We need to realise that our history did not begin with the arrival of Muhammad Bin Qasim in Sindh. It can be traced back to thousands of years ago to a great civilisation that thrived along the mighty Indus and this connection gives us a unique and composite identity which is under a constant threat from those who refuse to see beyond a certain period.

This was the crux of the views expressed at a session held on the second day of the LLF.

The session that was centered round Reema Abbasi’s book ‘Temples of the Indus’ had I. A. Rehman, Aitzaz Ahsan, Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro and the author herself as panelists.

Ali Qasmi, who was moderating the session, said the book was a survey of some of the surviving temples in Pakistan, and quoted Ms Abbasi as writing that “Punjab broke my heart” when it came to preservation of these places of worship which were also cultural landmarks.

The author said it was sad to know that only two temples survived in Lahore --- a city that had a huge Hindu population before partition. Another part of the country that turned hostile to these monuments over the passage of time was Khyber Pakhtunkhwah that used to have a pluralistic culture with its temples and its Sikh population.

“We are a composite race. We had been dehistorified,” Aitzaz Ahsan said in response to a question by the moderator. He said in Zia’s regime history was literally re-written with a specific aim of distorting our identity through making popular a myopic view of history.

Mr Ahsan said the book fills in a gap of some two thousand years in our history by throwing light on a darkened period. “It gives us a flavour of what our forefathers were like when they were Hindu,” he said, deploring that we had been systematically ‘Arabised’. He said because of such attempts at changing our identity a pluralistic culture could not flourish here in Pakistan.

Responding to the question whether we are “diluting ourselves”, I. A. Rehman said: “We forget that we have been most frequently converted people.”

He said the Muslims adopted a lot of Hindu culture though they didn’t admit it. “We took women’s segregation and caste system from the Hindus.” He said the book also reflected on the inaction of state with regard to protecting of what we call minority culture. “The state is missing when it comes to saving temples,” he lamented, adding that a glorious part of our heritage in Nagarparkar area in Sindh was going to change forever. “The book not only reminds us about what is lost but also about what had been left and needed to be preserved,” he said.

Zulfiqar Ali Kalhoro talked about some places of worship “with dual identity”; those revered by people of more than one faith, like the shrine of Manghupir near Karachi. In this connection, Ms Abbasi mentioned Panj Mukhi Hanuman Temple where the exquisite stonework is done by a

Muslim, Allah Rukkha. She also mentioned a Hindu faith healer, Baldev, in interior Sindh, who was visited by people regardless of their creed.

In Aitzaz Ahsan’s words, “the destroyed temples are our own metaphor and “there is a little bit Hindu in all of us,” but it had been destroyed and Ziaul Haq did the most of the damage.

The moderator then raised the issue of lack of family laws for Hindus here, to which Mr Rehman said it was deplorable that the issues related to the community were not on government’s agenda. He said intrusion of politics into religion had aggravated the situation that resulted in some cases of conversion of temples into madressahs. He cited an example of a temple in Swat that was destroyed in the wake of Babri mosque’s demolition in India, but those who had ransacked it rebuilt it once they reconsidered their act. This happened because there was no politics involved, he said.

The issue of grabbing of gurdwaras’ land in Karachi also came under discussion, with Ms Abbasi saying this also happened with some temples in Thatha and Hyderabad. Mr Rehman said the issue was linked to the transfer of supervision of these places to Muslims after the actual trustees from the communities concerned had migrated.

Aitzaz Ahsan suggested that instead of minorities these communities should be called “better Pakistanis” as some of the best of the Pakistanis came from these communities, including Hindus, Parsis and Christians.

Ms Abbasi ended the session on a positive note that many of the temples were well-maintained. She said promoting pluralism was the only solution to the situation Pakistan finds itself in.

Published in Dawn, February 22nd, 2015

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