Bangladesh wants to be a mid-income state within seven years with strides in technology and progressive thinking, yet we still find news about people, driven by blind trust in so-called spiritual men, carrying out the most heinous of crimes.
Shockingly, one Nazmul Islam in Natore, a carpenter by trade and also the devotee of a so-called spiritual man, followed the instructions of the latter and went through a ritual that involved the drowning and killing of his three-year-old daughter plus the tearing of the Qu'ran. Reportedly, all this was done in order to get his hands on some hidden treasure.
Naturally, the news of the whole event leaves us shell-shocked, but this is not the first time people have carried out unpardonable acts upon the order of religious gurus and faqirs (wandering ascetics) in order to achieve material bliss of some sort.
The case of Nazmul actually opens up murkier layers within society, where logic/rationality and compassion become secondary to avarice – unquestionably, the picture is a sad indictment to a toxic philosophy based fully on greed.
Not too long ago, there was another similar episode where a woman killed her child because she allegedly was ordered to do so by some divine apparition. When asked by the police, the woman simply replied that in her dream, the holy man had expressed concern over her daughter, whom he believed would grow up to create great harm to mankind and, therefore, the best course was to strangulate her to death.
Thinking of similar events, I find that we have had at least one macabre incident of infant killing associated with a spiritual guru every other year. If some poor soul was not killed then, in the name of discipline, children have regularly been subjected to inhumane torture. The disconcerting thing is, investigations of such crimes have always revealed that the main mastermind behind the abominable treatments was a person claiming to possess supernatural powers.
To be honest, in Bangladesh, the religion sub-culture is a formidable force. In the main cities, a large number of educated people are avowed disciples of some holy man, and their trust in their spiritual leader is such that, in his name, they are capable of doing almost anything.
That means crossing the moral line is hardly ever an issue. All scruples are set aside because some baba or pir has asked for five goats to be slaughtered at first daybreak, followed by two days of fasting.
The demands made by such shamans (or charlatans) take diabolical turns in the rural areas, where superstition runs deep. Here, rituals mean going to the extremes, which our Nazmul did.
Now, setting aside the indoctrination of the common man, there is another issue – the desperation of someone to acquire wealth, whatever the cost. This killing of a baby girl for some ethereal road map to seek out hidden treasure is but a reflection of the festering scourge of rapacity on which our current credo seems to be based. Money at all costs.
Just digressing a bit here. A relative of mine recently found himself implicated in a fabricated court case and, trying to come out of it, has learnt one valuable lesson – unless one can bribe the right amount, there’s no way to get out of a legal web. Wherever he went, the message was simple – give money, otherwise rot in hell. They do say, when in Rome ...
When social thinking revolves around one thing only, irrespective of its provenance, there’s bound to be exploitation to the limit. Of course, Nazmul needs to be punished, but the main instigator is the spiritual leader who had slowly poisoned the mind of another.
The problem is, in rural Bangladesh, there are countless such holy men going around with the false appearance of austerity and an expert tongue. They recite lines after lines from the holy books when needed, swiftly change their label from a devout Salafi to the vocal proponent of liberal Sufi creed, and in the midst of humanists, shed all faith based beliefs to emerge as the die-hard exponent of pacifism and harmonious co-existence.
Some of them have an extensive quackery as their side business, handing out so-called medicine made from recipes attained through dreams. So, when sleeping, they get ideas for certain elixirs to treat everything from the common cold to cancer, while one of their major operations is dealing with rural women allegedly possessed by evil spirits.
The most common treatment is known to all – tie up the woman and beat her up so that the spirit possessing her leaves. They assert it is exorcism, I say it’s sadomasochism carried out with a distorted religious rationale.
Rural communities often seem impervious to reasoning, which is again due to keeping religion suspended in parochial understanding dating to days long gone. For the time being, we lament the unfortunate death of the baby and demand punishment for the demon of a father. But the core problem will live on.
People will still head for the strategically placed forest refuge of the semi-naked faqir and, overawed by the swirl of smoke emanating from a wooden bowl and the hypnotic chanting, lose the power to think.
Remember what Votaire said: “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”