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Secularism as a State Policy, State Religion, and Minority Rights in the Constitution: Benign or Malign for Communal Harmony in Bangladesh?

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The Constitutional Law of Bangladesh

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Abstract

The emergence of Bangladesh as the People’s Republic underscores its secular character. Secularism, along with nationalism, democracy, and socialism, was given the status of high ideals of the Constitution and was adopted as one of the fundamental principles of state policy. However, the biography of secularism has witnessed a troubled journey over the years. This chapter traces the unpleasant journey of secularism starting from its original position in the first constitution to the present-day. The removal of secularism from the constitution and insertion of religious expressions, along with the declaration of state religion, has arguably destroyed the secular fabric of the constitution. While addressing such dichotomy, this chapter makes a compatibility test of the concurrent position of state religion and secularism in the constitution and assesses the implications of such position in relation to the rights of religious minorities. It argues that the changing paradigm of secularism in Bangladesh, being different from its original understanding, indicates a trend of the use of religion for political purposes that marginalises minority rights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ali Riaz, ‘More Than Meets the Eye: The Narratives of Secularism and Islam in Bangladesh’ (2018) 49(2) Asian Affairs 301–18.

  2. 2.

    Rounaq Jahan, ‘Bangabandhu’s Vision of Secularism for Bangladesh’ (2021) 69th Foundation Day and Lecture at Asiatic Society of Bangladesh 13.

  3. 3.

    Riaz (n1), 303.

  4. 4.

    S M Masum Billah, ‘Can Secularism and State Religion Go Together?’ (2014)15 ELCOP Yearbook on Human Rights 38.

  5. 5.

    Ahmed T Kuru, ‘Passive and Assertive Secularism: Historical Conditions, Ideological Struggles, and State Policies towards Religion’ (2007) 59(4) World Politics 568.

  6. 6.

    Md Saidul Islam ‘Minority Islam in Muslim Majority Bangladesh: The Violent Road to a New Brand of Secularism’ (2011) 31(1) Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 125–141.

  7. 7.

    Jahan (n 2) 1.

  8. 8.

    Md Sikandar Ali, ‘The Legacy of Bangabandhu’s Secular Political Ideals’ (2020) 6(4) International Journal of Advance Research and Innovative Ideas in Education 353.

  9. 9.

    Billah (n 4) 46.

  10. 10.

    Rajeev Bhargava and Ashok Acharya (eds), Political Theory: An Introduction (Pearson Education 2008) 275.

  11. 11.

    Billah (n 4) 46.

  12. 12.

    ibid. 46.

  13. 13.

    Jahan (n 2) 4.

  14. 14.

    ibid. 5.

  15. 15.

    ibid. 8.

  16. 16.

    Amartya Sen, ‘Bangabandhu and Visions of Bangladesh’ (2021) <https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2021/03/07/bangabandhu-and-visions-of-bangladesh/> accessed 20 January 2022.

  17. 17.

    ibid. 2.

  18. 18.

    ibid. 3.

  19. 19.

    Jahid Hossain Bhuiyan, ‘Secularism in the Constitution of Bangladesh’ (2017) 49(2) The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law 207.

  20. 20.

    ibid. 207.

  21. 21.

    62 DLR (2010) 70 at 197.

  22. 22.

    Jahan (n 2) 14.

  23. 23.

    Shah Alam, ‘The State-Religion Amendment to the Constitution of Bangladesh: A Critique, Law and Politics in Africa, Asia and Latin America’ (1991) 24(22) Quartal 209–25.

  24. 24.

    ibid. 214.

  25. 25.

    ibid. 213.

  26. 26.

    Billah (n 4) 46.

  27. 27.

    Mahmudul Islam, Constitutional Law of Bangladesh (Mullick Brothers, Dhaka 2012) 376.

  28. 28.

    ibid., 376.

  29. 29.

    Abdul Wohab, ‘“Secularism” or “no-secularism”? A complex case of Bangladesh’ (2021) 7(1) Cogent Social Sciences 1.

  30. 30.

    Ibid 6.

  31. 31.

    The Bangladesh Gazette Extraordinary of 23 April 1977.

  32. 32.

    Meghna Guhathakurta, ‘Amidst the winds of change: The Hindu minority in Bangladesh’ (2012) 3(2) South Asian History and Culture 288–301.

  33. 33.

    ibid. 223.

  34. 34.

    No person shall have the right to form or be a member or otherwise take part in the activities of, any communal or other association or union which in the name or on the basis of any religion has for its object, or pursues, a political purpose.

  35. 35.

    Billah (n 4) 35.

  36. 36.

    Guhathakurta (n 32) 291.

  37. 37.

    ibid. 291.

  38. 38.

    Art 2A of the Constitution of Bangladesh.

  39. 39.

    Guhathakurta (n 32) 291.

  40. 40.

    Alam (n 22) 223.

  41. 41.

    Paragraph 3 of the Preamble of the Constitution of Bangladesh 1972.

  42. 42.

    Alam (n 23) 223.

  43. 43.

    ibid. 224.

  44. 44.

    (2010) 62 DLR (HCD) 70.

  45. 45.

    ibid. 194.

  46. 46.

    ibid. 226.

  47. 47.

    ibid. 115.

  48. 48.

    ibid. 154.

  49. 49.

    Provided that no person shall have the right to form, or be a member of the said association or union, if-

    1. (a)

      it is formed for the purposes of destroying the religious, social and communal harmony among the citizens;

    2. (b)

      it is formed for the purposes of creating discrimination among the citizens, on the ground of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or language;

    3. (c)

      it is formed for the purposes of organizing terrorist acts or militant activities against the State or the citizens or any other country; and

    4. (d)

      its formation and objects are inconsistent with the Constitution.

  50. 50.

    M Rahman, ‘The Compatibility of State Religion and Constitutional Secularism Coexistence: Bangladesh in Context’ (2020) 24(1) Cambridge Open Engage 6.

  51. 51.

    ibid. 6.

  52. 52.

    ibid. 7.

  53. 53.

    ibid. 7.

  54. 54.

    Ahmed Shafiqul Huque and Muhammad Yeahia Akhter, ‘The Ubiquity of Islam: Religion and Society in Bangladesh’ (1987) 60(2) Public Affairs 225.

  55. 55.

    Billah (n 4) 44.

  56. 56.

    Rahman (n 50) 8.

  57. 57.

    Billah (n 4) 44.

  58. 58.

    ibid. 45.

  59. 59.

    Rahman (n 50) 10.

  60. 60.

    Billah (n 4) 44.

  61. 61.

    Islam (n 27) 68.

  62. 62.

    Rahman (n 50) 16.

  63. 63.

    ibid. 22.

  64. 64.

    Art 9 of the Constitution of Bangladesh.

  65. 65.

    Art 11 of the Constitution of Bangladesh.

  66. 66.

    Rahman (n 50) 22.

  67. 67.

    ibid. 22.

  68. 68.

    Bhuiyan (n 19) 224.

  69. 69.

    ibid. 223.

  70. 70.

    ibid. 224.

  71. 71.

    The UN Human Rights Treaty System, CEDAW – Bangladesh: Reservations, Declarations, Objections and Derogations <http://www.bayefsky.com/html/bangladesh_t2_cedaw.php> accessed 2 March 2022; Maliha Khan, ‘CEDAW is at a dead end in Bangladesh’ The daily Star, Dhaka 8 March 2019 <https://www.thedailystar.net/star-weekend/news/cedaw-dead-end-bangladesh-1711840> accessed 2 March 2022.

  72. 72.

    Jahan (n 2) 15.

  73. 73.

    Guhathakurta (n 32) 291.

  74. 74.

    ibid., 291.

  75. 75.

    ‘Minorities at Risk Project, Chronology for Hindus in Bangladesh’ (2004), <https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f3869c.html> accessed 30 Janaury 2022.

  76. 76.

    Vivek Gumaste, ‘There may be no Hindus left in Bangladesh in 30 years’ Sunday Guardian Live, 8 February 2020 <https://www.sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/may-no-hindus-left-bangladesh-30-years> accessed 30 January 2022.

  77. 77.

    ibid.

  78. 78.

    ibid.

  79. 79.

    Guhathakurta (n 32) 291.

  80. 80.

    Minorities at Risk Project (n 75) 37.

  81. 81.

    3710 attacks on Hindu community in last 9 years: Reports Ain o Salish Kendra, published on 19 October 2021 <https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/3710-attacks-hindu-community-last-9yrs-2201861> accessed 30 January 2022.

  82. 82.

    ibid.

  83. 83.

    Matiur Rahman Minar and Jibon Naher, ‘Violence originated from Facebook: A case study in Bangladesh’ <https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.11241> accessed 20 March 2022.

  84. 84.

    ibid.

  85. 85.

    ibid.

  86. 86.

    ibid.

  87. 87.

    Attack on minorities, ‘Facebook posts insulting religion’ a familiar tactic, The Daily Star, Dhaka, 8 April, 2021, <https://www.thedailystar.net/city/news/facebook-posts-insulting-religion-familiar-tactic-2074033> accessed 20 March 2022.

  88. 88.

    A risk assessment of country-of-origin information (COI) by the UK Home Office, <https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_Data/file/514400/CIG.Bangladesh> accessed 31 January 2022.

  89. 89.

    Miner and Nahar (n 83).

  90. 90.

    Dina M Siddiqi, ‘Secular Quests, National Others: Revisiting Bangladesh’s Constituent Assembly Debates’ (2018) 49(2) Asian Affairs 239.

  91. 91.

    Guhathakurta (n 32) 289.

  92. 92.

    Press Statement, ‘Preliminary findings of visit to Bangladesh by HeinerBielefeldt, Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief’, UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner, 9 September 2015 <https://www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=16399&LangID=E> accessed 31 January 2022.

  93. 93.

    ibid.

  94. 94.

    ibid.

  95. 95.

    Guhathakurta (n 32) 17.

  96. 96.

    Anisuzzaman, ‘Dharmanirapekhyta Prosongay’ (about Secularism) in Mahfuza Khanam and Topon Kumar Dey (eds), Dharmanirapekhyta:Samprodayik Sampritir Mail-Bandan (Secularism: Connecting tool for communal harmony) (Merit Fair Prokashan, Dhaka 2015) 17.

  97. 97.

    ibid., 13.

  98. 98.

    Ahrar Ahmad, ‘Secularism in Bangladesh: The troubled biography of a constitutional pillar’ The Daily Star, Dhaka, 16 December 2020 <https://www.thedailystar.net/supplements/news/secularism-bangladesh-the-troubled-biography-constitutional-pillar-2011933> accessed 2 February 2022.

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Internet Sources

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Law, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Mohammad Golam Sarwar

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  1. Mohammad Golam Sarwar
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Correspondence to Mohammad Golam Sarwar .

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  1. Emeritus Professor of Law, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    M Rafiqul Islam

  2. Department of Law, University of Dhaka, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    Muhammad Ekramul Haque

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Sarwar, M.G. (2023). Secularism as a State Policy, State Religion, and Minority Rights in the Constitution: Benign or Malign for Communal Harmony in Bangladesh?. In: Islam, M.R., Haque, M.E. (eds) The Constitutional Law of Bangladesh. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-2579-7_4

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