Adil Najam
More than 10,000 Sikh yatrees from India, Europe and North America converged on Nankana Sahib on Sunday to celebrate the 538th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, and the first of its ten Gurus. This was reportedly the largest Sikh gathering at Nankana Sahib since 1947.
Earlier in the week about 4000 pilgrims from India had arrived in Lahore on the train Samjhota Express to participate in the celebrations. Others arrived at Janam Isthan by the Amritsar-Nankana Punj Aab bus service. The pilgrims arrived at the Sacha Soda Gurdawara in 125 buses on Saturday morning and returned to Janam Isthan in the evening.
According to Amir Mir, writing in Gulf News (6 November, 2006):
Nankana Sahib, a sacred city for the Sikhs and located in the Pakistani province of Punjab, has come to life as nearly 10,000 Sikh pilgrims from India, Europe and America are attending the birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Nanak. According to the chairman of the Pakistan Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (PGPC) Sardar Mustan Singh… in an unprecedented gesture of goodwill, the Pakistan government had issued visas to more than 10,000 Sikh pilgrims from India, Europe and America to visit Pakistan and participate in the three-day celebrations of the birth anniversary of the founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak.
Sardar Mustan Singh said that free food is being provided to all the Sikh pilgrims and they have been provided accommodation by the Punjab government close to the Gurdwara Janam Asthan, the birthplace of Guru Nanak. The markets of Nankana Sahib have been specially decorated and special stalls were set up to feature traditional food and apparel and books and cassettes on Punjabi poetry and the Sikh religion.
Sikhs in other parts of Pakistan (see here for earlier post) also celebrated the occasion. For example, in Karachi, according to The News, “a large number of Sikh community members got together at Rama Sawami Temple, which is situated at M A Jinnah and performed their religious rituals there and at some other places like Ranchor Line and Kikri Ground.”
Dear Mr. Alvi
I have no qualms with your main point. I was only pointing out the numbers as I see them.
Ofcourse Pakistan should be an inclusive secular democracy of the sort that I referred to in the very first post I put on this board and ofcourse what we did to Ahmadis is a national disgrace and indeed in my opinion a blot on Pakistan’s name.
YHL: You have missed the main part of my argument. My numbers come from the official figures. But let us say that your ‘guestimate’ is correct. Still the point I have tried to make is in the part you did not quote. Allow me to repeat myself:
“these minorities consist of indigenous stock. Non-Muslims in Pakistan are minority only in the religious sense otherwise they are non distinguishable from the rest of the population. Dr. Adil Najam is doing a great service to Pakistan by being inclusive towards non-Muslims in an otherwise religiously Muslim chauvinistic society where majority religion is often put ‘up in your face’. By speaking out about the religious minority rights in Pakistan at ATP he is only doing the right thing. But lets keep things in balance here. Lets move on beyond religion. Lets move on to the secular world of Pakistan where we speak in terms of Pakistan and not necessarily in terms of our religion. Lets put religion in private and not in public domain.”
My last line sums up the point. About situation of Ahmadi group in Pakistan. What we have done to them is a national disgrace. To me if a person says that he is a Muslim, then he is a Muslim. Who am I to judge any ones personal faith. Questioning other peoples faith and talking about religion need not to be part of the public discourse.
[quote comment=”7591″]To put things in perspective, out of total population of 160 million today, the number of non-Muslim population in Pakistan does not exceed 5 million. That number is less than the total population of metropolitan Lahore. For a country of the size of Pakistan it should not be hard to protect and safeguard religious minority population of less than 5 million .[/quote]
I am afraid this information may not be entirely accurate. Even if we accepted the government figure of 3-4% Non-muslim minorities… the number comes out in excess of 5 million.
Officially, the estimated Hindu population in Pakistan in 2006 is between 2 to 3 million… and Christian population is double that. That alone takes the number between 6-9 million. Unofficially, the Christians claim that they are 15-20 million in number… which is an exaggerated claim. However, Punjab alone has by any estimate close to 5 million Christians… My own guestimate is that if you add up all the religious minorities, the number comes out to around 10-12 million in total… (This is not counting the sizeable Ahmadi population which were unfairly apostasised in 1974)
A fair census will confirm these figures.
The federal government of Pakistan, the provincial government of Punjab and, above all, the people of Pakistan deserve the highest praise for extending such kindness and hospitality to their Sikh brethern from around the world!
I am a practising Sikh and my visit, as a part of a Sikh ‘Jathha’, to the shrines in Pakistani Punjab, including the one at Nankana Sahib, in April this year has been one of the most beautiful experiences of my life and one that is going to stay with me for ever!
Being the nearest to a Sikh on this forum (I was born Sikh, only to achieve athiesm), I thank you for the post and the spirit behind it.
An observation on the picture of the Guru- Sikhism does not accept idol worship, and was also hesitant in its early years to have paintings of the Gurus, so that the first paintings that we have come from after 1770s (when the first painting of Guru Nanak was made).
Over the years the representations of the Guru have also changed. In my grandparents’ house decades ago for example, Guru Nanak was always accompanied by Bala and Mardana- a low caste Hindu and a Muslim follower of the Guru, respectively.
During the time of terrorism in the 1980s and 1990s, Bala and Mardana disappeared and nowadays it is rare to find paintings of Guru Nanak accompanied by two- the Guru now appears all alone.