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 20 August to 26 August 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) A Hindu family was attacked and told to leave the Muslim-dominated village in Haryana’s Palwal.

2) In a recent incident in Punjab’s Rajpura, Khalistani Barjinder Singh Parwana, who was the main conspirator of the Kali Mata Temple attack, got two Hindus arrested under Section 295 A just for selling “Gutka Sahib” in their bookstore along with other books and other religious scriptures.

3) Muntazir, Mukeem, Nafees and Ata-ur-Rehman were arrested for allegedly slaughtering a stray cow and then organising a feast in Sheikhpura village in the Behat area of Saharanpur district.

4) Goa Police have booked 10 persons for allegedly placing the murti of a devi atop a structure in front of a ‘church’.

5) A shocking instance of love jihad has come to light from Jaipur, the capital of Rajasthan. Here, a man named Moin Khan, a resident of Jalupura entrapped a young woman and two minor girls aged 14 and 17 respectively. He kept them hostage and raped them. He also took money from his friends who proceeded to sexually assault the 14-year-old. She was held captive by him for around a month.

6) The Karnataka Congress Government blocked temple grants but directed the Muzrai Department to withdraw the order after the protest.

7) NCP (Nationalist Congress Party) neta Chhagan Bhujbal questioned whether Maa Saraswati had ‘constructed’ any schools while adding that Shahu-Phule-Ambedkar were his deities. He made the controversial remark during his speech at a school function organized by Maratha Vidya Prasarak Shikshan Samaj in Makhmalabad.

8) On 18 August, an Islamist mob was seen baying for the blood of a minor Hindu boy, allegedly even pelting stones at his home, in the Bareilly district of Uttar Pradesh over ‘blasphemy’. Even the local police station was besieged by the mob and additional forces had to be rushed to control the situation.

9) On 18 August, a case of love jihad surfaced in Barwani of Madhya Pradesh. In the Pala Bazar of a Barwani, a Muslim youth was all set to forcibly marry a Hindu girl through Islamic Nikah rituals when the plan was busted as the Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad members barged into the house where the marriage was about to take place.

10) A new case of Love Jihad has come to light from Gosaigaon of Assam. Sahidul Islam allegedly trapped a minor Hindu girl in Love through Facebook. He then kidnapped the girl with the help of his two friends and took her to West Bengal. Police arrested Sahidul Islam and his two friends Minhaj Ali and Saiful Islam. 

11) The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court (MHC) has made a controversial observation that building a church beside a temple will only encourage communal harmony. It made the observation while hearing a petition filed against building a church near a temple in Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu.

12) Muhammad Abbas (22) brutally murdered a minor Hindu schoolgirl (13) for resisting his rape attempt in WB’s Siliguri.

13) “You will end up in a mortuary”, CPM’s P Jayarajan threatens Yuva Morcha leaders who protested the sacrilege of Sri Ganesha.

14) The Umanglai Kanba Apunba Lup (UKAL) organization based in Manipur conducted extensive research and investigation to identify the desecrated sacred sites, which include those dedicated to ancestral and local deities from the pantheon of Sanamahi sampraday, as well as traditional Hindu mandirs.

15) Vijaybhai Babaria from Gujarat’s Rajkot, who was the sole bread earner for his family, was murdered mercilessly by four Muslim youths when he asked them not to light Ganja-laced cigarettes from the diya in a nearby mandir.

16) Amazon withdrew the sale of the anti-Dharma book ‘Deadly Bhagavat Geeta’ after Hindus protested at their Nagpur office but the tone-deaf E-Commerce platform continued to host American author Fullah’s book with a degrading illustration of Maa Kali.

17) On the occasion of Nagpanchami, Dharmic religious processions were attacked in several locations across Bihar. As per reports, severe stone pelting, vandalism, and clashes have been reported from Bagaha, Motihari-Mehsi, and other places.

18) Communist MP Su Venkatesan from Tamil Nadu was caught trying to give away Vyasaraja Math’s property to encroachers.

19) Communal tensions are once again running high in Mewat after the religious procession of several devotees in Rajasthan’s Alwar on their way from Ramgarh to Khatu Shyam temple was attacked by Islamists.

20) Abid Bin Khaled, Tahseen and 4 others were arrested for a minor girl’s gang rape which sparked widespread protests in Hyderabad.

21) In a shocking case, a 26-year-old Hindu girl from the Ambejogai region of Beed district was trapped in a love affair, raped, assaulted, and then forced to marry the accused identified as Amir Tamboli from the Pune district.

22) Fraud Changai Sabha was caught converting Hindus in UP’s Kushinagar.

23) In yet another love jihad case, Chhotu Mewati posed as Rahul to trap, abduct, and rape a minor Hindu girl in UP’s Agra.

24) A minor victim has given a complaint to the police after being thrashed for wearing ‘Tilak’ in Uttar Pradesh’s Kaushambi district. The attackers have been identified as Qasim and Ejaz, and the incident took place on August 22. As of now, the accused are absconding, according to the police.

25) A police team came under attack while they raided a village in Haryana’s Nuh district in an attempt to arrest a suspect involved in the July 31 communal violence. The incident took place on Friday morning in Singar village when the team from the Crime Branch Punhana unit went to arrest the suspect identified as Irshad.

Pakistan

Abduction, rape, forced conversion, and marriage of minor Hindu girls are common occurrences in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. At least 1,000 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) Around 1,000 Hindus, including young children, were forcibly converted to Islam in Keti Nizamani, near Tando Ghulam Ali, Badin district of Sindh, Pakistan. This shocking event, another example of the gradual genocide of Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan, has gone unheard in the international community.

2) A minor Pakistani Hindu girl Jiji Bheel, the 11-year-old daughter of Jago Bheel from Tando Allahyar in Sindh, was abducted by Azim Ghumrani, a 40-year-old Muslim neighbour, at gunpoint.

World

1) Organizations have raised red flags about Hindu organizations and religious leaders being deliberately targeted in the Parliament of the World’s Religions in the USA’s Chicago. 

2) Hinduphobia rears its ugly head as Vivek Ramaswamy emerges as a serious contender in the race for the US Presidency.

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.