Our Politics of Dispossession- part 5

Decoding communal intent
Many who wish to deny the existence of specific religious discrimination argue that incidents of harassment, looting, rape, etc. occur against all impoverished communities in Bangladesh. However, it is clear that even within a dire rights scenario, the religious minorities continue to be the most vulnerable. The challenge with decoding communal intent behind attacks is that press coverage is too meagre to draw a full picture. However, in cases where there is sustained reporting, it is often revealed that land-grabbing is a primary motive, and thus we return to Enemy/Vested Property Act as a root cause.

Attempts to grab land are usually accompanied by violence, as in the Ishyarganj case where the family of goldsmith Amal Roy was kept confined in their own home for almost a year by attacks from neighbours over a land dispute. In Rupganj, local thugs demanded Shadeb Roy sell his land to them and "move to India." The murder of a Buddhist nun in Rangamati in Chittagong Hill Tracts was also reported to be in connection with a land dispute.

Raj Aniket/ Driknews

In Ulipur, an acre of land belonging to the family of Upanendranath Sarkar was grabbed in defiance of a court order . Even media visibility was not sufficient protection, as attempts were made to grab land belonging to Janakantha journalist Niranjan Pal and famed columnist and economist Birupakkha Pal .

Other incidents of land-grabbing were reported at Shahjadpur temple and against thirty bigha of land belonging to heirs of Uma Rani Sarkar in Ghatkoir village, Naogaon. In another incident in Naogaon, newspapers reported that the local Jamaat e Islami leader was attempting to grab the land of Ananda Kuma Sheel of Komorpur village, Badalgachi Upazila.

Again in Shahjahanpur Upazila under Bogra, Jamaat leader Azadur Rahman targeted the land of Swapan Kumar Kundu, at one point removing all fences around the property to begin a process of "land swallowing." However, as Barakat's research has shown, all political party affiliated local leaders, not just Jamaat-e-Islami, have benefited from Hindu land- grabbing.

The footprint of the VPA can be seen in targeting of Hindu land as more vulnerable to legal maneuvers. If a frightened family does flee to India (or anywhere else), the "continuous" living condition is broken, and the land can be grabbed (even under the Vested Property Repeal Act, which maintains this clause).

Thus, in Kaliakoir, land belonging to several Hindu families including Paritosh Chandra Sarkar were targeted by local leader Hazrat Ali, who threatened physical violence and ordered the families to again "go to India."

In Keraniganj, the remnant of a structure of a two hundred year old Parshanath temple was obliterated by what the newspapers described as "land pirates." Working over a period of few years, the miscreants have gradually removed bricks from the temple (which may even fetch a price in the stolen artifacts market) and have now started using Vested Property claims to occupy the land.

As a result of the publication of Barakat's book, and press reports on the startling numbers on "missing Hindus" and "lost land," there was also an increase in press reporting on minority land loss in 2008. A Prothom Alo investigation revealed that in the case of the three-acre water land belonging to the zamindar family of Pran Gobinda Chowdhury, the land has been illegally occupied since 2003 by local politicians, through forged documents prepared by land administration officials with help of people in the zila administrative headquarters.

Amirul Rajiv

An Ittefaq investigation uncovered that over 11,300 acres of land in Jessore had been grabbed as vested property. Since 2002, a large amount of this land went under the control of a political family linked to a powerful minister in the BNP-Jamaat government. This individual political family had taken control of Sadar Police Fari, HMM Road's belt-bag corner, Modern Building, Laldighi Par Government Building, Jessore College building on RN Road, JP office Gohata Road, Daratana Siddik Bakery building, Jhinedar Beel, Ghop Nowapara Saline project, Shammiloli School Shaheed Minar square, a fifty year old gymnasium, etc.

In another investigation, Jugantor revealed that of 30,000 acres of land officially appropriated by the Chittagong land administration as "vested property" (not counting land privately grabbed by individuals), only 5,000 acres were actually under government control and rest had been occupied by "unknown parties." While media reporting still remains sporadic, these occasional news reports do begin to generate focus and mass awareness around these issues.

Looking ahead
Professor Abul Barakat assisted in drafting the economic recommendations of the Awami League's election manifesto. It appears that he is part of the "brains trust" that may be guiding the party's economic policy in the first hundred days of 2009. Given his past focus on VPA/EPA, and the reference to the matter in the AL manifesto, we hope for a quick resolution of this matter in 2009.

Not simply in enforcing the 2001 Repeal Act, but also in amending the key flaws in that act (continuous stay, post-1969 land, financial compensation for non-recuperable land, etc.).

Given the nature of the 2008 election, especially the defeat of the primary religion-based party, and election of fourteen MPs from minority community, there are progressive voices calling for steps to reinforce the secular concept of 1971. However, some of these steps will be challenging and complex.

By contrast, Vested Property Act is a situation where no one can deny the statistical evidence of economic damage, nor can any argument be marshaled for preventing redress. Immediate and full repeal of this black law, return of all vested land, and compensation to claimants can bring practical economic justice to 1.2 million affected households. Economic parity, rather than platitudes and slogans, is the priority for citizens of diverse ethno-religious backgrounds.

Naeem Mohaiemen (naeem. Mohaiemen@gmail.com) works on art, technology & activist projects. Excerpts from this essay appear in the 2008 Ain o Salish Kendra Annual Human Rights report (askbd.org).