The Flower Outside the Garden

Many people, while going to enjoy the beauty of a flower garden, unknowingly step on beautiful flowers blooming in the grass just outside. They get joy from the neatly arranged flowers inside the garden—some even pick them and put them in their hair or coat pocket. But the flower blooming with the same beauty outside, in the grass, gets its petals crushed under the shoes of those beauty-seekers.

When narrow-mindedness like communalism takes hold in a society or a state, minorities—whether by religion, race, or caste—become like that flower in the grass outside the garden. Chinmoy Das of Bangladesh is now nothing more than that. No matter how many times he is stepped on, it won’t reduce the beauty he carries. In fact, Chinmoy has now moved beyond the reach of those who only seek surface-level beauty.

Fate vs. the Fight for Freedom

Those who believe in fate will now say—this is Chinmoy Das’s destiny. That fate decides everything, and people have no power to change it.

But those who have read the works of Bengal’s two greatest minds—Rammohan Roy and Rabindranath Tagore—will say that people must build their own fate. Even if they have to push against the weight of a stone mountain, they must still try. Rammohan, Rabindranath, and their followers—S. Wazed Ali, Kazi Nazrul Islam, and later Kazi Motahar Hossain, Kazi Abdul Odud, and Syed Mujtaba Ali—all believed that fate is something we create ourselves. And for people to shape their fate, they need a society and a state where freedom of thought exists.

In their youth, the idea of shaping their own destiny moved them deeply. But in the past ten years or more, that feeling has slowly started to fade. If we look closely, it seems that from Rammohan to Mujtaba Ali, all of them were defeated by fate. No state or society fully accepted them. Even Syed Mujtaba Ali could not find a country or a place where he could freely express his thoughts.

False Hope in an Unchanged System

If we think that a young man like Chinmoy Das can easily and openly secure the rights of a minority community within this society and state, then we are making a big mistake.

In this world, where religion, caste, race, or gender are still used by some to keep others down, going against that current is never easy. It is a tough battle. And the path Chinmoy has taken has some similarities with that of Martin Luther King Jr.

Despite suffering from racism and humiliation, Martin Luther King never compromised when it came to fighting for African Americans. He accepted being killed by racist forces. That death only made his ideals stronger. On the other hand, the wise Ambedkar, at the end of his life, gave up the religion and caste he was born into, and took shelter in another belief. He died as someone who had been defeated. That’s why while Martin Luther King will always be remembered as a hero of struggle, Ambedkar may not be placed in the same position.

The Struggle Continues, Hand to Hand

Chinmoy is a young man. He has left behind a comfortable life. He is leading a fight so that the youth of his community can claim their rightful place in their own country. He wants to say that the young people of his community are part of this garden—they are not flowers blooming outside in the grass.

This is not the first time such a demand has been made in any land. Human history is full of such examples. In every such struggle, we see that one part of society or the state tries to take away the right of another group to shape their own future. And the price of fighting back is always higher.

Once a movement like this begins, it starts to grow like a snowball. One should never think it will end in a single day or be completed by one person. Just like a snowball rolls and becomes bigger, the torch of this kind of fight must be passed from one person to another, like in a relay race.

Chinmoy’s Fire Spreads

When Chinmoy started speaking out for the rights of the Hindu minority in Bangladesh, the movement was only seen as their struggle. But now, we are also seeing that some women—who want to break free from gender inequality and shape their own futures—have begun to speak up too. They are speaking for a free society, where people can shape their own fate. In other words, the snowball has grown a little more.

So even if Chinmoy doesn’t get released, it won’t harm the bigger cause. Just like Martin Luther King’s death didn’t stop the African American civil rights movement, Chinmoy’s arrest can’t stop this one.

The Hindu community in Bangladesh are among the original people of this land. And the women of this country who want to break through the barriers in their path—they are also a part of this society. They are mothers, wives, and daughters.

A Stronger Bond Will Break

So if Chinmoy Das doesn’t get bail, there’s no loss. The fire he has lit must be kept alive. Not just his followers, but all who dream of a free society should remember what Rabindranath said:

“The stronger the bond, the more certain it is to break.”

The author is a state-awarded journalist and the editor of Sarakhon and The Present World.