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Abstract
Secularism is one of the four pillars of The Constitution of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.
However, still in Bangladesh Constitution support secularism or is it against secularism is a huge
debatable issue. Though Constitution embodied Bangladesh as a secular state, but in terms of
political view Bangladesh is a non-secular state and its state religion is Islam. The ambiguous
language of article 2A of the Constitution and the statement BISMILLAH-AR-RAHMAN-AR-
RAHIM on the beginning of the preamble creates the confusion regarding secular and non-secular
issue.
















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Hindustan and Bangladesh always symbolizes secularism and behind those names huge
history whisper. Before the independence of India or Hindustan, the territory of Bangladesh was
being the part of the United Bengal in India. The first independent monarch of United Bangla was
Sasanka. Later, Pala dynasty, Sena dynasty, Illiyas Shahi period and so many kings came and also
British ruled the United Bengal.
Sena dynasty emphasize dualism rather than monism. Their came into power by replacing
Pala dynasty. As various religious people lived together on that period, they didnt progress to the
way of convert rather encouraged syncretism because they had to set up networks from zero.
Afterwards, on 23 June 1757, the Battle of Plassey occurred between Siraj-ud-Daulah and
Mir Jafar which had an important effect on the history of Bangla. Mir Jafar won the battle as he
took help from British to defeat Siraj-ud-Daulah. After the battle British took charge of Hindustan
and the period of British East India Company begun. At the beginning British did not concentrate
towards ruling rather they emphasized on making new solder and collecting taxes like Dewani
from the local people. Before arrival of British imperialism the tax was usually collected by two
groups. Those were Aristocratic groups and the Fakir-Sannyasi groups. However, British took
over the power of collecting tax into their hand henceforth the Fakir-Sannyasi lost one of their
primary income sources that was collecting tax from local people. This deprivation leads to revolt
against the British ruler which is known as the Fakir-Sannyasi Rebellion (1760 - 1800). In this
battle, both Fakirs who were the follower of Muslim religion and Sannyasis who were the follower
of Hindu religion fought together as they wanted to free their mother land from the dark period of
British. The battle ran around 40 years and finally they were defeated by British. However, that
battle showed other Hindustani the way to end their suffering. On that battle, Hindu and Muslim
religious follower fought together to get rid of their suffering and to sovereign their country. Here,
religion was not a fact and the main fact was that they love their country and they would do
whatever it took to free their country from British monarchy.
Later, in 1923 Chitta Ranjan Das (CR Das), a man of vision who sincerely believed in the
principle of sharing political power with the majority Muslim community of the province, came
forward to take up the task of strengthening relations between Hindus and Muslims by introducing



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Bengal Pact (1923) an agreement aimed at resolving the question of Hindu-Muslim differences.
His act clearly symbolize secularism.
On the other hand, Mohammed Ali Jinnah who was the president of the Muslim League,
in power in several provinces of India including Bengal called a general session of the All India
Muslim League in Lahore to discuss the situation that had arisen due to the outbreak of the Second
World War and the Government of India joining the war without taking the opinion of the Indian
leaders, and also to analyze the reasons that led to the defeat of the Muslim League in the general
election of 1937 in the Muslim majority provinces. On that event he explained Two Nation Theory
in its final form at Lahore on March 2223, 1940. Later, according to the theory after independent
Hindustan divided into two parts, one was India where Hindu religion people were the majority
and another was Pakistan where Muslim religion people were bulked. Moreover, Pakistan had two
divisions one was West Pakistan which situated on the west sight of India now known as Pakistan
and other division was named East Pakistan which created by dividing Calcutta (Kolkata)
nowadays known as Bangladesh. From this period of the history the tradition of braking secularism
system begun.
Secularism and non-secularism is the part and parcel of our history. Some politicians
supported secularism and some did not, but the most important thing is that a state must not be
built based on a particular religion whether politicians support it or not because state always itself
represents secularism and adopting particular religion on a state is lawfully impossible.
In 1971, due to various causes, East Pakistan declared war against West Pakistan, which
was known as the Liberation war of Bangladesh (1971) and later on March 25, 1971 the Pakistan
army was crack-down and the announcement of independence of Bangladesh was put out from the
Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Free Bengal Radio Station) in Chittagong. However, from the
viewpoint of international law, Bangladesh needed government to legally legalize the declaration
as well as the independence war of Bangladesh. Finally, to end this problem on 16
th
December,
1972 the first constitution of Bangladesh was introduced by the signature of Sheikh Mujibur
Rahman who was the pioneer political leader of Bangladeshs independent history is well-known
throughout the world as Bangabandhu (friend of Bengal).



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Secular constitution always gives equal right to all in terms of religion law. One sovereign
State must need a constitution. Constitution and law are interrelated. Constitution helps legislator
and judicially to make and apply law of the sack of the human being of the State.
Preamble of The Constitution of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh enunciated
Bangladesh as a secular country and also art. 8.(1)
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states that fundamental principles of state
policy includes secularism along with nationalism, socialism, democracy. Moreover, on 2011in
Anwar Hussain .Vs. Bangladesh or 8
th
Amendment Case, the High Court Division of the Supreme
Court of Bangladesh states Bangladesh as a secular country by reestablishing the 1972 constitution
and canceling the eighth amendment (7 June 1988 ) which was introduced by Ziaur Rahman who
was the freedom fighter of Bangladesh, the head of Z force, the Chief Army Staff, the founder
of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and also the former president of Bangladesh. At present,
art. 2A
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states that other religions may be practiced in peace and harmony in the Republic. The
content of Bangladeshi secularism has found place in the revived Article 12. As per this Article
the word secularism will mean the following:-
(a) communalism in all its forms ;
(b) the granting by the State of political status in favour of any religion ;
(c) the abuse of religion for political purposes ;
(d) any discrimination against, or persecution of, persons practicing a particular religion.
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Moreover, the State (Bangladesh) shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of
religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth and also no citizen shall, on grounds only of religion,
race, caste, sex or place of birth be subjected to any disability, liability, restriction or condition
with regard to access to any place of public entertainment or resort, or admission to any educational
institution.
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Furthermore, subject to law, public and morality, every citizen has the right to profess,





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practise or propagate any religion, every religious community or denomination has the right to
establish, maintain and manage its religious institutions and no person attending any educational
institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or to take part in or to attend any
religious ceremony or worship, if that instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other
than his own.
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Even to ensure secularism The Constitution of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh
embodied that there shall be one electoral roll for each constituency for the purposes of elections
to Parliament, and no special electoral roll shall be prepared so as to classify electors according to
religion, race, caste or sex.
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By reading aforesaid statement it is clear that according to the Constitutional point of view
Bangladesh is a secular state.
Another issue is that, state means a particular territory where different tradition and culture
follower people live together with a sovereign Government. Chandran Kukathas (2008) states a
state is not a nation, or a people, though it may contain a single nation, parts of different nations,
or a number of entire nations.
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So, a state is not a human beings rather it is a nonliving thing. For
instance: like a table a state is also symbolize nonliving thing and both dont have life. By reading
aforesaid statement, one question raise here is that if we dont emphasize religion on a table, why
we should do it in terms of state? Accurate answer of the question is that implementation of any
particular religion on a state is really impossible. Kenez (2011) states that the Prime Minister of
Turkey was saying that the state was neutral in regards to religion.
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That is why, a state always
itself represents secularism and adopting particular religion on a state is lawfully impossible.







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Political partys use non secularism as means to fulfill their needs, creates discrimination
and violate International Human Rights law.
Though, preamble and HCDs judgment declared Bangladesh as a secular state and also
art. 8 (1),12, 28 (1) and (3), 41 (1)-(2) and 121 of the Constitution safeguard secularism, not only
BISMILLAH-AR-RAHMAN-AR-RAHIM is embodied in the opening of the Constitution of
The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh but also art. 2A
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states that the state religion of the Republic
is Islam. The article further states that but the state shall ensure equal status and equal right in the
practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions.
First party of art. 2A
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which provides that the state religion of the Republic is Islam is
itself self-contradictory to its later part which enunciated but the state shall ensure equal status and
equal right in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions. If the state religion
of the Republic is consider to be Islam, the state will sooner or later failed to ensure equal status
and equal right in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions and also
eventually discrimination, violate of International Human Rights law and so on problems would
show up.
Furthermore, Lame CJ of Canada described preamble as the grand entrance hall to the
castle of the Constitution.
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The same can be said about the preamble of our Constitution. In
Anwar Hossain Chowdhury v. Bangladesh,
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the court held that the preamble is a part of our
Constitution. And in Pakala Narayan v. Emperor,
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the court held that if the enacting part of the
constitution is ambiguous or open to doubt, the preamble may be referred to resolve the ambiguity
or doubt, as it is good means of finding out the meaning. As preamble of the Constitution of the
Peoples Republic of Bangladesh clearly enunciated Bangladesh as a secular state, art. 2As
ambiguous statement creates inconsistency and doubts because at the same time a state cannot act





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as a secular and also a non-secular one. If we consider Bangladesh a secular state, the statement
the state religion of the Republic is Islam shall be omitted form art. 2A and if we consider
Bangladesh as non-secular state, secularism must be omitted from the preamble and at the same
time also need to change following articles [8 (1),12, 28 (1) and (3), 41 (1)-(2) and 121].
By reading preamble with art. 8 (1),12, 28 (1) and (3), 41 (1)-(2) and 121, it is clear that
Bangladeshs Constitution embodied secularism as one of its basic structures and if substantive
provision like art. 2A failed to achieve the objects and purposes stated in the preamble which
indicate that the provision itself failed to perform its enacted purpose which is to follow preamble,
shall immediately need to omit from the Constitution.
Moreover, Kenez (2011) states that the constitutional court of that state of Bavaria at
Germany ruled for talking away of crosses in the building and classrooms of the state schools, but
the politicians challenged that rule and did not act to remove the crosses.
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On the other hand,
Strenger (2009) mentions the U.S. constitution does not allow any religious symbol in any
building connected to the legislature, executive or judiciary.
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Here, we see that as U.S. represents
secularism so the politicians of U.S. do not create any problem regarding removal of crosses issue.
In contract, Germanys politicians did not allow the rule to remove crosses. So, the main point is
that politicians always try to grab religious issue as people are always emotional in this issues and
it also help them to increase their partys supporter easily. Bangladesh is a secular state,
BISMILLAH-AR-RAHMAN-AR-RAHIM must be remove from the beginning of the preamble.
After this judgment, Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) made this a religious issue and protest
against it and finally they succeed to stop it. Like Germanies politician Bangladeshi politician also
use religious as a means to increase their popularity. However, if we think legally, now Bangladesh
is a secular country like U.S., therefore like cross mark BISMILLAH-AR-RAHMAN-AR-
RAHIM must have to be remove from constitution.




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Strenger (2009) states that Europes secularization process began in 1648, after thirty years
of religious wars that had left large parts of Europe almost depopulated by killing, illness and
famine.
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What Europe realized after long thirty years of religious wars, Bangladeshi politician
yet fail to realized that as long as religion and politics were intertwined, deadly conflicts could not
be resolved.
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They also realized that politics must become practical and free from religious
aspect.
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Actually Bangladeshi political party mainly use religion as a means to collect vast vote
to win the election. In future, without removing religion from politics, the development of
Bangladesh is quite difficult.
However, Bangladesh is a country where different religious people live together.
According to the Statistical Pocket Book Bangladesh (2009), among all citizens of Bangladesh
Muslim is 89.6 per cent, followed by Hindus 9.3 per cent and others 0.2 per cent.
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Some people
believe that state like Bangladesh should follow Islam as a state religion as Muslim is the majority
here. Nevertheless, their thinking is totally wrong and Bangladeshs history also confirms it. The
conception of revealed truth has dominated most of human history: truth and values are based on
a source that lies in the past, and whose validity is absolute says Strenger (2009).
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Mohit Oul
Alom (2011) says that at the time of Pakistans monarchy, West Pakistan people realized that the
alphabets of Bangla language looked different form Arabic or Roman alphabets and had influence
of ancient Busnoub and Buddhist society, so it was anti of Islam culture.
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Later, they figure out
that for the betterment of Pakistan, they should transformed Bangla language with the alphabets
of Arabic or Roman.
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Here we saw that though East and West Pakistan people share same religion,






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but language creates a huge briar between those two nations. On the other hand, like independent
war of Hindustan at the time of the liberation war of Bangladesh, all people fought to free their
motherland from West Pakistani army. They fought together because they believed that East
Pakistan was their motherland and they were the child of this land, so they had to save their mother
together no matter which religion they were obeying. Their love and blood shad brought the
freedom of Bangladesh. From history, we learn that religion is not a matter to consider at the time
of creating a state rather culture, language etc. are an important issue.
Secularism is not a provision against religion rather it only separates the state from
religious aspect. It recognizes religion and state as two different spheres. Secularism nurtures the
democratic rights of individuals and all social groups. Knowing this, can we possibly justify the
continued problem of secularism issue in Bangladesh?
















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Bibliography
Articles:-
1. Kukathas, C (2008). A Definition of the State.
2. Statistical Pocket Book Bangladesh (2009), Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BANBAIS.
3. Strenger, C (2009). Why Israel must become a secular state; a thought for Yom Kippur
5770.
4. Kenez, L (2011, October 09). No problem with secularism in writing new constitution.
5. M, O. A (2011). Judyparad songhotonar tolar dandoti.

Cases:-
1. Anwar Hossain Chowdhury v. Bangladesh
2. Pakala Narayan v. Emperor
Statute:-
The Constitution of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh
Book:-
Islam Mahmudul. Constitutional Law of Bangladesh, 3th ed.
Website:-
1. http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/L_0011.htm
2. http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/P_0051.htm
3. http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/S_0224.htm
4. http://www.banglapedia.org/HT/B_0466.htm