Articles
Decimation of Hindus in Bangladesh
Dt: 18//12/24
Decimation of Hindus in Bangladesh
Dr T.H.Chowdary*
Yet one more pogram of decimating, ethnic cleansing and destroying the Hindus in east Bengal (1946) – East Pakistan (1947) – Bangladesh (1971) was launched in Aug 2024, in the aftermath of the overthrow of Sahaikh Hasina’s Awami League government. By demonic acts of loot, murder, abduction, rape and forced conversion and expulsions in waves at intervals, the 30% Hindu minority in 1946 had been reduced to 7.6% ( 13.1 mln) out of 173 mln population of Bangla Desh . After each pogram, specious assurances were proffered to India and concerned interested international bodies that peace and normalcy would be restored and maintained. Notwithstanding these comforting declarations, pograms of different intensities and duration have been continuing.
2. Bangla Desh is an Islamic State . The first Islamic state in history was created in Madina by Prophet Mohammed himself after his emigration with a few hundred followers from Mekka in AD 622 . (Hijra, a celebrated term in Arabic meaning emigration to escape oppression . Islamic calendar begins with Hijra on July 16, 622 AD) .
3. After Prophet Mohammed established his rule firmly in Madina ( Yathrib) he tried persuasion to get the large Jewish communities accept him as Prophet in the line of Jewish Prophets ( of the Old Testament of the Bible) and convert to the faith Islam he was propagating. First there was agreement of peaceful co-existence. But as the Jewish tribes were not converting to Islam, they were one after another expelled and finally eliminated on trumped up charges of collusion with the enemies of the Prophet in Mekka . First was Banu ( tribe) Kinuka in AD 624. They were let go with their movable wealth . Next was Banu Nadir in 625. They were not allowed to take out anything including the Jewelry on women folk. As these two expulsions did not oblige the
third tribe, Kuraiza to convert, 800 men of that tribe were asked to dig a trench; they were lined up and one after another was decapitated and the severed parts were thrown into the trench. Their women and children were distributed among Muslims; the most beautiful among them Raihana was to be taken as wife of the Prophet; she refused to convert and be the wife of Mohammed; he made her his slave concubine; she preferred to be a Jewess to wifedom as a Moslem ( P 334 ; “Mohammed And the Rise of Islam” by D.S. Margoliouth : A Voice of India publication, New Delhi 1985 ( first published in London in 1905 ). This episode was described as : “monstrous cruelty” of the Prophet himself as narrated at Pages 322 & 323 by Sir William Muir in his book “The Life of Mohamet” first published in 1894 ( 3rd edition), Indian reprints in 1992 and 2002 by Voice of India, New Delhi . The decapitation episode is at pages 333 & 334 of. Chapter -IX in the book, “Mohammed And the Rise of Islam” by D.S. Margoliouth : A Voice of India publication, New Delhi 1985 ( first published in London in 1905) .
What happened in the 7th century to the non-Muslim Jewish minority in the Muslim state under and by the Prophet of Islam himself is narrated here because the Prophet is held infallible and his conduct and doings are held as exemplary by all Muslims and a good Muslim should live and do likewise.
4. The Prophet’s Template:
This act of persecution of non-Muslim minorities in an Islamic state by the founder of Islam himself shaped the conviction and conduct of practising Muslims and their regimes everywhere and especially in the Islamic states. The persecution of religious minorities with a view to convert them to Islam or eliminate them is an often perpetrated practice in Islamic states. The Prophet’s conduct is held to be exemplary and obligatory for every devout Muslim to emulate. Hence in the Islamic states the persecution of minorities with a view to convert them or decimate them has the historic precedent in the first Islamic state around Madina itself. In 1988 when General Arshad ruled Bangladesh the constitution was amended making Islam the state religion of the country. The message to non-Muslims - Hindus , Buddhists and Christians was clear - they are not equal to Muslims in the entitlement of human rights mentioned in the UNIVERSAL Declaration of the Human Right (UDHR) of the UNO.
5. Expulsion of Hindu Pandits from Kashmir:
5.1 Muslims everywhere are indoctrinated from childhood, in Madrasas and mosques to faithfully follow and live upto what their Prophet preached and practised. The expulsion and decapitation of the Jewish tribes in Yaatrib (Madina) for not converting to Islam was followed in Kashmir in 1990. The Hindu Pandits who remained unconverted were given 36 hours notice through loud speakers in mosques; they were to leave their properties and women and children to be ravished and converted. The Chief Minister, “secular” and “tolerant” Farooq Abdullah and his “National” Conference government did not intervene and protect the Hindus; the then J&K Governor, “secular” Jag Mohan could do nothing, the Home Minister of India “secular” Mufti Mohammed Sayeed , “secular” Prime Minister of India, V P Singh’s government, did nothing to protect and prevent the expulsion of Hindu Pandits from their ancestral land, Kashmir for millennia. The expulsion of Hindus from Muslim Kashmir was exactly on the lines of expulsion, decimation and decapitation of Jews in Madina by Islam’s Prophet from in AD 624, 625 and 627.
5.2 The BJP-led NDA coalition government during 1998-2004 and the Sonia -directed UPA government of a Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did nothing to help and rehabilitate the Hindus expelled from their millennial home-land, Kashmir. PM, P V Narasimha Rao’s government under surveillance of Sonia Maino ( Gandhi) during 1991-96 ; the humpty-dumpty United Front governments of Gowda (June 1996 – April 1997) and I K Gujral ( 1919 - 2012), – none of the governments of India under Prime Ministers from different parties did anything to rehabilitate the Hindus expelled from the Muslim majority state within the Republic of India .
6. Non-return of Muslims to Kashmir:
In the thirty four years since the expulsion of Hindus from Kashmir in 1990, very “secular” Congress (1991-96) and Congress-led Sonia-directed “secular” United “Progressive”, Alliance nationalist and genuinely secular, BJP-led NDA government (2014-) in India that is “becoming” Bharat did precious little to securely and honourably rehabilitate the unfortune Hindus expelled from Kashmir. Most of the expelled have settled and started life again in other towns and cities of India. After three decades of secure life outside Kashmir, few are willing to go back. Some government employees had gone back during 2019-’24 and are leading a precarious life in the Musim majority Kashmir towns and Srinagar. This long story is recalled to buttress the view that few Bangladesh’s Hindus who had fled that country since October 1946 and even those who are lucky to cross-over to India thereafter would ever go back to that accursed land of memories.
7. Direct Action: Calcutta Aug 1946 , Noakhali Oct 1946:
The Hindu minority of about 30% in 1946 in East Bengal (now Bangladesh) had the first taste of persecution, loot, rape, murder and forced conversion in Noakhali district of East Bengal in Oct 1946 itself as an extension to the Direct Action of Muslim League on 16 Aug 1946 in Calcutta when Hindus were set upon by Muslims with the support of the then Muslim League government in ( undivided ) Bengal . After the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan including East Bengal ( now Bangladesh ) the position of Hindu minority has become indescribably worse. There had been since Aug 1947 periodic programs for the decimation of Hindus, each followed by false assurances and pacts for preventing such inhuman cruelties towards Hindu minority in future. After each pogram millions of Hindus of east Pakistan / Bangladesh had become refugees in West Bengal.
8. Bengal under Muslim Rule since the 13th Century :
What hope then is there that the 13.1 mln Hindus now in the Islamic state of Bangla Desh will survive there and for how long? Remember that the Muslim League was founded not in the Muslim majority areas of present Pakistan but in Dacca (Dhaka) in East Bengal in 1909; remember the Muslim League’s start of Direct Action on 16 Aug 1946 had no takers in present day Pakistan but were in Bengal’s capital , Calcutta under a Muslim League government and was followed by murderous holocaust of Hindus by Muslims in East Bengal’s Noakhali district. Bengal was under Muslim rule since the 13th century till 1757 and thereafter, Hindu -inimical, Muslim – favouring British rule till 1947. Bengali speaking Muslims are after the Arabs, the second largest ethnic Muslim group in the world. Indeed it is a miracle that Hindus as a minority in undivided Bengal survived as Hindus for centuries . The calamity started in 1946 in East Bengal and continues in spurts at intervals. The East Bengal / Bangla Desh Hindus are victims of Hindu indifference and Nehru’s and his dynasty’s policies as rulers of India. They are trapped – they will not be allowed to flee - they are impounded for forced conversion or eventual extermination . India does not allow those who attempt to cross over the border; only infiltrating; Bangla Muslims are facilitated to cross-over by successive governments of West Bengal – 34 years of communists followed by Trinamul Congress from 20 May 2011.
9. Not Sufficient and Effective Interest in India: Few Indians are taking effective interest in saving their Hindu brethren from the periodic unmitigated misery of loot , arson, rape, murder , destruction of their properties and places of worship and decimation of the Hindu Buddhist population in that country . In contrast, is the interest that persons like Richard Benkin and Tulasi Gabbard have bene taking interest in mitigating the Hindu’ miseries and securing for them human rights . Millions of Hinds fled form East Pakistan and flooded Calcutta and its environs in 1971 to save themselves from extinction at the hands of the brutal Pakistan army and governor. Smt Indira Gandhi the Prime Minister took immense interest in the plight of the Bangla Deshi Hindus, went to important state capitals in the world appraised the governments there about the immensity of misery and the problem of mitigating and finally had successfully dismembered the fascist government of Pakistan from East Bengal . That option is not available now as India’s inveterate enemies across the borders and their friends elsewhere will not allow India to intervene military or otherwise to save the unfortunate Hindus. They have only two options now.
· They may intend to flee into India but they would not be allowed ; they would be kept there to be converted or killed in stages through inhuman acts not stopped by the colluding government. In the year 1988 the Constitution of Bangla Desh was amended declaring Islam as the state religion of Bangla Desh and what happens in such an Islamic state is very well known - non-Muslims will be decimated . Those Hindus who may try to cross over to India will be prevented by the India’s Border Security Force from getting into Bharat. The Hindus therefore are trapped in Bangla Desh.
· The Prime Minister who has been visiting several countries must once again go to important capitals - USA, Russia, Germany, France, UK, Italy , Japan ,Indonesia and appraise countries and the people about the planned decimation and destruction and conversion of Hindu and Buddhists in Bangla Desh and urge those countries to bring pressure upon Bangladesh to ensure human rights to the religious minorities .
10. Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( UDHR) – UNO
Islamic Declaration of Human Rights (IDHR) - OIC
That the Hindu population has come down from over 30% in 1946 to 7.6% ( 13.1. mln in a total of 173 mln now ( population density of Bangla Desh is 1,177 per sq. km - India’s highest is 1,175 in Bihar) proves the truth of the periodical pograms with state organs colluding in their organization. The Islamist urge and compulsion that non non-Muslims-kafirs-shall exist in an Islamic State is as old as the first Islamic state established by the Prophet. It is theology-validated. We should note that while the United Nations Organizations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948, the 62 member Organsiation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC) has the Islamic Declaration of Human Rights . Muslims are thus asserted to be different from other humans - the latter are kafirs, non-believers to be by different forms of jihad converted to Islam or decimated ( as in Pakistan, Bangladesh and earlier in Lebanon). In India the latest jihads are love, land, vote and Urdu ( in UPSC).
11. Muslim Legue was founded in Bengal not in any North West Province of India ( now Pakistan): We may recall that the Muslim League in (undivided) India was founded not in Punjab, Sindh, NWFP or Baluchistan but in Bengal’s Decca in 1909. The first battle, for creation of Pakistan and division of India by the name Direct Action was not launched in what is now Pakistan but in undivided Bengal’s capital Kolkata , on 15 Aug 1946 . The battle engulfed most of North India. The Calcutta battle was launched under the auspices of Bengal’s Muslim League government ! Thus, while the two-nation theory ( Muslims and Hindus are two entirely separate nations) and Pakistan resolution (March 1940) were framed in India, the bugle for battle was sounded in Bengal’s Calcutta ! Calcutta’s Mayor now is a Muslim, Firhad Hakim under the patronage of Mamata Didi’s Trinamool Congress. Calcutta and its environs are now home to Bihari Muslims who first went to East Pakistan, (Bangladesh since 1971 December) and from there returned to Calcutta and its environs, to make the area an appendix to Bangladesh. The 34 year long communist rule starting with Jyoti Basu in 1977 and the Trinamool Congress rule since 2011 witnessed almost unhindered illegal immigration of Bangla Desh Muslims into west Bengal boosting the Muslim population proportions to 34% up from 17% in post 1947! They constitute the vote bank for communists from 1977 and since 2011 to the Trinamool Congress.
12. The position of Hindus including Buddhists in Bangla Desh can be summarized as follows:
· They will continue to be decimated in waves periodically
· They will not be suffered to escape/ emigrate to India ( West Bengal or Assam)
· They are targeted for conversion to Islam or death
· India’s Border Security Forces will not allow them to enter India
· They are trapped
· Hindu organsiations in Bharat and the USA and some western countries will continue to make pro-forma noises and protests just like in regard to Kashmiri Pandits
· Some Human Rights Organizations like those of Richard Benkin and Tulsi Gabbar of the US Hindu Congress-woman will speak for the Hindus of Bangla Desh.
· If Indi raises the issue Bangla Desh will dismiss as interference in internal matters
· China and Pakistan and the “deep state” in the USA will happily provide cover for Bangla Desh, in their opposition to India’s rise as a global power.
What may now be done for Survival of Hindus in Bangla Desh:
· India may propose that all the remnant Hindus and Buddhists and other minorities may be resettled in a few districts of Bangladesh bordering on India and for the right of India and other countries to intervene if their safety and life in dignity are threatened in Bangladesh from whatever quarter the threat may come.
· The issue may be raised in the United Nations General Assembly and the Secularity Council and also with the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights.
· The case may be taken to the International Court of Justice seeking enforcement of human rights and facilitate dignified life to the Hindus and other religious minorities in Bangladesh .
· Bharat (India) may be officially declared as national home for all Hindus anywhere , all over the world with the right to Bharat’s citizenship, just as Israel is the national home for every Jew anywhere in the world.
· If the oppression and decimation of Hindus continues, there maybe uncontrollable ill-consequences to Indian Muslims and the illegal Bangladesh Muslims and Rohingyas in India.
· There maybe a peaceful exchange of the minorities between India and Bangla Desh in proper proportion, especially the Muslims in Assam, West Bengal, Bihar to be exchanged for the Hindus and Buddhists and Christians in Bangladesh.
· Peaceful exchange of religious minority populations has a historic precedent. On the dissolution of the Ottoman Turkish Empire in the aftermath of Turky’s defeat in World War-I , Christians in Turkey were exchanged with Muslims in Greece and Bulgaria , parts of both of which were under Turky . The population exchange was under the auspices of the Post World War-I ( 1914 -19) League of Nations the organization similar to the post World War-II ( 1939-45) United Nations Organization (UNO).
India and Hinduism are one
After a study of some forty years and more of the great religions of the world, I find none so perfect none so scientific none so philosophical and none so spiritual than the great religion known by the name of Hinduism.
Make no mistake, without Hinduism, India has no future. Hinduism is the soil into which India’s roots are stuck and torn out of that she will inevitably wither as a tree torn out from its place. And if Hindus do not maintain Hinduism, who shall save it? If India’s own children do not cling to her faith, who shall guard it? India alone can save India and India and Hinduism are one.
- Annie Besant
(2, 938 words)
END