We were originally Hindus, says Bangladeshi author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed

[Michael Corleone]

I cant fookin stand these Bengali pseudo intellectuals.

Most of the murdered twats in 71 were the same tbh I reckon, all some “poets” and very few actual intellectuals that would contribute to country development

 

[Bilal9]

Some Bangladeshis are so comfy being wannabe pseudo-Hindus, I wonder if they just used Muslim names to come over to Bangladesh from India in 1947. I have seen some folks in Dhaka who came over as refugees from India, however I've never seen them even try to accomplish any of the five pillars of Islam. They were Muslim in name only. I guess she belongs to one of these types of families.

I will call her Tasleem Nasreen "part deux"...fuggly ol' feminist lesbos of the world - unite!

By the way you will see these clueless morons talk all about their 'Hindu' background (actually not true - most lower-middle and lower class Bangladeshis were Buddhist prior to being Muslim), however you won't hear a 'peep' from them about the racism that is happening in India nowadays (CAB, CAA, NRT et al)...

 

[Crusher]

You also used to live in caves naked eating raw meat

Why are you living in a nice comfy home wearing all those clothes and eating cooked food?

And even before that probably hanging on trees for millions of years . But these type of people don't want to celebrate those aspects of their "glorious ancestry", it is always the "hindu" (religious BS) ancestry.

 

[Rusty]

I never understood this argument.
"we used to be..."
So lets logic it out
We used to be hunter gatherers
We used to be village dwellers
We used to be farmers
We used to be poor
We used to be a colony

And in Pakistan's case
We used to be Buddhist.

So... should we go back to all those things?

 

[mb444]

Who cares....hardly a popular or common viewpoint in BD.

Does not matter who we were only what we are now.

One can have a view, good for her, it is factually accurate but it wont determine any future discourse to any length.

 

[Black_cats]

I have seen this kind of views among Iranians. Some even said things like Arab culture was imposed on them or don’t call them Muslim.

 

[GumNaam]

So a nobody with little knowledge of history is claiming she used to be Hindu for attention... why doesn’t she convert back then

To further add to what you said, a no body with little knowledge of history is claiming she used to be hindu for attention, and all the black cats across the border start hyperventilating while lactating at their teets! I can bet you a pretty penny that arnab goswamy must be having a panel 50 pseudo historian cheerleaders from make shift indian think tanks obediently nodding at everything he says. and by nodding, I meant...

 

[Longhorn]

To further add to what you said, a no body with little knowledge of history is claiming she used to be hindu for attention, and all the black cats across the border start hyperventilating while lactating at their teets! I can bet you a pretty penny that arnab goswamy must be having a panel 50 pseudo historian cheerleaders from make shift indian think tanks obediently nodding at everything he says. and by nodding, I meant...

Plenty hyperventilating on this thread, if we're honest.

 

[hussain0216]

It's almost like a caste mentality

That just because you used to be something you are trapped In your caste to forever worship some freaky monkey idol for no other reason than that it is local or people before you did so

You can never change or better yourself or follow your own path


Well forget that crap, we are Muslims now, we should respect the history and heritage of our land and people
Remember we have been here for thousands of years but Islam supercedes everything

 

[Clutch]

Nobody is holding her back... She can always convert back... ???

 

[fallstuff]

We were originally Hindus, says Bangladeshi author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed

Author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed during an even in Bengaluru recently. | Photo Credit: Sampath Kumar G.P.
PTI
KOLKATA 01 JANUARY 2020 10:47 IST
UPDATED: 01 JANUARY 2020 11:04 IST

The people of her country are more alike than different from Indians, she says

U.S-based Bangladeshi author and playwright Sharbari Zohra Ahmed feels that the people of the country of her origin are more alike than different from Indians as they were originally Hindus.

But Bangladeshis now want to forget their Hindu roots, said the author, who was born in Dhaka and moved to the United States when she was just three weeks old.

Ahmed, who is the co-writer of the Season 1 of Quantico, a popular American television drama thriller series starring Priyanka Chopra, rues that her identity as a Bengali is getting lost in Bangladesh due to the influence of right-wing religious groups.

“How can Bangladesh deny its Hindu heritage? We were originally Hindus. Islam came later,” Ms. Ahmed said while speaking to PTI here recently.

“The British exploited us, stole from us and murdered us,” she said about undivided India, adding that the colonialists destroyed the thriving Muslin industry in Dhaka.

Ms. Ahmed said the question of her belief and identity in Bangladesh, where the state religion in Islam, has prompted her to write her debut novel Dust Under Her Feet.

The British exploitation of India and the country’s partition based on religion has also featured in her novel in a big way.

Ms. Ahmed calls Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War II, a “racist”.

“He took the rice from Bengal to feed his soldiers and didn’t care when he was told about that.

“During my research, I learnt that two million Bengalis died in the artificial famine that was created by him. When people praise Churchill, it is like praising Hitler to the Jews. He was horrible,” she said.

The author said her novel is an effort to tell the readers what actually happened.

“Great Britain owes us three trillion dollars. You have to put in inflation. Yet, they (the British) still have a colonial mentality and white colonisation is on the rise again,” Ms. Ahmed, who was in the city to promote her novel, said.

The novel is based in Kolkata, then Calcutta, during World War II when American soldiers were coming to the city in large numbers.

The irony was that while these American soldiers were nice to the locals, they used to segregate the so-called “black” soldiers, the novelist said.

“Calcutta was a cosmopolitan and the rest of the world needs to know how the city’s people were exploited, its treasures looted, people divided and hatred instilled in them,” she said.

‘Direct Action Day’
“Kolkata was my choice of place for my debut novel since my mother was born here. She witnessed the ‘Direct Action Day’ when she was a kid and was traumatised. She saw how a Hindu was killed by Muslims near her home in Park Circus area (in the city),” Ms. Ahmed said.

Direct Action Day, also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, was a massive communal riot in the city on August 16, 1946 that continued for the next few days.

Thousands of people were killed in the violence that ultimately paved the way for the partition of India.

Dust Under Her Feet is set in the Calcutta of the 1940s and Ahmed in her novel examines the inequities wrought by racism and colonialism.

The story is of young and lovely Yasmine Khan, a doyenne of the nightclub scene in Calcutta.

When the US sets up a large army base in the city to fight the Japanese in Burma, Yasmine spots an opportunity.

The nightclub is where Yasmine builds a family of singers, dancers, waifs and strays.

Every night, the smoke-filled club swarms with soldiers eager to watch her girls dance and sing.

Yasmine meets American soldier Lt Edward Lafaver in the club and for all her cynicism, finds herself falling helplessly for a married man who she is sure will never choose her over his wife.

Outside, the city lives in constant fear of Japanese bombardment at night. An attack and a betrayal test Yasmine’s strength and sense of control and her relationship with Edward.

Ms. Ahmed teaches creative writing in the MFA programme in Manhattanville College and is artist-in-residence in Sacred Heart University’s graduate film and television programme.

www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/we-were-originally-hindus-says-bangladeshi-author-sharbari-zohra-ahmed/article30449150.ece/amp/

Its true if you believe the world is just a few thousand years old. Well before Hinduism there were more religions in the long line of history.
Why is she stuck with Hinduism ?

 

[bluesky]

Many of Hasina crew still are.

Most BD people would disagree with these Hindu-lovers.

Bold part: However, Hasina's forefathers were from Baghdad, She is from a Shaikh (Shayekh/Sheikh) family. Look at her brown eyes and her tall/handsome father and grandfather with sharp nose, it speaks something. There are people among the Muslim Bengali whose forefathers were one time foreigners but settled in Bengal and now are pure Bengali but most are mixed with many other genes. Read history.

I want this woman to read also history to know all are not descended from the local Hindus. There are admixtures of Turkic, Pathan, Central Asian, Persian, Ethiopian and North Indian people who settled in all over Bengal and ultimately mixed with the local converted Muslims.

Almost the same in other parts of Hindustan. Foreign people who settled in Bengal are now pure Bengali irrespective of descended from foreign Muslims or local converted Muslims. It is the same all over Hindustan. Most have mixed bloodlines.

This woman writer is talking something stupid without going through the pages of the political history of Bengal. It is only to sell her books in west Bengal and among the BAL cronies. The reality is if there are converts from local Hindus there is also an admixture of foreign blood.

 

[mb444]

Bold part: However, Hasina's forefathers were from Baghdad, She is from a Shaikh (Shayekh/Sheikh) family. Look at her brown eyes and her tall father and grandfather, it speaks something. There are people among the Muslim Bengali whose forefathers were one time foreigners but settled in Bengal and now are pure Bengali but most are mixed with many other genes. Read history.

I want this woman to read also history to know all are not descended from the local Hindus. There are admixtures of Turkic, Pathan, Central Asian, Persian, Ethiopian and North Indian people who settled in all over Bengal and ultimately mixed with the local converted Muslims.

Almost the same in other parts of Hindustan. Foreign people who settled in Bengal are now pure Bengali irrespective of descended from foreign Muslims or local converted Muslims. It is the same all over Hindustan. Most have mixed bloodlines.

This woman writer is talking something stupid without going through the pages of the political history of Bengal. It is only to sell her books in west Bengal and among the BAL cronies. The reality is if there are converts from local Hindus there is also an admixture of foreign blood.

Could not be said better.... Bangladeshies are a mongrel nation of many bloodlines particularly the muslims. Only thing that binds is Islam, language and a broad perspective.

 

[El Sidd]

We were originally Hindus, says Bangladeshi author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed

Author Sharbari Zohra Ahmed during an even in Bengaluru recently. | Photo Credit: Sampath Kumar G.P.
PTI
KOLKATA 01 JANUARY 2020 10:47 IST
UPDATED: 01 JANUARY 2020 11:04 IST

The people of her country are more alike than different from Indians, she says

U.S-based Bangladeshi author and playwright Sharbari Zohra Ahmed feels that the people of the country of her origin are more alike than different from Indians as they were originally Hindus.

But Bangladeshis now want to forget their Hindu roots, said the author, who was born in Dhaka and moved to the United States when she was just three weeks old.

Ahmed, who is the co-writer of the Season 1 of Quantico, a popular American television drama thriller series starring Priyanka Chopra, rues that her identity as a Bengali is getting lost in Bangladesh due to the influence of right-wing religious groups.

“How can Bangladesh deny its Hindu heritage? We were originally Hindus. Islam came later,” Ms. Ahmed said while speaking to PTI here recently.

“The British exploited us, stole from us and murdered us,” she said about undivided India, adding that the colonialists destroyed the thriving Muslin industry in Dhaka.

Ms. Ahmed said the question of her belief and identity in Bangladesh, where the state religion in Islam, has prompted her to write her debut novel Dust Under Her Feet.

The British exploitation of India and the country’s partition based on religion has also featured in her novel in a big way.

Ms. Ahmed calls Winston Churchill, the British prime minister during World War II, a “racist”.

“He took the rice from Bengal to feed his soldiers and didn’t care when he was told about that.

“During my research, I learnt that two million Bengalis died in the artificial famine that was created by him. When people praise Churchill, it is like praising Hitler to the Jews. He was horrible,” she said.

The author said her novel is an effort to tell the readers what actually happened.

“Great Britain owes us three trillion dollars. You have to put in inflation. Yet, they (the British) still have a colonial mentality and white colonisation is on the rise again,” Ms. Ahmed, who was in the city to promote her novel, said.

The novel is based in Kolkata, then Calcutta, during World War II when American soldiers were coming to the city in large numbers.

The irony was that while these American soldiers were nice to the locals, they used to segregate the so-called “black” soldiers, the novelist said.

“Calcutta was a cosmopolitan and the rest of the world needs to know how the city’s people were exploited, its treasures looted, people divided and hatred instilled in them,” she said.

‘Direct Action Day’
“Kolkata was my choice of place for my debut novel since my mother was born here. She witnessed the ‘Direct Action Day’ when she was a kid and was traumatised. She saw how a Hindu was killed by Muslims near her home in Park Circus area (in the city),” Ms. Ahmed said.

Direct Action Day, also known as the Great Calcutta Killings, was a massive communal riot in the city on August 16, 1946 that continued for the next few days.

Thousands of people were killed in the violence that ultimately paved the way for the partition of India.

Dust Under Her Feet is set in the Calcutta of the 1940s and Ahmed in her novel examines the inequities wrought by racism and colonialism.

The story is of young and lovely Yasmine Khan, a doyenne of the nightclub scene in Calcutta.

When the US sets up a large army base in the city to fight the Japanese in Burma, Yasmine spots an opportunity.

The nightclub is where Yasmine builds a family of singers, dancers, waifs and strays.

Every night, the smoke-filled club swarms with soldiers eager to watch her girls dance and sing.

Yasmine meets American soldier Lt Edward Lafaver in the club and for all her cynicism, finds herself falling helplessly for a married man who she is sure will never choose her over his wife.

Outside, the city lives in constant fear of Japanese bombardment at night. An attack and a betrayal test Yasmine’s strength and sense of control and her relationship with Edward.

Ms. Ahmed teaches creative writing in the MFA programme in Manhattanville College and is artist-in-residence in Sacred Heart University’s graduate film and television programme.

www.thehindu.com/books/books-authors/we-were-originally-hindus-says-bangladeshi-author-sharbari-zohra-ahmed/article30449150.ece/amp/

no dear you just want to milk the indian cow.
you would claim red Indian heritage if money is there.


Don't walk around the US with that sniper aim on your forehead.

sincere wishes

 

[Riyad]

Another Bangladeshi Taslima Nasreen but what she said is true for 99% Bangladeshi Muslims. Only 1% may have Arab roots.