The whole world has been convinced on the point of inclusiveness and pluralism because developed nations of today have made their fortunes with the rewards of pluralism.
There was no other point behind introducing the concept if secularism in state affairs except encouraging the whole population; irrespective of their personal religious affiliations, in building the fortune of the nation and flourishing it.
Today’s developed nations have made their fortune by providing equal rights to their minorities. Minority is only a categorization for distinguishing their needs and motives rather than specification.
96 pc of Pakistan is comprised of Muslims while the second major population according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics is Hindu (1.60 pc).
The religion of Islam guarantees equal rights to the Muslims to such a level that sometimes it guides its followers to go beyond the limits and leave an outclass impact on others about their morality so that they may impress from their morality and come under the fold of Islam. A number of respective hadiths can be quoted here. In the same way, our constitution also guarantees equal citizenship rights to all individuals without any discrimination based upon sex, caste, creed or religion. Our founding father was a living guaranteer of the minority rights who at many occasions asked Pakistanis to give up their provincial, religious or sectarian affiliations and work for the betterment and the prosperity of the cherished country.
However, no body was denied the right to pray to any God in their private affairs. Freedom of obeying religion is granted to everybody as fundamental freedom. Today’s segregation of followers of different religions is disturbing.
There is no restriction in any law about minorities but nevertheless human nature is depleted with it to the extent that now it seems a natural phenomenon.
There is always some sideline news related to discrimination of minorities somewhere in the world where a majority tries to suppress a minority or simply struggles to evacuate them from their land. Different tactics are used for this purpose.
However, only those countries stand successful which protect their minorities. They become role models at the world stage. Pakistan has always supported the rights of minority populations around the globe. Now, Indian Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is trying hard to wipe out Muslims and Christians from Indian land.
BJP Leader Rajeshwar Singh says that both Muslims and Christians will cease to exist in 2021. A total of 200 million Muslims and 28 million Christians are residing in India. This shows the possibility of ethnic cleansing in increasingly Hindutwa dominating India. The world leaders instead of capturing hands and swarming like a couple need to take notice of such variations. Currently, no one can ignore the rising economic power of India because for everybody economic interest is supreme. However, they need to keep in mind human rights violations which eventually result in disruption of peace and widespread anarchy.
Until every nation does not look after their minorities’ needs, nothing substantial is going to be happened in terms of development of human civilization.
The writer is a freelancer.