It just took one statue of Lord Ram to expose the minority problem in neighbouring Bangladesh. Roughly two years after raucous mobs vandalised statues of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman during the July Uprising, a Ram statue in northern Bangladesh has riled radicals and brought rival community groups out on the street against each other.
The work on the 81-foot Ram idol structure, which is pegged as the tallest Ram statue in Asia, constructed within a temple complex in Madhyarampur village under Palashbari upazila of Gaibandha district, has come to a grinding halt.
While India has expressed concerns after reports came out of alleged desecration of Lord Ram’s images in Bangladesh by mobs who want the statue to be pulled down, the issue has led to calls for a separate Hindu homeland in Bangladesh.
Much ado over a statue
The Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Kali temple complex in Palashbari, Gaibandha, has been in the news for some time. According to reports, local devotee Haridas Babu established a temple in Brindaban Para of Madhyarampur village eleven years ago. The complex had idols of goddess Kali and Radha-Govinda. With time, the site expanded and became an important religious centre for local Hindus.
A 30-foot-tall statue of Lord Shiva and a 50-foot-tall statue of Lord Krishna were eventually installed at the temple. The Krishna statue attracted much attention and was officially inaugurated on 25 November 2025 by Manoj Kumar, Assistant High Commissioner of India in Rajshahi.
“Encouraged by the growing prominence of the temple complex, organisers launched an ambitious project to construct an 81-foot-tall statue of Lord Ram, which would become the tallest such monument in Bangladesh. However, as the structure gradually became visible, opposition to the project began to emerge,” states a report.
In May 2026, an Islamist group known as Insaf Kayemkari Chhatra Sramik Janata publicly condemned the project and called for the construction to be stopped. Other Islamist organisations made the same demand.
On 12 June, local authorities ordered a temporary suspension of construction of the Ram statue, citing security issues and the need to maintain public order. Officials said this was intended to prevent potential unrest and ensure the safety of all communities in the area.
“We are Bangladeshis and we believe in peaceful coexistence among people of all religions,” Shyamal Kumar Mahanta, a Sri Sri Radha Govinda and Kali temple committee member, told the press. “To preserve social harmony, we have decided to temporarily halt the project.”
Since then, both Hindu and Muslim community groups have hit the streets in Bangladesh for and against the construction of the statue. Tension mounted after reports spread of a procession taken out by local Muslims, allegedly desecrating a poster of Lord Ram by hitting it with shoes.
Hindus have demanded immediate arrest and exemplary punishment of those who “insulted Lord Sri Ramachandra and threatened to demolish temples in Gaibandha and other parts of the country”.
New Delhi reacted to reports of the alleged desecration of images of Lord Ram, with the Ministry of External Affairs expressing concern and urging Dhaka to ensure the safety of minority communities. MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that India expects the Bangladesh government to take action against extremist elements and guarantee the security of minorities.
Apart from becoming a sticking point between New Delhi and Dhaka, the issue has resulted in Bangladeshi Hindu protestors coming out in large numbers and some openly calling for a separate homeland for Hindus in Bangladesh.
Clips of Bangladeshi Hindu lawyer Chaitali Chakraborty have gone viral, where she is asking Islamist radicals not to interfere in private matters of Hindus, failing which she says a separate homeland for Hindus carved out of Bangladesh would be the only option left.
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Call for a Hindu homeland
The call for a separate Hindu homeland carved out from Bangladesh may be a reaction to the alleged desecration of Lord Ram’s pictures. But it has spread like wildfire on social media.
Bangladeshi influencer Elias Hossain has said a grand Ram statue is a conspiracy hatched by India to destabilise Bangladesh, and investigative agencies should look into the source of funding.
Youtuber and political commentator Pinaki Bhattacharya put out a video saying India’s foreign intelligence agency RAW, was behind the Ram statue, and India plans to annex the entire Rangpur division of Bangladesh, like it has annexed Kashmir.
The idea of a Hindu homeland is not a new one. On 22 December 2001, the BBC had put out a report saying Altaf Hossain Chowdhury, the then Home Minister of Bangladesh, said that some members of the country’s minority Hindu community are engaged in a plot to promote separatism in the country.
“Mr Chowdhury told the mass-circulation Bengali language newspaper Ittefaq that a movement was being revived to create an independent country comprising several south-western districts of Bangladesh. He was quoted as saying that the movement aimed to establish what he called “Bangabhumi” and that personnel were being recruited and camps established inside India near the border with Bangladesh,” states the BBC report.
The report went on to add that “the comments came in the wake of reported violence against Hindus in Bangladesh” after the October general election won by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
“Hundreds of families fled to the Indian state of West Bengal, saying they had suffered violence and rape,” the report states.
Every time there has been a communal flashpoint in Bangladesh, the talk of a separate Hindu homeland has come up in discussions both in India and Bangladesh. For Bangladeshi Hindu rights activist Jayanta Karmakar, there has been no respite for Hindus in Bangladesh after the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government in August 2024.
“On Facebook, Muslim fundamentalist groups are threatening a 1971-type genocide of Bangladeshi Hindus over the Ram statue. Who do we turn to?” Karmakar told ThePrint over the phone.
Relations between India and Bangladesh had soured under the Muhammad Yunus-led interim government after the fall of the Hasina regime. New Delhi and Dhaka have been trying to normalise ties ever since a newly elected government under Tarique Rahman came to power in February this year.
Dhaka would do well to address the issue of the Ram statue immediately to prevent the breakout of large-scale communal violence and make the sentiment on the ground for a separate Hindu homeland stronger. It must also ensure that ties with New Delhi do not further deteriorate.
Deep Halder is an author and a contributing editor at ThePrint. He tweets @deepscribble. Views are personal.
(Edited by Saptak Datta)