Bangladesh Hindus

The Hindu Haroon Habib   June 3, 2013   The Sheikh Hasina Cabinet on Monday gave final approval to a draft law to ensure proper development and management of the “Devottar property” ( Hindu Charitable Endowments) and make the transfer of those property, donated to Hindu places of worship, completely illegal.   Once the law comes into effect all such property will come under effective control and opportunities will be created for their development, bringing benefit for the members of the Hindu community, said the government. Till now, such properties are managed by committees constituted locally.   The government would make a list of the property of charitable endowment of the Hindu community with the constitution of a management board.   Briefing the media, Cabinet Secretary Musharraf Hossain Bhuiyan said a central board would be constituted to regulate management of the properties. The vice-chairman of the Hindu Religious Welfare Trust would be the ex-officio c

Suvolaxmi Dutta Choudhury E-mail: misssuvo.dc@gmail.com   According to Article 123 of the Bangladeshi Constitution, it is mandatory that general elections should be held within ninety days of the dissolution of the National Assembly. This implies that the nation is set to go to polls no later than 24 January 2014. The imminent elections, set in the backdrop of the Shahbagh upsurge, will decide the fate of the arch rivalry between the ruling Awami League led by Sheikh Hasina and the opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP) of Begum Khalida Zia. It would also have a determining influence on the nature of the Bangladeshi state vis-à-vis the recently throbbing debates on secularism. The crucial question that emerges here is, how has the Shahbagh movement impacted the prospects of the Awami League in the impending elections? Has the ostensibly non-political Shahbagh Square assumed a political colour by the close association of the Awami League with the upsurg

Washington, D.C. (June 7, 2013) -- "All they want is peace," said Samir Kalra, Esq., the Hindu American Foundation (HAF)'s Director and Senior Fellow for Human Rights, while describing his conversations with Pakistani Hindu refugees to a standing room only audience at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. The Press Club event marked the formal release of the Foundation's ninth annual human rights report, entitled Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human Rights 2012, intended to give voice to Hindu minorities that have "suffered indignity and injustice in silence" in many countries around the world.    The report provided detailed accounts of human rights violations in the areas of: violence against women, forced conversions, mass violence, temple destruction, socio-political ostracization, economic and political marginalization, and discriminatory laws in nine countries and one state in India.    HAF's late