[Reader-list] BANGLADESH: Citizens, Not Enemies

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

"43% of all Hindu households (1.2 million) have been affected by
EPA/VPA. Total area of land lost is 2.01 million acres, which is 5.5%
of Bangladesh's total land mass but 45% of land owned by the Hindu
community. Assuming average market price of land as seen in the year
2007, total value of land lost is BDT 2,416,273 million."

To comment, go here:
http://unheardvoice.net/blog/2008/12/12/vpa/

Citizens, Not Enemies
by Naeem Mohaiemen
Daily Star, December 12, 2008

Debates around religious minorities, in election season and otherwise,
focus on anecdotes and analogies– positive and negative. What is
largely missing in this discussion is quantitative analysis of the
religious minorities status in Bangladesh. The one variation is
Professor Abul Barkat, of the Dhaka University Department of
Economics. Since the 1990s, Barkat along with his large team of
researchers have been applying the methods of economic, statistics and
survey research to compile a comprehensive picture of Hindu community
status since independence of Bangladesh, especially as it has been
impacted by the black law known as Enemy (Vested) Property Act. This
work started with a 1997 book "Political Economy of Vested Property
Act in Rural Bangladesh" and continued through the 2000 book "An
Inquiry into Causes and Consequences of Hindu Minorities in Bangladesh
through the Vested Property Act".

Thus we consider the most significant development in the area of
minority rights was the 2008 publication of Professor Barkat's new
book, which is the result of a mammoth, multi-year study looking at
the impact of VPA on Hindu property from 1965-2007. This study was
organized by ALRD, Nijera Kori and Samata and resulted in the February
publication of "Living With Vested Property" (Abul Barkat, Shafique uz
Zaman, Md. Shahnewaz Khan, Avijit Poddar, Saiful Hoque, and M. Taher
Uddin; Pathak Samabesh Publications, 2008).

The Missing Hindu
In order to quantify the total loss of Hindu population through forced
migration, the study looks at official Population Statistics as well
as Tahsil office records. Hindu population, as share of total
population, has dropped from 18% in 1961 to 12% in 1981 and finally to
9% in 2001. The rate of decline was most pronounced in six districts:
Chandpur, Feni, Jamalpur, Kishoreganj, Kushtia, Pabna and Narayanganj,
In the districts which historically had high Hindu population, the
average decline over forty years was 12%

Looking at the absolute number of Hindu population over forty years is
not sufficient to calculate how many of them have left the country. It
is also necessary to factor in birth rates. Looking at historic data
of lower birth rates among Hindus, Barkat's research assumed 13% lower
fertility rate for Hindus compared to Muslims. Factoring this in, the
Hindu population should have been 11.4 million in 1971, but it was
reported as 9.6 million. By 2001 it should have been 19.5 million, but
it was 11.4 million. Looking at the entire time period and doing the
same calculation, Barkat estimates the total missing Hindu population
from 1964-2001 as 8.1 million, i.e., 218,819 missing Hindus each year.

While there are many factors that may have contributed to this ongoing
hemorrhaging of the Hindu population, the research team argues that
the Vested Property Act is the single largest factor that leads to
minority departure from the country.

Metamorphosis of Vested Property Act
The Vested Property Act started life as "Requisition of Property Act"
(Act XIII of 1948), after 2 million Hindus left East Bengal in
1947-48. Giving the power for takeover of abandoned property "needful
for the purposes of the state", this act has evolved into something
abused by citizen and state from Partition to today's Bangladesh. This
law metamorphopsed into "East Bengal Evacuees Act" (1951), "East
Pakistan Disturbed Persons Rehabilitation Ordinance" (1964), "Enemy
Property Order" (1965), "Bangladesh Vesting of Property and Assets
Order" (1972), and finally "Vested and Non-Resident Property Act"
(1974).

As a result of publication of Barkat's first two studies, and major
campaigning around this issue, the 22d session of National Parliament
under the Awami League government passed Vested Property Return Act
2001. While this was a first milestone, there were several major
flaws: the Act covered only land vested up to February 1969; the
original owner or heir is required to have "continuously" resided in
Bangladesh; and the owner had to submit claims within 90 days of
publication of list of returnable properties.

In November 2002, the BNP-Jamaat alliance government passed an
amendment to the 2001 Act, which removed all enforcing power from this
law. Especially harmful was the clause that gave the government
"unlimited time" to publish the list and enforce return of property.
Since the passage of this amendment, not a single list has been
published, nor any return process initiated in the last six years.

Quantification of Impact
As part of the multi-year study that led to Professor Barkat and his
team's new book, the following data collection instruments were used:
primary data via panel studies of 16 districts, follow-up study on
households surveyed in 1997 study, Population Census, Land Survey,
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics logs, Tahsil and Thana land revenue
records, etc.

Below we present the key findings from the study:
1. 43% of all Hindu households (1.2 million) have been affected by
EPA/VPA. 57% of households that lost land lost an average of 100
decimals. Survey data shows 33% of affluent Hindu families lost land
due to EPA/VPA. 50% of affluent households had at least one close
relative who lost land
2. Total area of land lost is 2.01 million acres, which is 5.5% of
Bangladesh's total land mass but 45% of land owned by the Hindu
community. The survey data shows 22% more land loss than is shown in
the official records. According to survey data, the total land lost is
2.6 million.
3. The type of land lost is typically agricultural (80% of total lost
land), followed by homestead (11%), pond area (1.2%), orchard (1.7%),
and fallow land (0.7%).
4. Assuming average market price of land as seen in the year 2007,
total value of land lost is BDT 2,416,273 million.
5. 53% of incidents of dispossession and 74% of total lost land
occurred between 1965-1971. After lower rates from 1972-1975,
dispossession rates accelerated again from 1975. Even after the
"Repeal Act" was passed in 2001, 8% of dispossession incidents
occurred between 2001-2006.
6. The most typical methods of land grabbing are influential parties
grabbing land in connivance with Tahsin and Thana Revenue Office,
death and/or out-migration of members of the Hindu family used as
excuse to enlist the whole property, grabbing the land by force,
occupying land using forged documents, etc.

In an otherwise academic and scientific study, the author displays a
rare moment of emotion when he states that the Act has worked as an
effective mechanism for "extermination of the Hindu minority from
their motherland."

Professor Barkat is an academic who has put hard statistics around a
complex crisis for the nation's minority community. In this election
season, are there politicians out there who have the courage to make
complete removal of this black law, and return of all land to
dispossessed Hindu families, one of their election manifestos? We're
waiting for a politician with the courage to take that principled
position. Rather than losing votes, it will gain many votes. Above
all, from Bangladesh's millions of secular Muslims who look for a
principled position regarding equal treatment for all citizens.

Naeem Mohaiemen writes on minorities for the Ain o Salish Kendra
Bangladesh Annual Human Rights Report. This text will be part of a
longer chapter in the forthcoming 2008 report.