Saturday, October 15, 2011

Durga Puja and the NRIs from Bengal

Dr. M Kaushik

Islamic extremism is something that America has confronted with only in its recent history. However, there are nations which have been dealing with and many times succumbed to radical Islam for several centuries. These war torn regions in Darfur in Somalia to Bali in Indonesia have been facing the onslaught of jihadi extremism on a daily basis. One such land is Bengal, a northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. A primarily Muslim land, Bengal has a minority Hindu population most of whom live in the Indian state of West Bengal. The Islamic nation of Bangladesh, the home of most Bengalis in the world, is located to the east of West Bengal.

In Bengal today the Islamists are violently displacing the Hindu population whose homes and possessions they either destroy or occupy. They are attacking the young, the elderly, and especially the girls and women, whom they kidnap, forcibly convert, or traffic into brothels. The locals are terrified of them. The police rarely come to their aid, nor do the politically correct media or government. Both are terrified by the criminals and terrorists who are riding these immigrant waves.

A growing number of young Bengalis settled in US, however, are forming a strong awareness movement aimed at combating this Jihadi menace, using awareness and networking. From organizing seminars to fund raising events, these activists are trying to exert its influence on people around the world, to consolidate the people of Bengali origin, against these Jihadists. Under the banner of FACTUSA, a US registered NGO, these Bengalis have task force teams that proactively follow up on any incident of Islamic atrocity in the villages of Bengal. In several cases of kidnapping of Hindu women, these activists have a 24 hour emergency cell to monitor the situation, informing the media and making several phone calls to the local police station to make sure that something is being done.

Take the case of Mouli Sinha, an 8 year old girl who was kidnapped near the Indian border in West Bengal by Muslim youths. As is typical in such cases, Mouli’s parents were poor farmers whereas the kidnappers were goons employed by a local Muslim politician which made sure that nothing was being done to help Mouli. For several weeks both the police and the media was silent until the matter was brought to the attention of FACTUSA activists. A campaign was initiated where several influential Bengali NRIs formed a movement to free Mouli.

Like many other third world nation, the justice system is skewed in these backward regions of India in favor of the powerful and the wealthy. Hence, it is only the power and the influence of these NRIs which can salvage the situation of women like Mouli who have no one else to look up to. Finally the police was successfully coerced to take action against the perpetrators. Mouli, brutally raped and forcibly converted to Islam, was finally freed three months later.

Every year in the month of October, Bengali Hindus celebrate Durga Puja all over US. Today there are over 50 pujas being celebrated in US each with its own pandal, and deity, and ancient Hindu rituals. However, in these congregations which adequately reflect the Bengali demographics in US, one will find only a handful of Bengalis who are aware of the growth of radical Islam in Bengal, and how it is percolating from Bangladesh to West Bengal.

These courageous Bengalis have taken it upon themselves to spread the awareness in the American Bengali community. From architects to programmers, and scientists to engineers, these activists have a full time day job. They all have families and some of them have never been to Bengal in their entire life. But just like the Jewish and the Armenians, they feel a strong sense of connection to their native land, and just like the former, they are passionate to save their land from the Islamic menace.

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