Hinduism in Bangladesh - Demographics

Demographics

According to the 2001 census there are 11,379,000 Hindus in Bangladesh. Hindus in Bangladesh in the late 1980s were almost evenly distributed in all regions, with concentrations in Chittagong, Khulna, Jessore, Dinajpur, Faridpur, and Barisal. The contributions of Hindus in arts and literature were far in excess of their numerical strength. In politics, they had traditionally supported the liberal and secular ideology of the Awami League and other left wing parties such as Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), and Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD). However, barring the fundamentalist Islamist parties such as Jamaat-e-Islami, all the major political parties have fielded Hindu candidates. In the current Jatiyo Sangshad, out of 345 members, there are only 33 Hindus: 32 are from the Awami League, and 1 from the Jatiyo Party. Hindu institutions and places of worship received assistance through the Bangladesh Hindu Kalyan Trust (Bangladesh Hindu Welfare Trust), which was sponsored by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. Government sponsored Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar (radio) broadcast readings and interpretations of Hindu scriptures and prayers.

Since the rise of more explicitly Islamist political formations in Bangladesh during the 1990s, many Hindus have been intimidated or attacked, and fairly substantial numbers are leaving the country to India.

In present day Bangladesh, Hindus became a minority only in mid-thirteenth century of the Gregorian Calendar. In 1941 the Hindus formed about 28% of the population, which declined to 22.05% in 1951, as rich and upper caste Hindus migrated to India after Partition of India in 1947. Since then, it has dropped by about half. Through a combination of mass exodus and genocide in the 1971 Bangladesh atrocities by the Pakistan Army during the Bangladesh Liberation War, this represents a loss of around 20 million Bangladeshi Hindus and their direct heirs, and reflects one of the largest displacements of population based on ethnic or religious identity in recent history. A significant driver of Hindu emigration has been the Enemy Property Act, later renamed as the Vested Property Act, through which the Bangladesh Government has been able to appropriate the property of around 40% of the existing Bangladeshi Hindu population (according to Dr Abul Barkat of Dhaka University).

A significant portion of the middle-class Hindu population left the region that is now Bangladesh immediately after the partition in 1947 when East Pakistan came into existence. Many of these East Bengali refugees went on to contribute actively to Indian society after their migration. In 1971, during the Liberation War of Bangladesh from Pakistan, a similar scenario happened.

Source: Census of India 1941, Census of East Pakistan, Bangladesh Government Census

Despite their dwindling numbers, Hindus still yield considerable influence because of their geographical concentration in certain regions. They form a majority of the electorate in at least two parliamentary constituencies (Khulna-1 and Gopalganj-3) and account for more than 25% in at least another twenty. For this reason, they are often the deciding factor in parliamentary elections where victory margins can be extremely narrow. It is also frequently alleged that this is a prime reason for many Hindus being prevented from voting in elections, either through intimidating actual voters, or through exclusion in voter list revisions (e.g., see Daily Star, January 4, 2006).