West Bengal
silent Bengal police doing? Nothing. This is the cost of her shameless appeasement politics – lawlessness, fear, and injustice against Hindus!”
The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh( RSS) also raised questions about the state government’ s role, labeling the violence as“ a failure of the government.” The RSS called upon the intellectual community to stand up to such situations. A delegation from the RSS visited Mothabari to assess the situation and prepare a detailed report. According to Trishikesh Saha, the regional head of RSS in North Bengal, the state government and police failed to control the violence. Instead of calming tensions, some leaders and officials are provoking the fundamentalists.
Violence against Hindus in Malda district is not a new phenomenon. For some time, law and order in the state have been deteriorating, and attacks on Hindus are rising. In March alone, multiple incidents were reported— violence in Patikabari Bazaar in Naoda block of Murshidabad, desecration of a Sheetala Devi idol in Baruipur, South 24 Parganas, attacks on a Kali temple in
Shankhchura Bazaar in Basirhat, and defilement of Hindu idols in Kamalpur village of Medinipur. Now, in Mothabari, a violent mob of radicals targeted Hinduowned shops and houses. On March 29, Hindu-owned betel farms in Jhaubona were set ablaze, shops were looted, and innocent Hindus were assaulted. The worst sufferers of such Hindu-targeted violence across West Bengal are the marginalized— Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. In rural areas, this violence is being used as a tool to coerce Dalits into religious conversion. This is being met with strong resistance from these communities, further complicating the situation. The spate of attacks has intensified the sense of insecurity among Hindus.
Several BJP leaders, from the state to the center, have blamed the state government’ s policies for the ongoing violence and have demanded the deployment of central forces.
Rejecting opposition demands, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the BJP and Left parties of colluding to incite riots. She claims that both parties are attempting to create unrest and insists her government is committed to preventing violence.
However, Mamata Banerjee’ s public statements ring hollow as anti-Hindu activities are being systematically encouraged in the state. For radical organizations and individuals, illegal Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators are becoming tools for destabilization. The alleged regime change in Bangladesh has clearly impacted the socio-political atmosphere in Bengal.
It is important to note that after independence, the Hindu population in Bangladesh( formerly East Pakistan) was about 22 %. Today, it has declined to roughly 7 %. A large portion of this population comprised Dalits and backward classes. Widespread violence and forced conversions led to this demographic shift, with Dalits being the most affected. The dwindling Hindu population in Bangladesh is now a subject of international concern. Alongside this, the worsening political and social conditions in West Bengal present a growing and serious problem. �
32 Dalit Andolan Patrika | April 2025