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 27 March to 2 April 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) Three Idols were stolen from the Shriram Janaki temple in ‘Ward 6’ of Saidpur, Ghazipur. The family of Shrikant Jaiswal is volunteers in this temple. They performed the daily ‘aarti’ in the temple and went back home at 10 p.m. In the morning when they went to the temple, they found the clothes of the Deities scattered on the floor. That time they noticed that the three Idols, made from ‘ashta dhatu’ have been stolen. Police are further investigating this matter.
2) Ajmer police in Rajasthan arrested Arshad Khan and three of his accomplices for their role in the gang rape and murder of a 17-year-old minor Hindu girl.
3) A dead body of a woman identified as Manisha Singh was discovered on December 5, 2021. She is suspected to have been murdered by one Shams who was the last person whom she met as per the victim’s minor daughter’s statement. The incident took place in Bihar’s Purnia.
4) Delhi Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal mocked Hindus yet again by denying the Kashmir Hindu genocide and terming the film The Kashmir Files a ‘jhoothi’ (false) film. He and other MLAs of his Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were seen laughing, sneering, and derisively mocking the film.
5) Christian portals reported that a “pastor who was against Hindu nationalists” was killed by “masked men”. The pastor was dragged out of his home and stabbed to death by Maoists in Chhattisgarh. The terror organisation suspected him of being a police informer.
6) On the day of Holi, following a minor spat, several Muslims ganged up with guns and shot dead a vanvasi (tribal) man and injured many others in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh.
7) An appalling video of an elderly woman from Bihar being brutally thrashed by two Sikh men for allegedly taking out a cigarette within the premises of Amritsar’s Golden Temple complex surfaced on social media recently and went viral instantly. Shocked netizens condemned the reprehensible act by the men who were alleged to be members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). The assaulters claim that the elderly woman in a red saree was caught ‘smoking bidis’ at the Golden temple, hence, was committing beadbi (sacrilege).
8) A teenage Hindu girl was raped and killed by 23-year-old Sabir Ali, aka Baba Khan in Chhattisgarh’s Surajpur district. The accused tried to pass it off as a case of suicide, police said on Sunday.
9) A Hindu family from Karnataka was asked to convert to Christianity in return for free treatment for their son affected by Thalassemia. The family had decided to accept their demand as they cannot afford the costly bone marrow transplant treatment. But the BLDE hospital in Karnataka extended a helping hand after which they have dropped their plan to convert.
10) A shocking incident of Christians praying in front of a temple in Andhra Pradesh has come to the fore. The incident happened in the East Godavari district which is notorious for rampant conversion. Andhra government’s official fact check account claimed that it is a common area. But it is visible from even the video posted by the account that it was a temple space that was used by Christians.
11) Grooming jihad has claimed yet another Hindu life in Bhopal. On February 24, Raju Rajput (25) was found shot dead and his body was discovered near Vidisha, 60 km north of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh, where he lived. Police investigations revealed that local goons Shakir (29) and Farhan (41) killed Raju at the instance of one Mohammed Asif Ansari (24), a furniture trader from Bhopal.
Bangladesh
1) Dipak Kumar Mazi’s home was attacked and completely burnt down on March 25 by Mohammad Faridual Islam and his men at Haripur.
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.
