Author: Anuradha Dutt
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 4, 2011
URL: http://www.dailypioneer.com/321890/Criminally-callous.html
Government has closed its eyes to the plight
of Hindus in Pakistan
After being carved out of the Indian sub-continen
t, Pakistan is just 63-year old. Its raison d'etre is to act as an Islamic
counter-force to a predominantly Hindu India, which encompasses all variations
of religious beliefs, including the Islamic, within a secular framework. Religious
freedom is the fulcrum of our secular ideal. It is quite the opposite in Pakistan,
created as the land of the pure by politicos, fundamentalists and a vengeful
colonial power on its last legs. But even after the partition and the exchange
of peoples between India and Pakistan, a large number of Muslims opted to
stay back because India as a secular democracy seemed a safer option, while
a much smaller number of Hindus chose to brave it out in the Islamic republic.
As a result, India today has the third largest
Muslim population of over 100 million, after Indonesia and Pakistan. Hindus
in Pakistan are about 3.9 million. Judging by current reports of Hindus' persecution
in Pakistan, with some of their important places of worship being forcibly
turned into hotels and tourist spots, and with no possibility of justice,
they may well be ruing their decision to stay back in their ancestral homes.
The Congress-led ruling coalition's indifference to their plight compounds
the problem. Its hostility to the Allahabad High Court judgement, which allotted
two-thirds of the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya to Hindu litigants
and one-third to the Sunni Waqf Board, is in sharp contrast to the Pakistan
authorities complicity in the seizure of Hindu shrines and pilgrimages for
commercial purposes.
To cite an instance, the 700-year-old Kali
Bari in Dera Ismail Khan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province is reported to have
been taken over by a business group and turned into a hotel. Sources reveal
that the operators pay the Government a small amount of money in exchange.
Some idols have disappeared from the shrine. They point out that the historic
site could attract Hindus from all over the world. This would generate more
revenue. However, despite local Hindus having brought the violation to the
attention of the Governor in April 2009, he failed to initiate any remedial
action. One just needs to compare this with the earnest assurances given by
Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh
Yadav to an incensed group of Muslims at Jangpura, who gathered to protest
against the demolition of an unauthorised mosque some weeks ago. The matter
is being heard by Delhi High Court.
In another shocking violation, the sacred
Raam Kunday Mandir in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, is reported to have been
converted into a picnic spot. It is preposterous even to imagine a heritage
mosque being turned into a recreation hub in India's capital. Not just politicos,
who nurture minority vote-banks, but the supposedly secular brigade, consisting
of the literati and glitterati, would go into over-drive to abort such a possibility.
It is, of course, a different matter altogether when Hindus demand restoration
of important pilgrimages in India, usurped by Islamic adventurers some centuries
ago. The secular brigade then trashes Hindu concerns as a prime example of
religious bigotry and revivalism. It has also consistently ignored seizure
and desecration of temples in Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as atrocities
committed against individuals. True votaries of the secular ideal would be
non-partisan in their actions. Their fervent advocacy of sectarian Muslim
concerns in particular - the community's right to follow its personal law
based on sharia, and retain control of usurped shrines, as symbols of the
dominion of Islam - actually serves to negate the secular ideal and render
it irrelevant. But they remain blind to this fact, just like an ostrich that
chooses to shut out reality by hiding its head in the sand.
Examples of misuse of shrines in Pakistan
abound. Araya Mandir in Abbotabad has been appropriated for running a school.
Several dilapidated old temples in Eminabad in Gujranwala are being used as
stables for horses, donkeys and the like. Hindu's demand for restoring to
them the Kali temple in Peshawar, which has been taken over by local traders,
has been ignored by the authorities. The Hanuman mandir in Chakwal has become
the office of salt mines workers while the Sheeranwali Mandir in Punjab's
Bakkar town hosts a madarsa for clerics. The deplorable neglect of Jogi Tala
Jhelum, sacred both for Sikhs and Hindus, and Laho Maharaj Mandir, situated
on the Badshahi Masjid premises, are also sore points.
There are an estimated 360 sites, revered
by Hindus, in Pakistan. Many are under the control of the Evacuee Trust Property
Board, which also reportedly controls 1,35,000 acres of land that belongs
to Hindu farmers. But all persuasion to hand over the pilgrimages and land
to the lawful claimants has failed despite the Preamble to the Constitution
of Pakistan assuring that "adequate provision shall be made for the minorities
to freely profess and practise their religions and develop their cultures"
and "to safeguard the legitimate interests of the minorities and backward
and depressed classes". Indian Muslims need to honestly answer whether
they have got a raw deal, as professed by some, when their condition is compared
to that of victimised Hindus and other minorities in Pakistan.
