“I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: “As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.” – Swami Vivekananda on September 11, 1893, at the first World’s Parliament of Religions
Do the people of Bangladesh have the right to decide who should govern them? Of course, yes. Does that mean they have the right to abuse minority rights? According to the so-called advisor of the Bangladesh Government, Muhammad Yunus ((when the constitutionally elected government is toppled and there is a reign of radicals, Allah only knows whom he advises), the attacks on minorities are mere propaganda of the Bharatiya media. As if democracy permits persecution of political opposition, he shamelessly justifies the attacks by the radicals as anger against the Awami League supporters. Let us examine his claims with facts and figures.
Since Sheikh Hasina was compelled to step down with street power as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, there is a complete lawlessness. The looting and vandalism at Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s residence were seen live. Three groups have seized control in this power vacuum: The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which has been the main opposition party representing small-scale businesses, Jamaat-i-Islami— the hardline pro-Pakistan group existing since the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 – having reasonable control over bureaucracy but never got the political mandate and Hizb-ut-Tahrir – A radical organisation advocating for the establishment of a caliphate with ideology of pan-Islamism. The left-liberal ecosystem appears to be actively collaborating with these three groups and working in coordination to rationalise and legitimise the illegal coup. After the forceful and undemocratic regime change, multiple jails were broken into, and more than 1,500 prisoners, including terrorists, were freed by individuals portraying themselves as protesters. On August 26, 2024, Mufti Jasimuddin, the chief of the Ansarullah Bangla Team, which is an extremist group inspired by Al-Qaeda—was granted bail. Approximately 100,000 weapons have been looted in Bangladesh, posing a big threat to the security and law and order. Instability and dramatic regime change are not new to Bangladesh. At each juncture, minorities, especially Hindus consisting of mainly Dalits and Tribals, are their favourite targets, reducing their percentage from around 30 to 7.
Though the recent arrest of and denial of access to fundamental legal rights to the ISKCON monk Chinmoy Prabhu Das drew global attention towards the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh to some extent, since the regime-change on August 5, 2024, the lives of Hindus and other minorities have turned into hell by Islamists. Extremist groups such as Hefazat-e-Islam have given an open call for the slaughter of Hindus and members of ISKCON. The media is filled with heart-wrenching videos and images of houses being burned, ransacked, and vandalised. Temples are being desecrated or destroyed, and there have been reports of vandalism at Durga Puja pandals. It seems that the Jammat has followed a strategy reminiscent of the left by protecting some pandals for the sake of photo opportunities. The mute or encouraging response of the Yunus-led regime emboldened all the extremist groups. Is the call by lawyers not to accept the case of ISKCON monks Bharatiya propaganda? Is the claims made by women of rape and abuse also a figment of media imagination? Who were the people attacking Hindu shops and forcing Hindu teachers to resign from their earned positions? What was the crime of Hridoy Rabi Das, a Dalit boy whom army personnel brutally killed? Was he an Awami League activist? The Yunus regime has no clear answer to the atrocities that have been committed. The only policy option he has adopted is to carry the ‘Nobel Prize’ tag to defend all ‘ignoble’ acts of radicals.
During his visit to Bangladesh, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in the last week of October did not even refer to the plight of Hindus. How can they? The illegal regime is led by the darling of global liberals endorsed by 92 Nobel Prize winners and 197 global leaders. The self-certified liberals and progressives have always looked the other way when the Hindus – the real global minority – have become cannon fodder for the majoritarian supremacist religions. Hindutva (Hinduness) is the only path with multiple ways of worship that teaches spiritual democracy – which means acceptance and respect for all ways of worship.
The international majoritarian institutions – which remained silent over the genocide of Hindus in Afghanistan and Pakistan, gave sermons to the Hindus even when they were reduced to a minority and subjected to forced displacement in the Kashmir valley – are following the same policy of questioning Hindus in Bangladesh. The attacks on Rohingyas in Myanmar for their involvement in terrorist activities led to American sanctions. All eyes on Rafah become a global trend with celebrities denouncing the Israeli military action in Gaza. Black Lives Matter becomes a global symbol of resistance against police atrocities. If any legal action is taken against dreaded criminals in Bharat, who happen to be Muslim, then the Western Media and the human rights agencies go berserk and rake it up as an issue of religious freedom. However, when the matter pertains to Hindus, then such concepts or modes of protest do not exist. Any form of resistance by Hindus against the religious supremacist attitude and practices is also used against the community that celebrates diversity. It is high time that the international community makes its stand clear on whether to accept and respect the human rights of the actual minority of the world.
Hindus have survived the onslaught for over millennia. They did not just resist but existed as the oldest culture and will continue to do so. For global peace and coexistence, the Hindu values and worldview, such as accepting and respecting all ways of worship, considering all of them to be true, following the path without proselytisation, religion as a matter of individual choice, force and violence is against religion and science and economy should grow with spiritual wisdom, are essential. To establish them, Hindus should take a resolve – ‘Ek Hai to Safe Hai’ on this International Human Rights Day. No international agency or ‘liberal’ democracy is going to help Hindus in this battle for survival as global majorities control them. The Hindus, irrespective of ideological spectrum must realise that it is the battle of existence that they are now fighting for. The current situation clearly indicates that it is now or never, therefore it is pertinent for the Hindus to stand up, stay united for global good and radiate the world with Hindu values of human rights based on universal brotherhood and acceptance.
