oppressed. It gives them strength.
Recently we established two Scholarship Funds to help the extremely poor
to be run by a Bangladeshi Swamiji. We are raising funds for our next
endowments for the poor.
4.
In Bangladesh we helped another monk to build a Hospital and Senior Center.
6.
We want to build a Partition Museum. Please help us. Namaskar. Thank you. Let me quickly walk you
through my slides.
Reference:
Dastidar Sachi G., Empire’s
Last Casualty: Indian Subcontinent’s Vanishing Hindu and Other Minorities,
Firma KLM Publishers, Kolkata (Calcutta), India, 2008
_____ Bengal’s Hindu Holocaust:
The Partition of India and Its Aftermath, Garuda Publisher, Delhi,
India, 2001
_____ Mukti: Free to be Born
Again – Partitions of Indian Subcontinent, Islamism, Hinduism, Leftism and
Liberation of the Faithful, Author House, U.S. 2021 and Tranquil, U.S.,
2024.
_____ Memories of Homeland:
Refugees of 1947 Bengal Partition in India, with Dr. Shefali S.
Dastidar, Firma KLM Publishers, Kolkata, India; October 2015
____ Living among the
Believers: Stories from the Holy Land down the Ganges, Firma KLM
Publishers, Kolkata (Calcutta) 2006
____ "Ai Bangla Oi
Bangla" (This Bengal That Bengal) in weekly Desh, August 15,
1989
[1]
See https://empireslastcasualty2.blogspot.com/2024/07/endowments-for-poor-donated-by-probini.html
[2] Empire’s
Last Casualty: Indian Subcontinent’s Vanishing Hindu and Other Minorities,
Firma KLM Publishers, Kolkata (Calcutta)2008
[3]
Work to help the poor: PROBINI
FOUNDATION with ISPaD: PARTITION DOCUMENTATION PROJECT: 2024
(empireslastcasualty2.blogspot.com)
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