by Arvind Sharma
Bangladesh has been in the news for some time now. It had already begun to make the headlines in July 2024 as a result of the agitation against the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and began to lead the news cycle once Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina left the country on August 5, 2024. The situation continues to remain unsettled in Bangladesh even as it strives for normalcy.
One feature of the news emanating from Bangladesh has special significance for Hindu-Muslim relations in India. It consists of the drip feed of news of the persecution of the Hindus ever since the agitation began. It has taken the form of the burning down of Hindu religious institutions; the arrest of Hindu leaders, including a prominent member of the Hare Krishna, Chinmoy Krishna Brahmachari, who is still in custody; the random killing of Hindus, including prominent Hindus; forced resignation of Hindus from government posts; abduction and molestation of Hindu women; the closure of Hindu shops; forced conversions; and so on. Some untoward incidents usually accompany political disturbances, but this is more than that. The sustained persecution of the Hindus in Bangladesh has now become international news.
These developments in Bangladesh seem to possess, for a student of Hinduism, important consequences for Hindu-Muslim relations in India.
It is true that a lot is happening within India also in the context of Hinduism, which has implications for Hindu-Muslim relations in India, such as the agitation against the Waqf legislation, the attempt to reclaim places of worship, and so on. These developments, however, are not new. What is new is the reaction to what has been happening to the Hindus in Bangladesh. This reaction is qualitatively different from the usual patterns of Hindu-Muslim interaction in at least four ways.
First of all, Hindus normally don’t react to what happens to Hindus in other parts of India, or in other parts of the world. Even the exodus of Hindus from Kashmir in the 1990s hardly caused a stir among other Hindus in India. There have, however, been several demonstrations within India against the treatment of Hindus in Bangladesh. Such demonstrations have been reported from Nepal and Mauritius as well. This represents a new sensitivity. What is even more remarkable is that such demonstrations have not been limited to India or Hindu majority countries but are being reported from Hindu communities around the world, where they are in a minority, including a demonstration in Times Square in New York. Other religious communities, such as the Muslim community for instance, has been traditionally sensitive of the treatment of Muslims in other parts of the world, of which the recent Palestinian agitation is an obvious example. Such demonstrations of the solidarity of the community had been hitherto conspicuously absent when it came to the Hindus.
A second remarkable feature of the reaction in India to the goings on in relation to the Hindus in Bangladesh has been the participation not just of political Hindu leaders but of traditional Hindu leaders in these protests against the persecution of the Hindus in Bangladesh. In fact, Hindu political leaders have actually been more circumspect in the matter. The high decibel protests have come from traditional Hindu leaders, including some of the Shankaracharyas as well as traditional narrators of Hindu lore known as katha-vacakas. Such purveyors of traditional lore command mass audiences hence this new development is of great potential significance as affecting the general climate of Hindu-Muslim relations in the country.
A third dimension of the question also requires attention. What is happening in Bangladesh is likely to stoke the worst fears raised by anti-Muslim propaganda of the Hindu Right in the Hindu mind. Social media is rife with the suggestion that what is happening in Bangladesh is an index of what must have happened to the Hindus during the period of Muslim rule over India, and is likely to happen to the Hindus in the future, if Hindus cease to be a majority in their own country. Added to this is also the calumny of ingratitude sometimes associated in the Hindu mind in relation to the Muslim community. Bangladesh was created partly as a result of intervention by India most of whose citizens are Hindus. Yet apparently this fact has little bearing on how the Hindus in Bangladesh have been treated.
One is reminded here of a remark by a politician from Bangladesh who wondered for how long was Bangladesh meant to feel grateful to India. We can look at this matter cerebrally without passion but the point to note is that the reaction of the ordinary Hindu is not going to be cerebral but visceral and for him or her, it is a short road from ingratitude to treachery. One can only wish that such a stereotypical understanding of the Muslim will not get activated by the recent events in Bangladesh.
Finally, another aspect of the situation is truly remarkable. It is the fact that the Hindus of Bangladesh do not seem to be taking it lying down. There have been massive demonstrations protesting the persecution of the Hindus in such places as Chittagong. Some professional groups, such as those of lawyers, have also protested against the way Hindus are being treated in Bangladesh. I do not recall any sustained protests by Hindus against their maltreatment in living memory in India or elsewhere. That it should be happening outside India, where Hindus are in a minority, is also truly remarkable.
What is alarming, for a student of Hinduism, is the possibility that these developments in Bangladesh might prove to be the proverbial last straw which might break the secular camel’s back in India.
* The author is the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal Canada.
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