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 13 February to 19 February 2022, we hope to provide a snapshot of such crimes and hopefully awaken more people around the world to this human rights crisis:

Bharat

1) In a shocking case of murder and suspected rape being reported from West Bengal, a woman was thrown out of a speeding train and died on the tracks. Some reports suggest that she was raped and killed inside the train before being tossed out.

2) A 22-year-old girl, who had been missing for the last two months, has been found buried in a septic tank located at a vacant plot near a building belonging to late former SP leader Fateh Bahadur Singh in the Kabba Kheda area in Unnao district of UP.

3) At least 18 people were arrested on Saturday for attacking staff members of a school in Suti village of Murshidabad district, West Bengal over reports that the Principal had asked some students to wear the school uniform instead of a burqa as he had to share pictures of students in uniform to the district administration.

4) In what can only be interpreted as a show of solidarity with the missionaries, a DMK MLA has felicitated the warden who tortured Lavanya, a 17-year-old Hindu girl who was pressurized to convert and tortured when she denied doing so. The court had granted her bail a few days ago and she was spotted being felicitated by DMK MLA Inigo Irudaya Raj in front of the jail as she came out.

5) Slurs like “kaafir ki aulaad”, abuse of Hindu deities, thrashings, and dowry harassment by her Muslim husband and in-laws drove Varsha to suicide.

6) An incident of an alleged suicide attempt by a student of Government Polytechnic College in Madikeri’s Kushalnagar has come to light. The student identified as Prajwal reportedly took the step after he was attacked by some of the hostel residents for wearing a saffron shawl.

7) A shocking video shared on social media (SM) shows Hindu women being forced to remove their mangalsutra before entering the exam hall. Available information suggests that the exam was for obtaining government jobs.

8) A burqa-clad woman stabbed a cab driver in Gurugram’s Civil Lines area today, leading to chaos in the vicinity and the deployment of a heavy police contingent. According to the driver Raghuraj (35), the lady signaled him to stop and attacked him suddenly using a knife. She then attempted to flee. However, Raghuraj chased her and she was overpowered by passersby and handed over to the police.

9) Six persons have been arrested on charges of human trafficking by a team of Naka police, which conducted a raid in the Sadbhawana Express at Lucknow’s Charbagh railway station. Those arrested were identified as Jaan Mohammed, Mohammed Hasim, Latif, Shakil, Shahid Ali, and Arman of Unnao. The team rescued three girls, including two minors.

10) As the Hijab row gets increasingly politicized, anti-Hindu English-language media (ELM) has jumped into the fray to provide cover fire to their political masters and divert attention from the Islamist agenda by turning the issue into a ‘Hindu majoritanism’ one in keeping with their Hindudveshi (Hinduphobic/Hindumisic) propaganda. Taking a lead in doing so were The Telegraph and The Hindu whose Hinduphobia has come to the fore several times earlier as well.

11) Twitter has once again bared its anti-Hindu fangs by suspending director Vivek Agnihotri‘s Twitter account. The director has never minced words when it comes to revealing the true face of Urban Naxals.

12) In a shocking case of sexual abuse reported from Falakata in West Bengal’s Alipurduar district, parents of two teenage girls have leveled allegations of rape against their 49-year-old tuition teacher Rustom Ali. As per the claims made by the guardians, Ali, who is a local teacher, has raped and sexually abused the minor students for around 9 months.

13) In two different incidents, murtis of Hindu deities have been vandalized in Tamil Nadu. In one of the incidents, two Muslim youth have been arrested for vandalizing the murtis in a “drunken state”. In the other incident, another “drunkard” was arrested. It has become a norm for TN police to dismiss temple attack and vandalization cases as ones perpetrated by “drunkards” and “mentally unstable” people.

14) 20 Chidambaram Podhu Dikshitars have been booked under SC/ST atrocities Act allegedly for abusing an SC woman. Dikshitars have been running the Nataraja temple in a stellar manner which has been an eyesore to DMK. As soon as coming to power HRCE minister had said that the government will “take initiatives” to bring the Chidambaram temple back to its control. The latest developments are seen as an attempt to smear Pothu Dikshitars to take over the temple.

15) Two Hindu sisters who had gone to cut grass were molested by a gang of around 2 dozen Muslim youth from a neighboring village in the Moradabad district on Tuesday evening. When the girls objected, the accused turned even more abusive and molested them, even snatching away their dupatta (stole).

16) One Shafi Ahmed (20) has been arrested for vandalizing the murti of Sri Hanuman at a temple in Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand. The desecration of the temple took place on February 12, following mass protests by Hindus at different parts of Jharkhand over the brutal mob lynching of minor Rupesh Pandey (17) on February 6 during a Saraswati Puja immersion procession.

17) The mischief of the EO (Executive Officer) in issuing the order restricting the archak (temple priest) of Shri Dodda Ganesh Temple from using bells and damaru, an integral part of Hindu prayers, has come to the fore. It has also come to light that not only is the EO not authorized to issue such an order but also misinterpreted the police order on noise pollution. 

18) Sarath Chandran, a young Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) party worker was stabbed to death by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) workers in Kerala. The unfortunate incident happened at Haripad in the Alappuzha district and the killers are also alleged to be local drug dealers.

Pakistan

1) Two young women were kidnapped, gang-raped, and paraded in the streets in Sindh’s Naukot in Pakistan. At least 12 men have been arrested, including constable Gulzar Tangri. The prime suspect Ali Nawaz Tangri is still at large.

Bangladesh

1) Five Bangladeshi Hindu brothers have died after being crushed by a van on Tuesday, in what the family is calling a premeditated attack. The Sushil family had been organizing Durga Puja for many years and were looking to build a small temple, which had angered Islamists and the family was attacked by a mob of 40-50 men last month. The mob threatened to kill the father and he died of a heart attack the very next day.

2) On February 15, 2022, a Hindu Temple came under attack at Bisharkhandhi in which all the Pratimas (Idols) were pillaged by Muslims.

3) On February 18, 2022, Islami Andolan Bangladesh threatened Bangladeshi Hindus in Dhaka. Their party leader said ” Not a single Bangladeshi Hindu woman come outside homes and walk on the street with religious symbols like Shaka, Shidur, etc

World

1) Christian fanatics have installed a statue of Mary near an ancient temple in Sri Lanka. Earlier Christians had torn apart an arch put up by the temple in the same spot. Saivite dharma gurus have condemned the act and asked the Mannar diocese to remove the statue. They also called upon the government to stop missionaries from meddling in archeological heritage.

2) HinduPACT has urged Trudeau and New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh not to conflate the ‘Swastika’, an ancient and auspicious symbol for Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, and many indigenous communities around the world, with the ‘Hakenkreuz’, a 20th century Nazi symbol of hate. Both Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh have made statements in the recent past, accusing protesters of “waving Swastikas”.

3) Members of the Hindu community and others gathered at the Laxmi Narayan Temple in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada on the afternoon of February 5 to protest the offensive and sacrilegious use of an image of Sri Ganesha in a Canadian company’s logo.

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.