Persecution of Hindus

According to André Wink, the mutilation and destruction of Hindu religious idols and temples were an attack on Hindu religious practice,[8][note 2] and the Muslim destruction of religious architecture was a means to eradicate the vestiges of Hindu religious symbols.[9] Muslim texts of this period justify it based on their contempt and abhorence for idols and idolators in Islamic thought.[9][note 3] Peter Jackson notes that the Muslim historians of the medieval era viewed the creation and expansion of Islamic Sultanates in Hindustan as "holy war" and a religious conquest, characterizing Muslim forces as "the army of Islam" and the Hindus as infidels.[12][13] According to Jackson, these records need to be interpreted and relied upon with care given their tendencies to exaggerate. This was not a period of "uncompromising iconoclasm", states Jackson. Cities that quickly surrendered to the Islamic army, says Jackson, "got a better deal" for their religious monuments.[12]

According to Richard Davis, targeting sacred temples was not unique to Muslim rulers in India. Some Hindu kings too, prior to the formation of first Islamic sultanates in India, expropriated sacred idols from temples and took it back to their capitals as a political symbol of victory. However, the sacred temples, icons and the looted image carried away was still sacred and treated with respect by the victorious Hindu king and his forces, states Richard Davis. There is hardly any evidence of "mutilation of divine images and intentional defilement" of Hindu sacred icons or temples by armies in control of Hindu rulers. The evidence that is available suggests that the victorious Hindu kings undertook significant effort to house the expropriated images in new, grand temples within their kingdom.[14] According to Wink, Hindu destruction of Buddhist and Jain places of worship took place before the 10th-century, but the evidence for such 'Hindu iconoclasm' is incidental, too vague, and unconvincing.[15] According to Wink, mutilation and defilement of sacred icons is rarely evidenced in Hindu texts, in contrast to Muslim texts on the Islamic iconoclasm in India.[16] Hindu temples were centres of political resistance which had to be suppressed.[15]

Bukka Raya I, one of the founders of Vijaynagar Empire, had taken steps to rehabilitate Hindu religious and cultural institutions which suffered a serious setback under Muslim rule.[17] Buddhists centres of learning decayed, leading to the rise to prominence of Brahmanical institutions.

A lot of Vedantic literature got translated into these languages between the 12th and 15th centuries.[18]

Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent began in early 8th century CE with a Muhammad ibn Qasim-led army. This campaign is narrated in the 13th-century surviving manuscript of Chach Nama by Bakr Kūfī, which was claimed to be based on an earlier Arabic record.[19]

The Chachnama 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.[20][21] 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).[22] The Chach Nama and evidence in other pre-11th century Persian texts suggests that these Hindu Jats also suffered restrictions and discrimination as non-Muslims, as was then usual elsewhere for the non-Muslim subjects (ahl adh-dhimma) per the Islamic law (Sharia), states Wink.[22]

Yohanan Friedmann however finds that Chachnama holds most of the contemporary religious as well as political authority to have 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.[23] 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.[23] Overall, Friedmann concludes that the conquest, as described in the Chach Nama, did "not result in any significant changes in the structure of Indian society".[23]

According to Johnson and Koyama, quoting Bosworth, there were "certainly massacres in the towns" in the early stages of campaign against pagan Hindus in Sind, but eventually they were granted dhimmi status and peace treaties were made with them.[24]

After the conquest of Sindh, Qasim chose the Hanafi school of Islamic law which stated that, when under Muslim rule, people of Indic religions such as Hindus, Buddhists, and Jains are to be regarded as dhimmis (from the Arab term) as well as "People of the Book" and are required to pay jizya for religious freedom.[25]

The historicity of Chachnama has been questioned. Francesco Gabrieli considers the Chach Nama to be a "historical romance" which was "a late and doubtful source" for information about bin-Qasim and must be carefully sieved to locate the facts; on such a reading, he admired bin-Qasim's proclamations concerning "principle of tolerance and religious freedom".[26] Peter Hardy takes a roughly similar stance and lenses the work as a work of "political theory". Manan Ahmed Asif criticizes the very premises of recovering portions of Chachnama 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.[27] Wink states that some scholars treat Chachnama and other Muslim texts of its era, as "largely pseudo-history". He concurs that the skepticism about each individual source is justified and Chachnama is part fiction.[28][29] 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.[28]

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.[30] The Hindus are described in these Islamic texts as infidels, Hindustan as war zone ("Dar-al-Harb"), and attacks on pagan Hindus as a part of a holy war (jihad), states Peter Jackson.[31] However, states Wink, this killing was not systematic and "was normally confined to the fighting men" though the wars and episodes of routine violence did precipitate a great famine with civilian casualties in tens of thousands.[30] The pervasive and most striking feature of the Arabic literature on Sind and Hind of the 11th to 13th-century is its constant obsession with idol worship and polytheism in the Indian subcontinent.[32][33] There is piecemeal evidence of iconoclasm that began in Sind region, but the wholesale and more systematic onslaught against major Hindu religious monuments is evidenced in North India.[34]

Richard Eaton, Sunil Kumar, Romila Thapar, Richard H. Davis and others argue that these iconoclastic actions were not primarily driven by religious zeal, but were politically strategic acts of destruction in that temples in medieval India were sites associated with sovereignty, royal power, money, and authority.[35][36][37][38] According to Wink, the iconoclasm was a product of "religious, economic and political" and the practice undoubtedly escalated due to the "vast amount of immobilized treasure" in these temples.[34] 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,"[30] and their broken parts consistently reused to make Islamic monuments.[34][note 4] Phyllis Granoff notes that "medieval Indian religious groups faced a serious crisis as invading Muslim armies sacked temples and defaced sacred image".[40]

The 11th and 12th-century additionally witnessed the rise of irregulars and then Banjara-like groups who adopted Islam. These were "marauding bands" who caused much suffering and destruction in the countryside as they searched for food and supplies during the violent campaign of Ghurids against Hindustan.[41] The religious icons of Hindus were one of the targets of these Islamic campaigns.[32]

The 11th to 13th-century period did not witness any systematic attempts at forced conversions of Hindus into Muslims, nor is there evidence of widespread Islamicization in al-Hind that emerged from the violent conquest. The political power shifted from Hindu kings to Muslim sultans in conquered areas. If some temples were not destroyed in these areas, it did result in a loss to Hindu temple building patronage and an uprooting of Hindu sacred geography.[42]

The second half of the 13th-century witnessed raids on Hindu kingdoms by Muslim forces controlling the northwest and north India, states Peter Jackson.[43] These did not lead to sustained persecution of the Hindus in the targeted kingdoms, because the Muslim armies merely looted the Hindus, took cattle and slaves, then left. The raids caused suffering, yet also rallied the Islamic faithfuls and weakened an infidel prince by weakening his standing among his Hindu subjects.[43] These raids were into Rajput kingdoms, those in central India, Lakhnawti–Awadh, and in eastern regions such as Bihar.[44]

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.[30][45]

The Delhi Sultanate started in the 13th-century and continued through the early 16th-century, when the Mughal conquest replaced it. Jackson states that the Delhi Sultans of this period saw themselves first and foremost as Islamic rulers for the "people of Islam".[46] They were emphatically not "sultan of the Hindus". The Muslim texts of the Delhi Sultanate era treated Hindus with disdain, remarking "Hindus are never interesting in themselves, but only as converts, as capitation tax payers, or as corpses".[46] These medieval Muslim rulers were "protecting and advancing the Islamic faith", with two Muslim texts of this period remarking that the Sultan had a duty "eradicate infidelity and humiliate his Hindu subjects".[46]

According to Jackson, some of the conquered Hindu subjects of the Delhi Sultanate served these Sultans were "doubtless usually slaves". These Hindus built the mosques of this era as well as developed the Indo-Islamic architecture, some served the court in roles such as treasurers, clerks, minting of new coins, and others. These Hindus were not persecuted, instead some were rewarded with immunities and tax exemptions.[47] Additionally, captured Hindu slaves were added as infantry troops in the Sultanate's army for their campaign against other Hindu kingdoms.[47] Some Sultans adopted Indian customs such as ceremonial riding of elephants by kings, thus facilitating the public perception of the new monarch. This suggest that the Sultans cultivated some Hindus to serve their aims, rather than indiscriminately persecute every Hindu.[47]

In general, Hindu subjects of Delhi Sultanate were generally accepted as people with dhimmi status, not equal to Muslims, but "protected", subject to Jizya tax and with a list of restrictions.[48] Early Sultans of the Delhi Sultanate exempted the Brahmins from having to pay Jizya, thus dividing the Hindus and placing the discriminatory tax burden entirely on the non-Brahmin strata of the Hindu society. Firuz Shah was the first to impose the Jizya on Brahmins, and wrote in his autobiography that countless Hindus converted to Islam when he issued the edict that conversion would release them of the requirement to pay Jizya.[49] This discrimination against Hindus was in force in the latter half of the 14th-century, though Jackson finds it difficult to establish if and how this was enforced outside of the major centers under Muslim control.[49]

The Muslim commanders of Delhi Sultanate regularly raided Hindu kingdoms for plunder, mulct their treasuries and looted the Hindu temples therein, states Jackson.[50] These conquests of Delhi Sultanate armies damaged or destroyed many Hindu temples. In a few instances, after the war, the Sultans let the Hindus repair and reconstruct their temples. Such instances, states Jackson, has been cited by the Indian scholar P.B. Desai as evidence of "striking degree of tolerance" by Muslim Sultans. But, this happened in frontier areas after they had recently been conquered and placed in direct Muslim rule, where the Sultan's authority was "highly precarious".[51] Within regions that was already under firm control of the Delhi Sultanate, the direct evidence of this is meagre. One example referred to is of a claimed request from the king of China to build a temple in India, as recorded by Ibn Battuta. Jackson states that it is questionable and has no corroborating evidence. Similar few examples near Delhi, such as one for Sri Krishna Bhagwan temple, cannot be verified whether they were ever built either.[51]

Some modern era Indian texts mention that Hindu and Jain temples of Delhi Sultanate era received endowments from Muslim authorities, presenting these as evidence of lack of persecution during this period. It is "not beyond the bounds of possibility" that in some instances this happened.[52] But generally, the texts and even the memoirs written by the some Sultans themselves describe how they "set about destroying new temples and replacing them with mosques", and in one case depopulated a town of Hindus and resettled Muslims there. Jackson clarifies that the evidence suggests that the destroyed temples were "new temples", and not the old one's near Delhi whose devotees were already paying regular Jizya to the Sultan's treasuries.[52] In some cases, the policies on destroying or letting Hindus worship in their old temples changed as Sultans changed.[52]

The Muslim nobles and advisors of the Sultans championed persecution of Hindus. Jackson shows how the Muslim texts of that era frequently mention themes such as the Hindu "infidels must on no account be allowed to live in ease and affluence", they should not be treated as "Peoples of the Book" and the Sultan should "at least refrain from treating Hindus with honour or permitting idolatry in the capital".[53][54] Failure to slaughter the Hindus has led to polytheism taking root. Another wazir while theoretically agreeing to these view, stated that this would not be practical given the small population of Muslims and such a policy should be deferred until Muslims were in a stronger position. If eradication of Hindus is not possible, suggested another Muslim official, then the Hindus should at least be insulted, disgraced and dishonored.[53] These views were not exceptions, rather consistent with Islamic thinking of that era and are "commonly encountered in polemical writing against the infidel in different parts of the Islamic world at different times", states Jackson.[53][55] This antagonism towards Hindus may have other general reasons, such as the fear of apostasy given the tendency of everyday Muslims to join in with Hindus as they celebrated their religious festivals. Further, the succession struggle after the death of a Sultan usually led to political maneuvering by the next Sultan, where depending on the circumstances, the victor championed either the orthodox segment of the Islamic clergy and jurists, or gave concessions to the Hindus and other groups for support when the Sultanate facing a military threat from outside.[53]

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.[56] A detailed record about the campaign by Amir Khusrau the destruction and plunder.[56]

A second destructive campaign was launched by Mubarak Shah, Ala al-Din Khalji's successor. While the looted wealth was sent to Delhi, a Muslim governor was appointed for the region.[56] The governor later rebelled, founded the short lived Madurai Sultanate and renamed himself as Sultan Ahsan Shah in 1334. The successive sultans of the new Sultanate did not have the support of the regional Hindu population. The Madurai Sultanate's army, states Shokoohy, "often exercised fierce and brutal repressive methods on the local people".[57] The Sultanate faced constant battles with neighboring Hindu states and assassination by its own nobles. Sultan Sikandar Shah was the last sultan. He was killed by the invading forces of Vijayanagara Empire army in 1377.[57]

The Muslim literature of this period record the motive of the Madurai Sultans. For example, Sultan Shams al-Din Adil Shah's general is described as leaving for "holy war against the infidels and taking from them great wealth and a vast amount of booty".[58] Another record states, "he engaged in a holy war (ghaza) and killed a great number of infidels".[58] Madurai region has several Islamic shrines with tombs built during this period, such as one for Ala al-Din and Shams al-Din. In this shrine, the inner columns are irregular and vary in form showing evidence of "reused material". The "destruction of temples and the re-use of their materials", states Shokoohy, was a "practice of the early Sultanates of North India, and we may assume that this tradition was brought to the south by the sultans of Ma'bar".[59]

Indologist Crispin Branfoot said that the Madurai Sultanate "sacked and desecrated Hindu temples throughout the Tamil country", and these were restored and reconsecrated for worship by the Vijayanagara rulers.[60]

The Mughal emperor Akbar has been a celebrated unusual example of tolerance. Indologist Richard 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". As a youth, states Eaton, Akbar studied Islam under both Shia and Sunni tutors, but as an adult he looked back with regret on his early life, confessing that in those days he had "persecuted men into conformity with my faith and deemed it Islam". In his later years he felt "an internal bitterness, acknowledging that his soul had been 'seized with exceeding sorrow'" for what he had done before launching his campaign to "treat all Mughal subjects, regardless of religion, on a basis of legal equality before the state".[61]

The reign of Aurangzeb (1658-1707) witnessed one of the strongest campaigns of religious violence in the Mughal Empire's history. Aurangzeb is a controversial figure in modern India, often remembered as a "vile oppressor of Hindus".[62] During his rule Aurangzeb expanded the Mughal Empire, conquering much of southern India through long bloody campaigns against non-Muslims. He forcibly converted Hindus to Islam and destroyed Hindu temples.[63][64] He also re-introduced the jizya, a tax on non-Muslims,[65] which had been suspended for the previous 100 years by his great-grandfather Akbar.[66]

Aurangzeb ordered the desecration and destruction of temples when conquering new lands and putting down rebellions, punishing political leaders by destroying the temples that symbolized their power.[67][68] 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".[69] According to Richard Eaton these orders appear to have been directed not toward Hindu temples in general, but towards a more narrowly defined "deviant group".[70] The number of Hindu temples destroyed or desecrated under Aurangzeb's rule is unclear, but may have been grossly exaggerated,[note 5] and he probably built more temples than he destroyed.[72] According to Ikram, "Aurangzeb tried to enforce strict Islamic law by ordering the destruction of newly built Hindu temples. Later, the procedure was adopted of closing down rather than destroying the newly built temples in Hindu localities. It is also true that very often the orders of destruction remained a dead letter."[73] Some temples were destroyed entirely; in other cases mosques were built on their foundations, sometimes using the same stones. Idols in temples were smashed, and the city of Mathura was temporarily renamed as Islamabad in local official documents.[69][74]

The persecution during the Islamic period targeted non-Hindus as well.[note 6] In some cases, such as towards the end of Mughal era, the violence and persecution was mutual. Hindus too attacked and damaged Muslim tombs, even when the troops had orders not to harm religious refuges of Muslims. These "few examples of disrespect for Islamic sites", states Indologist Nicholas Gier, "pale in comparison to the great destruction of temples and general persecution of Hindus by Muslims for 500 years".[76] Sources document brutal episodes of persecution. Sikh texts, for example, document their "Guru Teg Bahadur accompanying sixteen Hindu Brahmins on a quest to stop Mughal persecution of Hindus; they were arrested and commanded to convert to Islam on pain of torture and death", states Gier, "they all refused, and in November 1675, Mati Das was sawed in half, Dayal Das was boiled alive, Sati Das was burned alive, and Teg Bahadar was beheaded."[77]

During the Portuguese rule of Goa, several Hindus were coerced into accepting Christianity by the passage of laws that made it difficult for them to practice their faith (such as the ban on the practice of Sati) or harassed them under pretences or petty complaints. Other Hindus, especially the upper caste Bamonns and Chardos were convinced into accepting Christianity by offering favourable status to converts (indiacatos) and mestiços in terms of laws and jobs.[78] An Inquisition - which literally means a period of prolonged and intensive questioning, was established in 1560 by Portuguese officials in the Estado Português da Índia. The Goa Inquisition was directed against backsliding New Christians (that is, former Hindus and Muslims who had recently converted to Christianity), and it has been recorded that around 57 Goan Catholics were executed over a period of two hundred and fifty years, starting in the year 1560.[79][80] The inquisition was proposed by St. Francis Xavier, to ensure that the new converts were aware about the aspects of Christianity.[81][82]

According to Prakashchandra Pandurang Shirodkar, Hindus faced some persecution along with some fortitude under the Portuguese in Goa.[83] Vicar general Miguel Vaz had written to the king of Portugal in 1543 from Goa requesting that the Inquisition be established in Goa as well. Three years later, St. Francis Xavier made a similar request in view of the Muslims in the region and some New Christians abandoning their faith. On hearing of the excesses of the Inquisition in Goa, Lourenco Pires, Portuguese ambassador at Rome, expressed his displeasure to the crown while warning that this zeal for religion was actually becoming a disservice to God and the kingdom. Again according to Shirodkar, the Inquisition led to the downfall of the Portuguese Empire in the East.[83]

Muslim and Hindu communities in British India have lived in a delicate balance since the end of Muslim rule. Violent clashes have often appeared, and the partition of India in 1947 has only perpetuated these confrontations.

Mappila Riots or Mappila Outbreaks refers to a series of riots by the Mappila (Moplah) Muslims of Malabar, South India in the 19th century and the early 20th century (c.1836–1921) against native Hindus and the state. The Malabar Rebellion of 1921 is often considered as the culmination of Mappila riots.[84] Mappilas committed several atrocities against the Hindus during the outbreak.[85][86] Annie Besant reported that Muslim Mappilas forcibly converted many Hindus and killed or drove away all Hindus who would not apostatise, totalling the driven people to one lakh (100,000).[87]

In 1946, around seven weeks after Direct Action Day (in which both Muslims and Hindus were targeted in communal attacks), violence was directed against the Hindu minority in the villages of Noakhali and Tippera in Chittagong district in East Bengal.[88][89] Rioting in the region began in the Ramganj police station area.[90] The rioting spread to the neighbouring police station areas of Raipur, Lakshmipur, Begumganj and Sandip in Noakhali and Faridganj, Hajiganj, Chandpur, Laksham and Chudagram in Tippera.[90] From 2 October, there were instances of stray killings.[91] Relief operations took place and Gandhiji visited the place on a peace mission even as threats against the Hindus continued.[92] While claims varied, the official Muslim League Bengal Government estimates of those killed were placed at a conservative 200.[93] According to Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy, 9,895 people were forcibly converted in Tippera alone.[94] Ghulam Sarwar Hossain, a religious leader who belonged to a local political party dominated by Muslims,[95] was the main organiser of the riot.[96] According to political scientist Bidyut Chakrabarty, Hindus widely believed that the local administration had planned the riot and that the police helped Ghulam Sarwar escape arrest.[96] A large number of victims were Namasudra (a Bengali Hindu lower caste).[97] According to a source quoting from the State Government Archives, in Naokhali 178 Hindus and 42 Muslims were killed while in Tippera 39 Hindus and 26 Muslims were killed.[98] Women were abducted and forced into marriage.[89][98]

In retaliation, Muslims were massacred in Bihar and in Garhmukteshwara in the United Provinces.[90] These attacks began between 25 and 28 October 1946 in the Chhapra and Saran districts of Bihar and then spread to Patna, Munger, Bhagalpur and a large number of scattered villages of Bihar.[90] The official estimates of the dead at that time were 445.[90]

Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and members of other religious groups, experienced severe dislocation and violence during the massive population exchanges associated with the partition of India, as members of various communities moved to what they hoped was the relative safety of an area where they would be a religious majority. Hindus were among the between 200,000 and a million who died during the rioting and other violence associated with the partition.[99]

The 1947 Mirpur massacre and 1947–1948 Rajouri massacre of Hindus and Sikhs in the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, began in November 1947, some months after the partition of India. The Rajouri Massacre ended in early 1948, when Indian troops retook the town of Rajouri.

In Tripura, in 2000 the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) attacked a Hindu temple and killed a spiritual leader there. They are known to have forcefully converted Hindus to Christianity.[106][107]

In Meghalaya, in 2020 the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) gave an ultimatum to Bengali Hindus, from Bangladesh, to leave Ichamati and Majai regions. This was a response to a Khasi youth, identified as Lurshai Hynniewta, 35, a resident of Khliehshnong Sohra, who was attacked by non-tribals at Ichamati, died at Sohra CHC on Friday. The HNLC has seen a Hindutva connection in the killing of the Khasi youth.[108]

The period of insurgency in Punjab around Operation Blue Star saw clashes of the Sikh militants with the police, as well as with the Hindu-Nirankari groups resulting in many Hindu deaths. In 1987, 32 Hindus were pulled out of a bus and shot near Lalru in Punjab by Sikh militants.[109] According to the former Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amarinder Singh, there were 35,000 Hindus killed during militancy in Punjab.[110] From K.P.S Gill’s figures no more than 4,500 Hindus died in militancy. The data from court cases of the Supreme Court of India gives a lower death toll for Hindus at 3,817.[111]^{: 152–153}

The Kashmiri Pandit population living in the Muslim-majority region of Jammu and Kashmir has often come under threat from Islamic militants in recent years. Historians have suggested that some of these attacks have been in retaliation for the anti-Muslim violence propagated by the Hindutva movement during the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and the 2002 Gujarat riots.[112] This threat has been pronounced during periods of unrest in the Kashmir valley, such as in 1989. In 1986, the Anantnag Riots broke out, where protesters targeted properties of Kashmiri Hindus and temples.[113] Along with the Hindus, large sections of the Muslim population have also been attacked, ostensibly for "cooperating" with the Indian state. Some authors have found evidence that these militants had the support of the Pakistani security establishment.[114][115] The incidents of violence included the Wandhama Massacre in 1998, in which 23 Kashmiri Hindus were gunned down by Muslims disguised as Indian soldiers.[116] Many Kashmiri Non-Muslims have been killed and thousands of children orphaned over the course of the conflict in Kashmir. The 2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre was another such incident where 30 Hindu pilgrims were killed en route to the Amarnath Temple.[117]

In the Kashmir region, approximately 300 Kashmiri Pandits were killed between September 1989 and 1990 in various incidents.[118] In early 1990, local Urdu newspapers Aftab and Al Safa called upon Kashmiris to wage jihad against India and ordered the expulsion of all Hindus choosing to remain in Kashmir.[118] In the following days masked men ran in the streets with AK-47 shooting to kill Hindus who would not leave.[118] Notices were placed on the houses of all Hindus, telling them to leave within 24 hours or die.[118]

As of 2005, it is estimated that between 250,000 and 300,000 pandits have migrated outside Kashmir since the 1990s[119][118] due to persecution by Islamic fundamentalists in the largest case of ethnic cleansing since the partition of India.[120] The proportion of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley has declined from about 15% in 1947 to, by some estimates, less than 0.1% since the insurgency in Kashmir took on a religious and sectarian flavour.[121]

Many Kashmiri Pandits have been killed by Islamist militants in incidents such as the Wandhama massacre and the 2000 Amarnath pilgrimage massacre.[122][123][124][125][126] The incidents of massacring and forced eviction was termed ethnic cleansing by Kanchan Gupta.[118]

In October 2021, three terrorists shot a Kashmiri pandit school teacher and a Sikh school principal after checking their identity cards and segregating them from their Kashmiri Muslim colleagues in a government run school. Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba affiliated TRF claimed responsibility of the killings.[127]

During the 1971 Bangladesh genocide there were widespread killings and acts of ethnic cleansing of civilians in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan, a province of Pakistan), and widespread violations of human rights were carried out by the Pakistani Army, which was supported by political and religious militias during the Bangladesh Liberation War. The violence began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight,[159] as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) began a military crackdown on the Eastern wing (now Bangladesh) of the nation.[160] During the nine-month-long Bangladesh War for Liberation, members of the Pakistani military and supporting pro Pakistani Islamist militias from Jamaat-e-Islami party[161] killed between 200,000 and 3,000,000[162][163][164] people and raped between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women,[164][165] according to Bangladeshi and Indian sources,[166] in a systematic campaign of genocidal rape.[167][168] The actions against women were supported by Pakistan's religious leaders, who declared that Bengali women were gonimoter maal (Bengali for "public property").[169] As a result of the conflict, a further eight to ten million people, mostly Hindus,[170] fled the country to seek refuge in neighbouring India. It is estimated that up to 30 million civilians were internally displaced[164] out of 70 million.[171] During the war, there was also ethnic violence between Bengalis and Urdu-speaking Biharis.[172] Biharis faced reprisals from Bengali mobs and militias[173] and from 1,000[174] to 150,000[175][176] were killed.

In Bangladesh, the atrocities are identified as a genocide. Time magazine reported in 1971 that "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military's hatred."[177]

United States government cables noted that Hindus were specific targets of the Pakistani army.[178][179] Notable massacres included the Jathibhanga massacre, the Chuknagar massacre, and the Shankharipara massacre.[180] More than 60% of the Bengali refugees who fled to India were Hindus.[181][182] It has been alleged that this widespread violence against Hindus was motivated by a policy to purge East Pakistan of what was seen as Hindu and Indian influences.[183][184]

According to R.J. Rummel, late professor of political science at the University of Hawaii,

The genocide and gendercidal atrocities were also perpetrated by lower-ranking officers and ordinary soldiers. These "willing executioners" were fueled by an abiding anti-Bengali racism, especially against the Hindu minority. "Bengalis were often compared with monkeys and chickens. Said General Niazi, 'It was a low lying land of low lying people.' The Hindus among the Bengalis were as Jews to the Nazis: scum and vermin that [should] best be exterminated. As to the Moslem Bengalis, they were to live only on the sufferance of the soldiers: any infraction, any suspicion cast on them, any need for reprisal, could mean their death. And the soldiers were free to kill at will. The journalist Dan Coggin quoted one Pakistani captain as telling him, "We can kill anyone for anything. We are accountable to no one." This is the arrogance of Power.[185]

The Bangladesh Liberation War (1971) resulted in one of the largest genocides of the 20th century. While estimates of the number of casualties was 3,000,000, it is reasonably certain that Hindus bore a disproportionate brunt of the Pakistan Army's onslaught against the Bengali population of what was East Pakistan. An article in Time magazine dated 2 August 1971, stated "The Hindus, who account for three-fourths of the refugees and a majority of the dead, have borne the brunt of the Muslim military hatred."[177] Senator Edward Kennedy wrote in a report that was part of United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations testimony dated 1 November 1971, "Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some places, painted with yellow patches marked "H". All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented under martial law from Islamabad". In the same report, Senator Kennedy reported that 80% of the refugees in India were Hindus and according to numerous international relief agencies such as UNESCO and World Health Organization the number of East Pakistani refugees at their peak in India was close to 10 million. Given that the Hindu population in East Pakistan was around 11 million in 1971, this suggests that up to 8 million, or more than 70% of the Hindu population had fled the country. The Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Sydney Schanberg covered the start of the war and wrote extensively on the suffering of the East Bengalis, including the Hindus both during and after the conflict. In a syndicated column "The Pakistani Slaughter That Nixon Ignored", he wrote about his return to liberated Bangladesh in 1972. "Other reminders were the yellow "H"s the Pakistanis had painted on the homes of Hindus, particular targets of the Muslim army" (by "Muslim army", meaning the Pakistan Army, which had targeted Bengali Muslims as well), (Newsday, 29 April 1994).

The Hindus are one of the persecuted minority religions in Pakistan. 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. This has led to attacks and forced conversion of the Hindus.[186][187][188]

The London-based Minority Rights Group and Islamabad-based International and Sustainable Development Policy Institute state that religious minorities in Pakistan such as Hindus face "high levels of religious discrimination", and "legal and social discrimination in almost every aspect of their lives, including political participation, marriage and freedom of belief".[189] 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."[190]

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedoms (USCIRF) echos a similar view, stating that "extremist groups and societal actors [have] continued to discriminate against and attack religious minorities" in Pakistan.[191][192][193] The European Parliament, similarly has expressed its concerns to Pakistan of systemic persecution of minorities citing examples of attack on Hindu temples (and Christian Churches), hundreds of honor killings, citing its blasphemy laws that "make it dangerous for religious minorities to express themselves freely or engage openly in religious activities".[194] The European Parliament has adopted resolutions of concern stating that "for years Pakistan's blasphemy laws have raised global concern because accusations are often motivated by score-settling, economic gain or religious intolerance, and foster a culture of vigilantism giving mobs a platform for harassment and attacks" against its religious minorities such as Hindus.[194][195][196]

In the aftermath of the Babri Masjid demolition Pakistani Hindus faced riots. Mobs attacked five Hindu temples in Karachi and set fire to 25 temples in towns across the province of Sindh. Shops owned by Hindus were also attacked in Sukkur. Hindu homes and temples were also attacked in Quetta.[197]

Hindus in Pakistan are often treated as second class citizens, systematically discriminated and dehumanised.[198] Hindu women have also been known to be victims of kidnapping and forced conversion to Islam.[199] A member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan claimed in 2010, though without official record, that around 20 to 25 girls from the Hindu community, along with people from other minorities like Christians, are abducted every month and forcibly converted.[200] Many Hindus are continuing to flee Pakistan even now due to persecution.[201] Krishan Bheel, a Hindu member of the National Assembly of Pakistan, came into the news for manhandling Qari Gul Rehman after being taunted with a religious insult.[202]

On 18 October 2005, Sanno Amra and Champa, a Hindu couple residing in the Punjab Colony, Karachi, Sindh returned home to find that their three teenage daughters had disappeared. After inquiries to the local police, the couple discovered that their daughters had been taken to a local madrassah, had been converted to Islam, and were denied unsupervised contact with their parents.[203] In January 2017, a Hindu temple was demolished in Pakistan's Haripur district.[204]

In 2005, 32 Hindus were killed by firing from the government side near Nawab Akbar Bugti's residence during bloody clashes between Bugti tribesmen and paramilitary forces in Balochistan. The firing left the Hindu residential locality near Bugti's residence badly hit.[205]

In 2006, a Hindu temple in Lahore was destroyed to pave the way for construction of a multi-storied commercial building. When reporters from Pakistan-based newspaper Dawn tried to cover the incident, they were accosted by the henchmen of the property developer, who denied that a Hindu temple existed at the site.[206] In January 2014, a policeman standing guard outside a Hindu temple at Peshawar was gunned down.[207] 25 March 2014 Express Tribune citing an All Pakistan Hindu Rights Movement (PHRM) survey said that 95% of all Hindu temples in Pakistan have been converted since 1990.[208] Pakistanis attack Hindu temples if anything happens to any mosque in neighbouring India.[197] In 2019, a Hindu temple Pakistan's southern Sindh province was vandalism by miscreants and they set fire to holy books and idols inside the temple.[209]

In July 2010, around 60 members of the minority Hindu community in Karachi were attacked and evicted from their homes following an incident of a Hindu youth drinking water from a tap near an Islamic mosque.[210][211] In January 2014, a policeman standing guard outside a Hindu temple at Peshawar was gunned down.[207] Pakistan's Supreme Court has sought a report from the government on its efforts to ensure access for the minority Hindu community to temples – the Karachi bench of the apex court was hearing applications against the alleged denial of access to the members of the minority community.[212][213][214]

In 2010 also, 57 Hindus were forced to convert by their employer as his sales dropped after Muslims started boycotting his eatable items as they were prepared by Hindus. Since the impoverished Hindus had no other way to earn and needed to keep the job to survive, hence they converted.[215]

A Pakistan Muslim League politician has stated that abduction of Hindus and Sikhs is a business in Pakistan, along with conversions of Hindus to Islam.[216] Forced conversion, rape, and forced marriages of Hindu women in Pakistan have recently become very controversial in Pakistan.[217][218]

Although Hindus were frequently soft targets in Pakistan,[219][220] the rise of Taliban forces in the political arena has particularly unsettled the already fragile situation for the minority community. Increasing persecution, ostracism from locals and lack of a social support system is forcing more and more Hindus to flee to India.[221][222] This has been observed in the past whenever the conflicts between the two nations escalated,[223] but this has been a notable trend in view of the fact the recent developments are due to internal factors almost exclusively. The Taliban have used false methods of luring, as well as the co-operation of zealots within local authorities to perpetrate religious cleansing.[224]

In 2012, a century-old temple demolished in Karachi, Pakistan, along with several houses, leaving nearly 40 Hindus homeless.[225] Following the demolition, the Pakistan Hindu Council organised a protest outside of Karachi Press Club. Prakash, one of the members of the council said "They destroyed our mandir and humiliated our gods".[225] According to local residents, the demolition team taken away the gold jewellery and crowns of the Hindu deities.[225] "They hit me with their guns when I tried to stop them. I told them to kill me instead of destroying out holy place", states, one of the residents, Lakshman.[225] According to one elderly resident, identified as Kaali Das, the area around the temple had over 150 Hindu families and due to the demolition, the families, including the children, spent the nights in the open.[225] "If you don't want us, we will go to India", screamed one of the women.[225] Maharaj Badri, who lived inside the temple, said that, "Our ancestors have been living here since independence. We are not encroachers".[225]

The rise of Taliban insurgency in Pakistan has been an influential and increasing factor in the persecution of and discrimination against religious minorities in Pakistan, such as Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, and other minorities. Hindu minorities living under the influence of the Taliban in Swat, Pakistan, were forced to wear red headgear such as turbans as a symbol of dhimmi.[221] In January 2014, in an attack on a temple, the guard was gunned down.[207]

Some Hindus in Pakistan feel that they are treated as second-class citizens and many have continued to migrate to India.[219][226] According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan data, just around 1,000 Hindu families fled to India in 2013.[227] In May 2014, a member of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Dr Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, revealed in the National Assembly of Pakistan that around 5,000 Hindus are migrating from Pakistan to India every year.[228]

Many Hindu girls living in Pakistan are kidnapped, forcibly converted and married to Muslims.[229] According to the Pakistan Hindu Council, religious persecution especially forced conversions to remain the foremost reason for the migration of Hindus from Pakistan. Religious institutions like Bharchundi Sharif and Sarhandi Pir support forced conversions and are known to have support and protection of ruling political parties of Sindh.[230] According to the National Commission of Justice and Peace and the Pakistan Hindu Council (PHC) around 1000 Christian and Hindu minority women are converted to Islam and then forcibly married off to their abductors or rapists. This practice is being reported increasingly in the districts of Tharparkar, Umerkot and Mirpur Khas in Sindh.[230] According to the Amarnath Motumal, the vice chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, every month, an estimated 20 or more Hindu girls are abducted and converted, although exact figures are impossible to gather.[229] In 2014 alone, 265 legal cases of forced conversion were reported mostly involving Hindu girls.[231]

In September 2019, Hindu teacher was attacked and three Hindu temples were vandalised in Ghotki riots over blasphemy accusations.[232][233] The protestors attacked properties, including the school and vandalised three Hindu temples.[232] The Hindu principal of Sindh public school in Ghotki was accused of fake blasphemy and the school was vandalised by the religious extremists in the presence of police, states the reports.[232][233]

In 2020, the Mata Rani Bhatiyani Hindu temple in Tharparkar, Sindh was vandalised by miscreants. The miscreants desecrated the idols and set fire to holy scriptures.[234][235] Four teenagers, ages 12 and 15 years, have been arrested for theft charges of the cash collection box of the temple.[235] According to the report, every year, around 1,000 young Hindu girls, between the ages of 12 and 28, are abducted, forcibly married and converted to Islam.[234][236]

In 2020, an Islamist mob desecrated the construction site of the first Hindu temple in Islamabad-Shri Krishna Temple Islamabad.[237] Subsequently, the Pakistan government halted the construction of the temple and referred the issue to the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body set up to ensure compliance of state policy with Islamic Ideology. Punjab Assembly speaker Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, a member of Pakistan Muslim League - Quaid, stated that construction of the temple was " against the spirit of Islam". Jamia Ashrafia, a Lahore-based Islamic institution, issued a fatwa against the temple.[238][239]

In October 2020, Goddess Durga's idols have been vandalised, stripped down and damaged in Nagarparkar, the Sindh Province of Pakistan.[240][241] According to the reports, the incident happened after the Hindu community had performed prayers of the Hindu festival Navaratri.[240] The incident has occurred on one of the most auspicious days in the Hindu religion, when communities come together to pray to and celebrate the Goddess Durga.[240][241]

In December 2020, a mob of hundred people led by the local Muslim clerics, destroyed and set on fire a Hindu temple in Karak district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.[242] The violent mob, arranged by the local clerics, is seen setting on fire the walls and roof of the temple on the footage report. 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.[243][242] The human rights activists based in Pakistan, and other parts of the world, condemned the violent act against the Hindu minority community.[242]

In August 2021, a Muslim mob stormed and vandalized a Hindu temple in Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, damaging and burning down the Hindu idols at the Siddhi vinayak temple.[244][245][246][247] According to Ramesh Kumar Vankwani, the member of Hindu National Assembly, the situation in the city was tense following the desecration of the Hindu temple.[247] The negligence of the issue by the local police, states Vankwani, was very shameful.[247] An appeal was made to the chief justice of Pakistan to intervene and to take immediate action, states Vankwani.[247] "The attackers were carrying sticks, stones and bricks. They smashed the deities while raising religious slogans", said Vankwani.[246][245]

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.[248][249][250]