NEW DELHI: Demand is mounting across the world for recognition of Hindus killed in genocide of 1971 in East Pakistan. Approximately, three million people were killed, the majority of them Hindus. The murders were carried out by the Pakistan military, and those responsible were left unpunished as a consequence of the 1972 Shimla Accord between Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Z.A. Bhutto
The genocide is a fact, claim Hindu activists in India and abroad, which has remained buried for long. Over two million Hindus were slaughtered by soldiers of the Pakistan army. And this, claim the activists, has yet to get recognition from global bodies like the United Nations. There have been multiple attempts for the United Nations to recognise the genocide of Bangladeshis.
The issue of brutal slaughter of Hindus was not highlighted during the recent independence day celebrations, which recognises the cost of freedom and suffering and deaths of millions, including of Bangladeshi Hindus. The independence day of Bangladesh is celebrated on 26 March as a national holiday, commemorating the country’s declaration of independence from Pakistan in the early hours of 25 March 1971.
India’s help to stop the genocide of the population of East Pakistan is well documented by global historians. Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi—as early as 28 April 1971—asked Gen Sam Manekshaw, chairman of the chiefs of the staff committee to go into East Pakistan. Dismay in New Delhi at the genocide carried out by Islamabad led to India’s decision to intervene in the civil war and support the creation of a separate state for ethnic Bengalis by supporting the Mukti Bahini. The rest of the world remained a mute spectator, while the US and China supported the forces carrying out the genocide.
More than five decades later, historians claim things have not changed enough in Bangladesh, and that the issue of ethnic cleansing of Hindus is a persistent problem.
“Bangladesh is demanding recognition of the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971, an attempt to hold the Pakistani army accountable for its past cruelties and casualties. But the Bangladesh government must remember over 20 lakh Hindus were killed by soldiers of the Pakistan army,” Dhaka-based advocate Rabindra Ghosh told this reporter.
“And along with that, the issue of ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh needs to be highlighted internationally. The time has come for India to react,” says Ghosh.
In the last one week, Hindus in Bangladesh and across the world have formed human chains to protest against atrocities on their community in Bangladesh, crimes ranging from sexual assaults, abduction, suicide bombings to forced conversion and land grabbing.
In February this year, unidentified people vandalised idols of Hindu gods and goddesses at 14 temples in Muslim-majority north western Thakurgaon district. Thakurgaon’s deputy commissioner, Md Mahbubur Rahman was quoted by the London-based Independent as saying the vandalism of temples were “heinous acts” and those carrying out the attacks wanted to create communal unrest.
The Harvard International Review said in a report that the genocide has had a significant impact on Bangladesh at large. “While the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971 is in the past, its effects still resonate in the present. Genocide in Bangladesh is a persistent problem. An urgency for recognition also necessitates an all encompassing awareness—both of the past and the present,” said the magazine in the report in its February 2023 edition.
What is alarming is that intracountry religious genocide of Hindus persists as the population of Hindu Bangladeshis continues to decline dramatically.
Consider the figures. While the percentage was approximately 20 in 1971, only 8.9% of the current Bangladeshi population consists of Hindus, according to the India Times. Reports in international journals say perpetrators are those who endorse Islamic extremism, many of whom even engage in domestic terrorism.
The Hindu American Foundation said in a report that 11.3 million Hindus have fled Bangladesh due to religious persecution and intolerance between 1964 and 2013. An additional 230,000 continue leaving annually, furthering the Hindu Bangladeshi diaspora.
Samir Kalra, Hindu American Foundation managing director for policy and programmes, says the matter is serious. “The Bangladesh government’s silence and in some cases outright denial of the genocide of Bengali Hindus in 1971, despite significant evidence, is baffling. While it’s not clear what the exact motivations are, it appears that the Bangladesh government’s attempt to portray the genocide as entirely secular in nature is to help them continue projecting the myth that Bangladesh has always been a secular country where all Bengalis are treated the same and that minorities have not faced discrimination or violence.
“If they acknowledge that Hindus were specifically targeted for massacres in 1971 by the West Pakistan military and their local collaborators, they will have to also admit that fissures existed in Bengali society and that Hindus have been looked at differently.”
Dr Abul Barkat of Dhaka University told the Harvard Business Review that Hindus will be nonexistent in Bangladesh in three decades if their population continues to decline and leave the country at the current rate. Dr Barkat was quoted by HBR as saying 632 Hindus leave Bangladesh every day.
On 14 October 2022, US Representative Steve Chabot and his cosponsors introduced Resolution 1430 “Recognizing the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971” to the US House of Representatives. The legislation would “recall and document crimes against humanity, war crimes, and genocide”. But Resolution 1430 waits at the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
And then, there is the silence of the UN, otherwise so vocal about some issues, notably Ukraine.
The UN, which is in charge of both the prevention and the punishment of genocidal crime, is yet to take a call on Dhaka’s concerns about one of history’s most tragic events. But now, Hindus in Bangladesh and in other parts of the world are demanding that the UN recognises the fact that Hindus were the highest number of casualties in the liberation war.
But it is not easy. Diplomatic sources in Dhaka and New Delhi confirm that there is increasing proselytization through the social media to support militancy through communal religious practices in Bangladesh. This, in turn, is causing inter communal violence. The targeted victims are Hindus and other non-Muslims (such as Buddhists and Christians).
The severity of religiously motivated crimes has sparked fear among all Hindu and Christian communities in Bangladesh.
In a recent Hindu community fest, participants were forced to consume beef, the matter eventually reaching the court. “Why force us to eat beef? We are increasingly facing such hatred in Bangladesh,” said a member of the Bangladesh Hindu Parishad. This reporter has a copy of the legal complaint admitted in a court in Dhaka.
Suvendu Adhikari, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader of opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, has often raised the issue of ethnic cleansing of Hindus and other minorities in Bangladesh. Adhikari has held rallies in support of Hindus in Bangladesh, has written to his party high command to take a serious look into the subject.
In late October 2021, Durga pujas across Bangladesh were affected due to the killing of Hindus, destruction of temples, and other targeted crimes. Even with thousands charged and detained, the aftershock of such devastating events triggered Hindus globally. Such was the crisis that Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina had to intervene to assure safety of subsequent celebrations.
“The fear persists because no one can lodge any protest. And these attacks are not sporadic but routine. India needs to raise this issue with Bangladesh because beneath the surface, there is an effort by fanatics to generate a strong anti-Indian, anti-Hindu feeling in Bangladesh. India needs to take notice,” says Montreal-based Dilip Karmakar, director of Global Bengali Hindu Coalition.
Karmakar told this reporter in a telephonic interview that he feels helpless because Bangladesh—founded by communal solidarity—has been shredded by hatred. “I can say with countless examples that the intolerance and violence of 1971 have evidently remained. This is nothing but repetition of history, the atmosphere is very toxic and it cannot be felt in Dhaka, you need to visit the countryside to see the fear of the Hindus.”
“India must speak to the Bangladesh government and ensure prevention of this ethnic cleansing,” adds Karmakar. Other countries too need to act, such as the US, which seems to be bothered only about Europe and its problems.
In the eyes of the Pakistan military, Hindu, Bengali, and Indian identities were one and the same. Although Hindus were a special target of the Pakistan military, Bengali Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, and other religious groups were also significantly affected. By the end of the first month in March 1971, 1.5 million Bengalis were displaced. By November 1971, 10 million Bengalis, the majority of whom were Hindu, had fled to India.
Bangladeshi journalist and policy analyst Anushay Hossain has been quoted in international journals as saying about the 1971 genocide: “Nothing is more clear or more easily documented, than the systematic campaign of terror—and its genocidal consequences launched by the Pakistan army on the night of March 25th, 1971. Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops and systematically slaughtered.”
American Consul-General and the senior US diplomat in Dhaka at the time, Archer Blood, repeatedly warned government officials in Washington about the violence and the selective targeting of Hindus: “‘Genocide’ applies fully to naked, calculated and widespread selection of Hindus for special treatment…From outset various members of American community have witnessed either burning down of Hindu villages, Hindu enclaves in Dacca and shooting of Hindus attempting [to] escape carnage, or have witnessed after-effects which [are] visible throughout Dacca today. The Pakistani military is engaged in the mass killing of unarmed civilians, the systematic elimination of the intelligentsia and the annihilation of the Hindu population.” Systematic targeting of Hindus find mention in Gary J. Bass’ 2014 bestseller, The Blood Telegram: Nixon, Kissinger and a Forgotten Genocide.
Ghosh says it’s time for the international community to finally stand up for Bengali Hindus. “The legacy of 1971 is felt in the continued ethnic cleansing of Hindus in Bangladesh today, whose population has dramatically declined. US foreign policy must address religious extremism and protect minorities in Bangladesh, who face continued violence and persecution, often by those same groups that collaborated with the Pakistani army in 1971,” adds Ghosh. In all this, the silence of the United Nations is the loudest indictment of the way in which the genocide of Hindus has been ignored globally, except in Bangladesh and India.