Chinmoy Krishna Das: Hindu monk who struck fear in heart of Bangladesh government

“Prabhu pronam,” is how Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari greets most people, with a genuine warmth in his voice. Under the affable personality lay hidden a steely resolve, a glimpse of which the world got through the window of the prison van as the young Bangladeshi Hindu leader was being taken away from a court in Chattogram on Tuesday. He flashed a victory sign, raised a clenched fist of defiance and then locked the fingers of both hands to convey a message to Sanatanis — stay united.

Chinmoy Krishna Das was arrested from the Dhaka International Airport by the Detective Branch of the Dhaka Police on Monday in connection with a sedition case filed a month ago.

“The sedition case is against our eight-point demand [for minorities]. It is an attempt to finish off the leadership of the agitation,” Das told India Today Digital earlier in November from Chattogram.

Not many even in Bangladesh would have known Chinmoy Krishna Das, a monk associated with Iskcon, some months back. It was the attack on Hindus and their temples as Bangladesh descended into total chaos after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina regime in August that saw the 38-year-old monk rise to prominence.

In a span of four months, Chinmoy Krishna Das has become the biggest leader of Hindus in Bangladesh, drawing lakhs of people to his rallies.

“He raised his voice when everyone was silenced and suppressed. He emerged as the leader in time of crisis. The timing mattered,” a Dhaka-based commentator, who didn’t want to be identified, told India Today Digital.

In fact, the monk’s charisma has not just drawn lakhs to rally at his single call, but also made him one of the main targets of Islamists. Iskcon, which has faced vile attacks from fundamentalists, found him too hot to handle, and severed all ties with him.

But nothing could deter Chinmoy Krishna Das, whose name before he took the vows of renunciation was Chandan Kumar Dhar.

As one of the main drivers of the eight-point demand, Das pressed for minority rights in Muslim-majority Bangladesh. Among the demands are a tribunal to prosecute those who oppress minorities, bringing a law on minority protection, and establishing a ministry for minorities.

The share of Hindus, the biggest religious minority group in Bangladesh, in the country’s population mix has dipped to 8% from 22% in 1951 (then East Pakistan).

Late on Tuesday, Iskcon’s Bangladesh chapter, which severed ties with Das, issued a statement demanding his release. It called him a “vocal advocate for the protection of minority groups” in Bangladesh.

“He is wise and mature for his age and a product of circumstances,” the Dhaka-based commentator said.

The commentator, like many others India Today Digital spoke to in Bangladesh, admitted that they didn’t know much about Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari’s life. That is why it becomes tough to piece together a profile of the person who has kindled the fire of agitation in the hearts of the Hindu youth in Bangladesh.

Chinmoy Prabhu, as he is frequently referred to, is the President of the Pundarik Dham in Bangladesh and spokesperson of the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jot.

The Pundarik Dham in Chattogram is one of the two holiest pilgrimage places for Hindus in Bangladesh.

The Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jot, an umbrella organisation, held a massive rally in Chattogram on October 25 to press for the 8-point demand.

The show of strength by Hindus didn’t go down well with a section of Bangladesh’s populace, and a case of sedition was filed against Das and 17 other Hindu leaders. The case was related to dishonouring the national flag.

In a video of the incident, which has now gone viral, a group of people can be seen putting up saffron flags near a flag that was projected as Bangladesh’s national flag in the New Market area of Chattogram. The flag had stars and crescent, and wasn’t the Bangladesh national flag.

“The Sanatani organisations had nothing to do with the saffron flags being put up. The incident took place 2 km from the Lal Dighi protest site,” Das told India Today Digital during an earlier interaction.

Tens of thousands of Hindus have been protesting across Bangladesh for the withdrawal of the sedition case against Das and others.

Instead of halting the rallies, the case ended up galvanising more support for Das. He rose as the undisputed leader of the Hindus in Bangladesh.

After the successful rally in Chattogram, the next rally of the Bangladesh Sammilito Sanatani Jagaran Jot was planned in Rangpur, which is close to India’s Siliguri corridor.

Ahead of the Rangpur rally on November 22, all eyes were on Chinmoy Krishna Das. Among millions of those eyes were some of the military-backed caretaker government of Muhammad Yunus.

A sedition case, experts from Bangladesh told India Today Digital, wouldn’t have been lodged without the approval of officials of the home ministry. No officer in-charge of a police station would go ahead in such cases without approval from the top, they said.

An attempt was made to arrest Das on the night before the Rangpur rally.

The administration pressed the hotel where Das had booked for his stay to cancel his booking. Denied permission, the venue of the rally also had to be shifted to a smaller one in Rangpur at the last minute.

“You can gauge the precarious condition of the Sanatanis in Bangladesh from the fact that they can’t even stay in a hotel they booked for themselves,” Das said, adding, “One needs no further evidence of the repression faced by them.”

The Rangpur rally, too, saw a sea of people, despite the fact that the administration did everything in its means to prevent people from reaching the venue. Clips of police personnel and Islamists harassing people and stopping them from making it to the venue are there on social media platforms for everyone to see.

Such is the fear of the monk, who can make lakhs of Hindus take to the streets with a single call, in the heart of Bangladesh’s caretaker government that it arrested him on flimsy ground.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has expelled the local leader, Firoz Khan, who filed the sedition case because they saw no merit in it. However, Bangladesh chose to act upon it.

That’s because Das has shown a path to the millions of Hindus in Bangladesh. That resistance is the path to survival.

“A big chunk of the Hindu population in Bangladesh is young and tech-savvy. The youths have seen that across the world, minorities have to fight to stay in their country of birth,” the Dhaka-based political commentator told India Today Digital.

That is something unexpected of the minority which has historically fled Bangladesh.

Between 1964 and 2013, over 11 million Hindus fled Bangladesh due to religious persecution, according to the Hindu American Foundation.

Some in Bangladesh also believe that elements within the Yunus government might be using Das and his call for Hindu rights for counter-consolidation of Muslims at a time when the caretaker government seems desperate to get things under control. Students, whose anti-quota agitation toppled the Hasina government, aren’t back on campus, and are working as a para-security force. Clashes involving students have become routine news in Bangladesh.

Though Chinmoy Krishna Das has been denied bail and sent to jail, it will be difficult to contain the unity that he has forged and the path the monk has shown to the youth. The whole world’s eyes are now on the monk, who became a voice of Hindus in Bangladesh, and whom the Yunus government is trying to silence.