Chitta Francis Rebeiro :
The people of Bangladesh are basically non-communal and religiously moderate in nature as our cultural background suggests. After the War of Liberation in 1971, various international agencies stepped into our independent soil with multifarious plans to control our invisible national strings from behind the scene of global politics. The opportunists welcomed the syndicates to mobilize themselves everywhere and in every place without any hindrance. Some reactionary and fundamentalist groups made their way in our non-communal and innocent society with ill motives. They started working in slow motion in every stage of our existing lifestyle at the grass root levels during our reformative stages as a new nation.
The politicians were motivated all along by the unseen power groups to rise up and capture political power. The power hungry sections became too eager and restless for their personal benefits. Corruptions engulfed over the nation in an epidemic scale as most of the greedy leaders engaged in demoralized actions. The nation became the victim of the vested interest groups backed by the globally powerful and influential states. Gradually, our society became unable to face the serious challenging questions about its traditions and beliefs of popular religions. As soon as the society could realize the bad images and the negative influences, some of the enlightened people started moving ahead uniting the liberal and the like-minded people to discuss and share ideas about the future development of the nation in a tolerant way. As religion plays a vital role on human psychology it is imperative to prevent people from doing all sorts of misdeeds to maintain a peaceful situation in all strata of the society. So, religions seemed to be very effective and important for spiritual health of mind and body and finally considered to be helpful for the development of the society.
The religious minded people of Bangladesh used to pay particular rituals and homage to their faith in regards to the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth. Their relationship was free and fair. They tried to highlight the traditional and ritual culture in practice for the future generations. Although the NGOs were serious in action for human development, they were not aware of the concept of Inter Religious Movement. For developing the concept of communal harmony among the people this could have been a vital and strong medium to promote the rising demand of religious harmony among the believers.
Observing such an important vacuum in our society, some foresighted young men took the initiatives to work unitedly and go forward in print media aiming to focus on the non-communal attitudes among the youths in collective actions through publishing religious news and writing articles on communal harmony emphasising on promoting religious tolerance in all spheres of life.
The weekly Shikha Anirban played an important role in carrying out the massage of interfaith tolerance. Special issues were brought out on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitre, Durga Puja, Chirstmas and Mahgi Purnima. The national dailies also published special issues on important religious occasions.
When the situation seemed favorable, open discussion meetings were organized to share common views of all the communities. Finally, the younger team moved to strengthen secular spirit among the general people of the country as a whole. After a vast media coverage of these events, the general people appreciated such concept as positive action for development of public relationship among the citizens.
The young writers and the journalists started producing news items on various religious festivals and religious gatherings. This endeavours made the non-partisan political people were happy and encouraged.
Later, in course of time, some other peace activists started gathering themselves under separate banners in different places, particularly in the capital city of Dhaka and continued peace movement through their specific rules and manner of their own systems.
Beside these activities, Bangladesh Christian Jubo Samity organized a discussion meeting at Notre Dame College Auditorium in 1982, under the banner “Shobar Upar Manush Shatta” which late Principal Dewan Mohammed Azraf presided over the meeting.
Later, the like-minded people united under an association called “Bangladesh Inter-Religious Writers and Journalist Association” headed by Syed Tosharef Ali as President and Chitta Francis Rebeiro as Secretary General and got registered with the Department of Social Welfare of the Government of Bangladesh in 2000. Moreover, there were some NGOs e.g. Bangladesh Inter Religious Council for Peace and Justice (BICPAJ), founded by late Rev. John P. Hastings in 1986, Society for Peace and Development SPD, started activities in 1988, and later its name was changed as Sampreeti, which was founded by a German Catholic Priest Fr. Klaus Buerle. CCDB had its inter-religious movements in cooperation with the National Council of Churches of Bangladesh (NCCB). There was another NGO namely Bangladesh Inter Religious Brotherhood Association which used to organise discussion meetings in Dhaka Club. Gono Unnayan Prochesta (GUP)
had a wing for peace activities too. Dhaka Ahasania Mission had its own wing to hold such meetings under the leadership of their consultant late John P. Hastings and late Mr. Raymond Kennedy during 1980s. Along with this trend of Inter Religious movement everywhere, a weekly named ‘Bartaman Songlap’ was published by the Hakkani Publishers. Following the similar efforts of human development Dr. Kazi Nurul Islam pioneered to establish the Department of World Religion in Dhaka University in 2000. He brought some of the foreign organizations of Peace Movement e.g. ‘Warm Heart’ and Inter Religious and International Federation for Peace.
In addition to these activities, Bangladesh Buddha Kristi Sangha had an Inter Religious wing supported by ACRP led by Ven. Suddha Nanda Mohathero and R.N. Duttagupta as President and Secretary respectively of ACRP Bangladesh Chapter for about three and half a decades. Side by side the Catholic Church of Bangladesh had a wing of Inter Religious Dialogue, which was operating quietly at home and abroad. This had a link of Vatican City with a Secretariat in Rome by late Pope Paul VI since 1964. To cultivate such noble tasks, Caritas Bangladesh has been organizing regular programs within their project areas everywhere. In continuation to this movement the then State Minister for Religious Affairs Musharef Hossain Shahjahan brought ACRP out to the public in 2005 as President and Chitta Francis Rebeiro as Secretary General of Bangladesh Chapter of ACRP. Afterwards Dr. Golam Dastagir as Secretary General played a dynamic role in holding the Asian Conference in Dhaka for the first time in 2005.
The former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia was present as Chief Guest on its grand inaugural ceremony where good numbers of the diplomats were also present. In the post One Eleven period in 2007, ‘Dr. Ammedkar Foundation’ got registered under the leadership of Principal Sukomol Barua as Chairman and Journalist Promotho R. Biswas as Executive Secretary which also organized similar type of discussion meetings to maintain peace and justice in the society.
To speak the truth, ACRP movement during the recent past remained silent and was not at all focused. No activities were noticed from them for quite a longer period for unknown reasons. Therefore, such a noble movement in Bangladesh become near non-existent among the interested people. It has been observed that some selected intellectuals often visited different countries to participate in such similar forums but never gave any feedback to the people when they returned home. It was only in 2005 when an International ACRP Conference was organized in Dhaka; for the first time; people were able to know about this inter-religious activities, which was important to discourage the fundamentalist and negative religious attitudes among the people. With the political polarizations, ACRP movement was slowed down and it had been turned into wishful private moves of some selective persons at present in Bangladesh.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that the people are very much eager to see a rapid action of Inter faith Development among the innocent, neutral and secular minded people of Bangladesh who are basically non- communal and want to live together in harmony. But unluckily, these important actions were over-looked or put to a halt by a limited few under certain situations and the nation became deprived of sharing such popular and the generous ideas prevailing in the global trends to work together with the like minded people of other countries to reform and develop a modern world.
(The writer is the former Secretary General of ACRP, Bangladesh.)
The people of Bangladesh are basically non-communal and religiously moderate in nature as our cultural background suggests. After the War of Liberation in 1971, various international agencies stepped into our independent soil with multifarious plans to control our invisible national strings from behind the scene of global politics. The opportunists welcomed the syndicates to mobilize themselves everywhere and in every place without any hindrance. Some reactionary and fundamentalist groups made their way in our non-communal and innocent society with ill motives. They started working in slow motion in every stage of our existing lifestyle at the grass root levels during our reformative stages as a new nation.
The politicians were motivated all along by the unseen power groups to rise up and capture political power. The power hungry sections became too eager and restless for their personal benefits. Corruptions engulfed over the nation in an epidemic scale as most of the greedy leaders engaged in demoralized actions. The nation became the victim of the vested interest groups backed by the globally powerful and influential states. Gradually, our society became unable to face the serious challenging questions about its traditions and beliefs of popular religions. As soon as the society could realize the bad images and the negative influences, some of the enlightened people started moving ahead uniting the liberal and the like-minded people to discuss and share ideas about the future development of the nation in a tolerant way. As religion plays a vital role on human psychology it is imperative to prevent people from doing all sorts of misdeeds to maintain a peaceful situation in all strata of the society. So, religions seemed to be very effective and important for spiritual health of mind and body and finally considered to be helpful for the development of the society.
The religious minded people of Bangladesh used to pay particular rituals and homage to their faith in regards to the Creator of the Heaven and the Earth. Their relationship was free and fair. They tried to highlight the traditional and ritual culture in practice for the future generations. Although the NGOs were serious in action for human development, they were not aware of the concept of Inter Religious Movement. For developing the concept of communal harmony among the people this could have been a vital and strong medium to promote the rising demand of religious harmony among the believers.
Observing such an important vacuum in our society, some foresighted young men took the initiatives to work unitedly and go forward in print media aiming to focus on the non-communal attitudes among the youths in collective actions through publishing religious news and writing articles on communal harmony emphasising on promoting religious tolerance in all spheres of life.
The weekly Shikha Anirban played an important role in carrying out the massage of interfaith tolerance. Special issues were brought out on the occasion of Eid-ul-Fitre, Durga Puja, Chirstmas and Mahgi Purnima. The national dailies also published special issues on important religious occasions.
When the situation seemed favorable, open discussion meetings were organized to share common views of all the communities. Finally, the younger team moved to strengthen secular spirit among the general people of the country as a whole. After a vast media coverage of these events, the general people appreciated such concept as positive action for development of public relationship among the citizens.
The young writers and the journalists started producing news items on various religious festivals and religious gatherings. This endeavours made the non-partisan political people were happy and encouraged.
Later, in course of time, some other peace activists started gathering themselves under separate banners in different places, particularly in the capital city of Dhaka and continued peace movement through their specific rules and manner of their own systems.
Beside these activities, Bangladesh Christian Jubo Samity organized a discussion meeting at Notre Dame College Auditorium in 1982, under the banner “Shobar Upar Manush Shatta” which late Principal Dewan Mohammed Azraf presided over the meeting.
Later, the like-minded people united under an association called “Bangladesh Inter-Religious Writers and Journalist Association” headed by Syed Tosharef Ali as President and Chitta Francis Rebeiro as Secretary General and got registered with the Department of Social Welfare of the Government of Bangladesh in 2000. Moreover, there were some NGOs e.g. Bangladesh Inter Religious Council for Peace and Justice (BICPAJ), founded by late Rev. John P. Hastings in 1986, Society for Peace and Development SPD, started activities in 1988, and later its name was changed as Sampreeti, which was founded by a German Catholic Priest Fr. Klaus Buerle. CCDB had its inter-religious movements in cooperation with the National Council of Churches of Bangladesh (NCCB). There was another NGO namely Bangladesh Inter Religious Brotherhood Association which used to organise discussion meetings in Dhaka Club. Gono Unnayan Prochesta (GUP)
had a wing for peace activities too. Dhaka Ahasania Mission had its own wing to hold such meetings under the leadership of their consultant late John P. Hastings and late Mr. Raymond Kennedy during 1980s. Along with this trend of Inter Religious movement everywhere, a weekly named ‘Bartaman Songlap’ was published by the Hakkani Publishers. Following the similar efforts of human development Dr. Kazi Nurul Islam pioneered to establish the Department of World Religion in Dhaka University in 2000. He brought some of the foreign organizations of Peace Movement e.g. ‘Warm Heart’ and Inter Religious and International Federation for Peace.
In addition to these activities, Bangladesh Buddha Kristi Sangha had an Inter Religious wing supported by ACRP led by Ven. Suddha Nanda Mohathero and R.N. Duttagupta as President and Secretary respectively of ACRP Bangladesh Chapter for about three and half a decades. Side by side the Catholic Church of Bangladesh had a wing of Inter Religious Dialogue, which was operating quietly at home and abroad. This had a link of Vatican City with a Secretariat in Rome by late Pope Paul VI since 1964. To cultivate such noble tasks, Caritas Bangladesh has been organizing regular programs within their project areas everywhere. In continuation to this movement the then State Minister for Religious Affairs Musharef Hossain Shahjahan brought ACRP out to the public in 2005 as President and Chitta Francis Rebeiro as Secretary General of Bangladesh Chapter of ACRP. Afterwards Dr. Golam Dastagir as Secretary General played a dynamic role in holding the Asian Conference in Dhaka for the first time in 2005.
The former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia was present as Chief Guest on its grand inaugural ceremony where good numbers of the diplomats were also present. In the post One Eleven period in 2007, ‘Dr. Ammedkar Foundation’ got registered under the leadership of Principal Sukomol Barua as Chairman and Journalist Promotho R. Biswas as Executive Secretary which also organized similar type of discussion meetings to maintain peace and justice in the society.
To speak the truth, ACRP movement during the recent past remained silent and was not at all focused. No activities were noticed from them for quite a longer period for unknown reasons. Therefore, such a noble movement in Bangladesh become near non-existent among the interested people. It has been observed that some selected intellectuals often visited different countries to participate in such similar forums but never gave any feedback to the people when they returned home. It was only in 2005 when an International ACRP Conference was organized in Dhaka; for the first time; people were able to know about this inter-religious activities, which was important to discourage the fundamentalist and negative religious attitudes among the people. With the political polarizations, ACRP movement was slowed down and it had been turned into wishful private moves of some selective persons at present in Bangladesh.
In conclusion, I would like to mention that the people are very much eager to see a rapid action of Inter faith Development among the innocent, neutral and secular minded people of Bangladesh who are basically non- communal and want to live together in harmony. But unluckily, these important actions were over-looked or put to a halt by a limited few under certain situations and the nation became deprived of sharing such popular and the generous ideas prevailing in the global trends to work together with the like minded people of other countries to reform and develop a modern world.
(The writer is the former Secretary General of ACRP, Bangladesh.)
