Pakistani Hindus flee to India claiming persecution
Officials in the western Indian state of Rajasthan have reported an increase in Hindu refugees, but Pakistani authorities say the numbers are exaggerated and those who leave are economic migrants seeking better jobs.
The latest group from Pakistan's Sindh province arrived in the desert city of Jodhpur at the weekend, and have appealed for help from the Indian government.
"Hindus are suffering social and religious persecution in Pakistan," Chetan Ram, 39, the group's leader, told AFP on Tuesday.
"My wife, mother and family are with me and we will not return to Pakistan whatever the living conditions are in India."
Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot met with some of the group and promised to seek assistance from national authorities.
"The chief minister will extend all possible help to Pakistani members who have arrived here and will take the matter up with the government for their rehabilitation," Gehlot's spokesman said.
"I worked as a labourer but could not feed my family because the employer did not pay us regularly," said Dharma, 27, who uses only one name. "We were starving without enough food."
Dharma said he had crossed from Pakistan by train with 23 other family members.
"It was painful decision to leave Pakistan because my sister could not come with us as she is married there but we will not go back."
When British colonial rule ended in 1947, the subcontinent was divided into India, a majority Hindu nation, and Pakistan, a homeland for Muslims.
Hindus make up 2.5 percent of the 174 million people living in Pakistan, where some Hindu community groups say more have left over the last year due to kidnappings, killings and even forced conversions of girls to Islam.
COMMENTS (53)
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@Zeeshan
We have given refuge to tibetans irrespective of their religion. There happy now?
@Procrastinator: Hahahaha.. Nailed it Bro!!!
@Lalajee:
One word for you "Bangladesh!!!!"....
Let me know if that rings a bell...& the magnitude is probably 100 times
Now lets hear you deny it.
@Sultan: @Zeeshan:
Both of you missed the point. The present India was not created as a Hindu majority nation as PAK was for Muslims. India by default though ended up as majority Hindu nation. But that does not make it a "Hindu nation". (religious nuts views are excluded). There is a major difference in the theme.
Will the last minority person leaving please turn off the lights?
Er....never mind, there is no power anyway.
@idiot bangali:
I may not be a Bengali, but I'm surprised the news site let such an obvious rude and intended to be offensive username pass through, ET...
Its a shame and unfortunate situation, and can only wish the refugees the best in finding the better life that Pakistan couldn't offer. I hope the situation for Pakistanis, especially minorities, changes and improves in Pakistan, but that would take a miracle.
@Obaidullah: I am sorry to say,suicide bombing or terrorism in pakistan is its own making.The policies of pakistan in sixties seventies and eighties led to this mess.Even today the government of pakistan do not look very serious to tackle this menace.All the subordinating departments (army, judiciary,media and bureaucracy ) of the government are way more powerful then the government itself.Also, please do not blame your ills on anybody else.In my eyes pakistan and only pakistan is responsible for all this mess.Even your neighbours India china Iran and above all Afganistan are now hurting aswell.
@Lala Gee:
So you gave 3 examples involving 3 religions that involve 1.2 billion people in a period of 66 years.. Nothing of these 3 is 1/100th in magnitude of direct action day.
@Arijit Sharma,
Without the British rule, do you think your ancestors would go through Greek books and re-used the term India to name your country? The Greek was dead 2000 years ago. The British colonized you and us, Muslims. Your ancestors liked the name India while our ancestors fought against it.
@pankaj
And that is the point despite all hardship those muslims stayed there because they truly believe in being Indians, did these guys thought of that when they went to India seeking assylum?
@Sultan: " ... Or do most people call it India in India. An english word just as India is a construction of the British. ... "
We - including your ancestors ( assuming you are not of Arab descent ) - were interacting with the Greeks and the Romans MUCH before the English set foot on the sub-continent. The name "India" comes from them, not the English.
@Treck:
"here advising Indians about secularism? really funny."
Not that, rather it is funny when you guys claim India a secular country. Perhaps you guys have just heard the word 'secularism' and didn't know its true meaning, otherwise there wouldn't have been so many massacres of minorities. Can you quote a single incident from the whole history of Pakistan which is even 1/100th in magnitude of the 1984 Sikh massacre, or 1993 Muslims massacre of Bombay, or 2002 Muslims massacre of Gujrat. If this is secularism then congratulations, as there is no other parallel of this type of secularism in the rest of the world.
one minority affair news showing they r endangered species in animal country ...one shia killing news...one news about atrocities in balochistan ...one news about how much people are said because of india pakistan division and finally a sarcastic blog on backwardness of pakistan ppl n here is your english news tribune ready ....claps
In pakistan since last 5 years, over 290 suicide bombings have taken place killing over 5400 people. Now ask urself a question how many suicide bombings occured in India,US,Europe,Australia,China,Japan,South africa and other non muslim countries???
@Gardhadhun do you know any gujarati muslim leaving Gujarat because he felt unsecure? if you can name any one who is doing is today after 10 years of gujarat riots then only compare conditions of india muslims with that of pak,
@John B: In 1947 Pakistan and India were created out out British India. Both countries later were joined by or usurped independent principalities junagardh, Hyderabad, Jammu and Kashmir, Goa, Kalat, Bahawalpur Sikkim etc etc. What is the Word for India in an Indian language? Hindustan (Persian)? Bharat? Or do most people call it India in India. An english word just as India is a construction of the British. Even your name is British. So let's not simplify the history of the subcontinent.
Our BAAL Thakrey is doing what,,,,,, what happened in Gujrat have we forgotten. lets correct our own home than correct Pakistan. by the way why we show so much of concern for any thing that happens about Pakistan.they must be laughing for our being obsessed about them and they least concerned. just look at the number of comments of we Indians doesnt it prove that we have nothing else to do then to blog so aggressively about Pakistan that too on a pakistani paper.
already given
@Lala Gee:
So, I (even I didn't know this), an individual, represent the secularism of India! How blessed (or cursed) my India is..
In stead of facing up to the institutional discrimination meted out the minorities in Pakistan you introduce a red herring and trying to divert the topic to the secularness of India.
Tell me, oh genius one, about just one law in India where Minorities are persecuted. Just one.
Before you ask me the same question about Pakistan, let me give the answer- Blasphemy laws, The law which says Ahmadis are non-Muslims.
Do you have a passport? If you do, you have been a participant in this discrimination, where you have yourself declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims.
I, for one, can safely and proudly proclaim of not discriminating against ANY minority group in India. Can you say the same?
what else can they do?
@BruteForce: There is no need to revert to subterfuge. The rules can be restricted to those seeking to escape religious persecution.And there is no shame in saying that Muslims from Pakistan/Bangladesh who formed a separate nation to form a country for Muslims are not eligible. This is not against secularism. This is just honoring the partition decision that the Pakistanis forever accuse us of wanting to roll back.
@Prabhat Pal: But i dont like secularism.and what kind of secularism it is without uniform civil code.
plz lets look at the state of our own India ...then we can comment on our neighbour...we are equally plunged in racism ,social apartheid and persecution of minor castes/minorities. It looks our comments are mere expression of hatred rather than fair analysis.
@Gratgy,
What happened to Tibetan and Sri Lankan Muslims?
@Lala Gee:
You know that India doesn't force them to stay and they are free to leave any time. Indians should burn their mosqes and rape their daughters and kidnap them for ransom, may be then they may run to Afghanistan, not to p..kistaan.
I have observed there is a lot of nationalist views being given here. To best judge whether hindus or muslims (I am one but not a practicing one) have done better is to look in a society where none of them are in a majority. Where better then in UK where all kind of statistics are available. To start off, hindus are 4 times less likely to be unemployed then a muslim from Pakistan (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2002/feb/20/race.immigrationpolicy). In UK the hindus are prefered more then the whites because they are cleverer and hard working. Also, muslims are more likely to get into crime then hindus. As per this link www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN04334.pdf you will note that the prison population of muslims was 6.6% in 2000 but is now a staggering 12.5% whereas for hindus it is only 0.5% constant. The population of muslims and hindus is 2.7% and 1.0% respectively. Sadly, I can therefore conclude that I belong to a race which is failing. These hindus will be welcomed anywhere in the world.
@Lala Gee
Here goes the Indian secularism down the drain. Even though we already know the reality of Indian secularism, but you guys never stop beating the drums of your secularism and claiming credit for it.
We are giving hindus refuge from state sponsored religious persecution in the same way we have given shelter to Tibetan Buddhists from the Chinese and Christian tamils from Sri Lanka.
Do you mean to say that Muslims are persecuted in a country that was created for Muslims. Shocking :O
Clearly it looks like that this migration is due to better living and jobs conditions and its common in india as Biharies are in Mumbai ,even after plenty of threats by local marathi leaders,and many more like case
Anyway ,to respect the decision of partition both the countries should make easy and formalities-less transformation of Hindus to India and Muslims to Pakistan on their will as it was the basis of partition .
@Lala Gee: But you have gone worse by destroying lives of people who thought Pakistan was a heaven. ha!!! This is the beginning only for what is to follow in that heaven
we welcome all 50 lakh hindus also shia of pakistan in our india...come here and live a very honorable life....
@Lala Gee:
The short answer is 180 million + 160 million = 340 million.
If you know your history, you would know (1) that Muslims from India refused to go to Paksitan, and (2) on top of that a MAJORITY of the Pakistanis abandoned Pakistan to create Bangladesh and (3) some of them (Ahmadis and Shias) are running for their lives.
Now, try the question again.
where shia r not safe the minority of muslims world then what we accept for hindus.............ram h rakhey...
@Lala Gee
You guys don't even leave Muslims be it Ahmadi or Shias and here advising Indians about secularism? really funny.
The only reason this has not been done yet is because India is secular. A guy saying stuff on internet does not make it a law and practice, get it?
@BruteForce:
"What our lawmakers can do is open a short window where Pakistani migrants can apply for a citizenship in India and approve only those applications which have Hindu names."
Here goes the Indian secularism down the drain. Even though we already know the reality of Indian secularism, but you guys never stop beating the drums of your secularism and claiming credit for it.
@Afzaalkhan: Good riddance @idiot bangali: good riddance
How about I take your rubbish and you take mine ?
@vish:
"ask how many Indian Muslims wants to accept pakistan as their feature the result would be 1 or None"
The short answer is 180 million + 160 million = 340 million.
I don't think everyone is persecuted. There is certainly economic factors as well.
The problem is the citizenship laws are not favorable to these Hindus fleeing persecution. If we amend it, it will be prone to misuse by even Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh and we cannot legislate Hindus specific laws.
What our lawmakers can do is open a short window where Pakistani migrants can apply for a citizenship in India and approve only those applications which have Hindu names. That will set up a precedent but a Govt in India really has to risk political capital to allow Muslims from neighboring countries to qualify for such a precedent.
Good riddance
say persecution and then go to country known for his countless genocides and persecutions against its own minorities.
"When British colonial rule ended in 1947, the subcontinent was divided into India, a majority Hindu nation, and Pakistan, a homeland for Muslims."
Are you sure this is correct? The only proclaimed majority Hindu nation in the world is /was Nepal.
"When British colonial rule ended in 1947, Pakistan, a home land for Muslims was created by partitioning India." is factually correct. The subcontinent also includes other nations which were never a part of India or (Original) PAK in 1947.
The reported statement goes against the very essence of the story and indo- pak - bangladesh history and it is time ET pays attention to the writings rather than cutting and pasting the standard sentences from the file story.
Please read the Govt of India Act and Acts on partition of India.
@ET Guys
do you have only one pic ?
good riddance
shame on Islamic Republic of Pakistan. period.. ask how many Indian Muslims wants to accept pakistan as their feature the result would be 1 or None... so you as being a state is fail. and your quid - e- azam concept of pakistan is failed., where his words are running in gutters of sind., I dont know that to blame wether People / Religion / both but over all this state is on the basis of religion so religion would be primary contender for the blame secondly the people who fallow this religion wrongly also equally responsible for the cause and the state of pakistan.. pur(oo)e state but cannot help it beyond now pakistan has reached a stage where there is no point of return of its glory of 70's early 80's, this cancer cannot be curable in the near feature., the state is dying in phobia of religious cancer.....
God bless this state of pakistan --- ameen.