Hindus Under Attack in Bangladesh

Violence Against Hindus

As people in the Islamic Republic of Bangladesh cleaned up the mess after weeks of student protests and rioting, a dismembered head of Maa Durga’s moorti lay on the ground among the pile of rubble . The students of Bangladesh were protesting against their government. Their anti-government protests soon turned into a full-fledged campaign against Hindus and other religious minorities, with Hindus facing the brunt of these attacks. The rioters destroyed many Hindu homes , damaged and looted businesses, and destroyed and desecrated places of worship.

The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council estimates, according to a Reuters report, “at least 52 of the country’s 64 [counties] have been impacted by communal violence” that erupted after Bangladesh’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave the country after winning the election for another five-year term in office earlier this year. According to a post on X, the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council estimates the total number of incidents of attacks on the minority communities of Bangladesh to 205 in the aftermath of the PM fleeing the country on August 5. Rioters have killed over 230 people during the same period, including two Hindu leaders affiliated with the deposed PM’s party.

The New York Times (NYT) reports that Prionthi Chatterjee’s father was killed by Muslims when they “attacked her family at their home in the southern Bagerhat region.” Prionthi’s mom sustained head injuries in the same attack. Ms. Chatterjee is a Hindu student in Dhaka, the capital. “Temples are being attacked, vandalized and looted,” the NYT quotes Nahid Islam, a student leader.

Several social media posts have captured and reported the mayhem on the streets of Bangladesh. A post on X depicts a ransacked Hindu mandir in Bharat Kandi. Another post by Yudhistir Govinda Das, a spokesperson for the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), shared information about the ISKCON temple in Meherpur being “burnt, including with deities of Lord Jagannath, Baladev, and Subhadra Devi.”

Another viral video on X showed a crowd of rioters gathered around the dead body of a man on the street, checking his private parts to see if the man was circumcised. “Shouting ‘Hindu Hindu’ over the corpse, the crowd hovering over the dead body laughs, realizing the man is a Hindu because he is not circumcised,” a prominent Indian outlet, OpIndia, reported .

Rioters attacked Bangladeshi Hindu folk artist Rahul Ananda’s house in Dhaka. They also destroyed over 3,000 musical instruments. Ananda’s family had to flee to a safe, undisclosed location.

Efforts to Whitewash Atrocities

The world was slow to react to these atrocities. Many even tried to whitewash these horrendous crimes against humanity. Initially, there were outright denials by many stakeholders involved who amplified narratives that Hindus were safe and Muslims were standing guard at Hindu temples. Those narratives soon fell flat in the wake of overwhelming evidence, thanks to social media (X primarily), of a systematic attack on Hindus .

When the NYT finally published the story, the original headline read “Hindus in Bangladesh Face Revenge Attacks After Prime Minister’s Exit,” suggesting Bangladeshi Hindus were the initiators of the attacks. It also seems to justify the targeting of Hindus for the assumption that many Hindus supported the relatively “secular” government of PM Hasina. According to the Hindu American Foundation, Hindus in America are often attacked on the pretext of dual loyalty , suggesting a politically engaged Hindu who does not adhere to the dogmas of left-progressive ideology must be loyal to India and is a “Hindu nationalist.”

Hindu Genocide and Blood Telegram

Hindus constitute roughly 8% of Bangladesh’s 170 million people and have historically supported ousted PM Hasina’s Awami League party, which identifies as largely secular, instead of the opposition bloc, which includes hardline Islamist groups.

Before winning independence from British colonial rule in 1947, India was divided into two countries based on religion. The Muslim-majority part of India became Pakistan. Bangladesh was East Pakistan until it separated from Pakistan in 1971. The Hindu population in Bangladesh has seen a consistent decline over the years. There were roughly 24 percent Hindus in East Pakistan at the time of Partition . That percentage dwindled to roughly 13 percent at the time of the formation of Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has a history of anti-Hindu violence. Besides the bloody Partition in 1947, the Bangladeshi independence movement was particularly brutal for the East Pakistani Hindus. Pakistani army and local Ismalist militia killed nearly 2-3 million East Pakistani citizens, mostly Hindus. The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger, and a Forgotten Genocide , a book by American journalist and academic Gary J. Bass, chronicles the genocide – a systematic targeting of the Bengali Hindu minority. Archer Blood, the U.S. consul general at Dhaka, sent several dissent telegrams repeatedly warning the government officials in Washington about the scale of violence targeting Hindus.

Bangladesh also saw anti-Hindu riots during Durga Puja , one of the holiest Hindu festivals, in October 2021. Rioters vandalized more than 50 Hindu temples and Puja pandals .

While the media outlets, human rights groups, etc., reacted slowly, the global Hindu diaspora quickly rose to create awareness of the issue and unequivocal condemnation. The Hindu diaspora has organized several protests across the US, including in front of the White House in Washington, D.C. Several US lawmakers from both political parties have condemned the violence against Hindus in Bangladesh.

Bangladesh also saw massive protests by local Hindus. The riots have escalated into an international humanitarian crisis. Hundreds of Bangladeshi Hindus are flocking to the Indo-Bangla international border , looking to cross into the Indian side to safety.

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