The Deprogram podcast

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The original was posted on /r/thedeprogram by /u/gl0vepuppet on 2023-09-16 13:13:46.

Some background: I'm from Bangladesh - a majority Muslim country. Born a Muslim, turned atheist later at life.

My country witnesses communal violence, though lower than neighboring countries like India or Pakistan. It is not uncommon to hear about yearly anti-Hindu pogroms

This country was founded by a bunch of leftists in the wake of a genocide. Pakistan genocided 100s of thousands of Bengalis because they felt that we weren't "Muslim enough".

As a reaction to that, we emphasized a secular Bengali identity which covered all religions, as opposed to a religious one. Our entire liberation effort was basically fueled by co-operation between Hindus and Muslims - most of whom were leftists.

Nowadays you see violence against non-Muslims, violence against LGBTGQA+ community, violence against people who dare criticise Islamic extremism etc, the thing that I find the most peculiar is that our native Bengali identity is being erased because it is being deemed too unislamic, circling back to the very reason we were hated.

We have a festival, a festival that has historically been celebrated together by all Bengalis regardless of religion, the Bengali New Year, nowadays when the time comes, there are literally protests in the streets by Islamist groups saying that it's shirk and whatnot.

Funny thing is we have always had our own version of Islam, a version that wasn't hostile to other religions, a version that in-fact integrated native elements that pre-date Islam. Things like Baul, Bauls were a spiritual mystical group who always preached non-violence and equality amongst all regardless of religion, they preached letting go of all material desires, and by Allah I urge you to listen to the Music.

They still exist, but they too are victims of violence despite many of them being Muslims themselves (not Muslim enough I guess). We have had Muslim poets who have literally praised Hindu deities and drew parallels to Allah.

Instead of embracing our own version of Islam, Islamic extremism is essentially causing people to develop an inherent inferiority complex vis-a-vis Arabs, because hardline Muslims think the more you imitate being an Arab, the more "true Muslim" you are.

Now how is that related to class consciousness you ask? Well its all because of the Br*ts.

When Brits colonised Bengal, they enacted the Permanent Settlement Act An act which basically elevated the status of [Zamindars](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zamindar#:%7E:text=A%20zamindar%20(Hindi%3A%20%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%BC%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%80%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B0%2C,term%20means%20landowner%20in%20Persian.) from tax collectors to straight up landowners, it was basically a glorified serfdom. The British, through their divide and rule policy, organised the Permanent Settlement so that the vast majority of Zamindars were Hindu Brahmins and the vast majority of peasants were Muslims and lower caste Hindus. You can guess how that went.

In the mid-19th century the Faraizi Revolution started in Bengal, it was an Islamic Fundamentalist revolution - heavily inspired from the Wahhabi revolutions from Saudi, Bengali Muslims were syncretic with Hindus, and this movement sought to change that. The fact of the matter is, this movement was overtly anti-British and anti-PSA(Permanent Settlement Act) and therefore attracted a LOT of oppressed peasants - it basically turned into a reactionary movement.

Ultimately, this movement didn't do hell of a lot for the peasants of Bengal because the Muslim "Ashraf" elites, who were previously anti-Faraizi, co-opted the movements fundamentalist stance and therefore managed to mow down the revolutionary aspect. Religion is truly the opium of the people.

Claiming that this movement didn't cause any economic improvement for Muslims would be a lie, but what this movement majorly accomplished is social regression.

The English education act, which was enacted several decades earlier, came to be viewed as "anti-Muslim" amongst Muslim peasants, thus most Muslims didn't pursue any English Education meanwhile Hindus did. What this accomplished was basically economic mobilization amongst Hindu peasants, but not Muslim ones, because Hindus ultimately were less adverse to pursue an English education. Thus, the emergence of a new class, well, emerged. The Bhadralaks - they were basically the middlemen, the bourgeoise.

You can imagine how this further exacerbated the class disparity existing amongst Hindus and Muslims, this eventually led to the Pakistan movement, which Bengalis majorly supported.

The overt slogan of the Pakistan movement was to create a Muslim homeland for Indian Muslims, but the main reason Bengalis were mobilized was because of the prospect of social uplift.

When Pakistan was formed, that obviously didn't happen. We were subjected to extortion. [In 1967, the proletariat party of East Bengal declared that Bengal was still in the hands of a colonial power](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Purba_Banglar_Sarbahara_Party#:%7E:text=Purba%20Banglar%20Sarbahara%20Party%20(Bengali,supporting%20the%20new%20Bangladeshi%20state.). In 1971 there was a war and we became independent.

Bangladesh for a fleeting moment were of a secular leftist environment, in the first democratically elected election in Bangladesh, the top 3 parties were all leftists. But that eventually changed.