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 14 August to 20 August 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) A Hindu family in Thiruvananthapuram paid a very high price for showing consideration to some Muslim labourers working in a neighbouring tract of land. Manorama, a 68-year-old retired government employee from Kesavadasapuram in the city, was brutally murdered on Sunday (August 7) afternoon by migrant worker Adam Ali (21).
2) After Bollywood, the Bengali film and entertainment industry continues to be the next most Hinduphobic industry. The latest addition to this trend is the Bengali film Dharmajuddha by filmmaker Raj Chakraborty, TMC MLA from the Barrackpore constituency.
3) A Hindu family has been given security after getting beheading threats for distributing tiranga in UP’s Bijnore.
4) In another targeted killing unidentified terrorists on Tuesday shot dead Kashmiri Pandit Sunil Kumar Bhat in an apple orchard in the Chotipora area of Shopian district in South Kashmir. Sunil’s cousin Pritmber (Pintu) Bhat was injured in the shooting and has been shifted to a Srinagar hospital for specialised treatment.
5) Kerala Police on Wednesday arrested a suspect in connection with the murder of a youth, whose body was discovered the previous day inside a flat in Kochi. Wrapped in a bedsheet, the body of Sajeev Krishnan, a hotel management student, had grievous injuries. The arrested suspect, Arshad, was a childhood friend of one of three roommates the victim shared the apartment with.
6) The DMK government has arrested Hindu Munnani’s Kanal Kannan who called for removing ‘Periyar’ statues intentionally placed in front of temples.
7) The Infant Mary English Medium High School at Katipalla, Mangaluru, Karnataka is facing charges of Hinduphobia after some teachers forced students to remove and throw the rakhis tied on their wrists, in a dustbin.
8) A disturbing video was recorded during the Independence Day celebration at Lucknow’s Shishu Bharti Vidyalaya. The viral visuals were allegedly from a play staged at the school. In the visuals, one student was dressed as Bharat Mata with a crown on her head. It showed two students dressed in Islamic attire removed the crown of “Bharat Mata”, wrapped her in a hijab, and took her to perform Namaz.
9) A DMK leader has abused Tamil Nadu BJP President K Annamalai for daring to expose the shallowness of Dravidian ideology. It was an attempt to belittle Annamalai by saying that if not for the reservation system he couldn’t have received a good education and become an IPS officer.
Bangladesh
Attacks on minority Hindus in Bangladesh are relentless and designed to gradually cleanse the religious minority from the country. 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 some tools used to intimidate and drive Hindus out.
1) Since Bangladesh became a nation, its Hindu population has been culled from about one-fifth of the nation to about one in 15. It never mattered which party was in power or which dictator ran Bangladesh.
2) Three men have been detained for their suspected involvement in desecrating a temple of Maa Kali in Bangladesh. Two murtis, including the murti of Maa Kali, were desecrated and broken by the accused at the Sarbajanin Kali Temple in Kanainagar of Mongla Upazila in Bagerhat district on the night of August 6.
3) Contrary to the perception created by the secular Indian state and its establishment intellectuals, Islamic radicalism is no less rife in Bangladesh than in Pakistan. In a video going viral on social media, a small Bangladeshi boy is being interviewed about which cricketers he would like to meet. To a question on Soumya Sarkar, the boy says he doesn’t want to meet him as he is a Hindu.
4) A minority family was attacked in Khulna’s Dhumghat on August 19, the day of Janmashtami (Tweet archived)
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, but 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 dropping an email to [email protected]. We also solicit support in maintaining the Hindu human rights tracker database.
