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| 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 and 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 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. | 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 and 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 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. | ||
Revision as of 13:29, 28 June 2005
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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 and 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 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.
Since Pakistan declared itself an Islamic nation and pursued a decidely Islamic course in its political and social life, Hindus asa minority have had none of the privileges, rights and protections that Bharat, which constitutionally awowed itself secular, offers its Muslim 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.
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. 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.
Hindus are allotted separate electorates to vote by, but their political importance is virtually null.
Although an Islamic state, Pakistan's city culture allows for a secular environment that gives much needed breathing space 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.
Even so, the increasing Islamization has caused many Hindus to leave Pakistan and seek refuge in Bharat. Following the destruction in 1992 of the Babri Mosque in Bharat, riots and persecution of Hindus increased.