Open letter to the Prime Minister

October 18, 2021

To

Shri Narendra Damodardas Modi,

The Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bharat

Sub: Regarding the Ongoing Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh

Namaste Adarneeya Pradhan Mantri ji,

We are a group of individuals, activists and advocates representing the Indic Collective Trust, an organisation founded in 2017 with the objective of advocating through Constitutional and democratic means the right of the Indic/Dharmic way of life to exist and thrive. In over four years of existence, the Trust has initiated several projects and campaigns, including legal actions in matters of civilizational and national importance before various Hon’ble High Courts and the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India. 

In particular, the well-being of the Dharmic institutions and its followers, their safety, autonomy and sanctity, not just in Bharat, but across the globe, are issues that lie at the very heart of the Indic Collective movement. Therefore, the recent systematic and planned murderous attacks on the Hindu community by radical Islamist groups during and since the festival of Durga Puja across various cities and villages in Bangladesh have caused us unprecedented pain and anguish. 

It is no secret that Hindus have lived under the threat of violence and faced constant attacks at the hand of the majority Muslims in Bangladesh ever since it was part of Pakistan. The ongoing carnage is part of this continuum, which was triggered on October 13, 2021, when certain Islamic radical groups mischievously planted their Holy Book at the feet of a Hindu deity in a Durga Puja pandal in Nanua Dighir Par in Cumilla district. These miscreants then uploaded photos and videos of the manufactured incident on Facebook claiming it to be a deliberate act of insulting their holy scripture by the Hindus. This incident then created a domino effect which has led to vandalising of Pujo Pandals, attacks on Hindu temples, establishments, homes and institutions and murder and rape of Hindus in over 30 districts of Bangladesh, including Cumilla, Chandpur, Noakhali, Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar, Feni and Chapai Nawabganj.   

As per the reports available as on date, over 10 Hindus have been killed, 17 others are missing, over 23 Hindu women have been brutally raped, including a 10-year-old girl who was gang-raped and killed by extremist Muslim mobs. Further, these numbers in all likelihood are a gross underestimation of the real extent and magnitude of this targeted carnage on account of the ongoing curbs on the media and suspension of internet connections in various parts of the country.

It is very difficult to digest that such large-scale communal violence can take place without either the laxity or the connivance of the local authorities or the politicians of the Muslim majority nation and it is this implicit hand of the people in power that further compounds the existential fear of the peace-loving Hindu community of Bangladesh. Such acts of violence and communal carnage have the tendency to incite similar violence and hatred towards the Hindu community living not only in the Indian subcontinent but also across the world. 

Hindus today constitute less than 10% of Bangladesh’s 169 million population, down from 28% in 1947 when the country split from India as part of Pakistan. The government of Bangladesh has laws that openly discriminate against non-Muslim communities and hold them hostage. Yet, Bangladesh continues to benefit from preferential trade and investment arrangements from India, including military assistance.

It is shameful that the international community has all but been a mute spectator of the ongoing violence and it is this silence that has enabled the carnage to reach such a magnitude. The steps taken and assurances given by the Bangladeshi government have also been woefully inadequate. In such a state, it becomes our moral responsibility, not just as the nation with the largest Hindu population in the world, but also as a close strategic partner of Bangladesh, to ensure that the lives and interest of the Bangladeshi Hindu Community are protected and the current carnage does not culminate in a repetition of the history of the 1971 anti-Hindu genocide. 

In the words of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who had resigned from the first Cabinet of independent Bharat in opposition to the then government’s laxity in protecting the minorities of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), 

“… Let us not forget that the Hindus of East Bengal (now Bangladesh) are entitled to the protection of India, not on humanitarian considerations alone, but by virtue of their sufferings and sacrifices, made cheerfully for generations, not for advancing their own parochial interests, but for laying the foundations of India’s political freedom and intellectual progress. It is the united voice of the leaders that are dead and of the youth that smilingly walked upto the gallows for India’s cause that calls for justice and fair play at the hands of Free India of today.”

We, therefore, implore your Hon’ble office to actively take up the issue with your Bangladeshi counterpart, Mohtarma Sheikh Hasina, and call upon her to take cognisance of the ongoing communal violence and bring to justice those who are responsible for this carnage.

We further request you to lean on the Bangladeshi ruling dispensation to take active and positive steps to ensure that the rights of the Hindus and other religious minorities are protected and the members of the minority communities are able to live their lives and practice their religions as equal citizens of that country.

Yours Sincerely

The Indic Collective Trust