Link to article: https://apnews.com/article/bangladesh-india-hindu-leader-hasina-minority-groups-c45812dce748aec95e0430a977d71ef5
Krishna Das Prabhu, a prominent Hindu leader who led large rallies in Bangladesh, was arrested in Dhaka last week, and now faces charges of sedition. Hindu groups say there have been thousands of attacks against Hindus since early August, when the secular government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was overthrown. India, which sheltered 10 million refugees and helped Bangladesh gain independence through a nine-month bloody war against Pakistan in 1971, considers Hasina as a trusted friend. Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the independence leader of Bangladesh, then the eastern part of present day Pakistan. “A group of lawyers stood last time for him (Prabhu). Cases have been filed against at least 70 of them and many others willing to take part in the hearing today have been threatened… why was he (Prabhu) not brought to the court today? He is in police custody. He could have spoken for himself before the court if he was taken to the court. It’s a ploy to delay his release from prison, this is not justice,” one Hindu leader said.
This is important because it shows just how big of a problem the divide between Hindus and Muslims are in Bangladesh, and the rest of southern Asia. This religious, identity based separation of the people in southern Asia has lead to decades of violence in the region and this arrest is only increasing the tensions between the two groups.
This relates to what we learned in class because it shows the further division of people based on religion, relating back to the idea of constructivism, the idea that identity plays a major role in how nations and people group act. This major divide in Bangladesh between Hindus and Muslims causes almost all of the societal division in southern Asia, and shows no signs of going away anytime soon.