Adil Najam
Religious intolerance must never be tolerated. To be silent in the face of intolerance is intolerance itself. It is a blot not only on those who commit the acts of intolerance, it is a scar on the face of societies that allow it.
One of the very first posts we had done here on ATP was about the alleged demolition of a Hindu temple in Rangmahal Lahore (here). We followed it up with a second post demonstrating that by design and by default key forces in the media and amongst politicians tend to distort issues for their own myopic gains, even at the cost of the larger issues at stake (here). A third post on this issue from ATP followed up the story further and tried, as best as we could, to separate the facts from the rhetoric (here).
Vigilance must, however, be ongoing.
Now one hears from a hard-hitting editorial in The News of a more blatant act of desecration of another Hindu Temple – this one in the Baghdadi area of Lyari Town, Karachi. Once again, it is greedy land grabbers playing on the religious insensitity of society to gain a little personal benefit without paying any heed to the massive costs and deep wounds they inflict upon an already maligned social fabric through their nefarious actions.
The News editorial (11 October, 2006) gets it exactly right; so let me quote from it in full:
Stop the desecration
In an ultimate insult to any place of worship, a Hindu temple in Karachi has reportedly been encroached upon by local butchers and parts of its compound have been converted into a slaughterhouse. This is most insensitive to the religious feelings of Hindus since cows are considered sacred by them. The actual culprits behind the steady encroachment in the compound where the temple is situated are not the butchers — who are plying their trade there with impunity — but the land grabbers allegedly operating with the collaboration of the local police. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan has rightly demanded that the Sindh government and the city nazim take immediate action to stop this encroachment, not least because it offends the religious sensibilities of a minority community.
According to an application sent by the HRCP to the provincial government, the land grabbers have forced the Hindu residents of the century-old Pawaldass compound in the backward Baghdadi area of Lyari Town of old Karachi to sell their properties at cheap rates. The land grabbers’ tactics range from monetary inducements to the poor Hindu families to violence carried out with the active involvement of the local police. There are even reports of a Muslim praying area having been forcibly established inside the compound. The action of the land-grabbers is doubly criminal. They are dispossessing the residents, taking over their temple in the process. In addition, they are in direct violation of the West Pakistan Evacuee Properties Act of 1957. Both call for the immediate action the HRCP has demanded. The action should not stop at prevention of further encroachment by the land grabbers, but should extend to the return of the residents’ occupied properties. At the same time, of course, the religious rights of the Hindu residents must be completely restored. It is about time that we began to respect the religious feelings and sensibilities of those of other faiths, especially since we tend to be very sensitive ourselves if our own sensibilities are slighted. The government is eager to project itself as progressive and for that alone it should ensure that the shenanigans of the land-grabbers and their patrons in the local police are stopped immediately. It goes without saying that if a mosque were encroached the government would act immediately — it needs to show the same promptness with respect to safeguarding the rights of the minorities as well.
It is good that the media (The News) and civil society (HRCP) are vigilant and demanding action. Their demands are exactly right and we must all join with them in this cause. But more than that this is again a moment when the government must act, and act immediately, to stop this gross viloation, to make up for what has happened, and to take real measures that can insure that this will not happen again.
The issues of minority rights across the two countries have such great interlinkages that they cannot really be isolated completely. I also hope it is not your point, Samdani, that Indians should stay out of this discussion just because they are Indians. I don’t necessarily hear you saying that, but what you are saying comes pretty close. I do believe a mature discussion should revolve around arguments, not around the national, religious or other identities of the individuals involved.
On both sides, there is a tendency to look selectively at issues:
On the Pakistani side, people often point to the absence of riots that have plagued India since the 60s and particularly since the early 80s to suggest that minorities have it good in Pakistan. This ignores the fact that the mass ethnic cleansing during the early years, followed by long years of progressive Islamization starting from the Objectives Resolution itself, have ensured that there is virtually no non-Muslim population left and any remaining minorities are worse than second class citizens. There can hardly be riots when a minority is completely in awe of the majority and accepts its hegemony completely and/or are numerically miniscule.
Indians on the other hand point to an impeccable set of constitutional guarantees and the general growth and visibility of minority proportions in the population, ignoring the fact that minorities (mainly Muslims, but not restricted to them) face subtle forms of discrimination, besides the occasional communal riot, in which invariably more Muslims are killed than Hindus, irrespective of how the riot starts.
The record on both sides is less than good, to say the least. A relative comparison between the countries is pointless, whatever one’s personal feelings on the issue might be, since it does nothing to further the rights of the respective minorities or promote harmony within these societies or across societies. Further, the set of issues on the two sides are completely different. Any judgement on the issue, on either side of the border, therefore needs to be against an absolute standard, for instance the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which both countries are signatory, or additionally in India’s case, to its own constitution.
Amit, the reason minority rights in Pakistan are not as well cared for as they should is exactly the same as the reasons why such rights are cconstantly abused in India. And, Rajeev, I wish and pray that one day India’s record will become as swqueaking cleas as you portray it. Your explanation of Gujrat is just so erroneous that even discussing it seems silly.
But more than that, the discussion of rights on minorities in India should be done on INDIAN websites and seems to have no place on a blog ccalled ‘All Things Pakistan’. After all, if we Pakistanis started pontificating about what is happening in India or trying to spread propaganda and incite flames, then we will look as petty, small-minded, and insecure as some Indians do when they try to come to sites like this to sermonize. There is much that can be said about the state of minority, espeically Muslim minority, rights in India. But it is not my place to talk about that here, because that woudl just make me look petty and vindictive, wouldn’t it!
We will all be so much better off if we looked at our own records and fixed things that are wrong within our own countries before playing childish pranks and indulging in inciteful fingerpointing. After all, there is so much that needs to be fixed and improved in each of our societies. Luckily you have a number of very good blogs and forums in which to advance your discussions of minority rights in India. I wish you and Indian minorities best of luck in pursuing those discussions there. I hope that your discussions on Indian minorty rights on Indian websites will help improve the sitution on the ground in India, just as our discussions here amongst ourselves might make things better in Pakistan.
As for the argument between Alpervaiz et al. I simply must point to the demographics of Pakistan and Bangladesh vs. India. Paksitan was 24% Hindu in 1947, and in 1951 after the partition was complete it fell to 15%. During wars with India and incedents such as the Babri Mosque demolition, the Pakistan Hindu minority had to pay so dearly that they either fled, were killed, or forcibly converted. In addition many Hindu girls are regularly kidnapped, converted, and married to Muslim men all by force. Also Muslims have higher birthrates than Hindus Pakistan is now 2% Hindu, and they live in a precarious position despite Hinduism being as native to Pakistan as Zoroastrianism is to Iran. Bangladesh paints a similar picture. In the 1800s, B’desh was majority Hindu and Buddhist. Up to partition time it slowly dwindled to 33% due to uneven birthrates, conversions, and intermarriage. In the independence war, the Pakistani army targeted Hindus in particular and are estimated to have killed more than 3 million Hindus, in addition to many millions more fleeing. It is estimated that given birthrates and the like, there would be 20 million more Hindus on the planet had the Pak army not massacred the Bengali Hindus. Bangladesh is now 10% Hindu and with rising Islamic fundamentalism it is declining quickly.
Now let us look at India. Before partition it was 11.3% Muslim. After partition it was 9.9% Muslim. But due to high birthrates and Bangladeshi economic migration they have now increased to 14%. And that is despite many Hindus fleeing to India from Pakistan and Bangladesh. Muslims are not expected to follow the two child norm of family planning as are Hindus which further exacerbates the situation. Hindus have not only been ethnically cleansed from Pakistan administered Kashmir, but India has allowed the Muslims enough leeway to exterminate and evict Hindus from the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. And the Imam of the Jama Masjid in Delhi, Syed Salhuddin has called for a second partitioning of India. So despite the press stories about the Gujrat massacres (which were provoked when 57 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a train bombing) and Babri Masjid demolition, the pure statistics tell a very different story. Have any temples in Karachi and Lahore survived that hold the prominence of the Jama Masjid or the Qutab Minar? No, they have all been demolished or converted and only a few small ones remain.
All of this said I would really like to thank ATP for raising this issue. Thousands of heroic lawyers, journalists, politicians, and social activists have stood firm against death threats from the government and from Islamic fundamentalists. It is really a thankless task to protect such poor people as well as your own heritage. Most of those doing this good work are in fact Muslims because most Hindus and Buddhists are now afraid to take up their own cause. I thank you all for your concern on the issue and I truly hope that the desecration can be stopped.
Why are religious minority rights not being protected in Pakistan? Pakistan was created and insisted that they would protect the rights of minorities. India has done a better job at this then Pakistan. Maybe the folks just don’t care!
-Amit
http://www.ipatrons.com
[quote comment=”4399″]
Toba Tek Singh,
But the actions of Hindutvaadis like the demolition of Babri mosque, the Gujrat riots, the protest against visiting cricketers make the liberal voices in Pakistan weaker.[/quote]
Religious fanaticism in both countries have separate tracks. At least in Pakistan its not tit for tat. Since the introduction of zia-shariat, all sorts of places of worships have been burned/attacked with no relation to what happens in India what so ever.
“Liberal” voices in Pakistan should also remember that Pakistan is no better.