Well-known Indian scholar Professor Dr Ram Puniyami described the general lot of Indian Muslims 'dismal' in secular India as the situation of minorities' rights have worsened over the last three decades. Ghettoised and alienated for long from the mainstream, Indian Muslims were now awakening and realising that the way out for them is acquisition of modern knowledge.
Still the dream of equity for Muslims was a far thing and their security had been made precarious by the infiltration of communal elements in the state organs, Dr Puniyami said while speaking at the regional conference on "Rights of Religious Minorities in South Asia: Learning from Mutual Experiences" organised by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and Hanns Seidel Foundation (HSF) of Germany in Islamabad.
The Indian scholar elaborated that the growth of communalism was not something new as it was the existence of two communal streams of religious nationalism, which had caused the division of British India. However, India's secular constitution, which exhorts affirmative action to safeguard the minorities had all along struggled against the forces of Hindutva led by the RSS.
He said the Sangh Parivar builds on Muslims' type casting as terrorists and emphasises their otherness to persecute them. The other religious minority that was being oppressed was the Christians who were accused of converting low caste Hindus. He said the communalism in South Asia was of a competitive nature as persecution of Muslims in India aroused negative sentiments in Pakistan and vice versa. He said violation of human rights anywhere should be treated as a violation everywhere. He said there were many men and women in India who had devoted their lives to fight the menace of communalism and evolving a polity that was truly secular. They were trying for the passage of a communal violence bill that would hold the state apparatus responsible if violence against a minority persisted for more than 24 hours. He also advocated reservation in jobs for Muslims to bring them up to a threshold of economic and social survival. But it was going to be a long and hard fight.
Former federal minister and minority rights activist J Salik called upon the United Nations to devote a day for the rights of the minorities and create body in its organisation to monitor violations of minority rights in different countries. He said that minorities were not represented at the UN and in Pakistan they did not enjoy equal rights as no member of the minority community could become the head of the state or the chief executive. He said that minorities should be safer in Pakistan than elsewhere as this was the only country which was created by a minority.
Professor Imtiaz Ahmad of Bangladesh said that the polity in Bengal was more tolerant as public reasoning there was enriched by the Sufi tradition and the influence of the Hanafi school of thought which tend to separate religion from politics. Ambassador Nihal Rodrigo, who spoke on the Sri Lankan civil war, said the Muslims had also suffered a lot during the conflict and faced large scale dislocation. The country was now engaged in the task of resettlement and rehabilitation.
Pandit Channa Lal, senior representative of the Hindu community in Pakistan, said the community faced no problem in the observance and celebration of religious rites and festivals but society was being so radicalised that children of his community did not feel they were part of the mainstream. Hindus could not climb to the top in service careers. There were no foreign office jobs for them and the doors of the presidency and the PM House were closed on them. He said the PPP was no more a liberal party as it used to be in the time of Z.A. Bhutto and Benazir.
Dr Maqsudul Hassan Nuri, acting president of IPRI, in his welcome address said that it was an 'age of rage' and that there had been marked rise in religiosity in South Asia over the years. "We need to understand the causes behind this phenomenon and devise pragmatic solutions," he added.
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