Persecution of Hindus
Hindus have experienced both historical and ongoing religious persecution and systematic violence, in the form of forced conversions, documented massacres, genocides, demolition and desecration of temples, as well as the destruction of educational centres.
[14] The Chach Nama mentions temple demolitions, mass executions of resisting Sindhi forces and the enslavement of their dependents; kingdoms ruled by Hindu and Buddhist kings were attacked, their wealth plundered, tribute (kharaj) settled and hostages taken, often as slaves to Iraq.
[15][16] According to Wink, a historian specializing in Indo-Islamic period in South Asia, these Hindus were given the choice to either convert to Islam and join the Arab armies, or be sealed (tattooing the hands) and pay Jizya (a tax).
[17] Yohanan Friedmann however finds that the Chach Nama holds that most contemporary religious as well as political authorities collaborated with the invaders, and those who promptly surrendered were not only gifted with huge sums of money but also entrusted to rule conquered territories.
[18] Friedmann also notes that bin-Qasim "gave his unqualified blessing to the characteristic features of the society"—he reappointed every deposed Brahmin (of Brahmanabad) to their jobs, exempted them from Jizya, allowed holding of traditional festivals, and granted protection to temples but enforced the caste-hierarchy with enhanced vigor, drawing from Sharia, as evident from his treatment of Jats.
Manan Ahmed Asif criticizes the very premises of recovering portions of the Chach Nama as a historical chronicle of Muslim conquest; he argues that the site and times of production dictated its entire content, and that it must be read in entirety, as an original work in the genre of "political theory" where history is creatively extrapolated with romantic fiction to gain favor in the court of Nasiruddin Qabacha.
[25][26] Wink adds, taken together the common elements in these diverse sources suggest that Hindus were treated as dhimmis and targeted for certain discriminatory measures prescribed in the Sharia, as well as entitled to protection and limited religious freedoms in a Muslim state.
[25] Muslim texts of that period are replete with iconoclast rhetoric, descriptions of mass-slaughter of Hindus, and repeats ad nauseam about "the army of Islam obtain[ing] abundant wealth and unlimited riches" from the conquered sites.
[31] As the Indo-Islamic conquests of the 11th and 12th-centuries moved beyond Panjab and the Himalayan foothills of the northwest into the Ganges-Yamuna Doab region, states Andre Wink, "some of the most important sacred sites of Indian culture were destroyed and desecrated,"[27] and their broken parts consistently reused to make Islamic monuments.
[41] Numerous Islamic texts of that era, states Wink, also describe "forced transfer of enslaved Indian captives (ghilman-o-jawari, burda, sabaya), specially women and children" over the 11th-century from Hindustan.
[50] The army of Ala al-Din Khalji from Delhi Sultanate began their first campaign in 1310 against the Hindu kingdom in Madurai region – called Ma'bar by court historians, under the pretext of helping Sundar Pandya.
According to Mehrdad Shokoohy – a scholar of Islamic studies and architectural history in Central and South Asia – this campaign lasted for a year during which Madurai and other Tamil region cities were overrun by the Muslims, the Hindu temples were demolished and the towns looted.
Indologist Richard M. Eaton writes that from Akbar's time to today, he has attracted conflicting labels, "from a strict Muslim to an apostate, from a free-thinker to a crypto-Hindu, from a Zoroastrian to a proto-Christian, from an atheist to a radical innovator".
[64][65] In 1669 he issued orders to all his governors of provinces to "destroy with a willing hand the schools and temples of the infidels, and that they were strictly enjoined to put an entire stop to the teaching and practice of idolatrous forms of worship".
"[74] According to Deepa Ollapally, the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb was clearly discriminatory towards Hindu and all other non-Muslims, displaying an "unprecedented level of religious bigotry", but perhaps this was a consequence of the opposition he faced from a number of his family members.
[87] Her Medieval India was criticized as being a monoscopic clash-of-civilizations narrative between the forces of good (Hindus) and evil (Muslims), and as having portrayed the exactions of the Sultanate rulers and the Mughals as anti-Hindu acts, with all of their contributions to the social, cultural and political ignored.
[148] Journalist Hiranmay Karlekar, writing in 2005 when Jamaat was part of the coalition government, described Talibanisation as impossible to stop, but said the country was not on the brink of it, and the overwhelming majority of society would fight against it tooth and nail.
[171][172] As per a written response to parliament by Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, a total of 2,200 cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities have been reported in Bangladesh in 2024 till December 8.
Militancy and sectarianism has been rising in Pakistan since the 1990s, and the religious minorities such as Hindus have "borne the brunt of the Islamist's ferocity" suffering "greater persecution than in any earlier decade", states Farahnaz Ispahani – a Public Policy Scholar at the Wilson Center.
[227] Similarly, the Brussels-based Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization stated in 2019, that "religious minorities, including Hindus ... have perpetually been subjected to attacks and discrimination by extremist groups and the society at large.
According to the report, the rally was organised by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), a Sunni Deobandi political party in Pakistan, after the speakers delivered their fiery speeches, the crowd vandalized the temple and set it ablaze and razed it to the ground.
[284][283] In June 2023, the Pakistan Higher Education Commission banned the celebration of the Hindu festival Holi on institute campuses to preserve "Islamic identity" and "sociocultural values" which flared the issue of religious discrimination in the country.
[286][287][288] As per a written response to parliament by Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh, a total of 112 cases of violence against Hindus and other minorities have been reported in Pakistan in 2024 till October.
[296] The 12th century CE rulers Vikramabahu I and his successor Gajabahu II were denied royal consecration by the Sangha on the basis of their Hindu faith since kingship on the island was reserved for Buddhists for the purpose of protecting Buddhism.
[299][300] Leading Buddhist monks conspired to assassinate the King Kirti Sri Rajasinha of South Indian origin in 1760 on the basis that he was a "heretical Tamil" who refused to give up Hindu practices such as wearing the sacred ash.
When another series of anti-Tamil riots broke out in the post-independent Ceylon in 1958 to which the politically active monks had contributed, a Sinhalese mob after failing to set fire to the Panadura Hindu temple burned alive its officiating priest in a notable incident.
[311] Cyril Mathew, a leading militant Buddhist nationalist and the Minister of Industries, played a key role in organizing the pogrom, which resulted in the deaths and displacement of thousands of Tamils, sparking the Sri Lankan Civil War.
[313] He had revived and propagandized polarizing accounts contained in the Buddhist chronicle, notably the devastation brought upon Buddhism by the invasion of Kalinga Magha and his Tamil soldiers, and applied them to contemporary ethnic relations.
[353] In October 1987, a group of youths attacked Navroze Mody, an Indian man of Parsi origin, who was mistaken for a Hindu, after he had left the Gold Coast Cafe with his friend who fell into a coma.
The attack was with fists and feet and with an unknown object that was described as either a baseball bat or a brick, and occurred after members of the group, which was estimated as being between ten and twelve youths, had surrounded Mody and taunted him for his baldness as either "Kojak" or "baldie".
