The regime in
Pakistan is not able to support minorities in Pakistan. It is one of the reason,
why forcible conversion of Hindu youth and especially Hindu girls and
Christians is common in Pakistan. Pakistani Hindus feel discriminated against
the government policy but it is more about the apathy of state towards Hindus
that they migrate to India. They get Indian pilgrimage visa on the premise of
visiting holy places of Hindu religion[1].
These Hindus do not leave India after the expiry of visa rather they say Indian
government to give them refugee state. The citizenship for Pakistani Hindus in
India is not possible due to bilateral problems because Pakistan might accuse
India of involvement in domestic problems. However, various newspaper articles
and my interview with Pakistani immigrants posits the fact that they are not
also told to leave India and various Hindu groups come for their assistance.
Hindu groups make refugee camp for them and also some of Hindu like Nahar Singh,
Superintendent of Central Excise and Customs, make arrangements for their stay
till governments do something for them[2]. However, Indian government also do not show
any empathy for the victims of religious discrimination in the neighbouring
country as Nahar Singh tells that his approach to Foreign Registration office,
Ministry of Home Affairs and Delhi High court to get refugee status for them do
not bear any fruit[3].
The immigrants
from Pakistan, after some time, get involved in the informal industry of Delhi.
They start selling fruits, tea and other things in the city. One thing very
recognizable is that they always use the name of Pakistan cities or other
landmarks in the name of their shop. It can be related to the concept of
‘homeland’. It shows the critique of the concept of modern nation-state drawn
based on territoriality and attempt of state machinery to keep it sacrosanct.
While talking to one of the Pakistani Hindu, who is living in Delhi for the
last two years says that he feels safer in Indian than in Pakistan despite bad
conditions of living and bleak opportunity for jobs and other benefits. Their
formal affiliation to Pakistan, however, put them into trouble sometimes. The
bureaucratic machinery especially police sometimes charge them money to do
business in the city. However, they say that it is not different from Pakistan.
They also had to pay money to police to work in the Pakistani cities. The
female members of these households work in the family as house help. Since,
they have very less opportunity to earn money therefore all the adult members
of the family has to work. Pakistani immigrants are becoming a source for cheap
labour in the city. At some places, they are preferred for the job. In
addition, whenever they meet someone who migrated from Pakistan in 1947, they
talk about their places in Pakistan. It poses a very paradoxical picture for
the new migrants. For the new migrants, Pakistan is a land of lost opportunity,
they do not want to go back there, and they are struggling in everyday to make
their life better. For them, India is their ‘homeland’. While the migrants of
1947 partition are nostalgic about the memory of Pakistan and they find
Pakistan as their ‘homeland’ and India as their nation. Urvashi Butalia
narrated same kind of story in the talk at South Asian University, New Delhi.
She also found this paradox in the imagination of her mother and her maternal
uncle. Her mother came to India during the partition but her Uncle married
Muslim girl, converted to Islam, and lived in Lahore, Pakistan. When she went
to Pakistan in 1980s, her uncle was regretting his decision to stay back in
Pakistan and his sense of homeland was India.
The homeland
narrative should be seen in the light of the conditions in which Pakistani
Hindus lives in India. They live in very dilapidated conditions, which is
called Jhuggi or slum in India in the
outskirts of city of Delhi. There is no water supply, electricity and other
basic amnesties in their areas. They maintain all this with the support of
Hindu groups, some NGOs, and some individuals. They managed to get all this
through bureaucratic loopholes. Veena Das and Emma Tarlo in their respective
works have shown how the slums attain these basic facilities through
bureaucratic loopholes or corruption. The political economy of corruption is
paving way to get basic amnesties in jhuggi
households. They also feel discriminations at some places because they are
encroaching the labour market of Indians. Therefore, sometimes people call them
deceptive spy of Inter-Service-Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani spy agency and
disturb their opportunity to get further jobs for some period. In addition,
they are paid less as compared to their Indian counterparts. When I talked with
them about these discriminations, they answered that their hope lies in this
country. Everything will be fine after sometime, as they have talked to other
people who migrated to India before them and now living life of an Indian
citizen. This hope is working as the opium for them to bear sufferings and
think of a better future in the coming days.
[1] http://www.ucanews.com/news/pakistans-hindus-enter-endless-limbo-in-india/70827
[2] http://www.firstpost.com/india/plight-of-pak-hindus-how-they-are-struggling-for-indian-citizenship-691336.html
[3] http://www.firstpost.com/india/plight-of-pak-hindus-how-they-are-struggling-for-indian-citizenship-691336.html
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