Bharat is the Mother lode of Hinduism – Sanatan Dharma or Hinduism originated here, the land of Ganga, Gita and Goumata. All Hindus who live in any part of the world find their roots here. There was a time when Hinduism is said to have spread right up to the land of a 1000 rivers (Russia – as is evident in the excavated statues of our Hindu Gods) in the North to the Gulf nations in the West (Yavan Pradesh as mentioned in the Bhagwatam); to Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan (yes, they too worship forms of Saraswati and Ganesha) and Sri Lanka in Asia. But over a period of time, it is only Bharat or India that retains Hinduism as its main religion. All other nations have got converted to either Islam or Christianity or some form of Buddhism.
When our Bharat got divided during Partition, some of our Hindu brethren (including our Sikh brethren) were left behind in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. At that time, the understanding was that they will be treated as respected citizens of those countries, just like those Muslims left behind (or those who chose to stay back) in Bharat would be treated with respect and as equal citizens. But this has turned out to be a mirage for the unlucky Hindus who were left behind in these countries which rapidly turned into Islamic countries and started persecuting those who did not follow the Islamic faith (called ‘Kafirs’). Soon it was obvious that they would be slaughtered, raped or tortured at every opportunity that presented itself. Their places of worship would be destroyed. Many of these unfortunate souls even converted themselves into Islam to escape such torture. The population of Hindus in Pakistan during Partition which was more than 20% has now reduced to less than 2%. According to Prof. Barakat of the Dhaka University, because of religious persecution, around 11.3 million Hindus have left Bangladesh between 1964 and 2013. Recently we have received news from Afghanistan of Sikhs being persecuted there. The census in Bharat, on the other hand, presents a completely different picture. Let us look at just one State – West Bengal:
What happens to the Hindu refugees who flee from their erstwhile homeland and come to Bharat in hope of a better life? This is where the real tragedy is. Those who came to Bharat during the Partition managed to turn around their life after many trials and troubles. But they at least got Indian citizenship. But those who came to Bharat after the 70’s have had severe problems with getting the Indian citizenship. It is only after the Modi Government came into power that there has been a provision of granting long term visa rights with benefits such as Aadhar card and PAN card issued to the fleeing Hindus, during their wait for getting citizenship. It is a long process and can take anywhere from 5 years to a decade or more. Currently there are more than 2,00,000 Hindu refugees from Pakistan and Bangladesh. They are put up in refugee camps where even basic necessities like Water, Power, etc. are not given. They live in hutments like structures and the situation is so bad that from 2015, more than 1000 of them have returned to Pakistan and have got converted (as per reports).
Very recently Twitter was afire with reports of the Hindu refugee camps in Delhi having no power even in the peak of summer. It is surprising that the State Government of Delhi which complains about everything is incapable of providing something as basic as water and electricity. In Delhi’s Adarsh Nagar colony in North Delhi, there is a settlement of 600 Pakistani Hindus, including 150 children. They live in small temporary houses with little or no facilities and earn their living by working small jobs to support their livelihood and contribute to the economy. Their small world was shaken in April and May 2018 by repeated thunderstorms which caused widespread damage to their hutments.
Hardly had they managed to recover from this, their electricity supply was disconnected by the authorities in the first week of June. As days passed, the children started getting sick with the unrelenting heat of the scorching Delhi sun.
Their pleas for restoration of electricity supply fell on deaf ears until highlighted on social media. As of 30th June 2018, the electricity supply is still not restored. Besides electricity, the colony has many basic needs such as for better shelters, water, sanitation, medicines, education and livelihood.
Some spirited youngsters are carrying out a campaign to collect funds for the residents of this refugee settlement. This campaign aims to generate a corpus of INR 10 lakh that is to be used for meeting the needs of the colony like buying a generator, creating sanitation facilities, providing the people with clean water, education and basic health facilities. https://milaap.org/fundraisers/rebuild-adarshnagar is the link to the campaign.
Where should the refugee Hindus go, if they cannot find place in Bharat too? This is one question which should haunt every Hindu. Imagine if a time comes when your close relative who has settled in Spain, England, Dubai or the USA is forced to leave that country because of an Islamic invasion or pro-Christian policy … which country can they return to, if not Bharat? Is it not time that we have policies in place like ISRAEL which takes back Jews of all Nationalities, if they wish to settle down in Israel? Should our hollow declaration of being a Secular State, not allow people who follow its original faith and culture, to come back home and settle down here, should the need arise? It is imperative that our Government looks into this because the coming years are playing out to a conflict between two main religions (Islam and Christianity) on the horizon.
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