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A Hindu, by etymological definition, "is an inhabitant of the land of the Sindhu" river, the modern day Indus. Thus in many ways, the land which is today's heavily Muslim Pakistan was the birthplace of Hinduism.

Origins of Hinduism in Modern-Day Pakistan

What is today Pakistan is where the ancient Harappa Civilization thrived, and with them was the legend of Lord Siva Pasupati, the Destroyer God of modern Hinduism, born; his "Sivalingam," and Pasupati, or "Lord of the Beasts" image on the seals of the people of Mohenjodaro, in the Sindh province. The Aryan tribes entered Bharat (India) through the Frontiers of modern Pakistan's border with Afghanistan, and crossed the Sindhu to sire the Vedas, Godfathers of Hinduism. Sindhu is the holiest, second only to the River Ganga in the northeast of Bharat. The wisdom, folklore and spiritual beliefs of the Indus valley people have become a major part of the Hindu faith that evolved.

The Sindh kingdom and its rulers play an important role in the story of the Mahabharata. It is also legend that the great Pakistani city of Lahore was first founded by Luva, the son of Vishnu's Avatara, Rama of the great epic Ramayana. The Gandhara kingdom of the North West, and the legendary Gandharva peoples are also a major part of Hindu folktales and literature like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. And destroyed by Muslim invaders was the gigantic and rich Sun Mandir near Multan in today's south Punjab province.

During the reign of Ashoka, Buddhism grew and thrived in the area, especially under the later rule of Kanishka, king of the Kushan Empire. With the ascent of the Gupta Dynasty, most Buddhists were returned to the Hindu fold, as Hindus adopted many of the teachings of the Buddha such as non-violence to all life, vegetarianism and proper treatment of fellow men. The Buddha was recognized as an Avatara, incarnation of the Supreme Lord Vishnu. It was the most peaceful absorption of one community into another in human history.

However, Vedic Hinduism was never strong in the Punjab and Sindh, especially with post-Gupta migrants like the Indo-Scythians and Parthians. This left them more open and receptive to radically different ideologies like Islam.

After Muhammad bin Qasim captured the Sindh and introduced Islam to Bharat, thousands of people were converted to Islam. Many thousands of these were victims of force and coercion. In one thousand years of Muslim rule in Bharat and the Punjab and Sindh, the population of Muslims outpaced the growth of Hinduism, although relationships between people were peaceful and much more friendlier than in modern times. Muslims still retained many of the traditions and cultural influences of the times when they were a part of the original Hindu population. It was not uncommon at all to hear a Muslim greet a Hindu or another Muslim with the traditional greeting of Rama, Rama (taking the holy name of Rama is a common practice of respectful greeting in modern Bharat). The Hindu population's influence on clothing, diet, cultural celebrations and education remained strong, until the introduction of Wahabbism and more radical Islam in the early 20th century.

On August 13 1947, the last day of undivided Bharat, the population percentage of Hindus in what is today Pakistan and Bangladesh was 35%.

Hinduism and Partition

When Pakistan was created, over 20 million Hindus and Sikhs from what was East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) and Pakistan's Punjab and Sindh provinces left this new state for Bharat (India). The reasons for this incredible exodus was the heavily charged communal atmosphere in British India, deep distrust of each other, the brutality of violent mobs and the antagonism of both the newly formed Pakistani government and Muslim migrants from Bharat who were coming to Pakistan. The forcible conversion of many thousands of Hindus to Islam, and the fact that over 1 million people lost their lives in the bloody violence of 1947, should attest to the fear and hate that filled the hearts of millions of Muslims and Hindus who had to leave ancestral homes in the batting of an eyelid.

Many Hindus who attained great success in the public eye in Bharat, like the filmstars Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar (Yusuf Khan) and Sunil Dutt trace their birthplaces and ancestral homes in the towns of Pakistan. Independent Bharat's first Test cricket captain, Lala Amarnath hailed from Lahore. Nearly all of these individuals left their homes owing to the violence and turmoil of partition.

In 1947, Pakistan still had a significant Hindu population which was economically and culturally important. Most of the Hindus lived in East Pakistan, which in 1971 gained independence as Bangladesh. The Bengali Muslims revere even today the poetry and literature of Rabindranath Tagore, and many Muslims participate in the Durga Puja festival of the Hindus. The capital and largest city of Dhaka, derives its name from the Goddess Dhakeswari, and the confluence of the holiest Hindu rivers of the Ganga and Brahmaputra is also near the city's banks. It was the language and culture of Bengal, which has its roots in the Hindu script, culture and history of the region, which became a wedge between the more Punjabi and Urduized West Pakistan which insisted upon Urdu as the sole national language. Following a deeply charged political crisis, the Pakistani army began attacking rebellious Bengalis and supporters of Bengali autonomy. A genocide soon evolved, and over 10-15 million Bengalis, mainly Hindus fled into Bharat. This led to the Civil War of 1969-1971, and finally in the liberation of the East as Bangladesh in the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971. Thus, Pakistan was left with an even smaller and less vibrant Hindu population.

For more information about Hindus in Bangladesh, SEE Hinduism in Bangladesh.

The Future of Pakistani Hindus

Since Pakistan declared itself an Islamic nation and pursued a decidely Islamic course in its political and social life since the 1980s, Hindus as a minority have had none of the privileges, rights and protections that Bharat, which constitutionally avowed itself secular, offers its Muslim, Christian and Sikh communities. Subsequent cultural marginalization, discrimination, economic hardships and religious persecution have resulted in many Hindus leaving Pakistan, and today's Pakistani Hindu population dwindling to less than 1% of the total. In 1947, the percentage of the total population that Hindus made was between 35-40%.

Pakistan's Hindus live primarily in the Sindh province, living and working as laborers, agricultural workers and farmers of small holdings. In the city of Karachi there are roughly 70,000 Hindus today. Herein they are merchants, servants and employees of service industries. The ethnicities of Pakistani Hindus include Sindhis, Gujaratis and Punjabis. They speak Sindhi, Gujarati, English and some Urdu, as per their ethnic origin and place in common life.

The Indus river is a holy one to many Hindus, and the Pakistan government periodically allows small groups of Hindus from Pakistan and Bharat to make pilgrimage, though most Hindus are forced to do this along the banks of the river that flows through a small part of Bharatiya (Indian) Kashmir.

The communal violence of the 1940s and the subsequent persecutions have resulted in the destruction of thousands of Hindu temples, although the Hindu community and the Pakistani government have preserved and protected many prominent ones.

Hindus are allotted separate electorates to vote by, but their political importance is virtually null. The Pakistan Hindu Panchayat is the primary civic organization that represents and organizes Hindu communities on social, economic, religious and political issues. There are minority commissions and for a while, a Ministry of Minority Affairs in the Government of Pakistan that looked after specific issues concerning Pakistani religious minorities.

The intense religious conservatism and politically charged environments in Pakistani Punjab, the NWFP and Baluchistan offer no breathing space for Hindus. In such an environment, Karachi's city culture allows for a secular environment that gives much needed opportunities to minorities like Hindus. Though Islamization, cultural and political has swept the country since the 1980s, the secular institutions established in British times allow Hindus to take advantage of education, sports, cultural activities, government services and participate in mainstream Pakistani life. Prominent Pakistani Hindus include Karachi's Danish Kaneria, who has recently become Pakistan's premier leg spin bowler in cricket.

Even so, the increasing Islamization has caused many Hindus to leave Pakistan and seek refuge in Bharat. Such Islamization like the blasphemy laws, which make it incredibly treacherous and dangerous for religious minorities to express themselves freely and engage freely in religious and cultural activities. The promulgation of Shariat, Koranic law has also increased the marginalization of Hindus and other minorities. Following the destruction in 1992 of the Babri Mosque in Bharat, riots and persecution of Hindus in retaliation has only increased; Hindus in Pakistan are routinely affected by communal incidents in Bharat and violent developments on the Kashmir conflict between the two nations. It remains the hope of many that a permanent peace between the two nations will go a long way in making life better for the roughly 3.3 million Hindus living in Pakistan.

• Hinduism by country
• Religion in Pakistan