Being a Hindu in Bangladesh

The aftermath of the political crisis in Bangladesh has once again made the Hindu community in the country a soft target. The student protest quickly became an excuse for Islamists to inflict violence against Hindus. The declining Hindu population, which was 7.95 per cent in 2022, is a clear indication of the tragic plight of the community.

A Pasmanda Muslim from India says, “I often see exaggerated claims about the plight of Indian Muslims, suggesting that we are on the brink of genocide under the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. This claim has persisted for the past decade, only to be proven as fear-mongering. This makes me wonder why the historical genocide and ongoing oppression of the Hindu population in Bangladesh receive so little acknowledgement.”

Despite more than 200 attacks on religious minorities, including Hindus, Buddhists, and Christians, and damage to about 20 temples since 5 August, the intelligentsia and global news coverage have portrayed the plight of Bangladeshi Hindus as just another case of minority oppression. This oversimplification does a disservice to the victims. Each act of oppression has its own root cause and deserves to be discussed on its own merits. There is an undeniable underlying hatred toward the community, and it is crucial to understand where this sentiment stems from.

The targeted violence against Hindus in Bangladesh is wrong, it's concerning, and it's a cautionary tale for victimhood-laced quota systems. Here's what happened: Bangladesh fought a bloody war for its independence in 1971. Hundreds of thousands of Bangladeshi civilians were…

— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) August 14, 2024

The 1971 horror

Targeted attacks against Hindus are not new; however, when we read about the 1971 Liberation War, the narrative often centres around the power struggle between Urdu-speaking and Bengali-speaking communities. While it’s true that the Pakistani military targeted Bengali nationalists of all religious groups in 1971, political scientist Rounaq Jahan has noted that there was “a particular focus on selected groups such as the students, intellectuals, and the Hindu community”.

Nearly three million people were killed, about 2,00,000 women and children were raped in what came to be regarded as “rape camps”, and 10 million people fled to India, while another 30 million were internally displaced. Hindu Educators are being Forced to Resign in Bangladesh Amidst Growing Religious Persecution.

As Bangladeshi scholar Bina D’Costa noted, “Imams publicly declared Bengali women to be gonimoter maal (public property), thereby making it ostensibly acceptable for the men of the Pakistan Army and their collaborators to rape Bengali women.”

Between 1971 and the current crisis, Bangladesh has witnessed numerous attacks against its religious minorities, including in 1990, which flared after the demolition of Babri Masjid in India. These attacks are just a case of minority oppression; they stem from a deep-seated hatred for Hindus and Hinduism, a religion that is not monotheistic.

There is an internalized disdain and hatred against Hindus among radicals and extreme sections of followers of Abrahamic religions, particularly Muslims. This deep-seated animosity often results in Hindus becoming victims of conflicts or political strife, especially when they are a minority. We observe the same pattern in India with the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus in the Pakistani state-sponsored proxy war in Jammu and Kashmir. Since the Afghan War of 1979, the number of Hindus in Afghanistan has decreased significantly — in 2021, there were estimated to be just about 40-50 practising Hindus.

India must become the safe harbour

Let’s be honest—there should be no discrimination in raising voices for the oppressed. The size of a group and its influence often dictate which issues gain attention. Hindus, as the last major pagan group in the world, are effectively a minority on the global geopolitical stage. They have few allies to amplify their voices or even acknowledge the existence of Hinduphobia. While Islamophobia is widely recognized and discussed, Hinduphobia barely gets acknowledged. This disparity highlights a significant and troubling gap in how global concerns are prioritized.

The reality is that India stands as the only hope for persecuted Hindus worldwide. Accepting this truth has nothing to do with being anti-minority. Policies and laws are typically designed to address problems on the ground, but when we aren’t even allowed to honestly acknowledge the issue, we can’t implement the much-needed solutions. Amendments to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are necessary to find a way to protect these persecuted minorities from Islamist regimes in neighbouring countries. Recognizing the problem is the first step toward providing them with the refuge and support they desperately need.