Bay Area Relatives of Bangladeshi Hindus Fear for Family Amid Reports of Ethnic Violence

Kalyan Sikder arrived early in his red kurta and sunglasses with a sign that read “Stand united against all Hindu tortures” on one side and “Stop ethnic cleansing of Bangladeshi Hindus” on the other.

Sikder was one of roughly 100 people who rallied Sunday evening in Fremont to bring attention to violence against Hindus in Bangladesh after the country’s prime minister fled in the wake of mass protests and a police crackdown that left hundreds dead.

Sikder, an electrical engineer in Milpitas who was born and raised in Bangladesh, said his uncle “was brutally tortured, physically assaulted, and our extended family members’ houses were vandalized.” He shared a photo from WhatsApp of a man with two bruised welts on his arm and back, saying his uncle “was beaten with big bamboo sticks.”

“Hindus are not able to sleep at night,” Sikder said, explaining that some of his relatives and other Hindus where his family is from are creating small groups to defend themselves because they say the police are not taking action. “Everybody is fearful.”

He blamed the violence on fundamentalists using instability after the prime minister’s ousting to prey upon minority communities. Bangladesh, the eighth-most populated country in the world, is about 90% Muslim and 8% Hindu.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, after 15 years in power, resigned and fled the country last week following weeks of student-led demonstrations and a mounting police response that led to a strict curfew and “shoot-on-sight” order. The Hindu minority population has traditionally supported the Awami League, Hasina’s political party.

According to Tech Global Institute (TGI), an organization seeking to reduce accountability gaps between technology platforms and the Global South, disinformation about ethnic tensions in Bangladesh and AI-generated images were amplified by right-wing mainstream media in Hindu-majority India.

Still, many Bay Area Bangladeshis have heard first-person stories from friends or family members.

“The situation now in Bangladesh is very grave,” said Swapan Baral, who lived half his life in Bangladesh but has been in the U.S. for over 30 years.

“They want to drive the minorities away from Bangladesh,” he said. The country was once part of British India, then after the partition of India in 1947, it became the Pakistani province of East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan) until internal conflict against the Pakistani military led to its independence in 1971. In 2022, activists raised concerns to ensure recognition of the Bangladesh Genocide of 1971, which largely targeted Bangladeshi Hindus.

Other Bangladeshis in the Bay Area say targeting minorities is nothing new.

“The situation of Bangladesh is not an isolated incident,” said Dhiman Chowdhury, president of the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities. He has been working for the last 27 years to raise awareness for the plight of minority communities.

According to RefWorld, Hindus made up 22% of Bangladesh’s population in the 1951 census, but as of the 2011 census, that had fallen to 8.5%.

Nikunj Trivedi, the president of the Coalition of Hindus of North America, which promotes the understanding of Hinduism in North America, said he sees Hindus as a global community.

“If something happens to a Hindu in Bangladesh or in India or in the U.S., for us, it’s very important to unite,” he said, “to show the world that this is not acceptable.”

Trivedi said the United Nations needs to start monitoring the situation. His organization is hosting an online call to action with Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.) on anti-Hindu violence in Bangladesh on Monday afternoon.

Sikder, who spent most of Sunday’s rally standing on the street corner somber yet enthusiastically waving signs, said that if there’s not a decrease in violence in the near future, “we have to keep spreading this message.”