- Bangladesh’s Hindus face continuous violence and hostility rooted in deep-seated cultural and religious animosity, a situation that Tagore had foreseen as inevitable.
- Rabindranath Tagore warned about the dangers of religious division and the lack of Hindu unity, highlighting how these issues would lead to existential threats for Hindus in regions like Bangladesh.
- Despite the recurring violence, many Hindus remain in Bangladesh due to a combination of cultural inertia, attachment to their homeland, and lack of viable alternatives.
- The gradual escalation of violence against Hindus has been met with a slow response from the community, likened to the “Boiling Frog Syndrome,” where danger is only recognized too late.
- India, despite being a natural refuge for Hindus, has offered little support or incentive for Bangladeshi Hindus to seek safety within its borders, leaving them vulnerable to continued persecution.
The targeting of Hindus in Bangladesh is not an isolated accident – it is deeply rooted in the Islamic country’s culture of animosity towards Hindus and is as inevitable as the day following night. The only surprise is that the current pogrom took so long to happen. For, the persecution of non-Muslims in Bangladesh is not a new phenomenon; it has historical roots dating back to the East Pakistan Riots of 1950[1] and the Liberation War of 1971, where Hindus were specifically targeted amid broader ethnic and political conflicts. This pattern of violence has recurred during various crises, reflecting Islamic fanaticism that has persisted – and multiplied manifold – over decades.[2]
The recent round of violence is exacerbated by a combination of political rivalries and a cultural backdrop that treats Hindus as outsiders who do not belong in Bangladesh. The perception of Hindus as despicable kafirs and idolaters or as supporters of the Awami League contributes to their vulnerability during political instability.
The constant persecution of Hindus in Bangladesh raises some questions. One, why didn’t they leave the country in 1947 when Bengal was divided and Bangladesh (or East Pakistan as it was called until 1971) was given to the Muslims? Two, after experiencing some of the worst violence that any community has suffered at the hands of Muslims, why do they continue to remain in Bangladesh? Why don’t they leave en masse and move to India – the natural home of the Hindus?
These are not easy questions to answer. For one, inertia is a huge factor; people prefer to continue living in towns and villages where they have lived for generations. Like they say, there is no place like home. You could argue that Bangladesh Hindus have every right to live in their villages and towns if they wish. But one should not be blind to existential threats. For instance, refusing to leave one’s home during a Category 5 tropical cyclone is akin to committing suicide. Similarly, when your village or town has been taken over by Muslims who do not tolerate – let alone accept – your religious beliefs and places of worship, then moving out is the only option.
A key reason why Hindus do not see the threat of jehad is due to the Boiling Frog Syndrome.[3] The premise is simple – if a frog is suddenly put into a pot of boiling water, it will jump out and save itself from impending death. But, if the frog is put in lukewarm water, with the temperature rising slowly, it will not perceive any danger to itself and will be cooked to death. Since the frog is only slightly uncomfortable with its warm surroundings, it keeps trying to adjust and get accustomed, making itself believe that the slow, gradual change in temperature is normal. Only when the slow change suddenly accelerates does the frog realize it just signed its death warrant. It has already lost its strength to jump out.
Secondly, Hindus have a huge collective amnesia – against all tenets of logic; they believe that the pogroms of 1950 and 1971 won’t happen again. This blind spot when it comes to understanding Islam and Christianity leaves them completely unprepared for facing hatred, discrimination, and violence at the hands of these two Abrahamic religions.
Thirdly, there is no pull factor from India. Despite being the last refuge of Hindus, it doesn’t offer Hindu refugees any incentives – in the form of emergency accommodation, cash compensation, or jobs – to leave Bangladesh. Just one year’s Haj subsidy of around Rs 650 crore – given to Muslims for decades until 2018 – would have supported Hindu refugees from Bangladesh.[4] But as author and academician Anand Ranganathan has said, Hindus are “eighth-class citizens” in India.[5] If you are an illegal Muslim immigrant from Bangladesh or a Rohingya Muslim refugee from Myanmar, your Indian citizenship is expedited.
Sage advice
Hindus in Bangladesh could have avoided violence and discrimination had they internalized the advice of Rabindranath Tagore, the iconic poet, author, and philosopher of Bengal. While Tagore was what you would describe as a card-carrying secular in today’s milieu, he did not hesitate to offer an accurate assessment of the Indian Muslim’s psyche.
First and foremost, Tagore understood that the Indian Muslim’s loyalties could be easily hijacked. So, for instance, a Moroccan Muslim or an Indonesian Muslim would first be loyal to Morocco and Indonesia, respectively, but for most Indian Muslims, Hindu-majority India wasn’t usually his first preference. He saw that their loyalties were primarily to Islamic countries like Afghanistan and Ottoman Turkey, as was evident by the willingness of Indian Muslims to fight for the Turkish Caliphate and wage jehad against their Hindu neighbors. In Tagore’s view, this was a huge stumbling block for religious harmony.
In an interview with the Times of India in 1924, which was quoted by the Hindu intellectual stalwart Sita Ram Goel in his book ‘Muslim Separatism – Causes and Consequences,’ Tagore said, “A very important factor which is making it almost impossible for Hindu-Muslim unity to become an accomplished fact is that the Muslims cannot confine their patriotism to any one country. I had frankly asked (the Muslims) whether, in the event of any Mohammedan power invading India, they (Muslims) would stand side by side with their Hindu neighbors to defend their common land. I was not satisfied with the reply I got from them… Even such a man as Mr. Mohammad Ali (one of the notoriously fanatic Ali brothers who were the leaders of the Khilafat Movement) has declared that under no circumstances is it permissible for any Mohammedan, whatever his country, to stand against any Mohammedan.” [6]
Tagore pointed out the reason for such intransigence was the nature of the two desert cults. In a letter to the historian Kalidas Nag, he wrote: “There are two religions on earth, which have distinct enmity against all other religions. These two are Christianity and Islam. They are not just satisfied with observing their own religions but are determined to destroy all other religions. That’s why embracing their religions is the only way to make peace with them.”[7]
Tagore was concerned about the lack of unity among Hindus and argued that unity was the bulwark against the destructive tides of Semitic religions. “Whenever a Muslim called upon the Muslim society, he never faced any resistance—he called in the name of one God ‘Allah-ho-Akbar.’ On the other hand, when we (Hindus) say, ‘Come on, Hindus’, who will respond? We, the Hindus, are divided into numerous small communities with many barriers – provincialism – who will respond by overcoming all these obstacles? We suffered from many dangers, but we could never be united. When Mohammed Ghouri brought the first blow from outside, the Hindus could not be united, even in the days of imminent danger. When the Muslims started to demolish the temples one after another and break the idols of Gods and Goddesses, the Hindus fought and died in small units, but they could not be united. It has been provided that we were killed in different ages due to our discord.”[8]
Warning for Bengal
Tagore predicted that the Muslims would humiliate the Bengali Hindus repeatedly. In an eerie premonition of the 1940 Kolkata killings by Muslim League goons and the consequent partition of India in 1947, he wrote: “Meaningless ritual keeps the Hindus divided into a hundred sects. So, we are suffering from a series of defeats. We are tired and worn out by the fortunes of the internal-external enemies. The Muslims are united in religion and rituals. The Bengali Muslims, the South Indian Muslims and even the Muslims outside India-all are united. They always stand united in the face of danger. The broken and divided Hindus will not be able to combat them. Days are coming when the Hindus will be again humiliated by the Muslims. You are a mother of children; one day, you will die, passing the future of Hindu society on the weak shoulders of your children, but think about their future.”[9]
Advice for Hindus
The irony of Bengal is that the leftists and liberals try to appropriate Tagore as a Bengali philosopher, listen to countless hours of Rabindra Sangeet, enact Tagore’s plays in smoke-filled theatres in Delhi’s Mandi House, and claim to be diehard bhakts of the bard. But they disingenuously disregard his practical words of advice on the threat to national unity posed by radical Islamists. This isn’t unique to Bengal but is, in fact, a common affliction of liberals and leftists across India. For instance, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and his camp followers found it easy to attend United Nations sessions and deliver speeches on world peace but were not prepared to do the hard work of building up India as an economically and militarily powerful country. It was only when the Chinese invaded India that these liberals, leftists, and Gandhians realized there was a need for an army that could fight back.
Considering such lotus-eaters still exist, they would do well to stop reading poetry for a moment and listen to what Tagore said about the existential threat looming over the country: “Weakness harbors sin. So, if the Muslims beat us and we, the Hindus, tolerate this without resistance, then we will know that it is made possible only by our weakness. For the sake of ourselves and our neighbor Muslims also, we have to discard our weakness. We can appeal to our neighbor Muslims, ‘Please don’t be cruel to us. No religion can be based on genocide’ – but this kind of appeal is nothing but the weeping of the weak person. When low pressure is created in the air, a storm comes spontaneously; nobody can stop it for the sake of religion. Similarly, if weakness is cherished and allowed to exist, torture comes automatically – nobody can stop it. Possibly, the Hindus and the Muslims can make a fake friendship with each other for a while, but that cannot last forever. As long as you don’t purify the soil, which grows only thorny shrubs, you cannot expect any fruit.”[10]
According to Tagore, throughout India, Hindus have allowed idiocy to rule and have surrendered to it. “Due to that kingdom of idiocy – the fatal lack of common sense – India was continuously invaded by the Pathans, sometimes by the Mughals and sometimes by the British. From the outside, we can only see the torture done by them, but they are only the tools of torture, not really the cause. The real reason for the torture is our lack of common sense and our idiocy, which is responsible for our sufferings. So, we have to fight this idiocy that divided the Hindus and imposed slavery on us… If we only think about the torture, we will not find any solution. But if we can get rid of our idiocy, the tyrants will surrender to us.” [11]
Tagore’s secularism
Tagore’s scathing comments on Islamist ideology cannot be dismissed as the rants of a “Bhakt,” as liberals tend to dismiss Hindu nationalists who try to raise awareness about radical Islam. He was an internationalist and humanist, and to him, humanity was “rich, large and many-sided,”[12] which made it impossible for him to confine his humanity to just India. Like the Hindu sages of yore, he wasn’t confined by the boundaries of nationalism.
In 1926, during his visit to Mussolini’s Italy, he wrote: “I have said over and over again that the aggressive spirit of nationalism and imperialism, religiously cultivated by most of the nations of the West, is a menace to the whole world.”[13] In the novel ‘The Home and the World’, he wrote: “I am willing to serve my country; but my worship I reserve for Right which is far greater than country. To worship my country as a god is to bring curse upon it.”[14]
Again, in a letter to the Anglican priest and Christian missionary C.F. Andrews, he explained: “This is the ugliest side of patriotism. For in small minds, patriotism disassociates itself from the higher ideal of humanity. It becomes the magnification of self, on a stupendous scale – magnifying our vulgarity, cruelty, greed, dethroning God, to put up this bloated self in its place.”[15]
During the freedom movement, Tagore was firmly committed to secularism. He blamed Bengal’s nationalist Hindus for engaging only with the highly educated classes. According to him, this was one of the reasons why the Muslims did not generally respond to the nationalist call.[16]
The pogroms of August 2024 have shown that liberal Hindus in West Bengal and Bangladesh have both been proven wrong about their ‘fraternal’ ties with Bengali Muslims. For, the brotherhood of Islam only applies to Muslims – not to the kafir. Against this backdrop, Bengali Hindus need to internalize Tagore’s advice and wake up to the danger posed by secularism. Otherwise, they will pass into Islam’s digestive tract, and their fate will be the same as that of the Hindus and Sikhs of Afghanistan and Pakistan – either dead or partly living as dhimmis.
Citations
[1] The Legacy of the plight of Hindus in Bangladesh Part IV | Asian Tribune (archive.org); https://web.archive.org/web/20200610222518/http://www.asiantribune.com/index.php?q=node%2F6606
[2] Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh show deep hatred. India must provide refuge (theprint.in); https://theprint.in/opinion/attacks-on-hindus-in-bangladesh-show-deep-hatred-india-must-provide-refuge/2225699/
[3] The Boiling Frog Syndrome (linkedin.com); https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/boiling-frog-syndrome-suyash-jaju/
[4] Haj subsidy discontinued: Credit for phasing it out goes to Supreme Court | The Indian Express; https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/haj-subsidy-haj-india-modi-mukhtar-abbas-naqvi-5027434/
[5] Hindus are eighth-class citizens in their own country: Dr Anand Ranganathan (hindupost.in); https://hindupost.in/society-culture/hindus-eighth-class-in-own-country/
[6] Tagore and Khilafat: Only Hinduism can relieve world from meanness – The Sunday Guardian Live; https://sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/tagore-khilafat-hinduism-can-relieve-world-meanness-3#:~:text=PAN%2DISLAMISM%20MAKES%20HINDU%2DMUSLIM%20UNITY%20IMPOSSIBLE&text=In%20an%20interview%20to%20the,patriotism%20to%20any%20one%20country.
[7] The Arya Samaj | Article : Swami Sharddhananda and Mahatma Gandhi; https://thearyasamaj.org/articles?=187_Swami_Sharddhananda_and_Mahatma_Gandhi
[8] Tagore and Khilafat: Only Hinduism can relieve world from meanness – The Sunday Guardian Live; https://sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/tagore-khilafat-hinduism-can-relieve-world-meanness-3
[9] ibid
[10] Here is what Rabindranath Tagore thought of Islam (opindia.com); https://www.opindia.com/2019/05/the-side-of-rabindranath-tagore-that-liberal-intellectuals-dont-want-you-to-see-here-is-what-he-thought-of-islam/
[11] Tagore and Khilafat: Only Hinduism can relieve world from meanness – The Sunday Guardian Live; https://sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/tagore-khilafat-hinduism-can-relieve-world-meanness-3
[12] Tagore, Letters to a Friend, 1916, pages 115-116, https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.52214
[13] (PDF) Empire and Nation: Political Ideas in Rabindranath Tagore’s Travel Writings | Mohammad A. Quayum – Academia.edu; https://www.academia.edu/513093/Empire_and_Nation_Political_Ideas_in_Rabindranath_Tagores_Travel_Writings
[14] Rabindranath Tagore in 1908: ‘I will never allow patriotism to triumph over humanity as long as I live’ | Explained News – The Indian Express; https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/national-anthem-flag-in-theatre-rabindranath-tagore-supreme-court-4406145/
[15] Nationalism, Patriotism, Cosmopolitanism: Tagore’s Ambiguities and Paradoxes (Part II) | The Daily Star; https://www.thedailystar.net/literature/news/nationalism-patriotism-cosmopolitanism-tagores-ambiguities-and-paradoxes-part-ii-1889272
[16] Rabindranath Tagore on the Problems of Nationalism & Communalism on JSTOR; https://www.jstor.org/stable/44142701
