Citizenship (Amendment) Act,2019

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was passed by the Indian Parliament on 11^th December, 2019 and received President’s assent on 12^th December, 2019. The Act aims to provide a path to Indian Citizenship for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsi and Christian religious minorities fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan provided they entered India on or before 31.12.2014. The bill also relaxes the residence requirement for naturalization of these migrants from eleven years to five years. The bill has been challenged on grounds of being violative of Right to Equality under Indian Constitution and is due to be heard in Supreme Court of India in January, 2020.

  

According to some reports, the bill is expected to provide immediate benefits to 31,313 refugees: 25,447 Hindus, 5,807 Sikhs, 55 Christians, 2 Buddhists and 2 Parsis. Majority of 25,000 Hindu beneficiaries will be Sindhis as 90% of Hindus in Pakistan reside in Sindh province. A sizable number of Sikhs beneficiaries are those who have fled religious persecution from Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

Over the past couple of decades, there has been a steady flow of minorities from the above mentioned countries coming into India. A sizeable number came on religious tourism visa only never to return back. Discrimination an account of following religious practices that do not conform to majority sensibilities and forced conversion seem to be the dominant reason for the movement of these minorities to India. In-fact, as I write this, local media is full of reports of forced conversion of 22 year old Mehak Keswani in Ghotki district in Pakistan. I understand that majority of forced conversion in Sindh is carried out by two particular mullahs – Mian Mithu based in Deherki in Upper Sindh and Pir Mohammed Ayub Jan Sarhandi in Samaro tehsil in Umerkot district in Lower Sindh. What else can minority families do in such circumstances than to flee what has been their land for thousands of years! Such incidents remind me of the following lines by famous Sufi Saint, Baba Bulleh Shah:-

Masjid dhaa dey,
Mandir Dhaa dey
Dha de jo kuch dhainda ,
Par kissi da dil na dhaey,
Rab Dillan vich raenda

(Tear down the Mosque,
  Tear down the Temple,
  Tear down whatever you can,
  But do not tear down the heart
  for that is where God lives)

Once in India, the struggle does not end. Whilst initially most migrants enjoy the new found freedom and breathe a sigh of relief as they are no longer judged on their religious practices and need not worry about the female members of the family being troubled for religious reasons, however, in the absence of proper documentation, making ends meet can be a real struggle. Activities like securing a government job, buying an immovable property or sending children to school/college can be a painstaking task. Finding private sector employment can also be difficult as potential employers are reluctant to employ migrants holding Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Afghanistani passport. In fact I remember seeing on a local news channel about how few qualified medical doctors from Sindh post migration were running small mobile phone recharge shops in cities of Ahmedabad and Jodhpur as in the absence of citizenship and reciprocal recognition of medical degrees, they could no longer practice medicine.

Whilst the central and various state government has been largely sympathetic to the cause of migrants facing religious persecution, however, in practice, there are significant day to day hurdles that these migrants face. For public at large, they still remain Pakistani/ Afghani/Bangladeshi passport holders which in itself at times can be a cause of discrimination locally. In fact, anecdotal evidence suggests that a lot of such families also face difficulties in getting their children married as often in the absence of Indian citizenship, prospective families/partners tend to look at such alliances negatively. In addition, most migrants have to report to Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) at regular intervals and seek permission before traveling to cities other than the one they have been registered at, a task which can be quite cumbersome.

Ms. Lavina Melwani based in New York, USA recently published an article in “Hinduism Today” (published by Himalayan Academy, Hawaii, USA) titled “72 years after Partition Hindus still flee”. Ms. Melwani takes the readers inside the Sindhi Refugee Communities in Jodhpur and Bhopal. Whilst not directly related to Citizenship Amendment, the article is a good read for anyone who is interested in understanding/exploring Sindhi Hindu migration in a greater detail. Link to the article is as follows. Congratulations to ‘Adi’ Lavina for such an insightful article.

http://digital.hinduismtoday.com/publication/?i=619137&article_id=3476998&view=articleBrowser&ver=html5#{%22issue_id%22:619137,%22view%22:%22articleBrowser%22,%22publication_id%22:%2245852%22,%22article_id%22:%223476998%22}

The new citizenship Amendment, in my opinion, provides hope of a better future to thousands of such refugees. Grant of an Indian passport will be the first of many steps that will help these migrants establish their individual identities in the new homeland, which for many is already “too-little, too-late”

I end with wishing Sindhi Chokro readers a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year 2020. May Lal Saeen continue to bless us all and grant all that we desire. As some of you may be aware, Chokro completes two years of existence in January, 2020 and I will publish our Second Anniversary post on 17^th January, 2020.

Also, below is the link to “Jhule-Lal Dhun” sung by Dada Ghanshyam Vaswani. I love the depth in Dada Vaswani’s voice so thought of sharing this with all of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvbAq_jgheA&t=801s

Jai Jhulelal!