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 18 June to 24 June 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) Social media has become the new breeding ground for love jihad. In another such case, this time from Aligarh, a youth named Zihad with an account by the name of Aryan, befriended a Hindu woman on Instagram. He was arrested while trying to flee with her.

2) A heated scuffle between women over religious conversion was reported in Urala village under the Mohan Nagar police station area of Durg Bhilai in Chhattisgarh. Local women barged into a ‘prayer meeting’ after learning that two women there are asking the participants to convert to Christianity. The local women started beating the evangelists. The matter was taken to the police station where both parties agreed to a compromise and no charges were brought in.

3) In the Shamli district of Uttar Pradesh, a case of love jihad has come to the fore wherein a Muslim youth named Rashid lured a Hindu girl into marrying him. Reportedly, the accused Rashid already has four wives. Out of his four wives, one is Muslim while the other three are Hindu.

4) Ritlal Yadav, a member of the Bihar legislative assembly from Rashtriya Janata Dal has issued a controversial statement regarding the Ramcharitmanas. He stated that the holy text was written in a mosque.

5) Mohammad Salik and his brother who pretended to be Hindus to trap Hindu sisters in a double love jihad case, were caught after making an online payment in Uttarakhand’s Dehradun.

6) Locals in Garhwa alleged as many as 14, including a CRPF personnel, incited them to convert to Christianity. The incident was reported from Jharkhand’s Garhwa district.

7) Tamil Nadu police are in the dock after a Scheduled Caste youth, who was in the custody of the Puliyangudi police in Tenkasi district, died. The 23-year-old youth, Thangasamy was taken into custody for allegedly supplying liquor bottles to a woman for its illegal sale. The post-mortem report of the youth revealed the presence of seven irregular reddish-brown abrasions on his body. 

8) Sessions Court in Gujarat’s Panchmahal district acquitted all 35 surviving accused in four cases concerning the 2002 Godhra Riots. The court said that the police unnecessarily implicated prominent Hindu persons in the area due to the uproar of the pseudo-secular media and organisations, causing them to face a prolonged trial.

9) MP Police booked 6 Muslims and arrested Faizan, Sahil, & Sameer for tying a leash on Vijay & forcing him to bark like a dog. The police have also evoked the NSA and bulldozed the houses of the accused.

10) A man identified as Rashid from Uttar Pradesh’s Shamli district, having five wives, has now abducted a sixth girl. When the girl’s family lodged an FIR, the accused said, “Will take your other daughter with me.” Both these girls are Hindu. The accused not only abducted this 19-year-old woman but also converted her to Islam and got married to her as per Islamic rituals.

11) A Travancore Devaswom Board official was arrested for stealing Gold from the Sabarimala temple treasury.

12) Ever since Uddhav Thackeray joined hands with Congress (INC) and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), he has never missed an opportunity to display his Hindu hate albeit using the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) as a red herring. In the latest instance, Thackeray has compared the holy Swastika to the Nazi symbol Hakenkreuz.

13) A Gaurakshak, identified as Shekhar Rapeli, lost his life and 6 others were injured when the group was attacked by cattle smugglers. The incident took place on Monday night at around 11.30 in Kinwat Tehsil’s Shivani Village located in Maharashtra’s Nanded District.

14) Pro-Hindu influencer Uma Gargi was arrested for alleged defamatory posts about CM Stalin.

15) Police arrested Joriful Islam for allegedly raping a Hindu woman who works in a tea garden. The incident happened on Wednesday morning at Matri TeGardenen under the Chopra Police Station area of Uttar Dinajpur district. 

16) Umar Farooq who became Raju to befriend a Hindu girl threatens her to convert or get killed.

17) “People who build temples, Believe in BJP-RSS are undemocratic”, said Congress leader Sam Pitroda in a video that has gone viral on social media.

18) A 11-year-old Hindu boy started reciting Surah-Fatiha after taking admission to ‘Ganga Jamna School’.

19) The police arrested Prashanth, a Congress leader from the Sunkadakatte locality and his associate, Somu Gowda, for extortion. The police have also nabbed Khaja Mohiyuddin and Umesh in connection with transporting beef illegally.

20) As the controversy around forced conversions and love jihad continue to grip Uttarakhand, another case of religious conversion has come to the fore from Srinagar, Pauri Garhwal. A father-son duo has been arrested by the police for forcing a girl to convert to Islam. Mujeeb Khan (22) and Babu Khan (45) were on the run but were nabbed by the police at Rishikesh railway station.

21) The Uttar Pradesh Police has filed an FIR against a man identified as Jameel for raping a Hindu woman. The accused posed as a Hindu person named Shailendra to trap the Hindu woman in a love affair and then forced her to marry him. Later, he made the victim a hostage and raped her with his friends.

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) Police arrested a minority community boy named Dayal Hari Das Joni over blasphemy charges. He allegedly posted a photoshopped image that hurt the sentiment of Muslims.

2) The dead body of a minority community businessman was found at Shakipur village of Satkhira district. The deceased has been identified as Sri Paritosh Kumar Biswas (55). He was a cloth merchant and had a shop in Sokhipur market. 

World

1) On Friday, June 16, a 38-year-old Indian man Aravind Sasikumar was stabbed with a knife in Southhampton Way, Camberwell, in the United Kingdom. According to the police, the deceased victim hailing from Kerala was allegedly killed by his flatmate Salman Salim.

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 emailing [email protected]. We also solicit support in maintaining the Hindu human rights tracker database.