The last week has been quite an unnerving and unsettling experience for the Hindus in Bangladesh who make up about 9 % of the total Bangladeshi populace.
Some unidentified miscreants apparently put a copy of the Quran at the feet of an idol of Hanumanji. In the days of social media, the news spread like wildfire and egged on by incendiary speeches by some Muslim clerics, the Mullas as they are called, a huge number of Muslims took to the streets in Bangladesh. They ransacked, desecrated and destroyed many Durga Puja pandals and even houses of many Hindus. Officially only a handful of Hindus have been confirmed to have been killed in the targeted attacks but it is possible that many more may lost their lives.
There has been condemnation of the targeted attacks from different quarters across the world including from the US and the UN. Several Hindu groups have led protests against the attacks, the primary one being ISKCON.
It has been alleged that the attacks were part of a conspiracy to inflame communal tension in Bangladesh and destabilise the Sheikh Hasina govt and the country at large. Whatever may be the underlying causes, it is time for the Hindus across the world to start thinking and think long and hard. The time for sleep-walking is over.
It is important for Hindus to come together and back up each other. Hindus, especially from India but also all over the world need to cultivate a spirit of belonging to the larger Hindu cause.
As is the old cliche – United we stand, divided we fall.
Hindus need to understand one thing quite clearly – no one cares for you but yourself. The Non-Hindus would rather focus on their own concerns. So let us stop expecting and start doing things. We are after all more than 1 billion strong and most of it concentrated in a single relatively strong nation. Contrast this with the fact that the Muslims are divided into more than 50 countries, the largest of which, Indonesia, does not even have a population of 250 million i.e. 1/5th of Indiaβs population.