We, the secularists

Updated on: 13 August,2009 07:36 AM IST |
Daipayan Halder |

My friend M teaches Victorian literature at a Kolkata college

We, the secularists

My friend M teaches Victorian literature at a Kolkata college. He's also a poet, a singer, and a renowned speaker. A bhadralok. M, by his own admission, is a secular fundamentalist. "All communalists should be banished," he hyperventilates.

It was such sincerity towards the secular cause that made me point out that next time M visits Dhaka, he should also talk about forced conversion and communal violence in Bangladesh. My Facebook friend Richard Benkin, an independent human rights activist in Bangladesh, has been filling me with horror stories about the persecution of Hindus.

A recent case involves a Hindu woman named Koli Goswami. She was abducted from home and forcibly converted. Yet, the Bangladeshi police have denied that any crime was committed; which allows the perpetrators to roam free. Such atrocities are commonplace in Bangladesh, Benkin says. So are rapes and murders. "You must stand up for the Bangladeshi Hindu population," I told M.u00a0

"It's a contentious issue. We need to get our facts right. Sometimes things are blown out of proportion," M mumbled. So much for secularism.

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