Jeddah: Many people did not recognise the boundary line of Cyril Radcliffe that divided India and Pakistan during Indian Independence.
Mostly in Bengal across the new demarcated boundary, people believed that they were sons of soil irrespective of religious domain thus how some thousands of Telugu descendants remained in present-day Bangladesh, then known as Pakistan.
There are true Bangladesh nationals par excellence who maintain their cultural and linguistic identity on one side of the border, while some Bengalis who were uprooted from their homes and reached the Indian part of Telangana became patriotic Indians and proud of their rich Bengali heritage on the other side.
The people from Bengal had the option to choose to cross the boundary on religious lines yet many preferred to remain where their ancestors lived. The Hindus belong to the Telugu community with roots in the Northern Andhra region living in Bangladesh. The Telugu-origin people who live in the capital Dhaka area are largely marginal workers whereas the community that is thriving in the Sylhet area is affluent and indulged in lucrative tea plantations and other businesses.
“Our ancestors rejected the two-nation theory and so did we”, said Telugu origin of Bangladesh, Yesu Ratnam, who lives in Dhaka.
“We are truly Bangladeshis like others and culturally we are Telugus,” he told this correspondent over the phone in chaste Telugu. He learned Telugu from his parents and has imparted the same to his school-going children.
Nearly 40,000 communities that live in the capital and suburbs are mostly indulged in the meagre cleaning jobs of the city civic body.
The Telugu descendants living in the Sylhet area are proud of their Bangladeshi patriotism like other their compatriots. They cherished their Telugu culture which they still preserve.
Chompa Naidu, a young software professional, speaks and also writes in Telugu. Like numerous other Hindus, her ancestors preferred to remain in a land that they owned by heart. Bangladesh expatriate Raja Naidu who works in Dubai also holds pride in his nationality. They commemorate Bangladesh Independence Day on March 26.
The Telugu community is concerned for their safety in recent political developments in the country.
On this side of the border, some Bengali Hindus, who were forced to flee from their homes in the 1960s in then Pakistan, present-day Bangladesh, reached India as refugees and settled in forests of Kagaznagar in backward Adilabad district.
The refugee camps later emerged over five new villages among Nazrul Nagar, named after renowned Bengali Poet Nazrul Islam, which is a prominent one. Nazrul Nagar is now part of Kagaznagar Mandal in Komuram Bheem Asifabad district.
The ethnic Bengalis are considered one of the key vote banks in the Sirpur Assembly constituency which is first numerically in the Telangana Assembly index. Durga Puja celebrations in Kagaznagar by Bengalis reflect their culture and identity, and Indian Independence celebration is their patriotism.
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