On August 9, the day after Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus took charge as the head of Bangladesh’s interim government, Hindus, a religious minority making up 8 percent of the Bangladeshi population, started hitting the streets in different parts of the country, including the Shahbag Square in the national capital, Dhaka.
They protested a series of attacks targeting Hindu homes, businesses, and places of worship during August 5-8, when the country descended into lawlessness following Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and hurried exit from the country.
Thousands of people gathered on the streets, responding to calls from Bangladesh’s traditional minority rights organizations like the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council and the Bangladesh Puja Udjapan Parishad.
While the sloganeering involved demanding safety and justice, there were a few who chanted “Jai Shree Ram” (Victory to Ram), a controversial slogan associated with India’s Hindu nationalist forces.
On August 11, the third day of the protests, a new platform, Bangladesh Hindu Jagran Manch (BHJM), was formed and Nihar Haldar, Jewel Aich Arko, Joy Rajbongshi, Rony Rajbangshi, and Pradip Kanti Dey emerged as its coordinators and key spokespersons. The Facebook group of the BHJM was created the same day.
The name Bangladesh Hindu Jagaran Manch is curiously similar to the Hindu Jagran Manch (HJM), an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological-organizational parent of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Many HJM leaders have also served in the BJP.
The HJM was the first Indian organization to stage a protest against atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh when they held a rally in Kolkata, the capital of India’s West Bengal state that shares its border with Bangladesh, on August 8, even before Yunus had been sworn in.
This story was originally published in thediplomat.com. Read the full story here.
