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, forced conversions, land grabs, assault on festivals, desecration of temples and murtis, hate speech, 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 10 October to 16 October 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) One of the most auspicious Hindu festivals, the Durga Puja, has commenced and Hindus worldwide are rejoicing. However Hindus of the Harijan colony in Assam’s Tezpur, despite being in the natural home of the Hindus, Bharat, are not able to celebrate the Durga Puja peacefully. Members of the Christian community have been repeatedly trying to disrupt their preparations for the grand worship of Maa Durga. These disruptions started long before Mahalaya and had intensified during the last week of September. 

2) The keys of Odisha’s world-famous 12-century Jagannath Temple’s treasury, popularly known as Ratna Bhandar, had reportedly gone missing during the month of April 2018. Even after three years of this incident happened, the Government of Odisha is not taking any steps to open the Ratna Bhandar and make a proper audit of the ornaments.

3) A Durga Puja pandal “decorated” with shoes and chappals in West Bengal’s Dumdum has attracted the wrath of social media users. The concerned Puja is being organized by the Dumdum Park Bharat Chakra puja committee and they claim that they are trying to portray the plight of the farmers who have been protesting the Farm Bill passed by both the Houses of Parliament last year. The pandal, also featuring paddy-bunches and trackers, is covered with anti-Farm bill posters and banners calling out Lakhimpur violence.

4) On the day of Mahalaya Amavasya, Hindus who had gone to Periyasamy temple, a sub-temple of Siruvachur Madura Kaliamman temple in Perambalur, were shocked to see the clay murtis beheaded and their hands chopped off. Within 2 days of this incident, on October 7, the stone murtis of Periya Andavar temple in Siruvachur also were found in a broken state.

5) A vanvasi Hindu girl from the Bhil community was repeatedly raped by her Muslim neighbor Daood in Rajasthan’s Jhalawar district. He also forced the girl to take abortion pills due to which her unborn fetus died.

6) An Islamist has threatened to wipe out everyone from RSS and BJP in Tamil Nadu. Taking inspiration from late Islamist fundamentalist Palani Baba, he issued a warning to the RSS and BJP cadre of Tamil Nadu.

7) The Bharat-Nepal border area in the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh has seen an estimated 400 mosques and madrasas mushrooming up in the past 10 years. This has been accompanied by a surge in the Muslim population in an institutionalized manner.

8) Clashes broke out at a Durga Puja pandal in Uttar Pradesh’s (UP) Firozabad between Muslims and Hindus celebrating Navratri. Reports indicate that the group of Muslims even abused Hindus belonging to the reserved classes who had erected the Durga Puja pandal on a roadside plot where devotees gathered to offer prayers daily.

9) A poor Hindu street vendor, Virendra Paswan, from Bihar father of five daughters and two sons, who had come to Kashmir to eke out his living by selling waterbucks (gol-gappas) fell to the bullets of The Resistance Front (TRF) terrorists at Lal Bazar in Srinagar outskirts last week.

10) Allegations have been leveled against the Delhi waqf board of trying to grab Hindu lands ever since AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan became its chief. As per local residents, they have been served eviction notices alleging that the land ‘belongs’ to the waqf board.

11) Even as the temples were banned from allowing devotees for darshan, Christians were allowed to conduct a grand car festival on the same day in Tamil Nadu. As the videos of various church car festivals emerged on social media, many questioned the hypocrisy of the DMK government.

12) The chicanery and foul-mouthed tirades of Devdutt Pattanaik, self-proclaimed ‘mythologist’, have been on display enough times for all serious commentators and students of Hindu Dharma to give him a wide berth. Through a recent tweet, Pattanaik again exhibited his propensity to twist sacred Hindu occasions and icons to make political points.

13) An exodus of Hindus from Kashmir to Jammu has been reported after recent targeted killings in the terror-torn region. A Dainik Jagran report dated October 9 says that 1400 have left Kashmir in a span of 3 days and arrived at Jammu.

14) Demography change has often led to the exodus of Hindus in areas where they become minorities. A similar situation is now being witnessed in Gujarat’s Bharuch where Hindus are being forced to leave after the demography shift has turned the area into a Muslim-dominated one.

15) After facing severe criticism for lying that Manu Smriti calls women ‘prostitutes’, DMK ally MP Thirumavalavan has now said that all Brahmins of Uttar Pradesh are ‘rowdies’. He made the comment with reference to the Lakhimpur incident.

16) As Quranic verses were sung from the stage of the rally by Priyanka Vadra in Varanasi, local Hindus said it was “not acceptable”.

17) Woman priests who ‘had followed Islam and Christianity’ to conduct Hindu rituals in Kerala state reports.

18) The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has issued a directive banning immersion of Maa Durga murti in any ‘public place’, including the river Yamuna or any other water body/pond/ghat, etc.

19) A Garba event at Veer Narmad South Gujarat University on Monday evening ran into trouble when Umra police reached the spot to halt it. An argument between the students and the police led to a three-hour showdown.

20) A man in his 30s has been brutally maimed and killed near the ‘farmers’ protest site in Kundli, Delhi-Haryana border. It is suspected that he was killed by Nihang Sikhs for allegedly committing ‘blasphemy’. The victim has been identified by Haryana Police as Lakhbir Singh, ‘a 35/36-year-old laborer from Cheema Khurd village, Tarn Taran district’. He belonged to a Scheduled Caste community.

21) In a heart-numbing incident, a speeding SUV plowed through a Dussehra procession in Chhattisgarh’s Jashpur, reportedly killing 4 and critically injuring 15. One deceased has been identified as Gaurav Agarwal, 21.

22) When Muslim men were admitted to a Garba event held in Indore’s Oxford College, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal (BD) raised objections regarding the same. Hindu organizations have demanded strict action against the organizer Akshanshu Tiwari stating his actions amounted to encouraging ‘grooming jihad’. The police are said to have taken cognizance of the incident. They’ve taken five people into custody against whom action has been taken under section 188.

23) Boys who wore the sacred ash and Rudraksha to the school were allegedly abused by a teacher in a Christian school in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu. Parents of the boys have written to CM’s special cell seeking action against the school and the teacher.

23) The DMK government in Tamil Nadu has invited the ire of Hindus for not wanting to open temples for darshan but bringing the hundi outside the temple to collect money. The hundi in the Rameshwaram Ramanathaswamy temple was brought outside to be placed at the entrance even as the temple was closed even on Mahalaya Amavasya. After severe criticism, HRCE officials have taken back the hundi and placed it inside the temple.

24) Kripal Singh, a 52-year-old priest was brutally hacked to death in a temple in Nagla Jagroop village. The Police have take custody of the accused named Razzak and an axe has been recovered from him. Kripal Singh was recently appointed as a priest in the temple. The reason behind the murder is not yet clear. Razzak and Kripal Singh both shared an extremely cordial relationship. They used to even dine with each other. The Police have found that Razzak was under the influence of the drug when the incident happened.

25) A 19 years old Hindu boy Bharat Singh and others were assaulted by a group of Muslim youths on Tuesday on the issue of chanting Bharat Mata Ki Jai during prayer at the school under Barod police station of Agar-Malwa district of Madhya Pradesh.

26) A minor Hindu girl was allegedly gang-raped by a history-sheeter named Iqbal and his friend Ashraj Sadiq at Kuchaman town under Kuchaman police station of Nagaur district of Rajasthan. Police arrested both accused on Saturday and they were remanded to police custody for their questioning. Investigation revealed that accused Iqbal had befriended the victim by introducing himself as Shailesh a Hindu boy.

27) Islamic terrorists are leaving no stone unturned to target the Hindu festival season. After a terror cell was busted in Delhi that was looking to target festivals in the North, now WB has issued an alert about a possible terror attack during Durga Puja.

Bangladesh

1) On September 16, Gouranga Chandra Dey was arrested in the Bhola district of Bangladesh. The allegation against Dey, a man belonging to the religious minority in the Islamic country, is that he had made objectionable posts against Islam on the social media platform, Facebook (FB). He is also the President of the Bhola District Puja Udjapan Parishad and is a politically active man hailing from the Hindu community in the area.

2) Widespread violence has broken out against the minority Hindus of Bangladesh. Reports of Durga Puja mandaps being demolished and Hindus being attacked are pouring in from several parts of the Chittagong division. At least 2 Hindus have died in these attacks, it is claimed.

3) Attack on a Hindu temple and vandalization of murtis at Ashulia Savar P.S Dhaka district in Bangladesh on 10 October.

4) Bangladeshi Local Police oppressed Hindus & forcefully stopped Durga puja on 11 October at Tipu Sultan road, old Dhaka P.S Dhaka district.

5) A group of Muslims attacked a Hindu temple & forcefully stopped Durga puja on 12 October at Nanua Dighirpar Comilla P.S Comilla district.

6) More than 12 temples were attacked on 13 October in Comilla. The city’s Hindus and temples are under constant attack by Muslims. Bangladeshi Hindus are continuously being persecuted for alleged blasphemy against Islam.

7) Unstoppable attacks on Hindus are being continued. It started from Comilla and spread to the whole country. On 13 October night, a group of Muslims attacked 10 temples & destroyed murtis in addition to humiliating Hindu women at Haziganj P.S Chandpur.

8) Shanti Rani Das lost everything at Rampur Bazar Dhopabari, Haziganj, Chandpur district as Islamists attacked her house on 13 October.

9) A Hindu temple was vandalized by Islamists who stopped the puja at the historical Jamindar bari on 13 October at Rampur Bazar Chowdhary Haziganj, Chandpur district.

10) Hindu woman Shilpi Rani Das had a dreadful night as Muslims attacked her home and the temple two more times.

11) A Hindu woman lost everything on 13 October as Hindus were attacked by Islamists across Bangladesh.

12) On 15 October, Hindu homes were looted, shops were burned, and Hindu man Jatin Saha was murdered at Chowmonhanii, Noakhali district.

13) An ISKCON temple was also vandalized on 15 October in the continued violence against Hindus at Chowmonhanii, Noakhali district.

World

1) The University of Wolverhampton, UK is holding an anti-Hindu conference on “Anti-Caste Thought: Theory, Politics, and Culture” where the thoughts and works of Periyar EV Ramasamy will be discussed. The project ‘Freedom from Caste: The Political Thought of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy in a Global Context’, as a part of which this conference is being held, projects EV Ramasamy as a champion of the anti-caste movement, women empowerment, and equality.

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.