The Identity Crisis of Religious Minorities in Pakistan

On August 11, 1947 Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah said, “You may belong to any religion, caste or creed—that has nothing to do with the business of the state.” Now August 11 is celebrated as the Minority Day in Pakistan to mark the rights of minorities granted in the Constitution of Pakistan. There are particular clauses and articles of the Constitution protecting minorities: Article 20, 22, 25, 36, 37 and 38. Nevertheless, it has a dual advantage because minority religious groups lose their distinctiveness, just as others are called ‘non-Muslims,’ though they may be Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Ahmadis, or something else.

This raises a critical question: Why do the citizenship or employment or education forms of Pakistan primarily divide religion into Muslim and all other religions? It can certainly be traced back to the partition of Pakistan for this was a renewed Muslim state while Hindustan was recognized as the Hindus’ land. This mentality has led to this divergence where Muslims are now different from other religions. Drawing on his work on Pakistan Political Conflict, Mohammad Waseem argues that the partition was not just geographical but demographical as well. About 20-25% of Hindus and Sikhs were moved to India during the partition The remaining percentage is of Hindus, Sikhs, Christens and Ahmadis living in Pakistan today are considered as minority and as non-Muslims.

Second, it concerned the creation of the master narrative on Hindus and Sikhs as the enemies of Muslims and the narratives hold the two as responsible for Muslim’s suffering. This has been done by school textbooks which have propagated Meta-narrative that presents Hindus and Sikhs as demons. The official documents of Pakistan have portrayed Hindus and Sikhs in black and white involving them in violence and atrocities that took place during migration after partition. Hindus and Sikhs therefore deny themselves, and in an effort to refer to themselves as anything but non-Muslims they are forced to do so out of psychological fear.

The result shows that these state policies have had a some of the most profoundly negative effects on society. This means that when a state starts categorizing its people based on religion then while some people feel superior, others are bound to feel inferior. This can be firmly compared with how Hitler looked at Germans as Aryans and the holocaust against the Jews. In Pakistan Hindus, Christians Sikhs and Ahmadis live everyday with this fear of being meted the same treatment since the state may not or cannot protect them.

At so many times, minority organizations have been coerced and, in some cases, their individuals annihilated while in the open. For instance, Priyantha Kumar was beaten to death by a mob, owing to misunderstanding and the city of Jaranwala, was burned down due to the same, and state institutions did not intervene. It goes as far as blasphemy cases to the cases like child abuse and forced marriages. On August 19, 2021, a 7-year-old girl disappeared after preparing sherbet to be eaten during the Muharram Ashura and regretting the Prophet’s family’s tragedy. Still, the state institutions have failed to find her as the public continue to make outcry. When people came out on the roads to demonstrate for the girls and justice for Priya Kumari the police in Karachi resorted to firing on them.

This is especially important for Pakistan to make modern social changes to emphasize the worth of a person. The country should make sure that the Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Ahmadis, and others feel pride in being what they are. Some of the things that can be practiced in this regard include coming up with new history books that will have tolerance as the central message instead of prejudiced messages that are meant for and passing laws that seek to protect the rights of other minorities. In addition, civil and school organizations must be changed to offer people more religious freedom and offer them free will in their choice of religion. Thus, Pakistan can create a society, free of environmental vices, and every citizen has an inherent right to live with honor and dignity. In addition, the media has considerable potential to influence the thoughts of communities of people and can either be inclusive or exclusionary. The media of Pakistan should be optimistic regarding the representation of minorities or bugs, refrain from stereotyping them, and replace false portrayals with positive perceptions.

Rather, Pakistan should learn from other Muslim-majority states. Despite the similarity in political and religious structures, Pakistan is even now more oppressive towards religious minorities than Indonesia, Malaysia, or Turkey. Although these states have not been without their issues of managing religion diversity through the mechanisms of a policy of tolerance, Pakistan is still a state which faces the issue of sectarianism and discrimination laws such as the blasphemy law. But Indonesia being the largest Muslim country in the region which is conservative but recognizes the freedom of religion as a constitutional provision in the constitution of the Republic of Indonesia and subsequent legislations and policies that have been enacted and implemented throughout Indonesia should be point of reference for Pakistan on how to apply the liberal interpretation of Islam for protection of non-Muslim citizens.