CAA: Are India's claims about minorities in other countries true?
- Published
Hindu marriage was legalised in Pakistan in 2017
The Indian government has decided to enact a controversial law offering citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from three neighbouring countries.
Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who have entered India illegally before 31 December 2014 can apply for citizenship if they can prove they originate from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan.
The law, known as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), has been criticised as discriminatory because the same right has not been granted to Muslims who have come to India from other countries.
Home Minister Amit Shah says non-Muslim groups are persecuted
The government argues that minorities in those Muslim-majority countries are dwindling, and that they face persecution on the grounds of their faith.
"I believe it is our moral and constitutional responsibility to give shelter to those who were part of Akhand Bharat and suffered religious persecution," says Home Minister Amit Shah.
Akhand Bharat is a historical term referring to the idea of a greater India, and understood to include India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Tibet.
So what is the situation facing non-Muslims in neighbouring states?
How many Hindus and other non-Muslims?
Amit Shah has argued that Pakistan's non-Muslim population has dwindled dramatically since 1951.
This follows the mass exodus of non-Muslims from the newly-created Pakistan after partition in 1947 and the flight of Muslims from India to Pakistan.
In his most recent remarks, Mr Shah has cited a figure for Hindus in Pakistan of 23% of the population in 1951, which he says had then shrunk to 3.7% due to persecution.
Mr Shah also cited a figure for Hindus in Bangladesh of 22% in 1951, which he said had gone down to 10% in 2011.
But Mr Shah's figures don't appear to take into account the fact that the 1951 data (from the first census held after partition) includes both West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), which until 1971 were one country.
According to the 1951 census data, Hindus constituted 1.6% of the population of the former West Pakistan and 22% in the former East Pakistan.
The relatively small Hindu population in Pakistan (formerly West Pakistan) has not really changed significantly from the 1951 figure of 1.6% as the 2017 official census data shows a Hindu population of just 1.7%.
With other minorities added, that figure increases to over 3%, closer to the figure Mr Shah cited as just being for Hindus.
In Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan), the data does suggest that the Hindu population fell significantly - from around 22% in 1951 to around 8% in 2022.
Diwali celebrations in the Pakistan city of Karachi
There are other non-Muslim religious minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh, such as Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs, and Parsis.
And in Pakistan, there are also Ahmadis, who were declared non-Muslim by the government in the 1970s, and are estimated to be around four million strong, making them the largest religious minority in the country.
In Afghanistan, non-Muslim groups include Hindus, Sikhs, Bahais and Christians, and make up less than 0.3% of the population.
In 2023, there were fewer than 100 Sikhs and Hindus left in Afghanistan despite the Taliban reportedly giving assurances for their safety, according to an official US report., external
What's the official status of non-Muslims?
The Indian government's citizenship act states: "The constitutions of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh provide for a specific state religion. As a result, many persons belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian communities have faced persecution on grounds of religion in those countries. "
It's true that the state religion of Pakistan is Islam. Afghanistan is also an Islamic state.
In Bangladesh, the situation is more complicated. The country came into being in 1971 with a secular constitution, but in 1988 Islam was made the official state religion.
A lengthy legal battle to get that reversed ended in 2016 when Bangladesh's top court ruled that Islam should remain the state religion.
However, all these countries have constitutional provisions stating that non-Muslims have rights and are free to practise their faith. And individual Hindus have risen to prominent positions in both Pakistan and Bangladesh, notably as chief justices in the two countries.
Do minorities face discrimination?
In practice, non-Muslim minorities do face discrimination and persecution.
Human rights group Amnesty International has pointed to Pakistan's blasphemy laws, which it says "are vaguely formulated and arbitrarily enforced by the police and judiciary in a way which amounts to harassment and persecution of religious minorities".
A group of Hindus from Pakistan living at a camp in Delhi
Pakistani Hindus who moved to India in recent years have told the BBC they face social and religious discrimination, with a particular issue being the targeting of Hindu girls in Sindh province.
But it's also true that Ahmadis, who are not covered by India's citizenship act, face discrimination for their beliefs as they are regarded as heretical by the Muslim majority in Pakistan.
In Bangladesh, there are various reasons for the decline in the proportion of Hindus over the years.
The better-off Hindu population have had their homes and businesses targeted, sometimes in attempts to get them to leave so their land or assets can be taken over. Hindus have also been the targets of attacks by religious militants.
The Bangladesh government has previously rejected India's claims about minorities being targeted. Former foreign minister Abdul Monem had told the BBC in 2019: "We don't have examples of minorities being persecuted in this country."
