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Dec 29, 2025
Rinita Mazumdar

A Feminist Analysis of Dipu Chandra Das’s Lynching Is This Same As The Rape of a Kafir Identity

On Wednesday, December 18, 2025, in the Bhaluka sub-district of Mymensingha district of Bangladesh, Hindu male Dipu Chandra Das was mob lynched, tied to a tree, and burnt alive. He was accused of blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam, which turned out to be a false accusation. Many in India, Bangladesh, and around the world are terming this a hate crime. Through a feminist analysis, I will show here that this is not a hate crime; it is a symptom of the larger genocide of Hindus going on in Bangladesh, and this is not an isolated issue; it is part of an ontological framework of a certain interpretation of the Islamic texts. Genocides Are Not Hate Crimes According to the United Nations, hate crimes are criminal acts motivated by bias or intolerance against people or groups sharing characteristics like race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability. Genocides, on the other hand, as Raphael Lemkin defines is “… the destruction of a nation or an ethnic group… genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is extended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actions aiming at the destruction of the essential foundation of the life of national groups, to annihilate the groups themselves.” Lemkin’s definition forms the basis of the United Nations definition of genocide. Following this definition, Hiroshima and Nagasaki cannot be termed as genocides, but as one-time killing; nonetheless, what happened to the Native Americans, the Yazidis, and several other indigenous groups can be termed as genocide. One difference between Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the killing of Native Americans is that the children of Native Americans were forcibly taken into boarding schools for assimilation. Genocide involves, among other things, forced conversion, sexual violence, iconoclasts, an attempt to annihilate the culture and language of the victims, and changing race by forcibly transferring women of the victim class to the perpetrator class; hate crime involves none of these. Genocide and the concept of INTENT A very important concept in genocide is the notion of INTENT: It is the intent of the perpetrator class to destroy an entire group that involves hate crimes, sexual violence, forced conversion (murdering of identities), iconoclasts, taking of land, economic deprivation, prohibiting people from speaking in their native tongue and ethnic cleansing. It does not happen once, but over generations, often slowly and works unknowingly, beneath the surface. Dipu Das’s mob lynching and subsequent burning is a symptom of the larger Hindu genocide in Bangladesh. To understand this in depth, we have to dive into the moral commands that are part of the Islamic Holy text. Sura Al Bakara 47: 4 says: “So when you meet those who disbelieve [in battle], strike [their] necks until, when you have inflicted slaughter upon them, then secure their bonds, and either [confer] favour afterwards or ransom [them] until the war lays down its burdens". One may say that there was no “battle” going on in the conventional sense between Hindus and Muslims, then why are we bringing in the above Sura where “battle” is mentioned? This is where the epistemic violence of a Kafir (unbeliever) comes in: From the point of a believer (Muslim) one must continually struggle (Jihad) to get from an ungoverned land (Dar Ul Harb) to A land of peace (Dar Ul Islam). There are some in-between lands, like Dar Ul Sulk and Dar Ul Ahd, where a believer (Muslim) makes a covenant of truce, to live under a KAFIR (unbeliever). Nonetheless, the struggle continues, and the aim is to reach the Utopia, Dar Ul Islam. Sura Al Nisa says, 4:95 Those believers who stay at home—except those with valid excuses1—are not equal to those who strive in the cause of Allah with their wealth and their lives. Allah has elevated in rank those who strive with their wealth and their lives above those who stay behind ˹with valid excuses˺. Allah has promised each a fine reward, but those who strive will receive a far better reward than others— In addition, when the struggle is failing, a hijra is performed. The believer (Muslim) goes underground and then gains strength, comes back, strikes and in the final battle wins. Sallallahu alaihi wasallam Prophet goes to Medina, gains strength, comes back, and wins and sets up a Dar Ul Islam in Mecca. Reformers or Mujahaddins come in a decade to put Islam on the right path, to remind them of their true duty and struggle to establish the Dar Ul Islam. In the last battle, the Mahdi comes in and fights the anti-Christ, Dajjal, and wins over. The whole world is peaceful now, Dar Ul Islam has been achieved. Now, let us understand this in the context of Jihad: Jihad bi al-nafs: is the greater against one’s sinful inclinations. Jihad bi al-sayf: Jihad of the sword Jihad al-qawl: Preaching of the tongue In mainstream Sunni doctrine, Jihad is understood as military Jihad. Due to epistemic violence and a lack of understanding of the theology or the mind of a true believer (Muslim), Kafirs, prompted by the state and the media, think of Jihad as terrorism. Once Kafirs know the ontology, they will see that Jihad is a highly organised system of power, like patriarchy, that encompasses economics, culture, the State, and organises every aspect of one’s life when one lives under a territory that aspires to fulfil its Islamic Utopia of setting up the Dar Ul Islam. Jihad is a vast network or system of power, like a patriarchy that controls and maintains inequality. Feminist Analysis, Rape, Kafirs Feminist analysis goes beyond the phrase, “men oppressing women”, for it analyses systems of power where men oppress women, women oppress other women, and women of men, with race and class contingencies. Thus, a feminist analysis is about questioning power structures that maintain and control systems of hegemony and inequality. Different feminists like liberal, Marxists, radical, socialists, psychoanalysts, postmodern and postcolonial have explained patriarchy differently, but all maintain that patriarchy is a system of power and generates inequality and oppression. Rape As A System of Power and The “Kafir” as an Identity of “Other” According to feminist Catharine Mackinnon, if sexuality is central to women's definition and forced sex is central to sexuality, rape is indigenous, not exceptional, to women's social condition. In feminist analysis, a rape is not an isolated event or moral transgression or individual interchange gone wrong, but an act of terrorism and torture within a systemic context of group subjection, like lynching. The fact that the state calls rape a crime opens an inquiry into the state's treatment of rape as an index to its stance on the status of sex" (Catharine Mackinnon, Marxism, Feminism, Method and State"). Now, “Kafir”, like “Women”, is an identity that is the essential other within Islamic theology. Hence, the lynching, killing, and burning of a Kafir is indigenous to his or her identity and is a MORAL DUTY of every true believer. It is not a hate crime that is isolated; it is an integral part of being a kafir in an Islamic society and an Islamic Utopia. Feminist Solutions One cannot rely on STATE POWER to act and expect that this kind of torture towards kafirs will be mitigated once and for all. The state will act only if there is a SYMPTOM, like the lynching and burning of Dipu Chandra Das. What is needed is a CULTURAL REVOLUTION. Gramsci said that the most important revolution is passive revolution, during the time of peace, not war. Just as in a Dar Ul Sulk or Dar Ul Harb there is underground struggle, so the counter revolution must be continuous, via the feminist method of consciousness raising and understanding the structural systems of how Jihad operates, who a kafir is within Islamic theology, and how the identity of being a kafir surpasses all other identities of that Kafir within an Islamic society. Of course, the best revolution is organic, when those from within the system will bring in changes. Conclusion Islamic theology is based on a clear binary based on Absolute Commands, the binary of Self and other, the believer (Muslim) and the non-believer (Kafir). As Mackinnon says, rape is like lynching that stems from power and inequality. So, the lynching and burning of Dipu Chandra Das is a symptom where RAPE of a Kafir is essential to maintain the POWER of the BELIEVER and his IDENTITY AS a MUSLIM. References 1. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/civil-rights/hate-crimes 2. Gramsci: Prison Notebooks. https://uberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/gramsci-prison-notebooks.pdf. https://jonaraja.com/. 3. JonorajInstitute https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/17wQKs_3BwnMC34do9LOZwzSEC2uvOKoo. 4. Lemkin, Raphael. Raphael Lemkin and The Concept of Genocide. https://www.pennpress.org/9780812248647/raphael-lemkin-and-the-concept-of-genocide/ 5. Catharine Mackinnon: Marxism, Feminism, Method, and the State: An Agenda For Theory. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3173853. 6. The Holy Quran: https://quran.com/

Dec 25, 2025
Vladimir Adityanaath

A Pre-Planned Inferno: Nine Hindus Escape Deadly Arson Attack in Bangladesh, Left Destitute as the State Offers No Relief

At around 3 a.m. on December 20, 2025, as West Banik Para in Ward №5 of Rauzan Upazila, while the Chattagram District slept, an attack unfolded behind closed doors. The homes of Anil Shil and Sukha Shil were locked from the outside. Clothes soaked in kerosene were placed against the walls and roof. Moments later, both houses were set ablaze, trapping nine Hindu men, women, and children inside. This was not a burglary gone wrong or an act of random vandalism. Mithun Shil, one of the victims, has stated unambiguously that the purpose of the arson was to kill him and his family. There was no feud, no land dispute, no personal enmity to explain the violence. The attackers ensured escape would be impossible, locking or barring all exits before setting the fires. What followed was a fight for life measured not in minutes but in seconds. As flames climbed and smoke choked the rooms, the trapped families hacked openings through their tin walls and forced their way out. They fled with nothing. Not their belongings. Not their passports or identity documents. Not even their domesticated geese. Mithun Shil claims that his family alone has suffered financial losses of at least 10 lakh (1 million) Bangladeshi Taka (BDT). By dawn, the house was gone — reduced to ash and a few blackened pillars. By noon, local Hindu organisations found the women and a child sitting silently on a borrowed bed frame under the open sky, alive by chance. The official description, familiar and evasive, followed quickly: “unknown miscreants.” In Bangladesh, this phrase has become a shield for deflecting accountability even as patterns repeat themselves with chilling regularity. Rauzan knows this pattern well. Four Hindu families and one Buddhist family in the same region were targeted in similar arson attacks [1]. These are not isolated sparks. They are part of a larger, documented blaze. According to the Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council, between August 4, 2024, and June 30, 2025, there were approximately 2,010 to 2,244 incidents of violence against minorities, including Hindus. The numbers themselves are staggering. The response to them is even more so. For the victims, the aftermath is often as brutal as the attack itself. Homes are destroyed. Livelihoods erased. Identity papers, passports, savings — gone in minutes. Women and children are displaced overnight, left dependent on charity rather than protection. And almost invariably, there is no compensation. To date, there is only one confirmed and publicly documented instance of the unelected Yunus regime announcing financial assistance to a Hindu victim of communal violence. One — amid thousands of reported cases across the country. This absence is not merely an administrative failure. It reflects a hierarchy of lack of concern. It signals that survival is the ceiling of expectation, not justice. That rebuilding is a private burden. That recognition, repair, and restitution are optional, not obligations. Amit Parial, a Chattagram-based Hindu rights activist, puts it bluntly, “I do not seek justice because I know that, in practice, it is treated as a crime to be born Hindu in Bangladesh.” [3] Such testimonies are uncomfortable, but they are not anomalous. They reflect a widening gap between constitutional promise and lived reality. Bangladesh’s guarantees of equality and religious freedom exist on paper. On the ground, they dissolve at the first spark of organised violence. Ground Report: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/17oQmdGH4c/ References: https://hinduvoice.in/trapped-and-set-ablaze-how-three-hindu-families-in-rauzan-escaped-an-attempt-to-burn-them-alive/ https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/crime-justice/news/police-investigating-fire-incidents-two-homes-chattograms-raozan-4063391?utm_source=chatgpt.com https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1ArJV1eHPB/

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The Politics of Silence: Lynching of Dipu Chandra Das and Lessons for Hindu Society to Survive

Featured Articles

A Feminist Analysis of Dipu Chandra Das’s Lynching Is This Same As The Rape of a Kafir Identity

A Pre-Planned Inferno: Nine Hindus Escape Deadly Arson Attack in Bangladesh, Left Destitute as the State Offers No Relief

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