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 16 April to 22 April 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) Stone pelting on processions and violence during Ram Navami and Hanuman Janmotsav.
2) Police arrested two Christian pastors and recovered hateful & superstitious literature promoting religious conversion from them.
3) DMK MP A Raja spewed casteist abuse on UP CM Yogi, calling PM Modi a ‘fraud’ and Jaya a ‘kollaikaari’ (murderer).
4) Muslim man attempted to kill his brother and his wife for leaving Islam and embracing Hindu Dharma.
5) “Saale kaafir log”, “Kaat daalenge”, FIR in Hanuman Janomtsav violence in Odisha reveals how Muslim mob attacked Hindus when they chanted Jai Shri Ram”.
6) Activist Jayabrata Dey was taken into custody on 10 April by the Sambalpur police in Odisha. His family says Jayabrata is being deliberately targeted by the administration as he has been involved in Gauraksha.
7) Uddhav Thackeray continues with Hinduphobic Gaumutra jibes to attack RSS and BJP. “They should have drunk cow urine”, says Thackeray.
8) The NIA on Sunday attached two floors of a school building in Pune where the Popular Front of India (PFI) had been organising camps to radicalise and indoctrinate Muslim youths and further train them for carrying out targeted killings and attacks against leaders and organisations of the Hindu community.
9) Tadipaar notice was served to three youths belonging to the SC community in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar. The youths have been identified as Swapnil Waghchoure, Pratap Bhingardive, and Nilesh Lahunde.
10) BJP leader Surender Matiala was shot dead in Delhi on April 14 while a day earlier VHP leader P Krishnamurthy survived an attack in Karnataka.
11) There are accusations of a mass conversion campaign centred around Vanvasi villages deep inside the forests of Wayanad. Pentecostal sects reach these hamlets and target Janjatiya children for religious conversion to Christianity. The news gained traction since local poet Sukumaran Chaligatha disclosed the issue through a Facebook post.
12) Forest Ranger Abdul Rahman destroyed mandir Dhwaja Sthambha in Telangana leading to protests by angry Vanvasis at Forest Office.
13) Missionary gang, including a Church ‘Father’, gang-raped and held a Hindu woman hostage for a month in Maharashtra’s Nashik. They even made her son beg.
14) Cases of forced conversion of five women and a man to Islam were observed across states.
15) On 30th March 2023, Ram Navami processions in Gujarat’s Vadodara were attacked by local Islamists. It has come to the fore that when the State Reserve Police Force (SRPF) was trying to bring the situation under control, attempts were made to snatch their rifles. On Tuesday, April 11, Gujarat Police arrested one Abdul Rashid Sattar Shaikh in connection with the matter.
16) Delhi man Azim, who trampled Ram Navami saffron flags and dumped them in a drain, was arrested after a complaint was filed.
17) Christians obstructed temple consecration claiming ‘caste discrimination’ in Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur.
18) A young Hindu woman from Kerala was forced to convert to Islam in Saudi Arabia. Athira Mohan, the wife of Anthony alias Benny, a native of Thrissur Olarikara, was converted in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Benny alleged that Keralite Islamists were behind this evil scheme.
19) On Tuesday, April 18, Jitendra Singh Visen, the chief of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, who is the counsel for plaintiff Rakhi Singh in the Gyanvapi-Mata Shringar Gauri case, was attacked in Delhi.
20) Yugveer Arjav became the target of bloodthirsty Islamists who issued Sar Tan Se Juda (STSJ) after an edited clip of his went viral on social media (SM). Yugveer blamed POCSO-accused Islamist propagandist Zubair for the STSJ threats he is getting.
21) Two Hindu boys attending the birthday celebrations of a Muslim female friend were abducted by Muslim men. According to the reports, the men were taken by the Muslims to a place near Dargah in the Khanshahwalli area. The girl then happened to call the police who reached the spot and saved the two abducted men. The duo was brutally beaten by the accused persons, Mohammad Irfan and Azhar Ali who abducted them.
22) Clashes and firing were reported between Gaurakshaks and cattle smugglers on Delhi-Mumbai Expressway. Gaurakshaks managed to free five smuggled cows.
23) A case of alleged love jihad/grooming jihad has come to the fore from the Khudel village in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. A Hindu girl identified as Jaya Sharma, unable to withstand the pressure of marriage exerted on her by her boyfriend Asad, committed suicide on Wednesday, April 19. According to media reports, the girl died by consuming poison.
Bangladesh
Attacks on 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) On Monday (April 10), a police complaint was lodged against a person named Nuru Islam for brutally raping a five-year-old Hindu girl in Bangladesh. The incident is said to have happened at Taraganj in the Rangpur district of Bangladesh. The Police are investigating the case and have launched a manhunt to nab the accused who is absconding at present.
2) Hindu temple was attacked and Bhagwan Shiva’s murti was vandalized in Khidirpur village of Pabna District’s Machpara on 16 April (Tweet archived here).
3) Hindu temple in Gopalganj’s Kowania was attacked by Islamist fanatics (Tweet archived here).
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.
