IN Bangladeshi parlance, the Urdu-speaking Muslim people who had migrated to the then East Pakistan from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan are categorised as “Biharis”.

The Bihari community is a linguistic minority and is exceptionally different from other minority communities of Bangladesh. The communal riots in Bihar during 1946-47 led this community to take refuge in the territory of Bangladesh.

In the early days of Pakistan, there was confusion as to the legal identity of these people, ie, whether they would be regarded as refugees or voluntary migrants or asylees or stateless persons. In 1951 they were granted the citizenship of Pakistan and during the 24 years of Pakistani rules they were a privileged community both in social and economic fields.

Because of their active anti-independence role, the Biharis became subject to widespread political persecution preceding and during the 1971 war as well as in the aftermath of independence. After independence, the government of Bangladesh promulgated a set of laws that were intended to manage abandoned properties. These laws applied to a large extent against the Biharis, to confiscate not only residential but also commercial and movable properties including cash, ornaments and bullion. The consequences of operation of abandoned property laws have been, simply, gross denial of freedom and liberty, and institutionalisation of systematic sociocultural, economic and political deprivation of the Bihari community in Bangladesh. They have been displaced and lost everything; thousands of middle-class families rendered to paupers overnight. In order to save themselves they went to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) sponsored camps. Since then, the Biharis have been suffering from a crisis of their legal identity and status.

In 1972, following the creation of Bangladesh, an estimated 1,000,000 Urdu speakers were living in settlements throughout Bangladesh awaiting repatriation to Pakistan. Agreements between Pakistan, Bangladesh and India in 1973 and 1974 resulted in some 178,069 members of this community being repatriated from Bangladesh to Pakistan between 1973 and 1993 out of some 534,792 who had registered with the ICRC for repatriation. At present, it is generally estimated that there are more than 300,000 Biharis in Bangladesh, half of whom live in 116 camps all over the country. For several decades successive governments of Bangladesh have been treating the Biharis who opted for repatriation to Pakistan but are left in Bangladesh as refugees, not as citizens.

In 2003, in the case of Abid Khan and others vs government of Bangladesh and others, a division bench of the high court division held that the 10 Urdu-speaking petitioners, born both before and after 1971, were Bangladeshi nationals pursuant to the Citizenship Act, 1951 and the Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order, 1972, and thereby directed the government to register them as voters. The court further stated, quoting from an earlier case of Mukhter Ahmed vs govt of Bangladesh and others — “the mere fact that a person opts to migrate to another country cannot take away his citizenship.”

The effect of the 2003 decision was limited to the 10 petitioners. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh confirmed that Biharis are citizens of Bangladesh in 2008, in the landmark decision of Mohammad Sadaqat Khan and others vs chief election commissioner the High Court Division reaffirmed that all members of the Urdu-speaking community were nationals of Bangladesh in accordance with its laws and directed the election commission to enrol the petitioners and other Urdu-speaking people who want to be enrolled in the electoral rolls and accordingly, give them a national identity card without any further delay.

The election commission swiftly issued national identity cards to any member of the Urdu-speaking community who applied for one and who met the legal and administrative requirements. The Urdu-speaking community can no longer be viewed as stateless or refugee, as they are considered to be nationals of Bangladesh. As per article 6 of the constitution they are ‘Bangalis’ or ‘Bangladeshis’ not ‘Biharis’ or ‘stranded Pakistanis’. They are entitled to apply for administrative and judicial remedies in accordance with the laws of Bangladesh, in the same manner as any other Bangladeshi citizen.

This minority group is obviously a backward section of the country and has long been ignored in the development discourse of Bangladesh. For more than four decades they have been deprived of all the basic human rights. Particularly those living in camps have been facing social exclusion and severe discrimination in every aspect of life — education, employment, health services, business and access to justice. Mainstreaming of this group is a crying need of the time.

—The Daily Star /Bangladesh

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2015