Author: Anupreeta Das
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: September 12,
2000
KAHNAUR (ROHTAK), SEPT
11: Siddhuram, 35, is willing enough to talk about why he, along with his
wife and eight children, has fled Pakistan, but on one condition.
``In what way can you help me?'' he asks. After extracting promises
that you will not ``send me back'', he narrates his story.
Five days ago, seven
Hindu families -- a group totalling 40, including 14 adults and 26 children
-- arrived from Leyya district in Punjab, on the Samjhauta Express, at
their relatives' doorstep in this Haryana village of 5,000. ``If
we go back, they will force us to convert to Islam,'' explains Siddhuram,
who used to work as a daily wage labourer in his native Jamanshah, Leyya.
Unable to face relentless
discrimination by Muslim villagers any longer -- Hindu women reportedly
are not allowed to touch water taps, children are slapped for playing with
Muslim neighbours, their temple was destroyed -- the group escaped to India
with little other than their passports and visas for a 30-day stay.
``But there is no way we are going back once our visas expire. Ab
to sirf hamari lashen jayengi Pakistan (If at all, our dead bodies will
go to Pakistan), says Vazir Chand. Chand, who used to run an electro-homoeopathy
clinic, says he stopped getting patients after he refused to convert to
Islam.
The group, which is trying
desperately to collect the Rs 31,500 needed to extend their visas for a
year, is already being wooed by a Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) representative
and has met local government authorities in Rohtak. ``We've come
on the pretext of meeting our relatives, but actually, we're saving our
lives,'' says Allah Doya Ram, who now feels safe enough to drop the `Allah'
prefix. He claims the Hindu minorities in Leyya were initially issued
separate identity cards, which were later withdrawn, but the hostility
didn't abate.
``Our children are being
forced to adopt Islamiyat in school,'' says Madan Lal. There is another
reason why they are seeking a home in India. Asks Lal: ``Who will
marry our teenaged daughters in Pakistan, especially since many Hindu people
there are converting to Islam?'' In 1998, 40 of the 60 Hindu families in
Leyya traded their religion in the hope of a better life, after which the
conversion threats from villagers and maulviês became unbearable
for the remaining Hindu families. Faced with indifferent government
authorities in Pakistan, they had no choice but to flee.
``We were not allowed
to celebrate any Hindu festival, except after 11 pm, and that too, within
our homes. Even the dead had to be buried according to Muslim customs,''
reveals Sabomai. She claims several women and young girls had been
abducted, forced to convert and then married off to Muslims in the past
two years.
The families of these
asylum-seekers (mostly Rajputs), had chosen to remain in Pakistan after
Partition, and the passage to India only began recently, in the aftermath
of ``the increasing violence between the two countries'', feels Siddhuram,
who doesn't hesitate to indulge in his own bit of Muslim-bashing.
``I hate all Muslims now, even those in India,'' he says.
The Kahnaur locals too
have been enraged by the ``inhuman treatment'' meted out to their relatives.
``They will stay and work here with us now,'' asserts Marfat Chandrabhan,
a village elder. Already, members of the Pakistani group have started
tilling neighbouring fields, and are living out of temporary brick and
cardboard structures. One such structure holds their mandir, which
they have brought with them from Leyya.
