“I can’t sleep at night worrying about my family’s safety,” said 26-year-old former Dhaka University student Nilay Kumar Biswas as the anti-quota stir which engulfed entire Bangladesh since June gradually transmogrified in a movement which targeted Hindu minorities in the country in a series of violent attacks. Unfortunately, Biswas is not the only victim of the unbridled religious hatred directed at Hindu community. Students from the Hindu community, whose population has come down to 8% of the Bangladeshi population from 24%, also participated in the demonstration against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina government.
Notably, the members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by ex-Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia, and the outlawed Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami also joined forces under the guise of student protests which resulted in the forced resignation of Sheikh Hasina. Ever since, radical Islamists have been relentlessly hunting Hindus, destroying their temples, setting their homes ablaze and violating their women, all in the name of a democratic revolution. The incidents have only intensified since 5th August with alarming reports of multiple attacks on Hindus emerging on social media and news outlets.
Hindu students who enthusiastically became a part of the student agitation in Bangladesh are now facing the brunt of the Islamists seeking the blood of the minorities on the streets. The ugly reality has come as a jolt to the Hindu students who are equally alarmed and perplexed by the senseless rioting directed at them.
Sheikh Hasina’s resignation as prime minister of Bangladesh has left Nilay Kumar Biswas without a full night’s sleep. He stated that he felt reasonably safe in Dhaka, but at night he can’t sleep because of distress calls from friends and family who live outside Bangladesh’s capital. He added that in the days leading up to the establishment of an interim government, Bangladeshi people, particularly Hindus, need to look out for one another. “Most police stations remain unmanned. As murderous mobs go on a rampage, the ordinary Bangladeshi watches helplessly. The minority Hindu community feels especially helpless at such times because we are easy targets.” he expressed while talking to The Print.
According to Biswas, who received his master’s degree in social science from Dhaka University’s Department of Mass Communication and Journalism last year, a large number of Hindu students took part in the quota reform demonstrations that led to Sheikh Hasina’s exit. “It was not just Muslims, but many Hindu students wanted the quota system in government jobs to be reformed. They walked with their fellow Muslim students, sang songs of hope, gave slogans against fascism and faced the police’s lathi and bullet. Hindu students have spilled blood for a cause that united an entire nation. Today, as anarchy descends on Bangladesh, Hindu temples are being attacked, our houses are being looted, set on fire, our lives are in danger,” he mentioned as he came to terms with the brutality of their perilous circumstances.
Hindu students bled while agitating against the quota system: Biswas
The nation came to a standstill due to government job reservations, which infuriated thousands of students from Bangladesh’s public and private universities as well as other educational establishments. They objected to the government providing a thirty per cent quota for children and grandchildren of freedom fighters in the 1971 Liberation War which saw the formation of Bangladesh.
56% of entry positions in government occupations were set aside for particular “entitled” classes under the contentious quota system. This included a 30% reservation for the descendants of those who fought for independence, 10% for women and citizens of impoverished areas, 5% for members of ethnic minorities and 1% for individuals with disabilities. Only 44% of the government jobs in the country were available to general category candidates.
The district-wise quota, which was first implemented in 1972 for liberation warriors and then extended to their children in 1997 and grandkids in 2010, was abolished in 2018 by the Hasina-led government in response to widespread agitation. The Supreme Court reduced the quota for families of freedom fighters to 5% from 30% on 21st July after the High Court overturned the 2018 order and restored the previous quota system in June of this year. Biswas noted that many students participated in the popular uprising because they believed the system was unfair.
“Many Hindus were there in the protests. But today, as communal riots have broken out against Hindus everywhere, the Bangladeshi Hindu is asking a simple question to her fellow citizens: Is this not our country also,” Biswas questioned helplessly.
He claimed that Hindus have gone to their fellow Muslims at this hour amid reports of attacks on Hindus making headlines worldwide. “My Muslim friends are standing guard outside temples and Hindu houses to prevent mobs from ransacking and torching them. There are appeals on social media from well-meaning Muslim citizens to not let the country descend into darkness. It is the fellow Muslims who can protect us. Who else do we turn to,” he asked desperately as what option does the Hindu community have but to accept such tropes at these trying times to provide the marginalized community with a semblance of false comfort.
However, Biswas fears that more casualties and destruction could occur if an interim administration is not established quickly and the situation is not brought under control. “Bangladesh needs a new beginning with Muslims, Hindus and citizens of all other faiths. People are attempting to update the list of districts affected by communal riots. I can only pray that the list does not get any longer. Too much has been lost already,” he stressed.
Like Biswas, Aaria Bhowmik, a university student, too welcomed Sheikh Hasina’s withdrawal from office by posting numerous celebratory photos of herself with Bangladesh’s flag with the remark, “The people of Bengal are free today.” In another post, she declared, “I am Hindu and my friends from every religion in Bangladesh are here to protect me. We built this Bnagladesh together. We are united.”
Aaria Bhowmik, a student in a Bangladesh University, posted the viral online trend on her FB saying – I am Hindu, and my friends are there to protect me
— Swati Goel Sharma (@swati_gs) August 7, 2024
She also celebrated Hasina’s ouster
Soon, reality unravelled and she is appealing everyone to spare Hindus pic.twitter.com/bkd8DvJaBo
Aaria’s misconceptions were promptly dispelled by the radicals. Soon after, she realized the true worth of the life of a Hindu in the Muslim-majority country and appealed, “In protest, we stand united, irrespective of religion. We have not seen religion, only humanity, and now we, as Hindus, are being attacked. It’s time to raise our voices, to make our stance clear and strong against this injustice.”
However, she didn’t realise that while it might be true for her, an Islamist views the world through the lens of Islam and the protests were merely a means for them to ruthlessly attack Hindus. Aaria also uploaded screengrabs of multiple news articles detailing the assaults on Hindus, their residences and temples including well-known Bangladeshi musician Rahul Ananda, whose home was set on fire and had his belongings pillaged by an Islamist mob.
The Hindu students, who considered Bangladesh as their own and stood side by side with their Muslim countrymen in the agitation are now inevitably reduced to begging for the lives and honour of their families, friends and fellow Hindus to be spared and their religious places and properties not to be vandalised and burned.
