Ignorance of neighbors is an obstacle to good relations. On that day, a man from West Bengal said that once he came to Dhaka, he saw thousands of girls going to work in the morning garments, while many people in West Bengal thought that religious man were standing at street corners in Dhaka with swords in their hands. Another interesting fact is that once a Bengali professor from Delhi came back from Dhaka and Chittagong and told the classmates that he had talked to many people in Bangladesh, but no one treated him badly even after realizing that he was a Hindu! He was very surprised! In other words, he has assumed that he will be in great danger because of his Hindu identity in Bangladesh, but the danger is far from over. This ignorance about the neighbor is acting as an obstacle in the way of good relations.
The issue of 'illegal Bangladeshis' in Assam is a very old one but the people of Bangladesh are not aware of it at all. For the first time in Bangladesh, this issue came up for discussion during the NRC. Thanks to Altaf Parvez for his excellent work in bringing the allegations of Assam and Delhi to the forefront and for proving that these allegations are political from various Indian sources.
Although India is our neighbor, not all Indian states are neighbors of Bangladesh in the same way, an incident in West Bengal and Assam is likely to affect Bangladesh in the same way that an incident in Kerala or Tamil Nadu is less likely to affect Bangladesh. That is why Altaf Bhai's work on Assam is of special importance.
Although Assam remained an independent territory for about 600 years, the British occupied Assam and annexed it first to Bengal, then some areas of Bengal were annexed to Assam and new provinces were formed and the last British left Assam in the hands of India. The annexation of Assam to independent India in 1947 was a handover from the British, but not by a collective democratic decision of the local people.
Altaf Parvez in his book “Mia Assamese NRC: Racist Hatred in Assam and Bangladesh” raises an important question that if only statistics can be used to say that there was so much Bengali% in so many years, why is there so much% now! One thing cannot be understood in this way. Because the borders of Assam have changed time and time again it has to be taken into consideration. Assam-Bengal has been a country for a long time in history, it has to take into account the new economic activities of Assam, the need to provide food to the workers of the tea industry as well as the locals, the birth rate of the people of Assam has to be taken into consideration. Although a large part of Sylhet was returned in 1947, some areas including Karimganj and Goalpara in greater Rangpur are still with Assam, so these Bengali inhabited areas have to be considered with Assam.
Assam is a region rich in mineral resources, has vast oil and gas reserves, has a 55% share of the Indian tea industry, and is the 19th largest state in India economically. As a result, there was widespread resentment among the Assamese over these inadequacies and inequalities, from which various armed rebel groups were born. The anger that once arose against Delhi has been successfully transformed into anti-Bangladesh anger by Delhi by successfully presenting an 'external' issue. Once upon a time there was a 'foreign' issue in the campaign. Nepal, Bangladesh, Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal were on the list of 'foreigners'. Became a 'Bangladeshi Muslim' - in this way, Delhi gradually aimed at Bangladesh!
At one point in the book, the word 'Jamiat' has become 'Jamaat', although it is a spelling mistake, but there is a big difference between Jamiat and Jamaat. Regarding the cabinet mission plan, the author says that Jinnah accepted the cabinet mission plan and the Congress also accepted it early. But it would have been better to mention that the Congress later withdrew from the cabinet mission. At a press conference in Bombay, Nehru signaled his departure from the Cabinet Mission Plan, and in response, Suhrawardy announced that he would take Pakistan's demand forward by observing Direct Action Day.
Lastly, I would say that the more we know about our neighbors, the healthier we become. It is not a good sign that there is no good relationship based on conjecture, nor is it a good sign to be unaware of what is going on with me in the neighboring state. Mainstream Bangladesh.
Nice