‘Hide Your Hindu Identity To Save Your Lives’: ISKCON Advisory To Its Bangladesh Monks

An advisory by a senior ISKCON figure in India to his fellow monks in Bangladesh highlights the scary state of affairs in the country, underscoring how it has become unsafe for Hindus. 

ISKCON’s Kolkata Vice-President Radharamn Das issued the advisory late Monday evening (2 December), asking the order’s monks in Bangladesh to hide their Hindu identities in order to protect their lives. 

The ISKCON monks in Bangladesh have been advised against wearing saffron or white (which the order’s brahmacharis wear) and to dress in ordinary clothes. They are also advised to hide the tulsi beads they wear around their necks, wipe off the tilak made of sandalwood paste that they apply on their foreheads, and wear caps to cover their shaved heads. 

The monks have also been advised against carrying prayer beads in public and to hide all signs of their Hindu identity once they step outside their temples and monasteries. They have also been asked to avoid unnecessary travel and to exercise abundant caution before leaving their temples and monasteries. 

Das said that the advisory has been issued in view of the dangerous situation in Bangladesh where ISKCON, its monks and devotees are being vilified and attacked. 

A number of ISKCON monks have faced abuses and attacks when they stepped out in public in recent days. They have also faced online threats and it has become extremely dangerous for them to be seen as Hindu monks in public. 

ISKCON became the target of not only Bangladesh’s Hinduphobic Islamists, but also the interim government led by Mohammad Yunus because of the lead role taken by the order’s senior monk Chinmay Krishna Das in organising Hindus to protest attacks on the community and demand safeguards. 

Last week, Das was jailed on fabricated sedition charges. Two ISKCON monks visiting him with medicines and prasad were also arrested. Additionally, two monks from Pundarik Dham in Chittagong, which Das previously led, were detained without charges disclosed.

ISKCON devotees, as well as activists of the Sanmilita Sanatan Jagaran Jote, the organisation floated by Das and others to protect Hindus in Bangladesh, are also being targeted by a vengeful Yunus administration. 

Hindu men are being randomly picked up and searched in Chittagong, Dhaka and other cities. Their mobile phones are checked to see if they have links with the Jote or other Hindu organisations. 

This has created a climate of fear and foreboding for Hindus in general and ISKCON monks and devotees in particular. 

Late Monday evening, ISKCON Vice President Radharamn Das posted on X about a brutal attack on Ramen Roy, a senior advocate in Chittagong and lawyer for Chinmay Krishna Das in court.

According to reports from Chittagong, a Muslim mob led by clerics attacked Roy’s residence and brutally assaulted him inside his house. They also attacked other family members of Roy and looted his house. 

Roy is fighting for his life in the ICU of a hospital there. He was scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday (December 3) when the hearing on Das’ case would commence. 

To deny Das a fair hearing, the Yunus government also filed false cases against 70 Hindu lawyers in Chittagong in order to prevent them from appearing for the incarcerated ISKCON monk in court. 

ISKCON vice-president and spokesperson Radharamn Das's advisory urging monks to conceal their Hindu identities highlights the dangerous situation and the constant fear Hindus face in Bangladesh, an Islamic-majority nation.