Last month, there was monsoon flooding along the borderline of Bangladesh and India. The flood water receded through Bangladesh to the Bay of Bengal. One newspaper reported an Indian wild elephant became a refugee to Bangladesh soil from India. Probably the elephant felt unsafe in this natural flood disaster in the Indian forest, and thus crossed the border. Without passport or visa.
Villagers in Bangladesh naturally were curious seeing the elephant in their flooded agricultural land. The forestry department tried to catch him using tranquillizer gun. Unfortunately, the elephant didn’t survive. A refugee died in a foreign land.
Humans, the wisest animal in this planet, do the same thing whenever their lives are in danger. To save themselves from natural or man-made disaster such as civil war, people risk their lives to move to a safer country without passport or visa. Who doesn’t want a better, safer life?
Survival is a human instinct. Thus we see a migration of population, legally or illegally. Sometimes we see a migration on a massive scale. The Syrian civil war and the existence of the deadly ISIS organization have created an ongoing refugee crisis. We have seen how the human lives became like dead fish as the oceanic waves carried the dead bodies to the beaches.
Despite superpower involvement, no solution is in sight.
Back in 1971, when I was a sophomore at the University of Dhaka in Bangladesh, the then occupying Pakistan military (Pakistan then was a country with two wings, a miles apart) started massacring innocent people of Dhaka city in the night of 25th March.
In response, Bangladesh declared independence from Pakistan. All college students and minorities became the first target of the Pakistani army’s killing spree. Almost 3 million people died and 10 million people of Bangladesh took refuge in India. I was one of those 10 million refugees, though I didn’t live in the refugee tent. My elder sisters and brothers lived in India.
One early morning, I hired a guide and started walking towards Indian border leaving behind my mother and a brother. By nightfall, we reached a bordering village, and took shelter in a house. The house was full of dried fish and smelled awful. I was told that the old house owner would take me to cross the border whenever the road was out of danger from Pakistani military. I could not sleep that night. Often I heard shots. Definitely, it was a scary sound for me.
What an uncertain life for a 20-year-old university student, whose life was hanging in the balance. If you were caught by Pakistani army or their collaborators, you were dead. At the same time, if I could cross the border successfully I would be able to see my sisters and brothers for the first time.
Around 9 the following morning, I started my second journey walking behind the old man. Luckily we made it safely to the other side of the border. I felt happy but was thinking of my mom and a brother whom I left at home. It was indeed a second life for me.
I would never forget the generosity of Indian people during that time. After traveling by bus, truck, train, all free of charge, finally I reached my sister’s house. Two months later, my old mom and brother also crossed the border and joined us. So many refugees did not have a story with such a happy ending.
I think we all need to believe in the practice of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King’s nonviolence movement. We have only one life to live and we need to see it at the fullest. The weapons, guns or wars never produce any solution for peace.
Jiben Roy, a native of Bangladesh, has taught chemistry and pharmaceutical sciences at Mississippi University for Women since 2004. Roy has written two textbooks on those subjects and published two romantic novels. He is married and the father of three girls. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.