The political turmoil in Bangladesh, which escalated from students’ protests over reservation for the family members of the freedom fighters of the 1971 Liberation War, has snowballed into anti-minority aggression. This shift highlights a broader conspiracy aimed at unsettling the fragile minority communities in Bangladesh. Hindus, in particular, have become victims of increasing fanaticism, exclusivism, and a series of targeted attacks.
The students’ protests served as a pretext to hijack the situation and unleash anarchy and political paralysis. Today, the Hindu minority constitutes around 8 per cent of the population, down from approximately 22 per cent in 1952. The rapid decline in the Hindu demographic in Bangladesh reflects the persistent attacks and hostility they face. This has led to religious conversions or exodus. Both hard and soft methods have been employed to diminish their numbers. Fear and faith have been weaponised to reduce their presence to a precarious margin. The current situation will likely lead to a significant further reduction in the Hindu population in Bangladesh.
Now, the interim government has been formed with Muhammad Yunus at the helm of affairs in Bangladesh. But the question arises: can he deliver stability? Will the fanatics and fundamentalists cease their violence? No government has been able to do anything substantive to stop these anarchists. Sheikh Hasina’s efforts hit them hard, but they were too little and too late. She could not maintain the required consistency because she was equally under pressure. The rut was too deep.
The surface-level treatment did not cleanse the rut from its roots. Does Muhammad Yunus have a magic wand to deliver a miracle? Will his microfinancing expertise assist in the macro management of the ongoing crisis? The military remained silent and ensured Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s exit. It succumbed to the pressures of fundamentalists and anarchists. Optimism about the improvement of conditions for Hindus in Bangladesh is at a low today.
While sharing his best wishes to Yunus, Prime Minister Narendra Modi underlined the need to ensure the safety and protection of Hindus and other minorities. This explains the enormity of the crisis and the suffering of Hindus and other minorities. Muhammad Yunus stated in an interview that the instability in Bangladesh will have repercussions for India’s Northeast and West Bengal. Was this a warning or a prediction? His recent statement, which appealed to the anarchists for normalcy and an end to attacks on minorities, went so far as to include a resignation threat if his words were not followed. These are mere words or verbosity. Such attempts have been made before and have yielded no results on the ground.
There is a famous saying, “Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are.” The friends of Muhammad Yunus and those who batted for him reveal much about him. Those who engaged in arson, terror, violence, vandalism at Sheikh Hasina’s residence, and committed acts of extreme vulgarity clamoured for his rise to power. This speaks volumes and requires no further decoding.
The fact that an anti-reservation protest has escalated into full-scale communal attacks and the unseating and eviction of a democratically elected leader reveals the underlying realities. The sharp decline in the minority population in Bangladesh highlights the ulterior motive behind these protests. They are merely pretexts for something more dangerous: the tactical removal of minorities from Bangladesh. This agenda has been underway for a long time and has now taken its most visceral form.
Sheikh Hasina’s pro-minority and pro-India positions were unacceptable to fundamentalists at home and interest groups from abroad. Muhammad Yunus’s ascension to power appears to be a mere projection or narrative-building exercise aimed at grabbing global attention, with a Nobel laureate being given a political platform to make a difference. This façade seems to have been strategically crafted to mitigate global anger against the fundamentalists for their acts of terror against minorities. Everything is likely to return to the status quo. Nevertheless, India is closely observing these developments.
To assume that India is inattentive to these disturbing events in Bangladesh is short-sighted. There will come a time to hold the anarchists accountable for actions against India’s interests. It is important to remember that India played a crucial role in the creation of Bangladesh. Those who seek to destabilise Bangladesh should understand that their actions will have consequences.
Bangladesh’s dependency on India cannot be decoupled any time soon. Whatever growth Bangladesh has achieved, India has contributed immensely. Bangladesh relies on India for a wide range of essentials, including electricity, cotton, jute, vegetables, coffee, tea, spices, sugar, refined petroleum oil, chemicals, iron, steel, vehicles, and salt. The waters off the coast of Bangladesh are not saline enough to produce high-quality salt, making the country reliant on India for this essential commodity.
A restriction or lack of supply of these products would seriously trouble Bangladesh. The current turmoil has already damaged its economy. Any additional strain on the existing issues could cause its fragile economy to collapse. The drama surrounding Muhammad Yunus will persist for a while, but the pressure of economic deterioration will eventually force Bangladesh to revert to conventional structures. They will return to the basics once the economic crisis hurts them in the spines.
Be that as it may, by then, the Hindu minorities may have suffered so severely that they will seek refuge in India, jeopardising their property and ancestry. The ongoing violence is the final nail in the coffin of the Hindu presence in Bangladesh. Some critics refuse to acknowledge the plight of Hindus. They act as experts on various matters and never hesitate to comment, but their silence on Hindu hardships is deafening, and their secularism appears to have gone with the wind.
Approximately 45 districts in Bangladesh have witnessed attacks on Hindu temples, businesses, and homes. If this continues, there may be no Hindus left in Bangladesh within a decade. Districts such as Panchgarh, Dinajpur, Bogura, Rangpur, Sherpur, Kishoreganj, Sirajganj, Mugra, Narail, West Jashore, Patuakhali, South-West Khulna, Central Narsingdi, Satkhira, Tangail, Feni-Chittagong, and North-West Lakkipur have experienced targeted persecution. Bangladeshi media are full of such stories, and social media is flooded with images of unspeakable atrocities against minorities. Therefore, it is crucial to acknowledge the Hindu predicament in Bangladesh and not overlook it as if nothing has happened. This selective amnesia has already caused irreparable damage. If it persists, it will ensure the end of Hindu life and its history in Bangladesh, relegating it to a mere memory or archived in history.
Jajati K Pattnaik, an Associate Professor at the School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi; Chandan K Panda, an Assistant Professor at Rajiv Gandhi University (A Central University), Itanagar. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.