The Hindus in Bangladesh: What is it to be a Minority in a Muslim Majority Country?

The situation for the Hindu minority has been dire in Bangladesh since August 05, 2024. On this day, Sheikh Hasina was forced to leave Bangladesh. Only 45 minutes ultimatum was given to her. The complete ransack of the Prime Minister’s official residence took place, and vandalism and vulgarity were on full display. The military remained completely silent and allowed the collapse to continue. The police were restricted not to act. Anarchy was allowed to fester. Most shockingly, students’ agitation was snowballed to lawlessness and anti-Hindu mobilisation. Arson, loot, and vandalism of the places of worship, businesses and homes of the Hindu minorities acquired the most uncanny consistency.

In the thick of things, Muhammad Yunus said in an interview that if instability continues in Bangladesh, its spillover will be experienced in India’s North East, West Bengal and Myanmar. This statement is a carefully crafted one and tactically placed to express caution. Now that he has taken oath as the chief advisor to the interim government, which is equivalent to a Prime Minister, he made remarks on restraint and protection of minorities. If not adhered to, he will resign. Do the fundamentalists and anarchists really listen to him? They are the ones who have batted for his ascension to power. There is a famous saying, “Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are”. Muhammad Yunus’ remarks are for media attention and Western sympathy for him. He has not done anything substantive to stop violence against the Hindus. His appeal will not have any bearing on the anarchists whose hatred for Hindus is deep-seated and religiously inspired. It is not new. Pakistan did exactly the same to the Hindus to make them second-class citizens and exercise its religious supremacy and exclusivism. Bangladesh toes the same line. The fanatics have extended a consistent attempt to ensure the end of Hindu presence in an Islamic country. Every occasion has been utilised to direct violence against the Hindu minority. The scale and gravity of violence have gone above the bearable height. The Hindu demography in 1956 was 22 per cent. Today, it has come down to below 8 per cent. This indicates the consistency of aggression and doggedness of the fanatics to drive the Hindus out of Bangladesh. The fragile minority will experience more fragility in the days to come. It is not that far in time that the Hindus in Bangladesh will become a microscopic minority. They have already lost political relevance. They will also continue to lose complete relevance in the time to come.

 Muhammad Yunus called the political turmoil in Bangladesh a second liberation. What about the violence against the Hindus? Does he have any answer to that? Bangladesh was liberated in 1971 from East Pakistan based on the fundamentals of Bengali linguistic identity, not religion. The Bangladesh we see today is more on the path of religious identity. Its so-called secular credentials are just for show-offs to get Western legitimacy. The steady decline of the minorities in Bangladesh explains its pseudo-secularism and nourishment of the roots of fundamentalism and fanaticism. This anti-Hindu hatred is not a new development. It is consistent and unbroken. The statements of concern and sympathy shown by none other than Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar express the gravity of the situation. The India-Bangladesh relationship has taken a nosedive. It is now at an all-time low. The border between Bangladesh and India covers 4,096 kilometres. The Indian states that share a border with Bangladesh are Assam, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and West Bengal. The pressure has started building along the border. The Bangladeshi Hindus and other persecuted ones are gathering at different border points. This is when Bangladeshi citizens other than the minorities will find opportunities to cross the border. Moreover, there are also unmanned border areas which are porous. They will be the points of infiltration. Mass migration to the northeast may increase instability. The chief minister of Assam has already expressed concerns over the possible migration, observing the increasing activities along the borders.

The reports submitted by the minority groups and their organisations to Muhammad Yunus have fallen on deaf ears. Apart from the media niceties, he will not do anything for the Hindus. He will not derail from the directions given to him. He will money-balance to remain relevant in politics. He will definitely toe the line the deep state has communicated to him. His Nobel Laureateship will be weaponised to legitimise violence against the Hindus. However, mass migration may cause trouble in the northeast. Muhammad Yunus has already stated this. It means the plot has already been written. It is unfolding scene by scene and act by act. There are international players involved in it. The gravitas of the Bay of Bengal geopolitics, the US-China antagonism in the Indo-Pacific, QUAD and AUKUS have troubled the waters in the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh has been the victim of the big game of geopolitics. The cases of Sri Lanka and Myanmar are out in the open to draw as many inferences as possible. The geostrategic location of Bangladesh becomes the bone of contention of the competing rivalries between the US and China. They failed to significantly dent India because of a strong central government. Its periphery has become the new target. Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Maldives have become their target areas for encircling India. In one of her interviews, Sheikh Hasina said that the US is interested in Bangladesh’s St. Martin Island. Through BRI, China has gone massively to Bangladesh. It has exercised its strong presence through investment and developmental activities in Bangladesh’s marine and port spaces. These geopolitical opportunities have given the Bangladeshi deep state to express its hatred towards India and the Hindus in Bangladesh. The Hindus in Bangladesh have always been construed as the supporter of India. They represent a miniature India in Bangladesh. They become the scapegoats of anti-Hindu and anti-India animosity among the fanatics in Bangladesh. Religious bigotry and exclusivism are promoted through foreign funding. This resulted in the Hindu genocide in Bangladesh. Therefore, the Hindus are to be brought back to India through CAA. Measures are to be developed to identify them and bring them back. So, in the guise of the Hindus, the members of the Bangladeshi majority community should not come to India. The existing menace should not be amplified by bringing more illegals from Bangladesh. Borders are to be sealed securely, and effective methods are employed to ensure the smooth entry of the Hindus.

The important aspect of the entire exercise is to see how the Indian government is reacting to these ugly turn of events in its neighbourhood. It watches carefully the development. The government’s position, in the words of Swapan Dasgupta, is a ‘benign indifference’. This position, Dasgupta considers, is warranted. Soon, the economy in Bangladesh is going to see a slump. Its dependency on India is huge and irreplaceable. The latter will have more occasion to punish the former’s ingratitude in the time and manner of its choosing. The anarchists in Bangladesh have ruined the long relationship it had with India. They have always exploited and persecuted the Hindus to cause deliberate discomfort for India. To conclude, the Hindu lives matter. It is time to express our solidarity with them during this crisis. There are intellectuals, celebrities, politicians, and media personalities who wear secularism on their sleeves on every occasion and have gone into bunkers and expressed no protest and pain for the Hindu minorities in Bangladesh. Those who talk about democracy and the constitution have preferred silence to speech. It is time to write what a Hindu feels in Bangladesh in the face of adversity, the horror of annihilation and the conspiratorial whispers of the bloodthirsty fanatics.

Dr. Chandan K Panda is an Assistant Professor at Rajiv Gandhi University (A Central University), Itanagar. Email:chandan.panda@rgu.ac.in