How persecution of non-Muslim minorities across subcontinent requires India to revive CAA debate

The last few days have been very difficult for Pakistan’s Christian community. Entire colonies and churches have been reduced to ashes by Islamist mobs over allegations of blasphemy. Although this scale of violence is much larger and has captured the attention of the world at large, but Pakistan’s ill-treatment of minorities is not a matter of surprise for those of us who regularly track political developments in that country. Many social media accounts regularly slip into my direct messages tab on Twitter to inform about at least one minor who has been abducted, raped and forcefully converted in Sindh or Baluchistan every other day. The frequent brutalities that are unleashed by Pakistan on its minorities once again revive the much forgotten debate on the Citizenship Amendment Act that was passed four years ago by the Indian Parliament. The winter of 2019 in India was not a pleasant one at all. I remember being stuck many times during my usual travel to a library in New Delhi for PhD fieldwork. The government of India had enacted the much needed Citizenship Amendment Act in response to which the members of civil society had come out in large numbers to wage a protest. Their contention was that the CAA was discriminatory towards the Muslim population of India. By relaxing the criteria of securing India’s citizenship for persecuted minorities from the subcontinent, the Indian government was disenfranchising its own Muslims. The truth was that CAA had nothing to do with Indian Muslims at all. In fact, it was an act that only aimed to provide relief to the persecuted Hindus, Christians and other minorities in neighbouring countries who often sought refuge in India. But in the cacophony of the anti-CAA protests, all voices of sound reasoning were lost. Tragically, the government of the day had to get into a defensive mode. It has been four years since then and CAA still has not been notified. With that even the debate over the fate of non-Muslims in South Asian countries such as Afghanistan and Pakistan has faded away from public sight. This despite the fact that minority communities such as Christians, Hindus and Sikhs are systematically and constitutionally discriminated against in these states. Interestingly, during the anti-CAA protests, many people who were at the protests did not even have a clue about the actual facts on ground. For those who don’t know, Pakistan is constitutionally an Islamic Republic. It was originally founded on the principle of ‘hostage theory’ which means that the small Hindu minority in the country was to be treated fairly by the Pakistani state so that India continues to protect its the Muslim minority. But in reality, India never signed up for this principle. Under the vision of its early leaders, India espoused a secular polity on its own where the constitution even gave special rights to the minority communities. On the other hand, Pakistan chose an Islamic identity for itself with multiple provisions in its constitution leading to active discrimination with non-Muslims. How many of the anti-CAA protesters are aware of Articles 41 and 91 of the Pakistani constitution, which clearly mandate that no non-Muslim can ever become Prime Minister or President of the country? An amendment to change this discriminatory provision was moved in 2019 by Dr Naveed Aamir Jeeva, a Christian lawmaker from the Pakistan Peoples Party however the then Minister of Parliamentary Affairs had shot down the proposal citing no scope of compromise with Pakistan’s Islamic identity. A similar story of discrimination against minorities has unfolded in Afghanistan. The return of Taliban to the country has not only made the lives of women difficult but the acts of Islamic radicalism have literally brought the minorities on the verge of extinction. The visuals of one of the last batches of Afghan Sikhs coming to India tells the most grim story of how Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan treats its minorities. As of 2021, the Hindu community in Afghanistan had also shrunk to just 30-40 individuals who were awaiting a refuge in India, their civilisational home. Ironically, all that the CAA was promising them was an early shot at being granted citizenship. The usual tenure is 12 year-long continuous stay in India but for them CAA had reduced it to 6 years. Even the cut-off date for CAA was year 2014 with many experts arguing that it should be extended further. But the way the civil society and intelligentsia had led the protests against their return, the door for their arrival in India has been shut hard if not closed forever. What we as Indians have never been able to realise is that India was modelled as a secular liberal polity by our early leaders. This was a bold and commendable move as it has allowed multiple communities to prosper and thrive in India irrespective of their identities. However, what we can’t also deny is India’s civilisational history of being the home to the Indic religions. Hindus and the various other sects may be a majority in India but world over, they are part of a tiny minority. In the name of a secular polity, India can’t look away from the expectations of the minority communities across the world. Today, Hindumisia is on a rise and Pakistan is the burning example of the same. Every single day at least three Hindu girls are forcefully converted and even raped and abducted in its Sindh province. The problem has its roots in the act of partition that left a sizeable population of non-Muslims at the mercy of the Islamic regimes. For us in India, religion may be a personal fact of life but in Pakistan even today religion plays a very significant role. Case in point is Seema Haidar whose arrival in India and wilful conversion to Hinduism has sparked a spate of violence against Hindus in Pakistan as an act of revenge. This mindless vengeance proves that India may have moved on from the two-nation theory but it is a lived experience for many in the subcontinent even today after 75 years of partition. What should be the response of India to the discrimination against non-Muslims in the South Asian states? Well, India is a thriving economy and a liberal polity. It has a civilisational past of being a home to the persecuted. It has a commitment to the oppressed non-Muslim minorities of the subcontinent who look up to India for a refuge. The past attempt to fulfil that promise did not work out. But the debate must not end. We owe this much to them. The author is a PhD from the Department of International Relations, South Asian University. She writes on India’s foreign policy. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.