NEW - Vedic/Hindu Calendar for 2013

NEW - Vedic/Hindu Calendar for 2013
Shri Ramapir Mandir/Temple in Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Friday, April 15, 2011

Government has closed its eyes to the plight of Hindus in Pakistan

By Anuradha Dutt
Friday, April 15, 2011
(Photo: Hindus women's in Karachi City, Sindh State of Pakistan during Laxmi Puja on Diwali Festival)

New Delhi : After being carved out of the Indian sub-continent, 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.


(Photo : A tourist at an old Hindu temple near Islamabad city, Pakistan)

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.


(Photo : The last remaining ancient Hindu temple near Rawal Lake at Islamabad City is in dire need of preservation, Pakistan)

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.

 (Photo : A famous Lord Hanuman temple in Chakwal (punjab state) is being used by the workers of salt mines as their office, Pakistan)

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.



(Photo : Hindus and other Non-Muslim citizens of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan are treated as separate and unequal citizens in a form of religious apartheid)

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.

11 comments:

  1. Hindus is the target of Muslims not India they are attacking India to upset this religion not this country we Hindus should unite and put up a defense mechanism against them otherwise this religion will be harmed by them more often.Don't believe in fake communist and socialist they are binamies of Islam the worst religion in the world

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  2. this is being done in pakistan because we have got democrecy in india and govt of india is alsways there to satisfy muslim emotions but if hindus take collective action it can be controlled.

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  3. i am agree that in pakistan nowdays is not safe for not only hindus but even muslims.

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  4. We should be proud that our country is secular that technically any religion can exist without any fear. Rather than looking at the funamentalist views of our neighbouring country we should feel proud of the ocean that we call India. Every big or small river comes flows into this ocean and becomes one with this.
    May our country always prosper

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  5. I am an Asian guy but neither Indian nor Pakistani, Bangladeshi. But I agree that India is a secular democratic country compared with Pakistan which is governed on the principles of Islamism or muslim nationalism. I am shocked to know the attitude of even Pakistani secular nationalists think of Kargil war and the violences in Jammu-Kashimir. Completely speechless on how they think.

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  6. Why you live in such a fanatic country? Do mass exodus to India and settle here.

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  7. Hats off to your bravery

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  8. I'm a Muslim im a Pakistan... we love our hindu bro and sister and bad ppl are everywhere dosent mean all the ppl hate hindu.. we salute those brave ppl who opted to stay in the land which belongs to them for long... Pakistan constituion gives them or any religion to pray and live as per their faith and belief...

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  9. My sincere request to all Hindu brothers in pakistan. Please migrate to India at the earliest.

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  10. Muslim was racist and they will always be ... They are the fake religion and the whole universe hate them...
    do whatever you want they are born with evil and satanic ideas ... demons

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  11. indian govt shld call back dis hindus....dis is nt fair...peace

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