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 21 August to 27 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 poor Hindu vegetable vendor was brutally thrashed by a Muslim mob, allegedly because they ‘suspected him to be a thief’, in Rajasthan’s Alwar district. Chiranji Lal Saini (50) suffered such severe injuries that he died a day later in hospital, as the rest of the nation was celebrating Independence Day.

2) A Dravidianist leader has called for a ‘Hitler model’ to swipe away Brahmins from public life. He said that only on the day when there is a government order banning Brahmins from being employed Dravidians will attain absolute freedom.

3) The glorification of Bhagwan Krishna in Karthikeya 2 is not sitting well with the liberal cabal who are used to spitting venom on every aspect of Hindu Dharma. In an outrageous article by India Today, writer Grace Cyril states that there are “too many Sri Krishna references” in the movie, which discourages audiences from hitting the theatres.

4) Islamists in the Matara tehsil of Kheda district, Gujarat are charged with grabbing 2000 acres of land worth Rs. 400 crores, which they have allegedly occupied using forgery and violence. Around 628 cases relating to this land jihad have been uncovered since 2012 and more than 500 people have been issued legal notices demanding proof of ownership. 

5) The Delhi Police has arrested a butcher for allegedly raping and killing an eight-year-old girl and later dumping her body in Central Delhi. The victim had seen Rizwan, alias Badshah, in a compromising position with her mother hence he decided to kill her.

6) The repeated temple chariot accidents in Tamil Nadu have created suspicion and fear in the minds of devotees as such accidents are seen as a bad omen bringing bad luck to the country. With anti-Hindu DMK at the helm, Hindus fear that more such incidents might follow due to the government’s apathy and vested interests’ deliberate ‘mistakes’. Since the beginning of the year, there have been many accidents in which chariots overturned, caught fire, and electrocuted at different places.

7) UP Police has arrested five Muslim youths who molested Hindu girls during a Dahi Handi celebration and subsequently assaulted Hindu boys who protested their act. The incident took place at street no 1 in the Delhi Gate area of Aligarh on Friday, on the occasion of Krishna Janmashtami. A total of 12 people have been booked.

8) Shahrukh, a labourer, had been stalking and harassing the girl for 10 days, after having obtained her mobile number somehow. On Monday night, he called and threatened to kill her if she did not talk with him and become his ‘friend’.

9) In strange news from Assam, a Muslim student carried beef in her tiffin box and fed it to her Hindu classmate. The girl had no idea she was being fed beef and realized so only after consuming the meat. The Muslim student who fed her classmate beef is a student of class 10 of Dhupdhara’s Sishu Sankradeb Vidya Niketan in Assam’s Goalpara.

10) A complaint has been lodged with the DC, Dumka district seeking strict action against a missionary school which has allegedly used the school to proselytise Christianity by spreading hatred against Hindu Dharma.

11) Members of Hindu organizations in Barkagaon, Hazaribagh district Jharkhand sat on a hunger strike on August 17 against increasing threats and attempts of conversion of minor Hindu girls. The victims of the threats- Suman Kumari and her little sister, were also part of the strike, along with their mother- Kiran Devi.

12) Following the continuous onslaught of conversion attempts by missionaries, a Hindu village in TN put up a board warning against proselytisation. But with police help missionaries removed the board. The SC Hindus, the majority of the village, are offended by the conversion attempts of the evangelists.

13) Complaints of giving corporal punishment have emerged against a Christian school teacher in Tamil Nadu. A 7-year-old student was beaten and thrashed using a stick, resulting in severe injuries on the head. The kid went to St Joseph Matriculation School in Thiruvalangadu, Thiruvallur district in TN. Rakshan, a 2nd-grade kid studying at the Christian school, returned home with an injured head on August 18.

14) Islamist ‘Sar Tan Se Juda‘ chants erupted in Telangana in protests against suspended BJP leader T Raja Singh. NCPCR (National Commission for Protection of Child Rights) has also taken cognizance of children being used to raise ‘sar tan se juda’ (STSJ) slogans.

15) A police inspector and three cops have been suspended in connection with negligence over handling a communal clash that surfaced following an interfaith marriage in Hulihaider village in Karnataka’s Koppal district. Pashawali Mohammad Saaba (27) and Yankappa Shamappa Talawara (44), both residents of Hulihaidar village were killed triggering tension in the region. Six persons were injured in the violence.

16) Giving a casteist spin to everything about Hindu Dharma has become the norm among Hindu haters, self-serving politicians and even ill-informed, approval-seeking Hindus. JNU VC (Vice Chancellor) Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit has gone too far by bringing up the ‘caste’ of Bhagwan Shiva.

17) 21-year-old Sachin Kashyap pizza delivery man in Uttar Pradesh was shot by two men Nadeem Khan, 27 and his brother Naeem, 29 when he refused to accept a torn Rs 200 note as payment. The two have been arrested and country-made pistols were recovered from their possession.

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) Last week, an Awami League leader was arrested for making sacrilegious comments about Bhagwan Shri Krishna. The accused has been identified as Josim Miah. He is the secretary of the Awami League of Ward 1 of Moulvibazar.

2) Two temples were vandalized in Shibganj Upazila of Bogura district on Sunday, August 21. Soon, it was discovered that the murti at the Hari Mandir situated at the end of the village was also vandalized.

3) Narendra Munda died (Tweet archived here) after he was mercilessly beaten by Mohammad Noor Hossen & Noor Mohammad.

4) Mohammad Suman, Shohag, Bhuttro and their gangs attacked (Tweet archived here) Hindus to grab more than 15 acres of land.

5) Bangladeshi Awami Leauge MP is a land grabber of Bangladeshi minorities. More than 86.31 acres santal owned land was grabbed (Tweet archived here) at Nababganj, Dinajpur.

6) A Durga temple came under attack (Tweet archived here) at Badialhula, Harirampur, Manikganj on August 26.

World

1) A Hindu man faced a shocking Hinduphobic and racist verbal attack in California, USA. The man Krishnan J Iyer posted a video of his encounter at a Taco Bell fast food outlet in Fremont.

2) Alerted by the FBI, Facebook tweaked its algorithm to suppress a genuine news story which was electorally damaging for the Democrats. Facebook ran the story through “third-party fact checkers” and proceeded to censor it. Imagine what they can do to its 400m user base in Bharat.

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.