a million people migrated to India from East Pakistan folowing the 1964 riot. Most of these migrants
were poor farmers and people belonging to Namasudra caste and indegenous tribes (Scheduled Tribe).
This migration results in large parts of Tripura, Andamans, Arunachal Pradesh and Dandakaranya become
Bengali speaking majority area. The partition resulted in thousands of people, and more died in refugee
colonies and slums. We do not remember the innocent victims and did not learn from suffering and pain.
Since we did not learn anything from the previous two holocausts, it became very easy for us to accept the
third holocaust as a way of life. Each or our Hindu and Muslim community claim to be the victim and
place blame on "Biharis". That is because of our amnesia. How can we govorn ourselves, if few "Biharis"
can manipulate us? It is true that Biharis played a role in inciting communal riots and during the genocide
of 1971. But, did the Biharis take away our land, homes from Calcutta-Dacca to Patna or Karachi with
them?
I think out third holocaust was fight for Bangladeshi Freedom. General Yayahiya Khan's military was no
less efficient than Hitler's military in this regard. Unfortunately, we might forget this one also. Pakistani
military started with killing Bengalis, irrespective of religion, then started killing only Hindus following
Hitler's methods of genocide. We had ample discussion if Bangladesh will be capitalist or socialist nation,
will the government be Islamic or autocratic. This discussion is needed, but we also need to make sure
that we do not forget the memories of holocaust. Newer govornments have tried to erase the memories of
Mujib, Zia and other leaders and will continue to do it in future. We have to make sure that these
distractions do not erase the fact of thousands of deaths, millions uprooted during the war of Bangladeshi
freedom. These sacrifices and suffering should not be turned into a story or myth!
Bengalis have forgotten a lot - Anti-Bengali-Hindu riots (Bangal Kheda) in Assam in 1962; 1964 AntiHindu riots in East Pakistan following rumors of Prophet Mohammed was lost from Hazratbaal Mosque
in Kashmir (Hazratbaal riot). This riot later spread to west Bengal, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh; in