India-Bangladesh: Of Shared History and conjoined Future

“Both the communities (Hindu and Muslim) love Hindi serials and movies; but whenever something happens in India, reverberations are felt here in Bangladesh.”

This simple statement coming from the priest of temple in Sylhet underlines the intertwined fate of the people of the two countries that were part of the same political entity once upon a time. It was this intrigue that lured me to travel to Bangladesh in this sweltering motherless heat. After fending off the questioning looks of friends and family members, as I applied for visa I was confronted with the familiar question – “Why Bangladesh?” I said, “Tourism.” The official looked unconvinced but I was not denied the visa.

Apart from tourism was motivated me to go to Bangladesh that I wanted to visit a land which was within India not even a century ago. And since a visa to Pakistan will be hard come by, considering my family’s history deeply steeped in Indian defence forces, I zeroed in on Bangladesh. The circuit of Shillong-Kolkata-Agartala-Dhaka was prepared. I intended to enter Dhaka by the land route in Agartala and Tripura’s capital proved to be acclimatizing as the mercury was soaring very high.

Also the ambitious Agartala-Dhaka bus service, started in 2015 and that was supposed to be daily has been reduced to thrice a week owing to the scarcity of passengers. So decision was taken to cross the border by foot. Indo-Bangladesh border is quite unlike the famous Wagah border between India-Pakistan. Here the Border Security Personal themselves dissuade people from jingoistic sloganeering during the flag down ceremony. So I crossed the Indo-Bangladesh border by foot, took a CNG (as Bangladeshis call their autos) to Akhoura and thereafter a bus to the capital city of Dhaka. By now the double whammy of heat and humidity had raided my energy reservoirs; and I was lulled into a slumber in the “First Class Bus”. First Class in Bangladesh does not mean air conditioned, mind you.

Indo-Bangladesh Border in Agartala. The SSP run Cafe has some amazing Motichoor ke ladoo.

Dhaka Darshan

The next two days in Dhaka were a nightmare. All efforts of seeing the city were thwarted by the traffic. I managed to visit Sonargaon (The Golden City), the administrative and commercial centre of pre-British rulers. The city finds mentions in the travel memoirs of Ibn Batuta and Ralph Fitch It also has Panam City which houses a cluster of around 52 mansions inspired from European architecture and built in the 19^th century and that was housed by the Hindu cloth merchants. But today an eerie silence is shouts from their locked premises. World’s Monument Fund has put it under the 100 most endangered sites. 

The lane of Panam City in Sonargaon

The dilapidated house tells a tale of a rich past.

The other thing I managed see was the Liberation War Museum that was to provide a sneak peek into the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation movement, where Indian Army fought alongside the Bangladeshi Liberation Army named “Mukti Bahini” and after a brief war the then East Pakistan was liberated. The museum was not curated well enough, but apparently a new one is being under construction.

Behind the locked doors lie some of the beautiful designed homes that I have come across in my life.

A double-decker bus gifted by India to Bangladesh to ease the traffic woes in the Capital City of Dhaka.

Sylhet

The next stop on the itinerary was Sylhet, in the north east of the country surrounded by beautiful tea estates and hills. The city is also source of a staggering number of Non-Resident Bangladeshis and also contribute a major portion of the country’s remittances. It seemed more diverse religiously as one could see many temples and idols of Goddess Kali and her consort Shiva being sold on pavements. It was a day prior to the Bengali New Year and I entered a temple looking more like an armoured bunker. I was immediately identifiable as a stranger as despite my efforts to look like a local, my lack of a stole gave my identity away. After few queries I was ushered into the room of the head priest.

“When Babri Masjid was demolished in 1992, our temples were razed to ground here. This temple was demolished completely, lots of Hindus were killed. We collected funds and have rebuilt it. And the strong grills around the temple are for protection,” the priest said, without wanting to be named. “Whenever something (a riot/a conflict between Hindus and Muslims) happens in India we are targeted here,” said Bacchu (second name is withheld). Come May and he will leave for US along with 22 other members of his family. 

Found Rabindra Nath Tagore in the lanes of Sylhet. Only person who has given words to the national anthem of two countries

According to census Hindus were 13.5 percent of Bangladeshi population in 1974, they have been reduced to 9.2 percent as per the 2001 census. A large number of Bangladeshi Hindus had fled the country following Partition in 1947 (in 1941 Hindus formed 28 percent of Bangladeshi population). In 1965 as India-Pakistan came to war, the Pakistani authorities labelled Hindus in what was then called East Pakistan as “Enemy” and the state expropriated their properties. 

During the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Sylhet was a major theatre of War. It was the scene of the first heliborne operation of the Indian Air Force in Sylhet and valour with which the 4/5 Gorkha Rifles won the day for the Indian Army in the Battle of Sylhet. The travel to Bangladesh has been turning into this walk down the lanes of History and a feeling grows in me that the two countries despite their births post-independence continue to be linked through an umbilical cord. They continue to define themselves on the basis of the other. 

After celebrating the Bengali New Year in Dhaka with delectable Hilsa I bid goodbye to the country. Until next time…