![]() I have become a citizen, so I want my rights. As I was born in this country, I love this land. We too respect those who sacrificed their lives for this country. If we were in Bangladesh back then, then we too would have fought for this country in the war. Maybe previous generations didn’t understand this, but we do. I was born in this country and I am a citizen. As is common with qualitative research, the findings from these FGDs are not necessarily representative of all Biharis’ opinions. The FGDs were conducted in January and February of 2020. In total, 82 individuals participated in the study (41 men and 41 women). Each FGD consisted of between nine and 12 participants of both genders and different age groups. To understand Biharis’ beliefs, challenges and needs, IRI partnered with a local research firm to organize eight focus group discussions (FGDs) spread across the major Bihari population centers: Chattogram (two FGDs), Dhaka (three FGDs: Mirpur, Adamjee and Mohammadpur), Khulna (one FGD) and Rangpur (two FGDs: Saidpur). Now several generations removed from the Liberation War, many Biharis are eager to join mainstream Bangladeshi society. ![]() Some Bangladeshis still view Biharis with suspicion and they are often considered anti-Awami League (the current ruling party), which led Bangladesh’s liberation movement. Socially and politically, Biharis are also marginalized. The Government of Bangladesh has long promised to “rehabilitate” Biharis - to provide them housing outside the camps that is integrated into the Bangladeshi community. However, the living conditions in Bihari camps remain poor. In 2008, Bangladesh’s Supreme Court recognized Biharis’ right to citizenship in Bangladesh and called for their inclusion on voter rolls. Over the past five decades, the Government of Bangladesh has made some effort to improve the rights and welfare of Biharis. The remaining Bihari community settled into 116 slum-like “camps” around Bangladesh, where they have remained since 1971. ![]() After Bangladesh’s independence, many Bangladeshis viewed Biharis as traitors, but the Pakistani government agreed to accept only a small percentage of Biharis into Pakistan. Many Biharis supported or joined the Pakistani army’s failed attempt to maintain Pakistan’s territorial unity, which included significant atrocities against Bengali nationalists. As Indian Muslims, Biharis joined Muslimmajority East Pakistan, but did not share the linguistic and ethnic background of the Bengali majority in the east, which spoke Bangla.Īfter years of discrimination from West Pakistan, East Pakistan declared independence as Bangladesh in 1971 triggering the Bangladesh Liberation War. The term “Bihari” refers to approximately 300,000 non-Bengali, Urdu-speaking citizens of Bangladesh who came to what was then East Pakistan mostly from the Indian states of Bihar and West Bengal after the Partition of India in 1947. The study examined the challenges and needs of Biharis in different locations around Bangladesh. In early 2020, the International Republican Institute (IRI) conducted a qualitative research study of the Bihari community in Bangladesh - an Urdu-speaking linguistic minority group in the South Asian nation. ![]()
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