For decades, Hindus have been attacked, cleansed out, killed for simply being Hindus. Regimes that call themselves as land of the “spiritually pure” have tolerated and encouraged pogroms of Hindus. Literally millions of Hindus have been cleansed out of NonPakistan & Bangladesh.
Yet, the American media has paid no attention. Reporters of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal criticize these two Muslim regimes for their treatment of Christians but maintain complete and total silence about worse atrocities against Buddhists & Hindus. This is even more true of the self-proclaimed human right organizations that are funded with American & European money. This behavior is so deliberate and widespread that we discussed it at length and came to call it A Religious Caste System in US Media & NGOs
“It is as if there is a defined and accepted hierarchy of religions in the American media:
1. Religions practiced by Europeans – Christians & Jews,
2. Religions practiced in the Middle East – Muslims,
3. Religions practiced in Asia – Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs…““When a lower ranked religious community attacks a higher ranked religious community, that is very big news and American media covers it aggressively. But when a higher ranked religious community attacks a lower ranked religious community, that’s just par for the sociological course and not worth the ink or web-space in an American newspaper.”
This past week, we saw a first ray of hope that the “see-no-evil, speak of no-evil” policy towards atrocities against Hindus might be weakening. That ray of hope came from Victor Mallet of the London-based Financial Times (“FT”). He wrote a detailed article in the FT titled Hindu minority become target of Bangladesh violence. Mr. Mallet began his article with:
- “They came at 9.30am on December 13, about 60 or 70 of them, to sack his family home in the village of Jagannathpur and terrorise the occupants. The gang worked with brutal efficiency, petrol-bombing the house, burning the motorcycles outside, stealing jewellery and smashing with clubs every household appliance not consumed by the flames.”
- “When anything happens, Hindus are attacked,” says Subhash Ghosh, his eyes filling with tears as he stands outside the burnt shell of his house in the Bangladeshi countryside near the Indian border. “Everything is lost.”
(Subhash Ghosh in front of his home – FT) (Subhash Ghosh & his brother – Time)
The story is not unique to Mr. Ghosh whose family has lived there for over a century. As Mr. Mallet tells us:
- “Hindus in nearby villages tell similar stories of arson, rape, stabbings and beatings: Mr Ghosh says 55 to 60 Hindu homes and businesses in the area have been attacked. Most interviewees though do not want their names used in the media for fear of reprisals. JI militants, using temporary mobile telephone numbers, repeatedly called the locals guiding Financial Times reporters in the district to ask why we were interviewing victims, but refused to meet us or speak to us.”
A day later, Joseph Allchin of Time magazine wrote an article titled The Hindus of Bangladesh Fear for Their Future:
- “When anything happens, Hindus get attacked in Bangladesh,” explains Ghosh, 63, standing in the verdant greensward at the back of his house. Even if it weren’t ruined, he would be too scared to live in it. “They came at around 9:30 and suddenly set fire to the building with petrol bombs and gunpowder,” he explains.
- “In Satkhira’s isolated villages, however, there is palpable fear. Ghosh’s sons, like many Hindu children, can no longer go to school. When we visit a Hindu community, dozens emerge out of the mist and huddle around us, explaining how they are unable to travel the small rural lanes alone for fear of attacks by Islamists. A local journalist we are traveling with receives threatening calls from an Islamist leader.”
These violent attacks have been so brazen that Bangladeshi High Court ordered the Government to provide adequate protection to Hindus.
But none of this has moved the major American newspapers like New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal to cover these attacks. It is as if Hindus are not even human beings for them. The India Ink blog of NYT and India Real Time section of WSJ write a couple of stories every day about the Indian Subcontinent. But they couldn’t find space for even a small article about these attacks on H
indus in Bangladesh.
This is exactly how upper-caste “elite” people treat atrocities against the lowest caste communities. So it has been for hundreds of years and so it remains in 2014 American media.
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