How accurate is India’s claim about Pakistan’s minorities?
Is the Indian government’s claim about non-Muslim population, ie, minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh correct? READ MORE
The Parliament of India has passed a controversial bill granting citizenship to non-Muslim minority groups from three of its neighbouring countries Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan till 31 December 2014.
Under this, if Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who came to India illegally can prove that they came from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, then they can apply for citizenship.
The Indian government argues that the number of minorities in these three countries is steadily declining and they are facing persecution on the basis of religion.
It was criticized in the Parliament for calling it discriminatory as it would not grant citizenship to other minority groups in these countries. READ MORE
So let us know what circumstances are facing the non-Muslim communities in these three neighbouring countries?
Home Minister Amit Shah said that the non-Muslim population in Pakistan has decreased dramatically since 1951.
This is the situation after the large-scale migration of non-Muslims from Pakistan after partition in 1947.
Amit Shah described the population of minorities left in Pakistan as 23% in 1951, he says that their population has reduced due to persecution.
But Amit Shah’s figures need to be checked. It seems that they have mistakenly added figures before Bangladesh separated from Pakistan.
According to census data, the population of Hindus in Pakistan (West Pakistan before the formation of Bangladesh) was 1.5 to 2% in 1951 and there is no significant change even today.
The census also states that the population of non-Muslims in Bangladesh has fallen from 22% or 23% in 1951 to about 8% in 2011.
Therefore, there has been a significant decline in the population of non-Muslims in Bangladesh, while there is very little change in their situation in Pakistan.
Pakistan and Bangladesh also have other non-Muslim religious minorities such as Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Parsis.
In the 1970s, Pakistan declared Ahmadiyya people to be non-Muslim. With this, this group with a population of 40 lakhs became the largest non-Muslim religious minority in the country.
Non-Muslim groups in Afghanistan are Hindus, Sikhs, Bahá’ís and Christians. These are less than 0.3 per cent of the population there.
In 2018, there were only 700 Sikhs and Hindus left. According to the report of the US State Department, they have also escaped due to the ongoing conflict there.
The Citizenship Bill of the Government of India states: In the constitution of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, the religion of the state is considered Islam. Because of this, people of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities have faced persecution on the basis of religion in those countries.
It is true that the religion of the state is considered Islam in Pakistan. Afghanistan is also an Islamic country.
But the situation in Bangladesh is more complicated. The country came into existence in 1971 with a secular constitution, but in 1988 Islam was officially made the religion of the country.
In Bangladesh, a long legal battle to overturn this ended in 2016 with the verdict of the top court which ruled that ‘Islam’ should remain the official religion of the country.
However, all these countries have constitutional provisions that non-Muslim populations are free to follow their religious practices.
In both the countries of Pakistan and Bangladesh, people of the Hindu community have occupied the post of Chief Justice. But the houses and businesses of a large population of Hindus have been targeted.
In some cases, they were targeted in such a way that they left from there and their land and property were seized. Hindus have also been targeted by religious extremists.
The Bangladesh government has denied India’s claim of targeting minorities. Foreign Minister Abdul Monim told to media, “We do not have examples of oppression of minorities in the country.”
According to UN figures, between 2016–19, the number of refugees in India has increased by 17%.
Whereas till August this year, the largest number of registered refugees in the United Nations are from Tibet and Sri Lanka.
Bangladesh Foreign Minister Abdul Momin has rejected the statement of India’s Home Minister Amit Shah in which he said that minority Hindus are being oppressed in Bangladesh.
According to his statement in Bangladesh’s leading English newspaper Dhaka Tribune on 10 December, the Bangladesh government will read the issue properly before taking up the issue with India.
He said, “What they are saying about the persecution of Hindus is non-essential and false. There are few countries in the world where there is less communal harmony like Bangladesh. We have no minority. We are all equal. As a neighbouring country, we hope that India will not do anything that will spoil our friendly relations. This issue has come up in front of us recently. We will read it carefully and its He will raise this issue with India later. “
On December 11, another statement of the foreign minister has been published in Bangla Tribune, an online newspaper in Dhaka.
He has said that India’s secular stand will be weakened by this law of citizenship on the basis of religion.
In a press conference, he said that historically India has been a tolerant country. He said that if India withdraws from it, then its historical identity will be weak.
India’s Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament on 9
December that Hindus in Bangladesh is unable to perform their religious activities.
Amit Shah said in the Lok Sabha that the number of minorities in Bangladesh was 22 per cent in 1947 and in 2011 it came down to 7.8 per cent while Bangladesh was formed in 1971, it was East Pakistan between 1947 and 1971.
He also said that Bangladesh was considered a secular nation in the Constitution in 1971 but after that in 1977 the religion of the state was considered Islam.
Originally published at https://www.mubahisa.in.