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Discriminated, persecuted, robbed and raped, the Hindus of Pakistan fleeing and fortunately finding generosity and refuge in kindly India, but where would Pakistan's persecuted Christian minority would go?


“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of that bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. That bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge (even to ourselves) that we've been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.) [Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection]

Religion has historically surpassed every progressive human endeavour! If one considers, in addition to its role as an accomplice of class domination throughout history, it is sadly a little wonder that it has brought upon itself the contempt and hatred on ever increasing numbers of peoples, in particular of revolutionaries.

Hence, I ask myself:

  1. How some seemingly responsible citizens could take it upon themselves to disparage the sentiments of believers of other faiths?
  2. How can supposedly sane and intelligent observers bring themselves to shun civilized compassion and embrace bizarrely selective and twisted interpretations of holy scriptural writings?
  3. What has happened to broad-mindedness, decency and plain commonsense in this era of liberal enlightenment and media freedom across the world?

There was, and still is, bigotry in every Islamic country! If there were no religion, then it could be a right-handed people against left-handed peoples (just for example). Human beings will usually find some/any reason to believe that if any of their fellow faithful are in some fashion different to a local majority, then they must be punishably wrong. And, that tolerance of diversity seems the least acceptable difference of all!

Ammar Shahbazi in his recent article, painted a grim picture of Hindus in Pakistan:

Moreover, no! You don’t get lynched or forcibly converted if you are a Hindu living in the Islami Jamooriyah Pakistan (Islamic Republic of Pakistan), unlike other brethren/faithful in certain parts of this country. But, your (Minority) sense of being different is often stoked in the unlikeliest of situations, especially when you interact with the wider community (Majority –Muslims) and identify yourself as a Hindu faithful.

A small, seemingly trivial incident brings this painful reality and offers a reminder of how deeply entrenched everyday religious discriminations can be in an Islam dominated country like Pakistan.

I met Rajesh* at a Printing Press shop. A social activist, who runs a school for poor Hindu children in Karachi, Rajesh also wanted to print a panaflex with a picture of the baby Lord Krishna, on the occasion of Janmashtami (the birthday of Lord Krishna) which is being celebrated across the world. Now to an ignorant Muslim, it seemed much surprising that Rajesh felt his routine task would not be an easy one. Yet, he had to have delayed the job of getting the material printed, as his Hindu friends in the printing business were already overbooked with orders.

Ambling from one printer’s shop to another in the city, Rajesh carries a sample color printout he has designed for the panaflex, and shows it to the printers. All he gets in return are blank looks and sneers with a message that they are Fasting and busy.

And to look for another printer a few lanes away who prints ‘Hindu material’. With a wry smile on his face, Rajesh points out how terrible it feels to be put through this humiliation and ordeals. “On major occasions like Janmashtami, we can’t afford to leave anything to the last moment; people here usually don’t print pictures of our deities, because they (Muslims) find them ‘jinxed’, I guess?”

Agha*, one of the printers who declined to print Rajesh’s ‘Hindu material’, says “Bus Yaar, Samjha Karo” (buddy, just try to understand!), he said with a sheepish smile, and divulged that his workers will refuse to work on pictures of “Murtis” (Hindus deities) in Ramadan. However, Rajesh said that these printers routinely decline to print religious Hindu materials, irrespective of whether it is Ramadan or not! “I always have go to a Hindu printer because that’s the safest bet. They do the job without whining, and also keeping the sacredness of the material in mind.”

Rajesh said that discrimination surely exists and it is widespread. The Muslims printers, when approached, are usually ambiguous about their behavior. One of them, a twenty-something man named Qasim*, said that it is simply forbidden for Muslims to help spread the religious messages of Kafirs. So, he does not want to become a part of this activity and anger Allah and His Messenger!

Rajesh said he just wanted to print a panaflex for the Hindu children in the school he runs.

“It’s an important event, so I wanted to make it a bit special for them. But, I think this year like other years before, I will have to go without these panaflex pictures.

But, who knows, somebody might just take the order and help me out.” In the meantime, Rajesh kept on trying his luck, with the sample in his hand, moving from one shop to another.

pakistan-hindu-woman-leave-for-india

A Hindu woman weeps while seeing off a
elative at the railway station (INP)

For the last few years, the minority segments in Pakistan are callously being persecuted by the Muslims. Christians, Hindus and even the Ahmedis are subjected to harassments and their women folks are forcefully being converted to Islam. Some are killed, whilst others are simply disappeared and tortured into forceful rapes and marriages.

These days there are news that some ‘Sixty Hindu families’ are migrating to India due to the prevailing law and order situations with extortion issues gravely affecting these Hindu minorities in the interior regions of Sindh. According to details in the newspapers, these Hindu families have left Jacobabad for Lahore by trains from where they would cross the Pakistan side of the WaghaHYPERLINK "http://www.mapsofindia.com/amritsar/excursions-from-amritsar/wagah-border.html" border into India.

Mahesh Kumar*, amongst those migrating Hindus families, said: …they did not want to leave their motherland but they were compelled to migrate; as there is nobody here who will listen to our problems and take notice of the issue”.

He added: “…there had not been a day when the Hindu peoples did not get death threats from these Islamic extremists, nor a day goes by when a Hindu’s house had not been forcefully barged into and lootedEven our womenfolk were not safe now.”

With tears welling in his eyes, Kumar said he and his family had been well settled here; though, they did not want to leave the “Sindh Dharti”, as they have no options left now. The President of the Hindu General Panchayat of Jacobabad – Sindh, Mahesh Lakhani, while talking to the media people, said that through a conspiracy, the Hindus were being harassed and persecuted, so that their lands and their properties worth billions of rupees could be occupied. Lakhani also said, “…he had been saying it at the top of his voice, but nobody was willing to take any notice.”

Meanwhile, citing fears of the world interference, the Pakistani Government has indulged in probing of such exodus of the Hindus to India as the President has asked the Ministry of Interior to probe into this matter.

Hence, where will the Pakistani Christians migrate to when the Pakistani Hindus are moving over to India?