Serendipity: Diversity; Perspective
Harmony in Bangladesh
Imran A.
Chowdhury
Whilst doing a research on Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK, I came across the religious denomination figures. These were depicting numbers of Bengalis (Bangladeshis) belonging to different faiths and religions. What I found was, there are 672 people who are followers of the Sikh religion and also 234 people from the Jewish faith amongst Hindus, Christians, Buddhists. These are kosher data as the source of the data is none other the Office of the National Statics. Having looked at these staggering figures made me dig deep into the pandoras box to auger the gist out of this multi faith and interfaith cohabitation of the people of Bangladesh for centuries after centuries.
It always made me wonder. Why on earth there is this Gurdwara inside the campus of Dhaka University in Bangladesh? Now, after all these years it makes a bit of sense. In 24 AD there was massive brawl and debate that took place in the Roman senate; reason being ; The senators were relentlessly arguing as to why so much gold bars are send to a place called Gangaridai ( old name of Bengal ). The speaker of the house then, explained the house that, if you Gentlemen stop wearing those white cotton Tunica then we don’t have to part with these golds. During 8th-9th century an exodus of Baghdadi Jewish population of present-day Iraq
ended up on the shores of Bengal. Mainly in Dhaka, Murshidabad & Panam (Sonargoan). Old records suggest that, those Jewish merchant gave the weaving recipe to the weavers of Bengal to spin the cotton in their thumb to make the finest yarn to weave the softest cloth in the world and those Jewish merchants named the fabric according to the name of their home city Mosul - Mosul to Moslin. Those Jewish merchants made the Moslin famous all over the world. The 18th century Europe when industrial revolution inundated the markets of the world with machine made fabrics. Finding these data today, have made me think again about the essence of Bengali heritage; history and legacy once again. Which amply reiterates the fact that, Bengal was always a magnet for diversified influx of people from all over the world. Bengal is perhaps one of the finest places where there had never been any sectarian trouble nor any feud or riots. This was the true ethnically diversified delta in the world where Portuguese roman
Catholics, Armenian Christians, Dutch Christians, French made their home from time to time. These migrations have immensely enriched our culture, language, cuisine and lifestyle. These essences of diversity were the bedrock of our innate nationhood. The multi-cultural Bengal was an epitome of wealthy territory since the time of Alexander the Great and beyond. What a rich legacy to carry forward! This attribute of Bangladeshi fraternity living in harmony well over a thousand years speak volume about the tenacity, impetus and resolve of our ancestors and it is an onus upon us the upheld that legacy.