Empire's Last Casualty: Poor Hindu Monk Brings Life Back to the Pogrom-Destroyed Minority Families in Bangladesh

Bighearted Poor Hindu Monk Brings Life Back to the Pogrom-Destroyed Minority Hindu Families in Muslim-Majority Bangladesh –

Homes, Shops, Pet Animals Torched, Livelihood Demolished –

Beginning at the Millennia-Old Festival of the Holy Mother Durga who Destroyed Evil to Bring Peace on Earth

Sachi G. Dastidar

In the midst of festive and joyous Durga Puja Festival in Bangladesh an anti-Hindu pogrom began in the middle of October of 2021, also in the middle of Covid pandemic. This was beyond our beliefs, and beyond our expectation. Hundreds of neighborhood/village collective celebrations were destroyed, several hundred mandirs (temples) were damaged and destroyed and thousands of murtis (deities) destroyed, hundreds and hundreds of minority Hindu homes were set ablaze, women abused including a mother, daughter and grandma, and minority Hindus brutally murdered, apparently in order to preserve belief in holy scriptures.

There have been hundreds of demonstrations in Bangladesh, America, India and around the world organized by Hindu minority with secular Muslims, Americans and non-Americans, and more.

Fortunately, many Bangladeshi papers wrote about atrocities, but Western media generally censored anti-Hindu atrocities, and many media in Bengali-speaking India in Kolkata and in rest of West Bengal State of India, many run by Bangladeshi-Indian-Hindu-refugees who fled to India yet censored the news of atrocities against their families and neighbors.

I received a call from a terrified lady seeking help from her extermination.

Below is what I posted in Facebook in October of 2021 .

Dear Activist:

I got a desperate call from a Bangladesh's indigenous Hindu minority for help in protecting their lives as an anti-Hindu pogrom and destruction of #Mandirs (temples) and #Pratima (deity) of Ma #Durga during the most famous Bengali festival of Durga Puja continue with the torching of Hindu homes and businesses. Hundreds and hundreds of these people, buildings, and "anything around during festivities" were demolished, desecrated, and torched-precipitated by pure hatred. Men and women have been murdered and abused, according to published reports.

As I was driving when I received that call, I couldn't talk to her for long, but her appeal said, "We've been warned that another Hindu minority mass killing will be committed by Jamaat-Shibir group," -- the racist anti-Hindu Islamist groups continuing from Pakistani genocide era. She added, "Dada, Older Brother, please help us. They said that they will continue their violence & exterminate us!"

Not one Muslim-majority nation has condemned these atrocities, abuse, destruction, desecration, and intolerance.

As some of the families whose homes were torched, pet animals taken away or slaughtered, livelihood destroyed, they were on the brink of starvation, when one young courageous Hindu swamiji (monk) from coastal Bangladesh headed north to Rongpur area where an entire village was torched. It took over 10 hours by a private car to get to the victims. It is also costly too for a poor monk swamiji to get there with some volunteers. As the swamiji was asked to inform local authorities beforehand, especially for security reasons, the local administration was kind enough to provide a space for distribution of cash, clothing and food – more importantly courage – to the victims and not to flee to India. (Since partition of India’s Bengal Province in 1947 its minority Hindu population of East Bengal/East Pakistan/Bangladesh has come down from a third [about 30%] to barely 8% in world’s one of the most populous nations. She has over 50 million Hindus missing from the Census from 1947 till 2001 Census. Also missing are minority Buddhists and Christians.)

It is worth mentioning that starting with 1946 Noakhali anti-Hindu Pogrom/Genocide under British rule to numerous pogroms and genocides during Pakistani era, including 1971 Pakistani genocide, and then 1990, 1992 and 2001 pogroms, not one Hindu killer or oppressor has been prosecuted. Sadly, not one Muslim-majority nation criticized any anti-Hindu pogrom in Hindu’s ancestral land; many secular, marginalized Muslim activists have criticized, protested that. We hope some criminals will be prosecuted this time around.

Here are some pictures of monk swamiji’s courageous, thoughtful, grateful journey. Later there are a few sample pictures from elsewhere, but not the pictures of killings and brutalities that are available in social media.