Chinmoy Krishna Das ‘Brahmachari’, once a monk of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), found himself at the epicenter of a mounting political and religious storm in Bangladesh. Following his arrest on ‘sedition’ charges for disrespecting the national flag, protests emerged, setting off a chain of events that would test the delicate religious balance in the nation.
The situation escalated dramatically on November 26 when a Muslim lawyer, public prosecutor Saiful Islam Alif, was killed outside a court during protests demanding Das’s release. This comes amidst the spectre of the rise of Muslim fundamentalist forces in Bangladesh and the gradually escalating tension over protests by Hindus, a religious minority.
The aftermath brought swift and severe consequences. Responding to a plea seeking a ban on ISKCON, Mohammad Asaduzzaman, the attorney general, told the Dhaka High Court that the government considered ISKCON a ‘religious fundamentalist organisation’ and was investigating its activities. The court, satisfied with the government’s stance, left any decision on banning ISKCON to the government’s discretion.
Misinformation played its part in the escalating tensions. Some media outlets, including Reuters, incorrectly reported that the slain lawyer represented the Hindu monk. Bangladesh Chief Advisor Muhammad Yunus’s press secretary, Saiful Alam, later debunked these claims, pointing fingers at ‘Indian’ media for spreading misinformation. Others highlighted how the Indian media spread misinformation.
Lawyer Alif’s social media ‘profile’ shows he was a supporter of the August Upsurge and had criticised ISKCON’s role in aggravating the tension over the protests.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh authorities froze the bank accounts of 17 persons associated with ISKCON. Amidst a series of rallies demanding ISKCON’s ban, an ISKCON temple was vandalised, for which the police arrested three persons associated with the recently banned Chhatra League, the student wing of ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL) party. Some other ISKCON offices were forcibly shut down.
Over November 30 and December 1, Bangladesh immigration authorities barred 63 ISKCON devotees from going to Bangladesh despite all having valid visas.
The transformation of ISKCON’s image, a global Hindu organisation with chapters in India, the US and Europe, from a peace-loving religious movement to an alleged fundamentalist organisation played out largely on Bangladesh’s digital landscape.
The backdrop was set by a flood of misinformation regarding atrocities on Hindus in post-Upsurge Bangladesh not only doing the rounds on social media but also seeping into news outlets. Bangladesh politicians and activists have blamed a BJP-Awami League nexus behind the spread of such misinformation.
Who Is The Arrested Priest?
Chinmoy Krishna Das, whom ISKCON had expelled in July 2024, emerged as a prominent face of Hindu protests right after a student-led mass uprising toppled PM Hasina’s Awami League (AL) regime on August 5.
He protested attacks on Hindu temples while speaking to the Indian media house, India Today, on August 6. By September 13, he had upped the ante and gave the interim government led by Muhammad Yunus 15 days to resolve the issues the Hindus raised.
In early November, ISKCON publicly disassociated itself from him and two of his close associates, Gour Leela Das and Gouranga Das, saying that they had been expelled in July, but did not say anything about the reasons for such expulsion except for ‘disciplinary grounds.’
On November 28 – a day after the lawyer was killed – Dhaka-based news outlet Bangla Outlook published a report, stating that ISKCON had initially suspended him in October 2023 after receiving charges of harassing children. Later, ISKCON expelled him as he refused to cooperate with their investigation.
The same day, top ISKCON Bangladesh officials addressed the media in Dhaka, where they said that Gour Leela Das was expelled several months ago after allegations against him had been proved. Chinmoy Das was initially suspended on instructions from ISKCON’s international child protection office and later expelled because he not only disallowed the investigation and refused to step down from the position to facilitate the probe but continued to occupy the Pundarik temple Chittagong and even dragged ISKCON authorities into litigations, they said.
However, as the priest has since been acting as a key face of the Hindu protests and the spokesperson for the newly formed Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jot (Bangladesh United Sanatani Awakening Alliance), ISKCON also described him as a face of Hindu protests and protested his arrest.
In a statement following Das’s arrest on November 25, Charu Chandra Das Brahmachari, General Secretary of ISKCON Bangladesh, said, “It is essential to uphold his right to free speech and to support his efforts to encourage others to defend this right. Ensuring justice and fair treatment for him is crucial.”
What Really Happened In Bangladesh?
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s resignation and departure from Dhaka on August 5 took Bangladesh to a state of lawlessness for a few days, during which mobs attacked and vandalised the homes and businesses of many AL leaders and supporters, including Hindus. Some temples, too, came under attack.
Since then, Hindus have staged numerous protests under different banners, seeking safety, security and equality for Hindus, who make up about 8% of the country’s population, according to the census of 2022.
The latest escalation started from the October 25 rally at Chittagong, held under the banner of Sanatan Jagaran Mancha (SJM), a newly formed platform. Chinmoy Das, who was the main speaker, announced a further escalation of their agitation, to culminate into a nationwide march to the national capital of Dhaka.
In the aftermath of the rally, a viral photo showing a Hindu saffron flag allegedly hoisted above Bangladesh’s national flag quickly spiraled into a social media firestorm that would reshape the organization’s identity in the country. The placement of the saffron flag above the national flag triggered allegations of insulting the latter.
On October 28, senior journalist Mahmudur Rahman, editor of the Bengali daily Amar Desh, demanded a ban on ISKCON, calling it a militant organisation and an agent of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW). The next day, a BNP leader lodged a police complaint, accusing Das and others of sedition. Even though the BNP disapproved of his action and expelled him, the police decided to act on the complaint.
From a November 1 rally, the SJM threatened escalation of protests if the sedition cases were not withdrawn. The ISKCON asked journalist Rahman to apologise and take his comments back if he did not want to be dragged into court. Rahman did not and the demand for ISKCON’s ban gradually grew louder.
Last week, Md. Sarjis Alam, one of the prominent leaders of the student-led uprising that paved the formation of the Muhammad Yunus government in August, declared the lawyer, Saiful Islam Alif, as a ‘martyr’ of an attack by “ISKCON militants”. Another influential student leader, Hasnat Abdullah, demanded the banning of ISKCON. Alam, Abdullah, and other student leaders have accused the ISKCON of “implementing Delhi’s agenda” in collaboration with the Awami League.
Connecting ISKCON to the lawyer’s murder came less than a fortnight after Imam Khatib Ulama Parishad, an organisation of Islamic clerics, demanded during a rally in the capital city of Dhaka that ISKCON be designated as a terror organisation and proscribed. Influential Islamic organisation Hefazat e Islam raised the same demand.
ISKCON in Bangladesh
On November 5, after a Muslim trader living in a Hindu-dominated area of Hazari Lane, Chittagong, shared a Facebook post demanding ISKCON’s ban, he reportedly came under attack from a group of Hindus.
The subsequent clash between security forces and a mob got embroiled in controversy, with Hindus alleging police highhandedness and the police complaining of acid attack on them. The police blamed ISKCON devotees for the attack, following which organisations like Imam Khatib Ulema Parishad and Hefazat e Islam hit the streets, demanding the banning of ISKCON.
On November 17, two newly-formed organisations, Bangladesh Sanatan Jagran Mancha and Bangladesh Sammilito Sankhaloghu Jote, merged to form the Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jote, of which Chinmoy Das was declared the spokesperson.
However, accusing ISKCON of practicing Hindu extremism is not new in Bangladesh. It started in 2021. In February 2022, ISKCON protested such branding.
Speaking to BOOM over the phone, AKM Wahiduzzaman, a senior leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), said that ISKCON’s image in Bangladesh differs from its global image. According to him, it is known as a peace-loving organisation in the Western world but, in Bangladesh, it often gets associated with Hindu radicalism.
“Nowhere in the world do ISKCON devotees raise the slogan Jai Shree Ram, which is not a Hindu religious slogan but a slogan of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist forces. But ISKCON organisers in Bangladesh raise the Jai Shree Ram slogan,” he said.
The BNP has been one of Bangladesh’s two major political parties, the other being the ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League (AL). The country is currently under an interim government headed by peace Nobel Laureate Muhammad Younus, the choice of the leaders of the student uprising. The government depends heavily on cooperation from the Army and other forces opposed to Hasina’s AL.
Wahiduzzaman said that the current situation in Bangladesh was tense and concerning. “Our leader Tareque Rahman made phone call after phone call following the lawyer’s killing to ensure the incident did not snowball into greater tragedies. We have to prevent any further escalation of the prevailing tension,” he said.
Wahiduzzaman, however, opposed the demand to ban the organisation. “ISKCON can be criticised and even some Hindus criticise some of ISKCON’s practices but it should not be banned. We are against the politics of banning.”
It is to be noted that ISKCON is not the sole Hindu organisation active in Bangladesh. India-headquartered organisations like Ramakrishna Mission, Satsang and Bharat Sevashram Sangh also have their presence. Nevertheless, ISKCON emerged as the most visible one, setting up a series of temples across the country.
“The other Hindu organisations limit their religious activities within their temple premises but ISKCON takes it to the streets with their sankirtan (processions while singing, dancing and chanting Hare Krishna). This is what I think irked Muslim fundamentalist forces, who targeted ISKCON in a planned way,” an organiser of the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, a minority-rights organisation, told BOOM.
He was unwilling to be identified considering the sensitivity of the prevailing atmosphere.
ISKCON’s Kolkata vice-president and spokesperson, Radharamn Das, expressed bewilderment at the situation. “It’s shocking. We spread love not only for mankind but also for animals and plants. ISKCON Bangladesh stands by the people of Bangladesh with relief work every time a disaster hits the country,” he told BOOM.
Das pointed out that ISKCON started getting targetted in Bangladesh since 2021. That year, following incidents of attacks on Hindus during their Durga Puja festival, Das had written to the United Nations (UN), drawing its attention. The UN subsequently issued a statement and later sent a team to Bangladesh. ISKCON also organised protests in different Western countries, including the US.
“Since ISKCON played a crucial role in 2021 to draw global attention to atrocities on Hindus in Bangladesh, religious intolerant forces in Bangladesh see us as a symbol of Hindu resistance,” Das added.
According to Meghmallar Bosu, president of the Dhaka University unit of Bangladesh Chhatra Union, ISKCON emerged as a prominent force in Bangladesh over the past four to five years. “During 2021-22, when these traditional Hindu rights organisations were responding softly to incidents of attacks on Hindus, ISKCON emerged as their prominent defender and highlighted the atrocities globally. They also took charge of several temples that local Hindu communities found difficult to manage. All these events increased ISKCON’s influence among Hindus in Bangladesh,” Bosu said.
Bosu added that since the fall of the Hasina regime on August 5, ISKCON proactively addressed the issues concerning Hindus in Bangladesh, prioritising appeals to the international community over negotiating with the interim government.
“There is a noticeable rightward shift among both Muslims and Hindus in Bangladesh in the recent months. ISKCON in Bangladesh has somehow got involved with the Hindu right-wing tendencies. Besides, many AL organisers are also ISKCON devotees, who are trying to utilise its organisational influence towards creating political unrest,” he said.
He argued that whereas Jai Shree Ram is a political slogan associated with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ISKCON monks in Bangladesh have adopted and defended chanting Jai Shree Ram.
He sees the demand to ban ISKCON as an extreme example of communal polarisation. “Hindus disagree with this demand. Even Hindus critical of many aspects of ISKCON would not accept calling it a terror organisation, which it is not; it does not send assassins. This is emerging as a major communal flashpoint,” he said.