Durga Puja celebrations in Bangladesh this year went off relatively peacefully, said two Hindu activists from that country whom HinduPost spoke to recently. However, the unceasing, low-level and scattered Islamist attacks against Hindus, such as this pogrom in a village in Narail district which affected over a dozen Hindu properties, continue unabated.
Last year’s anti-Hindu pogrom during Durga Puja, deliberately triggered by a manufactured blasphemy incident at a pandal in Comilla, invited worldwide protests by Hindus. The rattled Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League government, which was in denial about last year’s violence, ensured extensive security deployment at Durga Puja pandals across the country this time around.
The Hindu activists, who requested their identity be kept anonymous for security reasons, added that with national elections coming up in January 2024, Hasina wants to keep her Hindu votebank intact.
They stated that attacks on Bangladeshi Hindus will decrease only when the government in Bharat takes a clear position in favor of Hindus across the world. Other minorities, like Christians and Buddhists, face far less persecution because the Bangladeshi government fears an adverse reaction from the West and even Buddhist nations.
The activists said that Vikram Doraiswami (High Commissioner of Bharat to Bangladesh from October 2020 to September 2022, and currently High Commissioner to the UK) is a typical example of Indian diplomats’ apathy towards Hindu issues. They say he remained busy visiting Muslim mazars and dargahs, instead of standing with Hindus who are facing almost daily attacks.
For the record, diplomat Dinesh Patnaik, then Director General of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations), had also displayed disturbing insensitivity by downplaying the anti-Hindu pogrom last year as a “small incident”. Patnaik is currently Ambassador of Bharat to Spain.
When asked if they were happy with efforts like the Bharatiya government’s reconstruction of Ramna Kali mandir which was destroyed by the Pakistan Army during the 1971 genocide, the activists said that much-2 more was needed. They said that there was only a marginal reduction (unees bees ka antar) in the persecution they face since the Modi government came to power.
How Hindus are manipulated in Bangladeshi democracy
Further explaining the ugly reality of so-called democratic choice in a Muslim-majority nation like Bangladesh, the activists explained how Hindus are taken for a ride by elected Hindu representatives in Awami League (AL), and even some Hindu members of so-called minority religious organizations.
There are around 20 Hindus in Bangladesh’s parliament, all Awami League members, but not one of them ever raises their voice on Hindu persecution. The number of Hindu representatives at district and upazila level are even higher.
These Hindu AL representatives and certain members of minority orgs never allow effective protests and agitation against government inaction. The moment local Hindus organize and raise their voice against any attack or anti-Hindu hate crime, they arrive on the scene and try to smother or hijack the protests by reassuring that government is taking the right steps. But no government investigation ever reaches a logical end or any effective, deterrent punishment for wrong-doers. Many attacks even involve local AL strongmen and their goons.
While the BNP-Jamaat hardline Islamist coalition forms Hasina’s opposition, she nurtures her own set of Islamists in the form of Hefazat-e-Islam (HeI). She has had an up and down relation with this Islamist outfit which was formed in 2010 to oppose a pro-woman policy of the AL government. It is alleged that the HeI currently has a backroom pact with Hasina as many of their leaders are in jail, and the outfit was given a big land grant to placate them.
The Hindu activists we spoke to also claimed that elections in Bangladesh are neither fair nor free, and thus Bharat has far more leverage than it currently exercises. If Bharat wanted, it could force Bangladesh to end the systemic and persistent violence directed towards its Hindu minority.
If India coninues to remain cypher, the Hindus of Bangladesh will continue to get exterminated at all levels and in very well-planned way at the hands of extremist Islamists exploiting all the weaknesses B’Desh Govt.
We should note: there are exactly 17 Hindu members elected to BD’s 350 strength parliament, which is less than 5%. However, the population of Hindus is almost double of that. In 3 of the 4 provinces, it is higher than 10% (only in Dhaka it is lower). So this itself is a problem
Excellent article, and one of the very few to report actual conversations with ground activists in BD.
As Suresh Chavankeji said yesterday, “a muslim in any party remains a muslim, and speaks for muslim interests. But a Hindu in any party ceases to be a Hindu, and never speaks for Hindu interests, with some exception of BJP.” Why is this? Even the BJP does not speak for Hindu interests as vigorously as it should given that it wins ENTIRELY on Hindu votes. The problem is and has always been that a Hindu child is not raised in a “we Hindus vs others” ideology, whereas a Muslim child is raised that way given that their book and history are all about “momin vs kafir.” Now, this is not something that can be changed easily. For a Hindu to be an activist for Hinduism, it appears that additional training is required, which is not the case for a Muslim. Therefore we have a large majority of Hindus who are HINO, and only Hindu as far as the rituals they follow go. They do nothing to further Hindu interests. Their religion is restricted to making some requests (promotion, admission of their kids, etc.) of their favourite deity at their favourite mandir, and that’s it. For Muslims, Islam is almost always about getting power at whatever level they are: be in street, city, state, country, or global.
The government of India only reflects this lukewarm commitment of the average Hindu. Why should it do more?
How many Hindus came onto the streets to protest last year’s Durga pooja riots? Compare that to the large mobs and temple destructions carried out by Muslim mobs in retaliation to Babri. Till Hindus themselves care more, I don’t think they can force any government to.