India not a paradise for Hindu migrants from Pakistan

India has become a land of discrimination where religious intolerance is at its peak under Narendra Modi led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), where laws like Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) are making the life of minorities a living hell. Although these laws have been widely criticized as discriminating on the basis of religion, particularly for excluding Muslims from Indian citizenship, Hindus living in Pakistan initially thought it a good opportunity to have a better taste of life in India, which unfortunately for them turned out to be bitter sweet. Majority of them had to return back to Pakistan dejected over the treatment at the hands of their fellow Hindus in India merely because of the caste difference and being a Pakistani citizen. The Indians seem to have no love for low caste Hindus let alone being Pakistanis.

In order to reap benefits of CAA like many Hindu families, Nanak Ram’s family migrated to India believing that the legislation was their path to legal immigration to India. But all their dreams shattered within weeks of living in Rajasthan. They quickly learnt that India was not the Hindu paradise he and his 13 member family had dreamed of while leaving Pakistan. They not only faced hatred from other fellow Hindus of India for being Pakistanis but because they belonged to a family of Dalits, the lowest end of India’s ancient caste hierarchy system. Although India banned caste-based discrimination in 1955, but centuries-old biases against lower-caste groups, including Dalits, persist, making it harder for them to access education, jobs, and homes.

The family members of Ram remained locked in a house for almost a year and they felt they had been living in a jail. They felt relieved when they returned home to Pakistan.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has taken several steps since assuming power in 2014 to turn secular India into a radical Hindu state and the dreadful incident in which 11 members of a Pakistani Hindu migrant family were found dead in Jodhpur, India, speaks volume of the fact that Modi’s India is not safe for low caste Hindus let alone other minorities especially Muslims.

After getting the dreams of better economic prospects in India shattered, the return of 14 members of Pakistan’s Hindu family after six months coincided with the horrific incident of 11 Pakistani Hindu migrants in Jodhpur.

While speaking to media on return from India on 11 September 2020 at the Wagah border crossing, Kanhaya Lal and Nanak Ram, the heads of the families said they personally knew that family and most of them were educated but they were suffering in Jodhpur because there were no opportunities for outsiders in India. Kanhya Lal said they were living in miserable conditions and suffered from abject poverty besides facing threats to their lives for belonging to a lower caste group of Hindus. He said more than 28,000 Pakistan Hindus are stranded in Jodhpur waiting to return to Pakistan.

On June 23, 2021 the members of All Pakistan Hindu Panchayat held a protest demonstration in front of the Indian High Commission demanding justice for the 11 members of the Hindu family killed in Jodhpur bringing back the memories of the 2020 incident. The protesters demanded the Indian government to present its inquiry report to the Pakistan government. They also questioned why they were killed in a country of Hindus, but probably they forgot that India is meant for Hindus of India and that too of higher caste.

The ordeal of Bhagchand Bheel is also the same. When he migrated to India in 2014, he thought he was among his people, and could finally be free. But his dreams shattered the time he tried to enter a Hindu temple and was denied entry by the priest because he belonged to lower caste of Hinduism. His friend too faced discrimination when he tried to drink water from the community water well and was assaulted by the upper caste Hindus as they blamed him for polluting their water source. Bhagchand Bheel said that in Pakistan, the only thing that matters is if you are Hindu or Muslim. But in India, he faced discrimination because he is Bheel. They had to live in huts made of thin wispy branches where their women work day a night to prepare quilts to earn their livelihood as they receive little to no government assistance and they could not get their children enrolled in quality schools as they could in Pakistan. One of the main reasons of moving to India given by the returning migrants was that they wanted to give their children a better future in India, but bemoaned that it was not the Hindu paradise they had crossed the border to join and felt cheated believing Modi had lied to them in luring them to India.