I express my deep gratitude to Shankracharya Avimukteshwranandji for coming out openly in support of endangered Hindus of Bangladesh in a press conference held in his headquarter, Shree Vidyapeeth at Kedarghat in Kashi,
I have been in touch with groups of Hindus in Bangladesh for several years now. They have been pleading for the protection & support of the Government of India since they are on the brink of extinction due to wave after wave of genocidal violence. I did all that I could to convey their appeals to power wielders in the Government of India.
I express my deep gratitude to Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranandji for coming out openly in support of endangered Hindus of Bangladesh at the press conference held at his headquarters, Shree Vidyapeeth at Kedarghat in Kashi.
I have been in touch with groups of Hindus of Bangladesh for several years now. They have been pleading for the protection and support of the Government of India since they are on the brink of extinction due to decades of genocidal violence.
I did all that I could to convey their appeals to power weilders in the Government of India. Sadly, the Government of India has remained totally indifferent to their plight. Worse still, not a single political party in India nor the self-styled “defenders of human rights” have expressed a word of concern or sympathy for the endangered Hindus of Bangladesh.
Thus far, barring the Four Shankracharyas, most prominent Dharmagurus have also remained silent on this issue, perhaps out of fear of the Islamic lobby within India and also the apprehension that the Modi government could crack down on open criticism of the jihad friendly regime in Bangladesh.
Since the first week of August 2024, Hindus of Bangladesh are facing yet another wave of spine chilling atrocities– murders, public lynching, looting-burning -vandalizing of Hindu homes, business establishments and Mandirs. The barbaric violence has included large scale abductions, gang rapes, brutalizing even the dead bodies of women.
Hindus are special targets of jihadi ire, more so since the Deep State engineered a coup against former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in the first week of August 2024. The caretaker govt headed by Mohammad Yunus declared India as an enemy state & jihadis of Bangladesh targeted Hindus in order to cleanse all kafirs from their kingdom of Islam. Hindus are being openly told that they should either leave for India or accept Islam. Those who refuse deserve to be slaughtered.
Since this new wave of ethnic cleansing of Hindus, appeals for help from several Hindu activists of Bangladesh became more and more desperate. Watching social media posts and videos of the barbaric slaughters and vandalism being carried out in full public view, left me deeply traumatised.
Even more traumatic was the firm refusal of Modi government to let the persecuted Hindus of Bangladesh enter India, even while they stood in waist deep river water at the Indo-Bangla border and pleaded for refuge in India.
This callous attitude convinced me that the support for Bangladeshi Hindus was most likely to come from the Four Shankaracharyas who have the authority to mobilize Hindu samaj of India to come out in support of Bangladeshi Hindus..
The four Mathas or Peeths established by pujaniye Adi Shankaracharya ji were meant to act as the guardians of Hindu Dharma and Hindu samaj all over Bharatvarsh. Therefore, it was best to seek the blessings and protection of those who have stood steadfast for Hindu dharma, no matter who ruled India. They are also not hostages to vote bank politics.
My first step in that direction was to approach the most active and the most accessible among the four Shankaracharyas, namely Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand ji.
On November 4, 2024, I went to discuss this issue with him at his headquarters at Kashi. His response was very heartening and he readily agreed to meet the Bangladeshi delegation. The Bangladeshi Hindus were really enthused by this new direction and quickly put together a representative group to travel to India and meet him in person. The task was not easy since the representatives included some whose families had to flee Bangladesh and seek refuge in other countries.
The delegation that finally made it to India included two persons from US, one from Canada, two from England, one from the Middle East, one whose family had sought shelter in Kolkata—in addition to those still living in Bangladesh. Those currently living abroad were forced to flee Bangladesh under very tragic circumstances. Three prominent Hindu rights activists scheduled to be part of the delegation could not reach India because of hurdles in getting their visas.
On December 24, 2024, Shankaracharya ji arranged for a very unique venue in Varanasi for meeting with the delegation. He organized a large double decker boat which took us all to the mid-stream of Ma Ganga. He explained the choice of the venue thus: ‘I chose to bring you to the bosom of Ma Ganga since there is no safer place than a mother’s lap for anyone in need of protection. It is also the best place for taking important vows.”
Thereafter, he listened in detail to the personal experiences of each and every member of the delegation. Almost all of them broke down while narrating their own experiences and those of their families who were living in an openly hostile Islamic regime, where they faced daily humiliation, attacks and threat to their very existence since they had resisted converting to Islam.
Shankaracharya ji was deeply moved by their plight and could barely conceal his pain and anguish.
The next day, on December 25, at a packed press conference, Shankaracharya ji expressed his full support for the demands raised by the Hindus of Bangladesh. More than 150 journalists came for the press meet because they too felt enthused at the support being extended to the persecuted Hindus of Bangladesh.
The pressmen that had gathered recorded first person accounts from several members of the delegation. It speaks volumes for the vulnerable plight of Hindus in Bangladesh that all of them felt compelled to mask themselves at the press meet and refused to reveal their names because of fear of retribution for themselves and their families in Bangladesh, should their identities be known to the Islamo-Fascist regime of Bangladesh.
Over those two days, almost every member of the delegation—men and women alike—were moved to tears hearing Shankracharya ji’s words of support and assurance because no other public figure had treated them with such care and compassion thus far.
He not only arranged for a very comfortable stay and local hospitality for the entire delegation, but also spent more nearly 11 hours with them over two days, including the press conference he had hosted in their support.
The three main demands of the persecuted Hindus of Bangladesh out of a list of eight are as follows:
- Persuade the Government of India to open its doors to the endangered Hindus of Bangladesh Pakistan and Pakistan Bangladesh since the governments of these two countries have made it clear that Hindus are unwanted in Dar-al-Islam (land ruled by Islam) and deserving of death unless they convert. While Muslims and Christians have dozens of countries to seek refuge on account of religious affinity, Hindus have only India to fall back upon.
- Persuade the Govt of India to suitably amend the CAA to enable endangered Hindus from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other countries of the world where they are at risk to seek shelter in India at any time, without any closure date.
- Put international pressure on the Government of Bangladesh to create a Safe Autonomous Zone for Hindus of Bangladesh to be named HINDU BHOOMI since majority of Hindus of Bangladesh do not wish to leave their ancestral lands and matribhoomi.
They have a right to a separate safe zone to so that they can live without fear and survive with dignity. This safe zone should include 26 lakh acres of land snatched from Hindus under the Vested Property Act, plus the lands that Hindus of Bangladesh currently own. In short, Hindus demand 10 percent of the land area of present-day Bangladesh as a consolidated safe zone for Hindus named HINDU BHOOMI.
We plan to meet and seek the blessings of other three Shankaracharyas also.
We, The Hindus of India owe it to our brothers and sisters from Bangladesh to stand up for them in the interest of our own survival.
Hindu Dharma and Samaj can survive only if Hindus of the Indian sub-continent as well as those living abroad join together to combat attempts to decimate us from what was once Bharatvarsha.
To read the full text of the Appeal we that was submitted to Shankaracharya Avimukteshwaranand ji click here.
