Pakistan and its Hindus have a problem

Twenty-seven Hindu families from the troubled province of Balochistan in Pakistan have sought political asylum at the Indian high commission in Islamabad. These families have cited an increase in rapes, kidnappings, and murders of members of their community, and an unresponsive administration.

This could prove to be a test case for Indian diplomacy given the problematic relations between the two countries. In the 1950s, Pakistan government and leaders tried to play the guardian’s role for the Muslims who chose to stay back in India. Then, in a strongly-worded memorandum led by luminaries like Zakir Husain, who served as vice-president and president of the country, New Delhi refuted this presumption. Following the same principle, India is not responsible for Hindus in other countries, including Pakistan. This does not, however, preclude granting asylum to these 27 families on humanitarian grounds, and not because they happen to be Hindus.

The distinction is important not only for the sake of bilateral relations but also because of India’s definition of itself as a secular nation-state. Pakistan was ideologically an Islamic state though it did not commit itself constitutionally to the idea in the earlier decades.

The Islamic project began with the Zia-ul-Haq regime in the late 1970s, and Pakistan is paying the price for it today. The umpteen jihadi groups that have cropped up in that country are a direct consequence of Zia’s Islamisation policy. In contrast, India never declared itself as a Hindu state, either officially or through its constitution. Of course, Pakistan would have loved India to be a Hindu state, but Indian leaders denied it that satisfaction.

It is true that Pakistan has not worked out a harmonious way of integrating its minorities, an issue that its leaders and people have to solve for themselves. Christians experience the same sense of insecurity that the affected Hindu and Sikh families have experienced in recent times.

Many of Pakistan’s elite argue that minorities in Pakistan have special protection in the Islamic country in contrast to the vulnerable status of minorities in secular India. That can be a point of endless debate. What needs to be addressed is the situation on the ground, and the government in Islamabad should do what it can do to provide a sense of security to the minorities.