As Bangladesh’s skies lit up with the color and sound of Durga Puja this autumn, Hindus—the country’s second-largest religious community but a shrinking minority—once again gathered in temples and community pandals.
Drums beat, incense filled the air, children posed in front of elaborately adorned idols, and chants of “Joy Ma Durga” echoed across towns. Yet behind the smiles and rituals, a persistent unease shadows the celebrations: will joy again collapse into violence?
For many Hindus, Durga Puja is not just a festival—it is a statement of identity and belonging in a society where they are outnumbered nearly ten to one. It has long stood as both cultural anchor and spiritual high point for Bengali Hindus across Bangladesh. But in recent years, the sacred has been disrupted by violence.
Memories of Violence
The trauma is fresh. In Rangpur’s Gangachara, only months earlier, mobs looted and torched Hindu homes while police and soldiers reportedly stood by. This was not an isolated event. In Sunamganj, a mob destroyed Hindu villages after a rumor of blasphemy, leaving families like that of Krishna Das homeless.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) says that since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in August 2024, minority communities endured more than 2,400 attacks. In just 16 days after Yunus took office, over 2,000 violent incidents were reported. These ranged from desecrated idols and burned temples to looted shops and murders.
Durga Puja 2025: Resilience Meets Anxiety
In Dhaka, the grand pujas at Dhakeshwari, Shankhari Bazar, and Gulshan drew large crowds. Outside the capital, Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi also hosted vibrant pandals. Yet security was often provided not by the state but by community volunteers—young men patrolling entry points, women guarding temple gates, priests cautioning worshippers to avoid late-night visits.
Authorities, meanwhile, insisted the situation was under control. Inspector General of Police Baharul Alam announced surveillance around more than 31,000 puja mandaps, with 19 arrests linked to incidents this month. He dismissed most as “minor.” For the community, however, the distinction between “minor” and “major” violence feels academic.
A temple desecration in Jamalpur days before Puja—where seven murtis were mutilated—confirmed their worst fears. In Manikganj, a 100-year-old Kali temple was burned to ashes in an arson attack. These were not “minor” events for worshippers watching their gods decapitated and sanctuaries reduced to rubble.
Words Without Protection
Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus has tried to reassure the nation that Puja “belongs to all,” but added that there would be “no additional security” beyond normal policing. Many Hindus heard this not as confidence but as abandonment.
“The festival may belong to all, but security belongs to none of us,” said Jayanta Kumar Deb of Dhaka’s Mohanagar Sarbojanin Puja Committee. He and others argue that five days of heightened vigilance each year do nothing to counter the 360 other days of neglect. “If you truly believe in equality, then protection must be 365 days,” he said.
At the Sagar-Runi auditorium, the Bangladesh Joint Sanātanī Awakening Alliance reiterated this demand, calling for army deployment at high-risk pandals, unconditional release of detained Hindu leaders, and a three-day government holiday for Puja. “We are being erased from the country, house by house, shrine by shrine,” said alliance spokesperson Prosenjit Haldar.
International Alarm
The violence has not gone unnoticed abroad. The United Nations Human Rights Council has received reports of mass attacks, arbitrary arrests of minority leaders, and cases of forced conversions. In Geneva, UN rights officer Charlotte Zehrer warned of “a deeply concerning pattern of violence and discrimination.” The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) issued a factsheet underscoring systematic persecution of Hindus and other minorities.
Even Sheikh Hasina, in exile, voiced alarm, calling the wave of violence under Yunus “a horrific time of persecution” that shocked the world.
A Festival as a Test
For Hindus in Bangladesh, Durga Puja embodies not only devotion but resilience. Yet this resilience is strained. Every desecrated idol, every burned temple, every attack on a home is a reminder that faith and identity remain perilously exposed.
Durga’s triumph over Mahishasura symbolizes the victory of good over evil. But in today’s Bangladesh, the test is whether the state itself will act as protector—or remain a silent bystander. Until words translate into real protection, the fear will linger behind every prayer, every drumbeat, and every smile at Puja.
The festival continues. But its light is flickering under the weight of unfulfilled promises, impunity, and denial. For the beleaguered Hindu minority, Durga Puja in 2025 is not just a celebration—it is a plea for survival.
