Where have we gone wrong!

“Learn from the past, but don't live there. Build on what you know so that you don't repeat mistakes.” - Harvey Mackay

In one line, the famed American novelist summarized the essential lesson of the three phases of time, Past-Present-Future. The past is a thing of the past; dwelling in it would only bring sorrow; we should learn from it and improve in the future. However, have we been successful in accomplishing it all along! Have we been able to overcome the historical atrocities that occurred during our colonial time and continued thereafter, or have they been ingrained in our roots?

Centuries back the ruler at that time presented us to the rule of divide and conquer, which teaches us how to split two seemingly cohesive societies into two distinct groups with mutual enmity based on the faith of the population. Though it has been heavily criticized in certain quarters, we have begun to utilize it ourselves.

Similar history has repeated with Bangladesh witnessing one of the most extreme radicalization and vandalism of its minority religious community, Hinduism followers, in recent days.

During Bangladesh's largest Hindu holiday, Durga Puja, a deliberate attack on Hindu religion adherents happened, allegedly over the placement of the Islamic holy scripture in front of a Hindu God's idol. Following that outbreak of widespread violence in many parts of Bangladesh, which claimed the lives of several Hindu worshippers, injured hundreds, hundreds of temples were vandalized and Hindu homes were set on fire. R1 R2

This begs the issue of what we have accomplished thus far, or whether we were all along at ground zero, failing to regulate the origin and impact of religious horror.

It is not a piece of new news to us that violence against religious minorities occurs often in South Asia. It may be traced back to several hundred years ago, and even in more contemporary circumstances.

The society's leaders recognized it as a serious issue long ago, and considerable funds were used to launch peacebuilding programs aimed at changing the situation and fostering tolerance and social cohesiveness among the populace. Therefore, even if there have been initiatives in the sector, we have one of the world's top peacebuilding programs, and renowned peace leaders have come from our nation, why have these challenges remained unresolved?

Perhaps the way to look at it is not through the lens of the peace program's failure, but rather through the lens of the forces in society that may have exacerbated this problem.

Thus, what causes may have influenced this scenario yet look very unseemly to others; the following section shares some thoughts on this.

• Open-access and free networking and social media: There are several benefits to having a platform that enables us to quickly access and exchange information. However, one cannot disregard the disadvantages of its open and free character. In the centre of the problem resides the comprehension or understanding of a subject to people; not all people think the same way. Right and wrong are subjective concepts that vary according to the perspective of an individual or group of individuals, with what appears to be proper to one group seeming to be incorrect to another. And this open access platform may make it simple for anyone to communicate their ideas, which may result in radicalization and action by a group of people who share the same perspective, ultimately terrorizing others. Open access should not be unrestricted to the point of exerting influence, as this is the pinnacle of violence. Bangladesh's government acted to address this issue with cyber security legislation and digital acts. However, it appears to have been beneficial for just a few specific concerns, primarily the management of political disinformation.
• Negative Emotion Influence behaviour: Negative information and emotions are more easily shared and disseminated than positive ones. The human mind is wired in such a manner that it has a strong and prodigious response to unpleasant information, with an innate need to share it with their peers. Perhaps it evolved during our hunter-gatherer past when it was advantageous to communicate critical safety issues to the majority. However, in this day when fake/misleading news may be disseminated for political gain or pure enjoyment, its impact may have resulted in nothing but sorrow. This has been explained clearly in YouTube by CGP Grey, Link.
• Role of Religion and Government: A critical point, and one that is rather contentious as well. What role should religion have in a country? It appears as though government and religious organizations have always been wary of one another and as a distinct entity, with no one openly wanting to influence one another but secretly wishes to dominate them. If these two enormous organizations are not held accountable and monitored, they are free to act as they choose without disclosing their motivations and agendas.
• Tool of Politics: A forbidden subject to discuss, with few individuals willing to do so out of fear of being targeted by the nation's sovereign. A phrase that is extremely popular in our nation is 'Dhormo-Viru,' which refers to a person who is conscientious of their faith. It is very simple for this subcontinent to acquire the agreement of the majority of its inhabitants if one favours the majority people's faith; in this case, the sovereign does not leave out.
• Fear: Everyone appears to have a healthy fear of the social institution known as 'Religion,' with few willing to take up its management. The peacebuilding program fails to target the true perpetrators of communal violence, or in other words, those influential individuals who exert authority over a certain group of people to conduct acts that may be considered offensive to followers of other religions.

Way forward

It's a challenging hurdle to overcome, with sensitive spots in each corner. If measures are adopted to regulate religions or religious leaders' behaviour to prevent them from encouraging crowds to conduct violence, there is a strong risk that they will erode people's beliefs and faiths. However, it is not an insurmountable obstacle.

The digital security act has been successful in apprehending perpetrators of potential political dismay even before the acts are taken; if that is feasible there, it may be conceivable to adopt it here as well, provided that honest and serious consideration is given.

In Bangladesh, a combination of public, private, and non-governmental organizations has been able to accomplish remarkable success in humanitarian assistance. If this collaboration were to be used in this instance with the intention of including everyone at the risk of becoming extremists, a positive change may be seen.

Finally, the sovereign and everyone else who enjoys the proper flavour of utilizing a delicate social institution should keep an ancient adage in mind, “Take care of the mouth you are feeding, in fear it may, in turn, bite you”.