Kids Corner

People

“I Was Born Here
And Will Die Here” -
Sikh-Afghans Under Siege

ASSOCIATED PRESS / NEW YORK TIMES

 

 

 





Kabul, Afghanistan

Afghanistan's once-thriving Sikh community is dwindling fast as many choose to leave the country of their birth to escape what they say is growing intolerance and discrimination. Once boasting as many as 100,000 members in the 1990s, Afghanistan's Sikh population, according to community leaders, has fallen to an estimated 2,500.

The reason for the exodus: endemic societal discrimination in the majority Muslim country and an inability to reclaim Sikh homes, businesses and houses of worship that were illegally seized years ago.

"I'm worried that if things don't change and we are no longer able to stay, then the only people left will be those who cannot afford to leave," said 23-year-old pharmacist Charn Singh.

His family traces its roots back more than 400 years to Gardez, the capital of Paktya province bordering Pakistan, where his ancestors were wealthy traders and landowners and his grandfather was an oral historian and keeper of Sikh legends.

These days, the family has little of its former wealth, having lost much of its land to what Sikh-Afghan lawmaker Dr Anarkali Kaur Honaryar called a series of illegal land grabs.

Hindus in Afghanistan have faced similar persecution. Sikhism and Hinduism are distinct religions, but many Afghans view both communities as non-Muslim foreigners.

"In all provinces they (Sikh and Hindus) owned lands, but unfortunately their lands were taken over by powerful individuals during the fighting," said Anarkali Kaur, who is also a human rights activist.

The persecution of Sikh-Afghans has remained a constant through decades of upheaval in this war-torn country.

After the Russians ended their occupation in February 1989 and Afghanistan collapsed into civil war, various mujahedeen splinter groups fought each other for territory and power. In the ensuing chaos, many Sikh gurdwara were destroyed -- along with Hindu temples.

A United Nations report in 2005 said that most of Kabul's eight Sikh and four Hindu temples had been destroyed in the fighting.

In the chaos of the civil war, Afghans' tolerance toward ethnic and religious minorities hardened. That intolerance became official policy when the Islamic extremist Taliban took over in 1996.

Under the Taliban, Sikhs and Hindus were pressured to convert to Islam and forced to pay a special tax and publicly identify themselves with yellow patches on their clothing. Muslims were encouraged to avoid doing business with them.

During this period, many Sikhs and Hindus were forced to sell their land or had it openly seized by warlords. Those who fled the country often found that their properties had been seized and false ownership papers drawn up to legitimize the theft.

The overthrow of the Taliban by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion didn't improve conditions as much as some community members expected. Many who had fled the country found that religious intolerance had become ingrained in their war-weary homeland and that they were still second-class citizens.

The ascension of post-Taliban President Hamid Karzai in 2002 largely put an end to the illegal land seizures. But getting the land back has proven difficult.

Some have tried to reclaim their lost properties in Afghanistan's work-in-progress judicial system. But many other Sikhs and Hindus have chosen not to pursue what can be a laborious, expensive and ultimately futile attempt to legally regain their lost and often still-occupied properties.

Abdul Qadir Arzu, a spokesman for the Kabul municipality, said these kinds of land-grabs were a common problem in Afghanistan and that the government is working to address the concerns of the Sikh community.

"It's a huge problematic issue for many Afghans, including Sikh-Afghans," Arzu said. "Sikhs have been vulnerable to war and conflict, like other Afghans."

Sikh community figures and analysts believe that intolerance for non-Muslims has grown as constant violence and upheaval has made Afghans wary of those they perceive as outsiders -- and both Sikhs and Hindus are widely regarded as foreigners, more readily identified as Indians and Pakistanis.

An attempt in 2013 by Karzai to reserve parliamentary seats for Sikhs and Hindus was rejected by lawmakers because, political analyst Ahmad Saeedi said, "other minorities might make demands for similar privileges."

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted in a 2009 report that while there is no longer any official discrimination against Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan, "They are effectively barred from most government jobs and face societal hostility and harassment."

At times these tensions have boiled over into violent attacks -- especially at funerals, as the Sikh and Hindu tradition of cremation is frowned upon by Muslims in Afghanistan. Even today funeral processions are regularly jeered and stoned.

Despite constitutional protections for religious and ethnic minorities, neither the government nor judicial authorities have done much to address the situation, Anarkali Kaur said.

"Social discrimination and second-class status within Afghan society is the only reason for leaving Afghanistan," she said, adding that complaints to police about abusive treatment were largely ignored.

For Sikh-Afghans, the constant discrimination is particularly bitter because many proclaim themselves to be proud Afghans. Some, like Arindar Singh, risked their lives to fight the Soviets in the 1980s.

"Our Muslim brothers know our history, they can see our Afghan passports and national ID cards and our records in governmental offices. But when we go to them, they still tell us, 'You are not Afghan, you are an Indian, go back to your country,'" he said.

A religious scholar born in Gardez, Arindar Singh teaches religious studies and Punjabi to Sikh children in Kabul.

"I want to say that Afghanistan is our country and this is the place of my birth," he said. "For the past three decades of war, I never left Afghanistan. I was born here and will die here."

Edited for sikhchic.com

June 10, 2015
 

Conversation about this article

1: R Singh (Ottawa, Canada), June 10, 2015, 8:22 AM.

Charn Singh ji, Arindar Singh ji: Though I can understand your affection for the land where you were born, please leave that God-forsaken country as soon as you can. Don't ruin the lives of your next generation. They will either be converted or have very diminished lives. Go to wherever you can. There's no point in living there anymore. The situation won't get better. Just get out of there. As hard as it seems, it's now time to start a new life elsewhere.

2: Gurpreet Singh (Trenton, New Jersey, USA), June 10, 2015, 9:57 AM.

This is a great article. Sikhs obviously stand with whoever is persecuted and under siege, whether they are Sikh, Muslim, Hindu, etc. The articles on the New York Times and Fox News are great but unfortunately they label Anarkali Kaur wrongly as a 'Hindu.' She is obviously a Sikh since she has Kaur in her name and Sikhs know her. We all know Sikhs and Hindus are persecuted together in the same way in Afghanistan though. It is important because in the future when she stands for others' rights, we know what her position should be.

3: Bikramjit Singh (London, United Kingdom), June 10, 2015, 12:06 PM.

I agree with R Singh. The lives of non-Muslim minorities are not safe in any Muslim country. Whenever there is a problem then the minorities are invariably blamed. The future of Afghanistan after NATO's departure looks like being the same as Iraq's, as ISIS already has its people there. Sikhs need to consider what happened to the Yazidis in Iraq and get out while they have the chance.

4: Sunny Grewal (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada), June 10, 2015, 4:31 PM.

Let the Afghans have the land that the properties of the Sikhs stand on. I am sure they will put it to good use making structures that can withstand suicide bombings. But, for goodness sake, we should be working to evacuate our brothers and sisters from such a miserable and uncivilized country. If these Muslims want to murder and subjugate each other over some wrongs, real or imagined, we can't stop them, but they have absolutely no right to impose their barbaric culture on non-Muslims.

5: Dhanwant Singh Mundae (Calgary, Alberta, Canada), June 15, 2015, 7:07 PM.

"I was born here and will die here" Sorry, brother, I do not agree with you. Get out as soon as you can. Do not ruin your family's life. Your affection for your country is not going to help your family.

Comment on "“I Was Born Here
And Will Die Here” -
Sikh-Afghans Under Siege"









To help us distinguish between comments submitted by individuals and those automatically entered by software robots, please complete the following.

Please note: your email address will not be shown on the site, this is for contact and follow-up purposes only. All information will be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy. Sikhchic reserves the right to edit or remove content at any time.