As a Hindu Bengali living in the United States, I always looked forward to the Hindu festival season, Durga Puja. It was a time for various diasporas to come together in our local temples to participate in rituals and offerings to the goddess Durga. But in October 2021, my joy was cut short. On October 13, I turned on my TV and was appalled to see images of a desecrated temple in Comilla, my relatives’ hometown in Bangladesh. This destruction was the result of a looting mob orchestrated by a group of violent religious extremists called “Jamaat.” As I watched the news, feeling powerless to prevent such attacks, I saw reports of lootings and vandalizations across more than 80 temples in Bangladesh during Durga Puja. I was disturbed to see how quickly a once-secular country fell victim to a brutal campaign.

First, a little history. After India’s independence in 1947, the country divided into India and Pakistan along religious lines, with Muslims moving to Pakistan and Hindus to India, causing widespread displacement and upheaval. From March to December 1971, the Pakistani military committed genocide against the Bengali population in East Pakistan, targeting Hindu minorities, leading to the Bangladesh Liberation War. When the newly independent country of Bangladesh established its constitution in 1972, it adopted secularism to protect its 8-9% religious minority population within a predominantly Muslim state, with Hindus being the largest minority group. But in 1988, the Eighth Amendment declared Islam as the state religion, even though secularism remained enshrined in the constitution. Whether the state has since maintained its secular framework is contested, as electoral strategies often favor Islamic party agendas, and successive governments have frequently turned a blind eye to the increasing persecution and communal violence experienced by the nation’s religious minorities.

Since its inception, Bangladesh has grappled with rising extremism, including within BNP Jamaat-e-Islami, who actively seek to undermine the country’s secular foundation. These few violently intolerant religious extremists have compelled Hindu Bengalis, including my parents, to leave their home country to escape the violence. When they arrived several decades ago, they found the US to be a harbor for the right to freedom of conscience, built on the principle of separating church and state. But today Christian nationalists are threatening that separation.

As I watch similar impulses toward religious extremism trying to take over our American government, I’ve been thinking about the relationship between state and religion in a broader context. Two books I read this summer helped guide this thinking. Sophocles’ so-called Theban Trilogy, including the plays Oedipus Rex and Antigone, depicts the downfall of King Oedipus and his family, with succeeding ruler Creon creating laws that clash against religious principles of the Ancient Greeks, often referred to as the “laws of the gods.” The other book, The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners, translated by Jack Hawley, is an interpretation of the sacred Hindu scripture that sheds light on the philosophical and equitable teachings of the god Krishna. These books helped me realize that secularism’s derailment in Bangladesh should serve as a cautionary tale about the loss of fundamental human rights that can occur when religion becomes intertwined with government. As such, it is incumbent upon us to critically contemplate the role of secularism in the US today, and to do all we can to uphold it.

In the last of the Theban Plays, Antigone, there is a clash between the written laws of the polis (the state or city-state) and the unwritten “laws of the gods.” The conflict arises when Creon forbids the burial of Antigone’s brother Polyneices, under penalty of death. Antigone’s declaration that “Loving, I shall lie with him, yes with my loved one, when I have dared the crime of piety” highlights the tension between piety and justice in Ancient Greek society (Sophocles 24). She suggests that honoring the gods and adhering to religious beliefs–in other words, being pious–may conflict with following state laws. I would like to point out the irony in Antigone’s phrasing, as she describes her act of piety as a crime. According to Plato’s Euthyphro, piety involves actions that are loved by the gods and align with justice, making it ironic that Antigone’s pious actions are framed as criminal in her society. This framing raises the issue of what was considered ethical during this period—pleasing the gods, or obeying the laws of the polis?

This ethical conundrum dogs many societies around the world today–including, increasingly, the US–and it highlights the importance of separating religious beliefs and practices from state laws and governance. Donald Trump’s recent endorsement of Christian nationalism during the 2024 Republican National Convention showcased a troubling fusion of faith and governance. At the Faith & Freedom Coalition Breakfast during the convention, Republican VP nominee JD Vance openly spoke about “integrating” his faith into his “governing agenda” (Freedom From Religion Foundation). The United States’ longstanding commitment to freedom of conscience is under threat when we are no longer safe to choose for ourselves what to believe. Antigone’s tragic fate, brought on by an unnecessary clash between her state and her religion, illustrates the danger of the path the US is walking down–a danger that we can also see in more recent history in places like Bangladesh.

The Bhagavad Gita, part of the Hindu epic Mahabharata, is a guide to spiritual growth centered on eventually becoming one with God, a concept known in Sanskrit as Atma. As in Antigone, the theme of death is important. Krishna explains that “whatever occupies your attention throughout life will inevitably be your consciousness at the moment you die—and to that realm of consciousness you will go” (Hawley 77). In other words, an accumulation of your thoughts and feelings will create a mental makeup that sets a precedent for your next life in the birth, death, rebirth cycle. For instance, if you are deeply engaged in your spiritual journey and live a life of selfless actions, known as “karma yoga,” you are on the path to union with God through devotion, or “bhakti yoga,” which will liberate you from the endless cycle of rebirth. You will be reincarnated into a life that is on a higher spiritual scale, such as into a spiritual family, which will aid you in your ultimate goal of becoming one with God. To Hindus, it is reassuring that our faith is not discriminatory regarding the social class we are born into; whether prince or pauper, we each have the opportunity to achieve Atma. The Gita provides a model for spiritual life and growth that is uninfluenced by the governing system under which one lives. In the Gita, while there is criticism of neglecting one’s responsibilities towards “your spouse, children, home, and kin,” this does not mean one should become so absorbed in these duties that they lose sight of their spiritual self, the Atma (Hawley 119-120). Though this duty is often linked to one’s caste or social role, it should not be used to justify a hierarchical system such as the caste system, which limits opportunities and perpetuates inequality especially within the lowest caste, the Dalits or Untouchables. In the section called “Prescribed Duties in Society,” Krishna states, “No particular group of people is superior to any other, but like limbs of the body, each has a respective role to play” (Hawley 159). For instance, society’s leaders, referred to as Kshatriyas, are meant to bring “moral stamina” and “must be examples of law, justice, and generosity” (Hawley 160). These are fundamental principles that those leading our nations should be upholding in fulfilling their obligations in society. Thus, it doesn’t matter what your duties are; as long as you fulfill them, you will stay on a path of spiritual growth.

Historically, the West has often shaped narratives about global crises. In the case of the recent atrocities against Bengali Hindus, the New York Times initially framed the violence as “revenge attacks” when they published a piece called “Hindus in Bangladesh Face Revenge Attacks After Prime Minister’s Exit” (Hasnat). Religious identities and political parties are intertwined in Bangladesh, with the initial instigation of many of these attacks being executed by the extremist alliance BNP-Jamaat. Following PM Sheik Hasina’s recent ousting, there has been a continuation of horrific violence targeting the Hindu population and other religious minorities in the past few months. As a key shaper of international discourse, for the New York Times to use a “revenge” framing–that Hindus are being punished for their support for the prime minister’s party–supports the harmful notion that Hindus are merely the victims of retaliation rooted in political crossfire, rather than targets because of their religion. This framing essentially suggests they deserved it. Though the NYT has since edited out the use of “revenge” in their title, the error reflects a broader issue: the tendency to overlook or misrepresent atrocities that do not fit neatly into Western narratives. It is crucial for Westerners who engage with these issues to educate themselves on the nuanced, complex perspectives of those affected. The Western educational system bears some responsibility for this oversight. While many curricula extensively cover genocides like Rwanda, Cambodia, and the Holocaust, the 1971 Bangladesh genocide remains largely absent from US classrooms. Without this recognition from the powerful nations of the West, the Bangladesh genocide risks going unheard, being forgotten, and persisting in a cycle of violence. There is a risk of history repeating itself, and it will keep repeating until the rest of the world starts to recognize this violence, instead of feeding into the hypocrisy of recognizing a select few historical atrocities.

Today, it is easy to overlook the significant impact that U.S. support and advocacy can have on developing countries like Bangladesh. When religious freedom is compromised, it affects humanity as a whole. We must actively engage in efforts to combat such issues, whether by participating in local protests, signing petitions, or urging legislators to take action to amplify the stories of Hindu Bengalis. The urgent need for solidarity in the face of religious persecution cannot be ignored. In some ways, the decline of secularism in Bangladesh, where rising religious tensions threaten secular principles, serves as a cautionary tale, albeit one that may not directly compare to the situation in the U.S. Here, the separation of church and state is under threat from Christian nationalists, with around 30 percent of Americans adhering or sympathizing with them, according to recent statistics from the Public Religion Research Institute. With political figures pushing for a Christian nationalist agenda through Project 2025 and Donald Trump’s recent endorsement of a “God Bless the USA Bible” (Brown), there is a widespread movement challenging this separation.

I urge my fellow Americans to learn about the history and present situation of Bangladesh, and to let it motivate us to remain vigilant and proactive in safeguarding the fundamental principles of secularism and religious freedom in the United States. Instead of a society like Antigone’s, where the government gets to dictate our conscience, I believe we must look to the model of spiritual growth laid out in the Bhagavad Gita. No matter what kind of spiritual path you are on–Hindu, Christian, Islamic, or any other–the Gita shows us how to achieve spiritual growth without making it a part of our government. I look forward to the day when I can celebrate Durga Puja with my family in Bangladesh, free from persecution and turmoil. I hope to always be able to celebrate Durga Puja in the US too, as an expression of my freedom of conscience.

Works Cited

Brown, Melissa, BrieAnna J. Frank, Chris Ullery, and Sudiksha Kochi. “‘A Religious Rally’: Trump’s Republican National Convention Fuses Faith and Politics.” USA Today, 18 July 2024, www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/07/17/religion-at-2024-rnc/74408797007/. Accessed 19 August 2024.

Freedom From Religion Foundation. “JD Vance Is Exactly What Christian Nationalists Want.” FFRF Action Fund, 18 July 2024, ffrfaction.org/jd-vance-is-exactly-what-christian-nationalists-want/. Accessed 19 August 2024.

Griffith, Mark, Glenn W. Most, David Grene, and Richmond Lattimore. Sophocles I: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus. University of Chicago Press, 2013.

Hasnat, Saif, and Qasim Nauman. “Hindus in Bangladesh Face Attacks After Prime Minister’s Exit.” New York Times, 7 Aug. 2024.

Hawley, Jack. The Bhagavad Gita: A Walkthrough for Westerners. New World Library, 2001.

Plato. The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Dover Publications, 1992.