From Hindu American Foundation 6Jun 2013 9th anual Hindu Human rights Report . Introduction1©HinduAmericanFoundation2013 Introduction The Government of India estimated that the Indian Diaspora was nearly 20million people strong in 2004. iii However, of the nearly one billion Hindus in theworld today, some reports put the Hindu population living outside India at 55-60million. iv These two numbers are not incompatible because not all Hindus arepart of the Indian Diaspora. For example, the population of Nepal isapproximately 29 million, of whom 80% are Hindus. Similarly, the Hindu citizensof Bangladesh and Pakistan are not considered part of the Indian Diaspora.Followers of Hindu traditions constitute the third largest religious group in theworld, after Christians (about 2.1 billion) and Muslims (1.4 billion). The majorityof Hindus live in the Indian sub-continent. They number nearly 827 million inIndia alone and constitute 80.5% of the population. v However, the HinduDiaspora reaches beyond the Indian subcontinent to Europe, Africa, Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands, and North America where it comprises a substantialminority. In Fiji and some Caribbean nations, Hindus make up a significantportion of the population, with representation at the highest levels of government.In Africa, Hindus make up a very small 0.213%, with the majority of them residingin South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda. In Asia, the overwhelming majority of Hindus (99.266%) reside in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka,Pakistan, and Bhutan), with some identifiable presence in Southeast Asia(Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, and Indonesia). In Europe (0.214%), themajority of Hindus live in the United Kingdom, with some sizeable populations inthe Netherlands and Germany. In the Americas (North, South, Central, and theCaribbean), Hindus total 0.263%, with the sizeable populations in the U.S.,Canada, and the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. In Oceania, Hindusmake up 0.044% of the total, with Fiji having the largest percentage of them. Thetop 25 countries 1 of residence for Hindus in ranking order are: India, Nepal,Bangladesh, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Malaysia, United States, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Mauritius, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania,Canada, Kuwait, Fiji, Singapore, Trinidad and Tobago, Myanmar, Guyana, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Zimbabwe, and Australia. vi 1 HindushavefledAfghanistan,andtheestimated2007figuresforthenumberofHindusinAfghanistanarenolongervalid.WehavethusremovedAfghanistanfromthelistofthetop25countriesofresidenceforHindus. 2 TheHinduAmericanFoundationpublisheditsfirstreportinDecember2010oncaste-baseddiscriminationinIndia.See:hafsite.org/media/pr/hinduism-not-caste-caste-full-report Introduction2©HinduAmericanFoundation2013 While Hindus comprise the majority in India and Nepal, Hindus constitute animportant minority in a number of countries around the world. Thesecommunities, especially in Pakistan and Bangladesh, have experienced atumultuous history, and at various times, their human rights have been violatedwith impunity by the majority communities. Such human rights violations havepersisted for many generations — with or without the connivance of the rulinggovernments — but have rarely attracted the sustained attention of human rightsagencies. We have, over the past eight years, brought these human rightsviolations to regular scrutiny. This ninth annual report covers human rightsconditions in ten nations and regions across the world in 2012: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Pakistan, Bhutan, the Indian stateJammu and Kashmir, Sri Lanka, Fiji, Saudi Arabia, and Trinidad and Tobago. As a “spiritual community” of related religious and cultural practices (the major religious groups within Hinduism are Vaishnava, Smartha, Shaiva and Shakta),Hindus do not adhere to a single scripture, owe allegiance to a single religiousinstitution or authority, follow one religious leader, nor adhere to one set of worship, practices, and ritual. Though Buddhists, Jains, and Sikhs constitutedistinct religious traditions themselves, they are included as a part of the broader Hindu family. This report excludes their particular concerns, though the fate of Buddhists in Tibet since 1950 is a matter of tragic historical significance that hasbeen the subject of investigation by various international agencies.While the issue of human rights is of global significance, this report focuses onongoing human rights violations in the ten nations/regions listed above. Thisreport does not investigate other human rights violations within India, such asreligious conflict, abuse of women, or caste-based discrimination. The Hindu American Foundation believes in the importance of addressing those problems 2 but they are beyond the scope of this report, which focuses on countries andregions where Hindus are a minority. The Foundation’s first human rights report, published in 2005 vii , provided a brief summary of the history of the South Asian region. The departure of the Britishcolonialists in 1947 left India divided into a Muslim majority Pakistan (made up of two regions – West and East Pakistan) and a Hindu majority India. Indiaembraced secularism, proclaiming the State neutral between religions, but 2 TheHinduAmericanFoundationpublisheditsfirstreportinDecember2010oncaste-baseddiscriminationinIndia.See:hafsite.org/media/pr/hinduism-not-caste-caste-full-report Introduction3©HinduAmericanFoundation2013 allowed minorities to retain their own sectarian practices in areas like personallaw. India established the largest and longest sustained democracy in the region.Pakistan labeled itself the Islamic Republic of Pakistan with the adoption of aConstitution based on Islamic jurisprudence. viii It curtailed the political rights of minorities, and Hindus, who constituted approximately 20-25% of the populationin West Pakistan ix and 30% in East Pakistan, suffered the most. The Hindupopulation has dwindled to less than 2% in Pakistan (former West Pakistan) andto about 9.6% in Bangladesh (former East Pakistan). East Pakistan secededfrom West Pakistan with Indian military assistance in 1971 following the genocidecommitted by the armed forces of Pakistan against its own citizens. The newcountry was named Bangladesh. Rapid Islamization of the Bangladesh polityover the last decade has led to a substantial rise in attacks against minoritygroups -- the largest minority constituency being Hindu.The Indian State of Jammu and Kashmir is the focus of territorial claims byPakistan, which has encouraged and abetted terrorism against India. x Terrorismin the Kashmir Valley has led to the forced exodues of nearly the entire Hindupopulation of several hundred thousand from the Kashmir Valley through acampaign of murder, rape, and kidnapping. Pakistani military posturing and thethreat of nuclear warfare between the two nations have diverted attention fromthe reality of atrocities against Hindus in Kashmir since 1989. Successive Indiangovernments have paid scant attention to the fate of the Hindu minority of Kashmir because they have concluded that attempting to address their legitimateconcerns might constitute an avoidable distraction for the political resolution of the dispute over Kashmir. The media in India and abroad have taken the cuefrom this fateful governmental silence over the human rights violations of Kashmir’s Hindus by largely ignoring them. World human rights organizationshave also been muted in their response to the tragedy that has befallenKashmir’s Hindus.HAF’s consequent reports reaffirmed the ongoing human rights abuses in thethree regions covered in the first report and expanded their scope beyond South Asia. xi This ninth annual report will once again demonstrate that Hindu citizens inSouth Asia and across the Diaspora are targeted victims of grievous violations of universally recognized human rights. The absence of this issue from the globaldialogue on human rights, and the manifest absence of substantivedocumentation by prominent media sources and non-governmental human rightsorganizations of abuses against Hindus continue to prompt our investigationsand reports. We provide further context to our findings by examining the legal hafsite.org/media/pr/hinduism-not-caste-caste-full-report hafsite.org
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