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PICK OF THE WEEK
Geneva Camp
Promiti Prova Chowdhury is a journalist at the Dhaka Tribune and is curious about different lifestyles
Photos: Syed Latif Hossain
A generation in the shadows
Promiti Prova Chowdhury sheds light on the turbulent life of a generation born without identity ‘If we went back to Pakistan now, how would we survive there? That is not our country, those are not our people. We cannot read or write in Urdu. Though we speak it here inside the camp we have a very different accent than those of the Pakistanis,’ says Kanij Fatema, 21, a student of Accounting at Mohammadpur Kendriya College and a resident of Town Hall Bihari camp
W E E K E N D TRIBUNE F R I DAY, NOVE M B E R 1, 2013
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n December 16, they raise the national flag of Bangladesh high upon their rooftops or display it outwards from their windows, to celebrate the Bangladesh Liberation War victory of 1971. For Pahela Baisakh, these juveniles adorn themselves in red and white attires and accessories, and relish the bowl of panta-illish. When the Rana plaza collapsed in April this year, they rushed with whatever they had to help the victims in Savar. In many respects, there is nothing exceptional about these Bangladeshis. So, what makes them different? They are the youths inside the “Bihari Camp,” a zone meant solely for a group of Urdu-speaking people labelled as “Stranded Pakistanis.” Kanij Fatema, 21, a student of Accounting at Mohammadpur Kendriya College and a resident of Town Hall Bihari camp, says: “Those who were born long after independence like me love our country, Bangladesh. We are studying here and want to work here. But still people have a hard time trusting us. Whenever they find out the word ‘camp’ written as our address in any official documents, they neglect us.” In pre-independence British India, there was an Urdu-speaking Muslim minority in the Hindu majority state of Bihar. In 1947, at the time of partition, the Bihari Muslims, many of whom were fleeing the violence that took place during partition, fled to East Pakistan. After Bangladesh was born, in 1973, a survey was done on this community