In this chapter, I interrogate the Vested Property Act (VPA) to explore one aspect of the uneven and contradictory project of democratic state formation in Bangladesh. The Act, initially sanctioned by the state of the then-East Pakistan, and continued in independent Bangladesh through various military regimes and democratically-elected governments, paved the way for the displacement of millions of Hindus from both ownership rights and their security as citizens. By drawing attention to the Act’s institutionalisation and struggles over its legitimacy, I show how the promise of democracy, as well as of secularism, reveals the violences that are entailed in actually existing democratic practice, including in the construction of the Hindu citizen as unworthy and a threat to national security. This construction of the minority as “other” and the making of majoritarian rule reveal the violence that attends to a democratic politics that includes everyday inaction and omission, rather than one which focuses solely on acts of force that usually involve physical harm or injury.

中文翻译：

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受《既得财产法》批准的“合法”土地占用

在本章中，我审问了《既得财产法》（VPA），以探讨孟加拉国民主国家形成的不平衡和矛盾项目的一个方面。该法案最初由当时的东巴基斯坦国家批准，并通过各种军事政权和民主选举产生的政府在独立的孟加拉国继续实施，为数百万印度教徒从所有权和公民身份的安全中流离失所铺平了道路。通过提请注意该法案的制度化和对其合法性的斗争，我展示了民主和世俗主义的承诺如何揭示实际存在的民主实践中所包含的暴力，包括将印度教公民建设为不配和对国家安全构成威胁。