On Tuesday 16th May 2023, IAS Tina Dabi – District Collector and Magistrate of Jaisalmer district in Rajasthan – ordered the demolition of temporary houses of the Hindu refugees from Pakistan who were living near Jaisalmer. Similarly, houses of Hindu refugees from Pakistan were bulldozed in the Jodhpur district too. The refugees in both districts were forced to relocate to different places.
This bulldozing action was followed by various media carrying out ground reports at both sites. It was the first time that the mainstream Indian media went into the depths of the problems faced by these migrant Hindus in Pakistan and the apathy they are receiving from the Indian systems and people. The disheartening stories of these Hindus are not only a reflection of the treatment religious minorities get in an Islamic state but also an eye-opener about the extent of help Hindus need to extend towards these brothers and sisters who call India their motherland.
Many of these migrant Hindus who were persecuted in Pakistan are from the Sindh region in Pakistan. They come from various Hindu communities like Bheel, Mali, Meghwal, etc. They speak Sindhi-mixed Hindi. Their journey of persecution starts from their days in Pakistan.
Hindus in Pakistan are the most endangered minorities in the world. Unlike Muslims – the so-called minorities – in India, these Hindus in Pakistan never enjoyed any normal life let alone special rights and privileges. After United India was partitioned on the basis of religious identity, the complete population transfer did not take place and these Hindus stayed back in Pakistan. The sharp decline in the population percentage of Hindus in Pakistan after the partition and the demographic changes realised in Pakistan by the forceful conversions is a well-known fact.
Despite all kinds of social challenges and oppression, there are Hindus in Pakistan constituting around 1% of the population of the fanatic Islamic country. They did not leave their places for so many years. But over the years, the Hindu community in Pakistan faced so many hardships due to which they were forced to flee to India citing various reasons.
Many Hindus in Pakistan work as servants of Muslim landlords. This service is taken generation after generation. Also, as told by the refugees in the recent ground reports, the females from these servant families would be called by Muslim masters anytime. Moreover, these Hindus never get fair payment for their laborious work.
Having a girl child is no less than a life threat for a Hindu family in Pakistan. Hindus in Pakistan stop the education of their girl child at the age of 8 or 10. So many dreams and aspirations die an unnoticed death. Even after that, there is a constant threat that Muslims may come anytime to their homes and take away the daughters only to marry them to a man twice or thrice their age.
The Hindus usually leave Pakistan on the pretext of going to holy places like Haridwar. They face difficulties in getting visas. The authorities don’t clear their visas all at a time. They restrict a few members of the family citing some reasons so that the ones going to India remain under perpetual anxiety of their loved ones and come back only to go through the hardships again.
Many Hindu refugees who came to Haridwar later went to Rajasthan as the early settlers from Pakistan were already situated there. Some other Hindu migrants from Pakistan are there in the Delhi refugee camps. The Hindus settled in Rajasthan made raw houses of the stone remains of a mining field and also made a small temple in their locality. All those houses along with the temple were demolished in the recent bulldozer action. though the government has promised to allot plots to them elsewhere, the ignorance of common Indian Hindus about these Hindus from Pakistan is only adding to their pains. All they are happy about is that at least their children especially girls are free to play and go around. They are not forced to wear any hijab.
Hindu refugees from Pakistan also face different types of discrimination in some places in India. Sometimes they are taken to the police as suspected terrorists the moment they tell that they came from Pakistan. Some of them also faced untouchability issues in some refugee camps. These Hindus were discriminated against as Kafirs in Pakistan. Now, in India, they are discriminated against as Pakistanis.
Dr Omendra Ratnu’s organisation ‘Nimittamekam’ is working hard for the welfare of these refugees. but their efforts need wide support from the Hindu community in India. Hindus in India – being continuously challenged by adamant Muslim minorities in general and Islamists in particular – need to recognize this as their own problem because the life of these Hindus and the hardships they faced is a live example of the treatment non-Muslims get in a Muslim-dominated society.
