Dhaka Declaration
A two-day 'South Asian Conference on Fundamentalism: Role of Civil Society' took place in Dhaka on June 1 and 2 [2001]. Organised by leading intellectuals and public figures of Bangladesh who had played a prominent role in the country's liberation from Pakistani military-bureaucratic yoke thirty years ago, it was attended by a large number of participants from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. The discussions at the Conference were on Resisting Fudamentalism: Role of Government and Political Parties; Fundamentalism and Religion; Fundamentalism and Women; Fudamentalism, Communalism and Progressive Ideas; Fundamentalism and War Crimes; Fundamentalism and Terrorism; Communalism: Condition of Religious and Ethnic Minorities, Resisting Fundamentalism and Communalism: Role of Civil Society: The Prime Minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, met the conference participants on June 1 and conveyed her best wishes for the success of the meet. The Indian participants included PA. Sangma, MP, former Minister Phulrenu Guha, Prof Amlan Dutta, Major General (retd.) Vinod Saigal, Mrinal Sen, M.P., Prof. Mushirul Hasan, Maulana Wahiddudin Khan, Prof. Riaz Punjabi, Dr. Farida Khanam, MJ Akbar. The Pakistani Delegation had in it Air Marshal (retd.) Asghar Khaan and hiss wife, Prof. A.H. Dani, Prof. Hamza Alavi, forrmer chieef Justice Syed Sajjad Ali Shah, M.B. Naqvi, Dr Alia Imam, Advocate Alamdar Raja, Karamat Ali, Ahmad Salim and Shahid Fiaz. From Nepal came former Speaker Daman Dhungana, former Minister Jhalanath Khanal, Prof. Rajesh Gautam, Dr. Tika Pokhrel. The Sri Lankan Team included former ombudsman Prof. B.E.S.J Bastiampillai, Dr. Sunil Wijesiriwardena, Tissa Abeysekera, Sathivale Balakrishnan. Bangladesh was represented inter alia by National Professor Kabir Chowdhury, poet Shamsur Rahman, Foreign Minister Abdus Samad Azad, Mujahidul Islam Selim, Abdul Matin, Dilip Barua, Monaem Sarkar, Ms Chitra Bhattacharya, MP, Prof Khan Sarwar Murshid, Prof Burhanuddin Khan Jehangir, Major General (retd.) C.R. Dutta Bhadanta, Sumangal Mahathero, Waliur Rahman, Sultana Kamal, Ayesha Khanam, Debashish Roy, Shahriar Kabir, Barrister Tania Amir.
The following declaration was adopted at the end of the conference.
We, members of the civil society of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, having participated in the two day South Asian Conference on Fundamentalism and Communalism held in Dhaka, Bangladesh on June 1-2, 2001;
1. Recognising that fundamentalism and communalism are undermining the vitals of our society, eroding democratic values, norms and institutions and perpetuating acts of violence and terrorism;
2. recognising that women, children and people belonging to ethnic and religious minority groups are particularly being victimised by fundamentalist and communalist forces;
3. recognising that these forces are geared to gain political control by various means whatsoever;
4. recognising that there is a great urgency in checking and rendering these forces ineffective without further delay; further recognising that unless concerted efforts are made to achieve these objectives, the entire South Asian region will be engulfed in medieval darkness;
5. recognising that countries in South Asia are endangered by identical problems and we should move unitedly and resolutely to deal with the problems;
6. recognising that some political parties and social groups are using fundamentalist and communal ideologies as well as these forces in furthering their ends; affirming the need to urge upon political parties and social groups in South Asian countries to desist immediately from utilising these forces for political benefit;
7. affirming the need of de-communalisation and secularisation implying an active reconstruction of ethnic and religious identities in a spirit of equality interdependence and mutual respect, we call upon states, governments, political parties and civil society organisations to uphold inter-ethnic, inter-religious and inter-faith equality as inalienable democratic principles
8. recognising that sections of the media are increa-singly becoming the means to propagate fundamentalist communalist and extremist ideology and sentiments call upon media institutions and personnel to uphold principles and ideals of democracy, pluralism and secularism in order to promote values of diversity and tolerance
9. recognising that the process of secular democratisation of South Asian societies could effectively challenge patriarchy and gender subordination, reinforced and sustained by reactionary forces, we call upon states political parties and civil society organisations to uphold these fundamental principles;
10. We, members of South Asian civil society, r ecognising that the present Conference held in Dhaka together members of the civil societies of South Asia and paving a path to fight the communal and funda-mentalist forces unitedly by upholding democratic, human and secular values; pledge .
(a) to harness our energies for promoting socialjustice, peace, gender equality, and secular democratic values;
(b) to work towards bringing all perpetrators of crimes against humanity and war criminals to justice.
Hence, we propose to establish a South Asia platform " South Asian Peopleís Union Against Fundamentalism and Communalism" to join hands in resisting all forms of fundamentalism and communalism in the region.
Source: MAlNSTREAM , June 9, 2001, page 35
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