Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Background of Bihari in Bangladesh

Many people in the world are citizens of nowhere. They cannot vote. They cannot own property or obtain a passport. The Biharis of Bangladesh are one such stateless population. There are currently 250,000 to 300,000 stateless Biharis in Bangladesh. Because they were part of the opposition to Bangladesh's independence movement, they were stripped of their citizenship and now reside in sixty-six camps throughout the country.

The Biharis have three of the four characteristics that encourage future protest: significant political restrictions; Bangladesh's short history of democratic rule; and support from kindred groups such as the Mohajirs in Pakistan. It remains to be seen if mounting Bihari frustration coupled with continuing Pakistani intransigence will lead to a new violent phase in the Bihari struggle for repatriation. Bangladesh has generally been indifferent to the plight of the Biharis; however, in recent years it has actively pressed Pakistan to repatriate the stranded Pakistanis. A minority of Biharis recently applied for Bangladeshi citizenship, and was successful, but many others still lobby to return to Pakistan. Some experts believe that there is a generational gap within the community, with younger Biharis seeking to settle in Bangladesh. The Biharis, who are also referred to as the Stranded Pakistanis, are urban dwellers who reside in some 66 camps throughout Bangladesh. They have lived in these camps since the early 1970s after the Pakistani civil war led to the creation of Bangladesh.
In pre-independence India, the Biharis were an Urdu-speaking Muslim minority in the Hindu region of Bihar. In 1947, at the time of partition, the Biharis moved to what was then East Pakistan. When civil war broke out between East and West Pakistan, the Biharis, who consider themselves Pakistani, sided with West Pakistan. In 1971, however, East Pakistan became the independent state of Bangladesh. The Biharis were left behind as the Pakistani army and civilians evacuated and found themselves unwelcome in both countries. Pakistan feared a mass influx of Biharis could destabilize a fragile and culturally mixed population, and Bangladesh scorned the Biharis for having supported the enemy.

The Biharis share a common religion with the majority Muslim population. However, they speak multiple languages including Urdu and Bengali and have different social customs than the dominant Bengalis.
The residence of the Biharis in present-day Bangladesh is the result of the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent and the creation of India and Pakistan. At that time, around one million Biharis migrated from India to East Pakistan. The Biharis were a skilled workforce who could speak Urdu, the official language of Pakistan, and thus they were able to fill key bureaucratic and private sector positions in East Pakistan. The Bengalis of East Pakistan, resentful of West Pakistani domination, turned their hostility toward the Bihari community. During the East Pakistani struggle for independence in 1970-71, the Biharis sided with the West Pakistanis and some Biharis joined armed movements to support them.
Following India's military intervention which helped to ensure the creation of Bangladesh, clashes between the Biharis and Bangladeshis ensued. The Biharis were stripped of their properties, several thousand were jailed, and the majority was to reside in camps in urban centers. The Biharis chose to move to Pakistan as their cultural ties were closer with the West Pakistanis. Pakistan initially agreed to the repatriation and some 163,000 Biharis were resettled in Pakistan by 1981.
Developments within Pakistan have severely limited any further repatriation. The Biharis are primarily Urdu-speakers like the Mohajir community that resides in Pakistan's Sindh province. Violent disputes between the Mohajirs and the Sindhi-speakers in Pakistan led the Pakistani government to fear that any future repatriation would tip the balance in favor of the Urdu-speakers and spark further violent unrest in Sindh province. As a result, successive Pakistani government has shown a great deal of reluctance to accept Biharis as citizens. The Stranded Pakistanis are at risk as they are subject to discrimination; they are disadvantaged due to past discrimination; and they support political organizations that advocate greater group rights.

It has been almost three decades since the Biharis were first installed in the 66 camps throughout Bangladesh. They suffer from severe demographic stress. Conditions in the camps are dismal as public health facilities such as clean water and sanitation are very limited and restrictions on employment have led the Biharis to suffer from food shortages. Government policy ensures that they are not allowed to freely reside in other areas of the country.
The Biharis are considered as stateless as most have neither Bangladeshi nor Pakistani citizenship. As a result, they are denied basic political rights such as the right to vote and recruitment to the civil service, police, military, and political office. These political restrictions severely limit the group's economic opportunities and continue to perpetuate their poverty and under representation.

Most Biharis are still seeking repatriation to Pakistan but there is a growing minority that has resigned itself to living in Bangladesh and is thus seeking Bangladeshi citizenship. In 2001, a small group filed a case in the Bangladesh High Court seeking the right to vote, which was granted in 2003. While this represented the first time that Biharis have been recognized as citizens of Bangladesh, it remains to be seen whether a greater number of the community will seek the same status. It is also unclear whether the Bangladesh government is willing to accept them, as talks have been held between the Bangladesh and Pakistani government on the issue. Economic concerns are also a major issue as their lack of citizenship restricts the types of employment they are able to obtain.The group is represented by conventional organizations that promote group interests. The major organizations include the Nasim and Ejaz factions of the Stranded Pakistanis General Rehabilitation Committee (SPGRC) and the Committee for Rehabilitation of Non-Bengalis in Bangladesh. The majority of group members support these organizations. The Biharis are a strong identity group that has not experienced any intragroup violence since the early 1990s .They are politically supported by the major Mohajir party in Pakistan, the MQM, and the camps in which they reside are partially funded by the Saudi-based NGO, the Rabita Alam Al-Islami.

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