Raj Ramalgun article : "Dénonçons le massacre des innocents en Palestine, Ukraine et celui des minorités partout dans le monde, mais pourquoi ne parle-t-on pas avec le même sens d’indignation et de la compassion sur ce qui se passe contre les minorités hindoues, boudhistes, chrétiennes et même les Ahmadis au Bangladesh en ce moment?.........."
Rattan Chand
My comments :Yes Raj, because this is the way we have been moulded by our ethnic politics and socialisation and even in the display of our Mauritianess- we tend to be a fake Mauritian national but true ethnic Mauritian. It is a reflection of the strains of a multiracial society, of living the daily stress of the “Us v/s Them” mentality ? -typical of the schizophrenic personalities of multiracial communities, perpetually undergoing the stress of the daily dichotomy of “us”- the victim consciousness -against the seemingly culprit “them “.
When we think in such terms, we create a one-dimensional world and we extrapolate it to all our thinking, discussions and issues, be it local or international . We reduce the complexity of the universe down to something we can easily wrap our head around. This has its use, but it leads to false dichotomies of good and bad, us and them, and right and wrong.
Our hopes for human improvement are no longer served by encouraging a recognition of universal human interests but by pitting group against group- Nu ban v/s Zot . Our loyalties are still stuck up to our religious fundamentalism, our caste, our community and ethnicity against what we have identified/classified as "them". That’s the source of our hypocrisy.
As I have often argued “If we do away with labels that define our identity, however, and instead understand that different people have different life histories, shaped by different genetic and environmental factors, we are aiming for a more integrated understanding of different people and their realities and evolving to cooperate and changing the boundary of who we include in our tribe from just “Us” who are against “Them” to simply everyone.” .............................I have also posted something on Democracy and the Minorities ...u can count on your fingers the number of likes on such posts...because we are ill at ease with such posts, it questions our "certainties", we prefer our echo chambers where the "Us" - like-minded people reinforce our shared convictions, creating increasingly polarized silos. ...............................But if we allow the big mind to take over the small mind, we start to take responsibility for the healing of our fragmented world; we are equally concerned about the brutal and repressive dictatorial regimes that seem to be sprouting everywhere and even with our real personal hardships and limitations, each of us can still do something to bend “the arc of the moral universe” towards greater justice and a broader concept of religion based on humanism and humanity.
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Prak Nee
All minorities should be protected everywhere in all countries. It is the test of democracy to protect everybody from harm or persecution. There should not be double standards in advocating for human rights. There are international institutions like the ICJ and the ICC that should be able to work independently to prosecute cases of genocide anywhere without succumbing to pressure from any country. In standing up for human rights, we do it irrespective of race, colour, religion, creed, gender or class.
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Rattan Chand
Where are our politicians ! Did you hear them say anything about the attacks on the minorities in Bangla Desh...? Ki fer, pas pou gayn vote ar sa ? Ban hypocrites, pareil kuma sa ban ki défan ek fer ban gran la marche zis pou "noubann" !
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Nalini Burn
As regards Bangladesh, the situation is complex and tangled with overarching geopolitics. Support for the.Awami league by India, its secularism has followed from Sheikh Hasina's father's days., the break-up of then East( Bangladesh) and West Pakistan.
The minority Hindus are mostly aligned to Sheik Hasina. When she became more authoritarian, protective, favouring, discriminating in favour of her political partisan base, India continued to.support. Other govts raised concerns. So retalliation, after mass mobilisation brought the regime down, fell on her supporters. If there was such disproportionate and widespread violence against Hindus only, when is the Indian Govt not invoking its controversial, fiercely contestedCitizenship Amendment Act ( CAA) to fast track citizenship for persecuted Hindu minorities? It is telling that it is silent on this. Because it is playing a tight line, worried like as Maldives, Bangladesh will also fall closer to Chinese Influence with regime change ( with an opposition that is more Islamist to boot)..Highlighting Hindu victims, but not wishing to close the door - abandon- non- Hindu political base of the secular party. Such irony and tensions when Hindu majoritarianism does not align with geopolitical interests..As well as geoeconomic ones, such as Billionaire Adani's Bangla port investments with the usual state support.
The police has crumbled and lost trust in Bangladesh. And vigilantes have taken over to police the streets. There are reports that they are quite selective who they protect from.mob anger and violence..That includes Hindus.
Mohamed Yunus has been proactive in calling out attacks on Hindus and taking the law in one's own hands. Let's hope he manages to.hold on to.a secular stance and enable Bangladesh to survive squeezed between India and China, sealevel rise climate emergencies exacerbating all tensions. We need to beware of not falling prey to all.sorts of intox viral arrows used to take sides..
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Rattan Chand
Nalini Burn Tks for alerting us about the situation in Bangladesh. You are totally right; the Indian opposition parties have been criticizing the Govt for its silence; but my issue , without falling prey to any intox, as it has been clearly put by Prakash, is more about the fact that “minorities should be protected everywhere in all countries. …..There should not be double standards in advocating for human rights……In standing up for human rights, we do it irrespective of race, colour, religion, creed, gender or class” ; whether it is in UK, in Bangladesh, in Sudan , in Palestine, in Myanmar, in Xinjiang,in India,in Turkey..in mostly dictatorial regimes, we should be equally concerned on how minorities are being treated. No we are not , with few exceptions. Many of our friends on the left, like frightened ostriches, they bury their heads in the sand hoping that issue will pass them by and die down soon.(on the question of rights of the LGBTQ+ for e.g).
We are concerned only when nou ban dan bez. ! That was my point.
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Mishra Vidyadhar
If you believe in an egalitarian society, then we must do away with the idea of majority and minority. This is something that divides society specially in under developed countries.
One constitution, one people and one nation.
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Avivekanand Bissessur
Egalitarian society need not necessarily be socialist or communist states. We can have Egalitarian society in free states as well
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Rattan Chand
Avivekanand Bissessur True, the Scandinavian countries for e.g, but even there we see the emergence of populist radical right parties which believe that inequalities between people are natural and that the country should be inhabited by native people, and that non-native people and ideas are threats. It is only in the spiritual realm that we can achieve the ideal of not only "one nation , one people" but also one world family-Vasudeva Kutumbakam.
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Avivekanand Bissessur
Rattan Chand excellent rejoinder Sir
