



Flag of Pakistan







History

WHO IS PAKISTANI HINDU ?

A Pakistani Hindu is a person who professes faith in the principles of the holy Vedas.Pakistani Hindu culture is the world's oldest culture and it is the indigenous culture of Pakistan.

Famous Pakistani Hindus (Below)





Ancient Ages









Under Islamic and British Rule

Following the creation of Pakistan, and the subsequent mass migrations, Hindus today have a much smaller numerical presence. Nonetheless Hindus have played a major role in the history, culture and politics of the country.The term Hindu is etymologically derived from the Sindhu (Indus River) of Pakistan. The Sindhu is one of the holy rivers of Hinduism. Thus, in many ways, the land which is today's predominantly Muslim Pakistan has played an important part in the origin of Hinduism. In terms of population, Pakistan has the fifth largest population of Hindus.Hinduism, once the main religion in present day Pakistan, has endured many invasions, migrations, conquests and settlement of many tribes and ethnic groups.The Sindh kingdom and its rulers play an important role in the Indian epic story of the Mahabharata . In addition, there is the legend that the Pakistani city of Lahore was first founded by Lava , while Kasur was founded by his twin Kusha , both of whome were the sons of Rama of the Ramayana . The Gandhara kingdom of the northwest, and the legendary Gandhara peoples are also a major part of Hindu literature such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata . Most Pakistani city names (such as Peshawar Multan ) can be traced back to Sanskrit roots.People in this region were exposed to Islamic teachings through the sufis and later when the regions came under the control of various Muslim rulers. Alberuni states in his book, that some Hindus who were forced to become Muslims, were not accepted back into their community, when they escaped to places like Varanasi . He in fact laments, that due to Islamic conquests, many great Hindu scholars left this region. In over one thousand years of Muslim rule in the Punjab and Sindh, the population of Muslims outpaced the growth of Hinduism (Buddhism had virtually disappeared) due to conversion and slavery.In August 1947, at the end of British Raj , the population percentage of Hindus in what is today in Pakistan was perhaps as high as 15-20%, but would drop to its current total of 2% in the years since independence. According to the 1998 Pakistan Census, caste Hindus constitute about 1.6 percent of the total population of Pakistan and about 6.6% in province of Sindh . The Pakistan Census separates Schedule Castes from the main body of Hindus who make up a further 0.25% of national population.When Pakistan was formed in August 1947, over 7 million Hindus and Sikhs from what was East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ) and Pakistan's Punjab Sindh and North-West Frontier Province provinces were forced to leave this new state for India, and a similar number of Muslims chose the other way. 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 between the religious communities. 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, Hindus and Sikhs who had to leave ancestral homes during hastily arranged partition.Since Pakistan declared itself an Islamic nation and pursued a decidedly Islamic course in its political and social life since the 1980s, Hindus as a minority in Pakistan have had considerably fewer privileges, rights and protections in comparison to minorities in India, which constitutionally avows itself secular and giving of equal rights to its religious minorities including the Muslim Christian and Sikh communities.

The communal violence of the 1940s and the subsequent persecutions have resulted in the destruction of thousands of Hindu temples in Pakistan, although the Hindu community and the Pakistani government have preserved and protected many prominent ones. The Hindu Gymkhana in Karachi has tried to promote social development for Hindus in the city. One of the few temples remaining in Karachi today is the Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Karachi.

Hindus are allotted separate electorates to vote by, but their political importance is virtually nil. The Pakistan Hindu Panchayat and the Pakistani Hindu Welfare Association are the primary civic organizations that represent and organize 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 looked after specific issues concerning Pakistani religious minorities.

The future for Pakistani Hindus

The increasing Islamisation of Pakistan and antagonism against a majority Hindu. Pakistan has forced many Hindus to leave Hinduism and convert to Islam. Such Islamisation include the blasphemy laws, which make it dangerous for religious minorities to express themselves freely and engage freely in religious and cultural activities. The promulgation of Sharia, Quranic law has also increased the marginalization of Hindus and other minorities. Following the destruction in 1992 of the Babri Mosque in India, riots and persecution of Hindus in retaliation has only increased; Hindus in Pakistan are routinely affected by communal incidents in India 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 8 million Hindus living in Pakistan. The 1998 census recorded 2,443,614 Hindus in Pakistan. Reports from Pakistan indicate that Hindu minorities under Taliban rule in Swat are being forced to wear Red headgear such as turbans to make it easier for the Islamic militants to target them for discrimination. In light of these deprivations, Pakistani Hindu minorities have started fleeing to India.

(The Decline of

,

and

in the areas that now constitute the new country of Pakistan which was formed in 1947 happened for a variety of reasons, and even as these religions have continued to flourish beyond the eastern frontiers of Pakistan, these

religions have continued to dwindle in Pakistan)