The Tyranny of the Majority

Bangladesh has witnessed civil unrest in the last few months involving a student-led protest about quota reform in public institutions. The lack of law and order caused the existing government to collapse and an Interim Government was formed. However, the state of lawlessness persists to some extent and the marginalized and minority communities are its unfortunate victims. The minorities in Bangladesh primarily consists of Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, smaller indigenous communities and members of LGBTQIA+. These communities are being physically attacked, the women and girls are abducted and raped, their homes looted and vandalized and their deities and temples desecrated. This has been exacerbated by the denial of the attacks by the majority population and also the Interim Government.

While the minority communities try to survive from the communal attacks, there is also an active effort in replacing the nationalistic Bengali identity with an extremist-Islamic ideology. There are numerous news published from the national news agencies, social media posts and videos that demonstrate the attacks while the government denies and underplays the crisis. What is shocking is that when the student-led protest was aimed at abolishing discrimination and discriminatory practices whereas, in practice, power in their hands has led to more severe forms of aggression towards the vulnerable groups. Teachers belonging to different faiths and predominantly who are Hindus are being forced to resign and publicly persecuted. These extremists are demolishing the identity of the minorities in Bangladesh through the tyranny of the majority.

Written by Lemona Chanda.