Abuse of the Religious Sentiment to Gain Political Purpose in Bangladesh

Abstract

Religion did play a major role in the way the map of India and Pakistan was drawn then. It is believed that the seed of the birth of Bangladesh was sown then. As Bangladesh had witnessed the outcome of religion based statehood, therefore, religious secularism was one of the fundamentals of the constitution of Bangladesh. This however, changed with an amendment in 1977 where the term 'absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah' was incorporated instead of the principle of secularism. It may have seemed that secularism was a logical outcome of the Bengali nationalist movement but the new nation-state had within its construction the quest for homogenization. Finally, through the Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act, 2011 the Preamble of the Constitution included the fundamental principles of democracy, socialism, secularism and nationalism, earlier adopted by the Constituent Assembly in 1972, have been revived. Equal status and equal right in practice of the followers of the Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian and other religions have been ensured. Over the last two decades of the formation of democratic regime we are still struggling to epitomize our identity as a nation and the duty lies upon the society more than on politicians to rejuvenate our basic ideologies by way of eschewing pseudo-religious vendetta for a better democracy.