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 world has ignored the actual depth and breadth of these attacks, driven by disturbing anti-Hindu bigotry. From murders, forced conversions, land grabs, assault on festivals, desecration of temples and murtis, hate speech, and sexual violence 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 29 January to 4 February 2023, we hope to provide a snapshot of such crimes and hopefully awaken more people around the world to this human rights crisis:

Bharat

1) After Bihar Education minister Chandrashekhar Yadav, SP leader Maurya spewed venom against Ramcharitmanas.

2) Mohammed Shahnawaz took a minor Hindu girl hostage, assaulted and set her on fire for not accepting Islam in UP.

3) The immersion procession which marks the conclusion of the Saraswati Puja festival was attacked/marred with violence in various regions of Bihar like Gopalganj, Patna, Saharsa, Samastipur and Nalanda. As with past years, the auspicious festival was attacked in Jharkhand too. At least two youths – Ankit Kumar and Dheeraj Kumar – have been killed and several others, including policemen, injured in different violent incidents across the two states, with most related to Saraswati Puja processions.

4) “I razed 100-year-old temples”, DMK MP TR Balu proudly claimed in an event supporting the Sethusamudram project.

5) Tablighi Jamaat runs a religious conversion racket in Bharat as part of the Pakistan-ISI Ghazwa-e-Hind plan.

6) Rights body LRPF (Legal Rights Protection Forum) has lodged a complaint against one Nicholas James Vujicic alias Nick Vujicic, a US national for indulging in Christian evangelism and proselytization in the name of ‘motivational sessions’ in Bharat.

7) Ten people, including Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Swami Prasad Maurya, have been booked for burning pages of Shri Ramcharitmanas. The despicable act was done in UP’s (Uttar Pradesh) Vrindavan by members of an organization identified as Akhil Bharatiya OBC Mahasabha. The members said they burnt copies of the Grantha to ‘express solidarity’ with Maurya.

8) On 29 January, the residents in Kalain, Assam, apprehended two cow smugglers who attempted to steal cows in broad daylight. Irate local Hindus thrashed the two thieves, Bappon Ahmed and Saidul Ahmed, before handing them to the police. A stolen car that the robbers were using was set ablaze.

9) Maranatha Visvasa Samajam, an evangelical Christian FCRA-NGO running “Children’s Ministry”, is appropriating “Veda Patasala”.

10) Acharya Dhirendra Shastri, the Mahant of Madhya Pradesh’s (MP) Baba Bageshwar Dham, has been given clean chit by the Nagpur police. However, the personal attacks and slander against him have continued unabated. This is hardly surprising considering the fact that Acharya has stood up to the conversion mafia.

11) In yet another Love Jihad case reported from Bhopal, a Muslim gym trainer pretended to be “Anshu” and blackmailed a Hindu girl with obscene photographs.

12) The latest incident of love jihad has been unearthed in Haridwar, Uttarakhand. Police have arrested Azhar, who married a Hindu woman by faking his religion. In the complaint filed with the Kankhal police station of Haridwar, the woman claimed that Azhar portrayed himself as ‘Rahul’ and married her 9 years ago. She somehow got to know about his actual religious identity recently. The police arrested the accused and jailed him.

13) Dushyant Chaudhary (23) committed suicide by hanging himself from a ceiling fan at his house in the Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh. As per the family of the deceased, Dushyant was forced to take such an extreme step as he was being pressured by his wife and in-laws to convert to Islam. This incident happened in the Chitrakoot colony in Meerut’s Nauchandi locality.

14) A church in Kanyakumari has been collecting rent for setting up shops on the beach during a temple festival. It has also reportedly illegally rented out the municipal property.

15) PFI sends a fake woman lawyer to recce STSJ (Sar tan se juda) targets in Indore.

Pakistan

Abduction, rape, forced conversion, and marriage of minor Hindu girls are common occurrences in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At least 1000 minority girls suffer such sex slavery every year in Sindh province alone. Apart from this, Pakistani Hindus face systemic and institutionalized discrimination and neglect, such as frequent attacks on Hindu temples, demonization of education curriculum, police and judicial antipathy, denial of fundamental rights, and even untouchability. This latest instance of the brutal rape and murder of a Bheel woman in Pakistan is yet another proof of the pitiable condition of Hindu minorities in Pakistan.

1) Many cases of everyday crime against this minority community go unheard, such as violent robberies and thefts. HinduPost has listed a few such crimes from Sindh province, where the majority of Pakistani Hindus live, from recent weeks reported by activist Narain Das Bheel.

Bangladesh

Attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh are relentless and designed to cleanse the religious minority from the country gradually. According to a study by Prof. Abul Barakat of Dhaka University, no Hindus will be left in Bangladesh by 2050 due to systemic and institutionalized persecution. Temple desecration, land grabbing, mob attacks after false blasphemy charges, rape/forced conversion of women, and hate speech are tools used to intimidate and drive Hindus out.

1) A Hindu businessman was killed in Magura by Mohammad Alamgir and Rony on January 29 (Tweet archived here).

2) In a gross violation of human rights, a minor Disha Roy of the minority community was converted to Islam at Dinajpur’s Kaharol on February 1 (Tweet archived here).

3) Panchmoni Das (45) and Nirab Mondal (13) were murdered in the Narsinghdhi and Khulna districts on February 3 (Tweet archived here).

World

1) Khalistanis assault tricolour-holding Hindus & Sikhs with rods, while police watch in Australia’s Melbourne.

2) A Hindu temple has been vandalised by Khalistanis with ‘anti-India’ graffiti in Canada’s Brampton province, leaving the Indian community in shock. The Indian Consulate General in Toronto issued a statement on Tuesday condemning the attack on the Gauri Shankar Mandir in Brampton.

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 evident, 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. Still, the double standards at play become apparent 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 maintaining the Hindu human rights tracker database.