Attacks on Hindus and Hindu Dharma, both in Bharat and overseas, are frequent and unrelenting. In many regions of the world, this persecution is like a genocide slowly unfolding before our eyes. For decades, the true depth and breadth of these attacks, driven by disturbing anti-Hindu bigotry, have been ignored by the world. From murders, sexual violence, forced conversions, land grab, assault on festivals, desecration of temples and murtis, hate speech, to institutionalized & legal discrimination, Hindus are facing an increasing assault on their very existence along with an unprecedented Hindu hatred.
In this weekly summary for the period from 24 January 2021 to 30 January 2021, we hope to provide a snapshot of such crimes and hopefully awaken more people around the world to this human rights crisis:
Bharat
1) While on the one hand, Hindu temples are increasingly coming under attack in Andhra Pradesh (AP) on the other ministers of the Jagan Mohan Reddy-led Andhra government are embezzling temple funds. News reports indicate that AP Endowment minister Vellampalli Srinivas not only usurped land belonging to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) but also diverted crores of rupees of temple funds to build a shopping complex at a temple under his family’s control.
2) An ex-armyman has made serious allegations about missionaries and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party men colluding to sell a property worth 500Cr and destroying a temple in the process. Santhanam, an ex-Armyman has been legally fighting to reclaim a temple of Vana Bhadrakali Amman from missionaries and DMK. He was interviewed by Madan Ravichandran, a journalist, to bring out the details of this issue. He has revealed how from local councilor to district collector everyone was involved in destroying the temple.
3) A rally organized by Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to collect funds for the construction of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya was pelted with stones in Kidani village, near Gandhidham, Gujarat on 17 January as it was passing in front of a mosque. A 200 strong Muslim mob attacked the rally and reportedly stabbed one Hindu man, migrant worker Arjun Savaiyo from Jharkhand, to death. Arjun was traveling in a rickshaw which was attacked; the rickshaw driver was also stabbed. Several others including policemen were also injured in this violence.
4) After neighboring Andhra, Hindu temples in Tamil Nadu (TN) are also coming under attack and being vandalized. Two instances of temple attacks in Tamil Nadu in the districts of Coimbatore and Tirupur have left Hindus shocked. In Coimbatore, an Amman temple was vandalized by unidentified people and the murti was damaged. Trishul placed in front of the murti was broken and the clothes used for dressing up the deity were burned.
5) A 22-year-old Muslim man has been arrested in Ballia, UP for allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl, making obscene videos of her, and attempting to pressurize the minor into religious conversion for marriage. The accused and his father were arrested on Tuesday while they were attempting to flee. The man has been charged with rape and unlawful religious conversion and besides being slapped with sections of the POCSO Act.
6) Mamata Banerjee keeps proving time and again that she hates Hindu Dharma. The first Parakram Diwas (day of valor) celebration was initiated by The Ministry of Culture, Government of Bharat, in commemoration of the beginning of the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23rd in the Victoria Memorial lawn at Kolkata. However, when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee got up to address the gathering, some of the people present in the function started chanting “Jai Shri Ram”. For some reason, this made her feel terribly insulted and she took offense to the chants.
7) Miscreants vandalized an ancient Radha-Krishna temple in Khadkhadi by breaking the murtis of Bhagwan Krishna and Gaumata on the night of 24 January. CCTV footage shows three youths leaving the temple. However, no goods or cash have been stolen from the temple. The incident has angered the locals who are distressed at the murtis being broken. Police have registered a case on unknown people under various sections.
8) That the farmers’ protest was less about the farm laws and more about Hindu hatred when the alleged farmers specifically targeted tableaux of Ram Mandir and Kedarnath Mandir. In particular, the fanatical religious extremists targeted the state of UP’s tableau which had a replica of the under-construction Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, and Uttarakhand’s tableau which displayed the Kedarnath temple. The rioting mob broke the shikhara of the Ram Mandir temple, i.e.the rising tower over the garbhagriha chamber where the presiding deity is enshrined.
9) A Hindu woman from Madhya Pradesh’s Indore has filed a case against 11 people including her parents and a Christian Missionary Programme for forcing her to convert to Christianity on Tuesday (26 January). The police have registered a case against the accused under the Madhya Pradesh Freedom of Religion Ordinance 2020 and nine of the accused including the woman’s parents have been taken into custody and sent to jail.
10) A 13-year-old minor girl was raped by four Muslim youths in Miraj located in Maharashtra’s Sangli district on Thursday evening. As per reports, the minor was drugged and then raped by the four, one of who has been arrested by the police based on the complaint registered by the girl’s mother. On the basis of the complaint the accused have been identified as Kamil Nadaf, Farhan Dalait, Furkhan, and Farukh Dalait. As of now only Farhan Dalait has been arrested and charged under various sections of the POSCO Act.
11) On January 23, a Naga Sadhu, identified as 60-year-old Sompal, was murdered in Sindhaura village of Diaoria Kala police station area, Pilibhit, Uttar Pradesh. As per the reports, the police have registered a case against unknown people based on the complaint.
Bangladesh
1) A Hindu temple was vandalized by Muslims in Lalmonirhat district’s Kaliganj. The vandals destroyed the murtis and plundered the temple.
2) Hindu families at Barguna Sadar Municipality were brutally attacked by Mohammad Al-Amin who attempted to drive them away and grab their land.
3) An innocent Hindu boy was arrested by the Kashiyani police under the Gopalganj district.
Most hate crimes are driven by anti-Hindu bigotry encoded in certain religious teachings and political ideologies. While the anti-Hindu hate in Islamic countries is obvious, there is another subtler form of anti-Hindu sentiment within institutions and the public sphere of ostensibly secular states (like India) that provides an enabling environment for Hinduphobia and hate crimes. This subtle, everyday discrimination can be missed unless one studies prevailing laws and patterns. The gradual ban on firecrackers during Diwali is a good example – it might seem pollution-related on the surface, but the double standards at play become clear when one looks at the larger picture of restrictions on Hindu festivals, and the lack of sound reasoning behind the ban.
We request all readers to share other anti-Hindu hate crimes that we might have missed in this period in the comments below or by dropping an email to [email protected]. We also solicit support in the maintenance of the Hindu human rights tracker database started by us.
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