Elixir's question

[Bengal_Tiger]

I see. Bengal is also a province in India, right?

What do people of Bangladesh think of Afghanistan?

This was from another thread.

1. To be honest Bangladeshis don't really know (or think) much about Afghanistan.

They see it as a brother Muslim country as they would see Malaysia or Egypt.

However those who are a bit more educated including those who study history are aware of Afghan warriors and rulers that came to Bengal.

I am sure Afghans don't know (or think) much about Bangladesh besides the fact it's a brother Muslim country and that's it. It doesn't go any further.



2. West Bengal (new name Paschim Bangla) is a state in India right next to Bangladesh and its capital is Kolkata (formerly spelt "Calcutta).

Tripura is the other main Bengali speaking state in India.



When Pakistan was being created, even though Tripura was majority non-Muslim they wanted to be part of "East Pakistan" (east Bengal/Bangladesh) but the West Pakistani regime failed to allow that to happen.

[MENTION=3580]asad71[/MENTION]

If Tripura was with Bangladesh today it would make life quite easier for us in Bangladesh.


We also lost north Arakan which was historically always Bengali (i.e. part of our Chittagong province).

So Afghanistan has lost Pakhtunkhwa, but we lost Tripura, north Arakan not to mention the fact that Bengal was far bigger in the past. Greater Bengal even included parts of Bihar.



Now thanks to the British and Jinnah we are far smaller.

Such is life.

[Elixir]

Thank you Bengal_Tiger

Bangladesh used to be part of Pakistan but split in 1972. is that correct?

Those Bangladeshis who migrated to Pakistan settled in Karachi. They're called Muhajirs meaning refugees and they have been constantly under attack and and many of them have been killed.

Why are the Bangladeshi not welcome in Pakistan? even though they used to be Pakistani and are fellow Muslims brothers?

[Bengal_Tiger]

Thank you Bengal_Tiger

Bangladesh used to be part of Pakistan but split in 1972. is that correct?

Those Bangladeshis who migrated to Pakistan settled in Karachi. They're called Muhajirs meaning refugees and they have been constantly under attack and and many of them have been killed.

Why are the Bangladeshi not welcome in Pakistan? even though they used to be Pakistani and are fellow Muslims brothers?

1. Bangladesh was part of Pakistan until 1971. The Bengali leader Mujib won the elections for the whole of Pakistan and was allied to Pashtun and Balochi leaders.

So 3 out of the 5 provinces of the then united Pakistan were united i.e. NWFP (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Balochistan and East Pakistan in a coalition.



2. The racist Pakistani military and feudals including Bhutto could not accept a Bengali as a leader so started a war.

The war included the deliberate mass murder and rape of Muslim Bengalis to instill fear in them and "teach them a lesson."


3. Muhajirs are Indian Muslims that migrated to West Pakistan after partition.
They come from different parts of India including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat etc. Not all speak Urdu, some speak Gujarati or Kachi.



4. We have a Muhajir member here called "Karachi" who can tell you more on the situation of Muhajirs in Karachi.



5. In addition to the Muhajirs there are 1-3 million Bengalis in Karachi who are treated quite badly, live in slums (e.g. Machar colony) and do basic jobs and denied citizenship.

To an extent Bengalis kind of integrate in to the wider "Muhajir" culture as they are similar. They look more like Muhajirs than other Pakistanis and they both come from east of the current Pakistan.

So many Bengalis in Karachi have aligned themselves with the Muhajir nationalist party the MQM.

However they are not considered as "Muhajirs" because Muhajirs (like other Pakistanis) generally look down on Bengalis as inferior.



This is all sad stuff because Muslims shouldn't be like this but that is the way the world is. Anyone here believes in a pan-Muslim utopia is living a fool's paradise.


By the way, where are you from? What tribe are you?



Also here's another map of how Bengal has shrunk:



If you look at the second map from the left, the light green is mainly Muslim east Bengal and it includes most of modern day north-eastern India. This is the territory that some Muslim Bengalis thought they would be getting before the creation of "Pakistan".

[Elixir]

Very interesting.

Pakistan is generally a sort of cancer in the sub continent. Pakistanis are like cancerous cells.

[Karachi]

Muhajirs are very heterogeneous, like I explained earlier. Muhajirs themselves dont get along with each other that much. Delhites are actually probably closes to Punjabis overall, since Delhi is only few miles from Punjab, People coming from UP are mixed. Biharis are a bit different, since Bihar is very east geographically. People from Delhi or even UP dont get along with Biharies at all and in fact in many cases they hate the Biharies, because Biharies are looked upon as very arrogant. Of course these things are probably stereotypes, but in general these things prevail. The muhajirs coming from other areas of India from the south were culturally/socially different. so the interaction/mixing is much less with them

Also Bengali tiger is right in a sense about looking down on bengalis, though not all muhajirs look down on Bengalis and in fact many muhajirs have sympathy with them, especially because what happened in 1971. Bengalis are also part of the mainstream Karachi culture now because they speak Urdu, you can't tell a difference who is who. MQM which I hate for different reasons, has done some good things, like fighting for the rights of Bengalis who were struggling at the beginning when they came to Pakistan. I think this is also the reason why many bengalis have joined that Party.

[Elixir]

Muhajirs are very heterogeneous, like I explained earlier. Muhajirs themselves dont get along with each other that much. Delhites are actually probably closes to Punjabis overall, since Delhi is only few miles from Punjab, People coming from UP are mixed. Biharis are a bit different, since Bihar is very east geographically. People from Delhi or even UP dont get along with Biharies at all and in fact in many cases they hate the Biharies, because Biharies are looked upon as very arrogant. Of course these things are probably stereotypes, but in general these things prevail. The muhajirs coming from other areas of India from the south were culturally/socially different. so the interaction/mixing is much less with them

Also Bengali tiger is right in a sense about looking down on bengalis, though not all muhajirs look down on Bengalis and in fact many muhajirs have sympathy with them, especially because what happened in 1971. Bengalis are also part of the mainstream Karachi culture now because they speak Urdu, you can't tell a difference who is who. MQM which I hate for different reasons, has done some good things, like fighting for the rights of Bengalis who were struggling at the beginning when they came to Pakistan. I think this is also the reason why many bengalis have joined that Party.

The refugees from Pakistan to India are not classified or called by any particular name in India. Why is it that Pakistan is a hotbed of sectarianism, racism, fundamentalism, communalism and organised crime?

Are you a typical Pakistani or an enlightened Pakistani?

[Scheherazade]

enlightened Pakistani?

Oxy...

[Teh Alchemist]

Why is that Bangladesh has such violent political system?

This was from another thread.

1. To be honest Bangladeshis don't really know (or think) much about Afghanistan.

They see it as a brother Muslim country as they would see Malaysia or Egypt.

However those who are a bit more educated including those who study history are aware of Afghan warriors and rulers that came to Bengal.

I am sure Afghans don't know (or think) much about Bangladesh besides the fact it's a brother Muslim country and that's it. It doesn't go any further.



2. West Bengal (new name Paschim Bangla) is a state in India right next to Bangladesh and its capital is Kolkata (formerly spelt "Calcutta).

Tripura is the other main Bengali speaking state in India.



When Pakistan was being created, even though Tripura was majority non-Muslim they wanted to be part of "East Pakistan" (east Bengal/Bangladesh) but the West Pakistani regime failed to allow that to happen.

@asad71

If Tripura was with Bangladesh today it would make life quite easier for us in Bangladesh.


We also lost north Arakan which was historically always Bengali (i.e. part of our Chittagong province).

So Afghanistan has lost Pakhtunkhwa, but we lost Tripura, north Arakan not to mention the fact that Bengal was far bigger in the past. Greater Bengal even included parts of Bihar.



Now thanks to the British and Jinnah we are far smaller.

Such is life.