Decimation and Missing of Hindus in south Asia

There was recently an article published at dailyo.in titled "The missing Hindus in South Asia and a conspiracy of silence" by Saswati Sarkar. She laments that Indian media is quick to cover all kinds of international events, be it Arab Spring or Gaza conflict or beautification of saints at the Vatican. But it is surprisingly silent to the genocide of Hindus at the global level and more closely in their vicinity,ie, neighboring countries. Seh says that there a 'conspiracy of silence' in our media regarding decimation and missing of Hindus in south Asia region.

According to Sarkar, our neighbors such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Myanmar have done a commendable job in eradicating the very essence of Hinduism in their respective countries. She adds that starting off with the scandalous episodes we have Pakistan on our list at the top. When it comes to India, Pakistan is the mother of all conspiracies.

Pakistan: A closer look

The population of Hindus has declined at an exponential rate in about last 50 years. As mentioned by Saswati Sarkar: " In 1947, Hindus constituted about 15 percent of the population of West Pakistan (current Pakistan); by 1998, it is about 1.6 percent " Thanks to all the social and legal discrimination which exists there. Some of them are as follows

• Only Muslims are allowed to stand for presidential/prime ministerial candidate.
• Targeting Hindus via court harsh punishments such as death sentences through Blasphemy laws.
• Not giving any family-related laws to non-Muslims.
• Promoting hatred against minorities in through academics (via schools and Madrasas).
• Forcing women and girls to change religions.
• Even temples have not been spared .Stone idols were smashed off. One of the most sacred places such as Hinglaj Mata temple was also targeted. As a result, many Hindus are now taking refuge abroad with no hope left behind.

Bangladesh: A closer look

Coming off to the next episode we focus towards Bangladesh. Continuing the legacy of killing Hindus it has performed indeed well.

• Simply in the name of Hindu women are raped here.
• Girls are sold.
• People have been forced to leave the nation (especially Bengali's Hindus).
• Spiritual festivals such as Durga Puja are targeted and people are decimated.
• 'Enemies' this is the term used there to refer Hindus community.

Bhutan and Malaysia: A closer look

Coming next on the list we infer countries are Bhutan and Malaysia .They make look small but they are no behind.

• Nearly 100,000 Hindus have been expelled alone from Bhutan.
  Policies such as Bhumiputra have affected a major chunk of Hindus in Malaysia.

Hats off to our government and Media for playing a major part in adding to their misery. Right under their nose all these decimations were taking place and they remained as mute spectators. We didn't even bother to give help to the officially declared Refugees. Neither did we care about raising these issues in United Nations. Thanks to our present Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi and some leaders such as Shivraj Singh Chauhan who showed special concern towards these needy people.

• Fast track process of Indian citizenship.
• Private jobs will now be offered to these refugees.
• Unlike us (home to the largest democracy) leaders from the US such as Tulsi Gabbard and Aaron Schock have stepped up in eradicating these atrocities on minorities.
• Protests have been organised in Washington DC for a help of those people in the name of humanity.

Sarkar laments that it is a matter of shame for us for turning a blind eye to those brothers and sisters of ours. Even on our own soil Kashmiris Pandits have been killed in large figures and were forced to eat beef.

Related article : Plight of Kashmiri Pandits

Role of media

Sarkar then takes in the Media. Uncovering our media, they were expected to do something regarding all these horror acts. Some of which are mentioned as follows-

• Leaders such as Zafar Ali Khan put forward his notion that no Sikhs shall live in Pakistan.
  • Adding to the fact 7 million Sikhs and Hindus were eradicated from Pakistan.
  • Nearly 10,000 to 20,000 were killed in Sheikhpura district and 7000 Hindus were killed in Rawalpindi district.

• Tortures were commonly practised such as-
  • Cutting off Nipples
  • Ripping of wombs of pregnant women and destroying their foetus.
  • Inserting of rods in private parts of women.
• Children were even burnt alive and were often thrown to swords.

India Today did cover the misery of Rinkle Kumari in 2012. It did receive some coverage. Such is the irony that small media groups and sites with much fewer resources compared to rich Indian media have collected and published more facts. And our own media is standing numbly in front of them with nothing in their hand. When it came to a killing of a Muslim in Pune or be it Gujarat riots coverage or any martial persecution or be it Slapping of the civil servant by any political leader or the conversation of Muslims and Christians to Hinduism. These are well covered and are projected by our media but when it comes to the killing of Hindus by a Muslim or raping of a girl by a Muslim or be it brutal torturing of Lt Col Purohit or burning of Hindus homes by Muslims mobs or Torturing of national level Indian shooter Tara Sahedo our media becomes silent. In Tripura NLFT (National Liberation Front of Tripura) has banned Hindu festivals and has used rape as a tool to force Hindus to listen to their atrocities.

As mentioned by the writer herself "It is telling that my references for the terror allegedly fomented by the church in India's North East have been BBC, and not Indian media reports." even I got a major help by non-Indian media sources rather than our own media giants. It is therefore high time that our government along with our media should introspect so that this brutal killing of minorities (mainly Hindus) be stopped in regions such as South Asia.

Prepared by Pritam

Pritam is a 3rd year engineering student in B.P. Poddar institute of management and technology, Kolkata. A simple person who tries to innovate and improvise himself. Twitter handle @pritam_gogreen