Religious minorities in post partition Pakistan

[bldysabba]

I know this isn’t really a ‘General’ question, but hopefully some of the better informed posters will be able to tell me. I sometimes come across the claim that 20% of post-partition Pakistan was made up of non-Muslims, and this number today is close to 2%. Sounds untrue to me, but it would be nice to know the facts. Are there any reliable sources that trace Pakistan’s religious make-up over the last 60 odd years?

[barath_s]

Post Partition Pakistan includes the now Bangladesh.

A more accurate baseline would be the census figures for West Pakistan. through 1971

This page uses census figures to show that West Pakistan was almost 21% non muslim in 1941 falling to 3.36% in 1951. Since the 1998 census shows 3.84% as non muslim, my guess would be that the percentages largely stayed the same after partition.

I’m not sure if 1998 figure includes “Azad kashmir”, but it shouldn’t matter as it is comparitively small and overwhelmingly Moslem population. ie. the slop in the stats should be low.

Sorry, I can’t find the older census publications/charts online.
Interestingly, the 1998 census shows that over 20% were born in another country (guessing it is mostly moslems from India, Bangladesh or Afghanistan)

[bldysabba]

@barath_s

Post Partition Pakistan includes the now Bangladesh.

A more accurate baseline would be the census figures for West Pakistan. through 1971

You’re right, I only meant West Pakistan, not being in the habit of thinking of Bangladesh as having been part of Pakistan.

This page uses census figures to show that West Pakistan was almost 21% non muslim in 1941 falling to 3.36% in 1951. Since the 1998 census shows 3.84% as non muslim, my guess would be that the percentages largely stayed the same after partition.
I

That’s quite an interesting link. If their data is correct, it seems to suggest a great degree of asymmetry in the violence/ethnic cleansing perpetrated by either side. That’s not something that gets talked about a lot.

[robert_columbia]

I remember reading that at the time of partition, many Muslims from what became India moved to what was becoming Pakistan. To what extent did non-Muslims move out of what became Pakistan into India? Was this a formal population transfer arrangement or did these people basically mosey on in before nationality laws were finalized? Are there resettlement programs today where Pakistani non-Muslims are granted more or less automatic residency or citizenship in India or vice versa?

[bldysabba]

@robert_columbia

I remember reading that at the time of partition, many Muslims from what became India moved to what was becoming Pakistan. To what extent did non-Muslims move out of what became Pakistan into India? Was this a formal population transfer arrangement or did these people basically mosey on in before nationality laws were finalized? Are there resettlement programs today where Pakistani non-Muslims are granted more or less automatic residency or citizenship in India or vice versa?

It was an extremely chaotic, violent and bloody process. The extent is detailed in the link above. I’ve quoted the relevant bit below. And no, India does not discriminate between Pakistani non-muslims or muslims. Neither would be given automatic residency today.
Emphasis mine. West Pakistan - today’s Pakistan. East Pakistan - today’s Bangladesh

[ul]
[li]There was a drastic drop in minority population as a proportion of the total population in Pakistan after partition. In West Pakistan, the proportion of minorities came down from almost 21% of the population to about 3% between 1941 and 1951. Even in East Pakistan, this number came down from about 29.5% to about 23%. [/li][li]**Almost 15 million people belonging to the minority communities were either killed or converted to Islam or forced to migrate to India during partition. ** This number is substantially higher than usual estimates.[/li][li]Of these 15 million, about 7.28 million migrated to India and the rest are unaccounted for. Presumably, they were either killed or converted into Muslims.[/li][li]**As much as 89% of the minority population in West Pakistan was affected by ethnic cleansing, i.e. killed, converted into Islam or forced to migrate to India. **Even in East Pakistan, 41% of the minority population was ethnically cleansed. [/li][li]In India, by comparison, the total proportion of Muslims who migrated to Pakistan or were killed in violence was less than 18% of the total Muslim population. It is a high proportion but certainly no comparison with those for Pakistan. The total number of migrants to Pakistan was 7.23 million by the year 1951 and the number of people unaccounted for is relatively small at 0.43 million.[/li][li]An important fact that is not often acknowledged in western and even Indian writings on the subject of partition is that at partition, Pakistan had a higher proportion of non-Muslims than India had Muslims. Yet, the leadership and people of India chose a secular path for the country and enacted a constitution that gave equal rights to all citizens irrespective of faith. On the other hand, Pakistan, which had a higher proportion of minorities made it a policy to drive them out of their ancestral lands and worked towards a constitution that denied equal rights to non-Muslims.[16] Today, Pakistan has virtually no religious minorities (i.e. non-Muslims) left while India has a larger proportion of Muslims than it had in 1951.[/li][/ul]

[barath_s]

Those who emigrated to india became integrated into Indian society. Sikhs/Punjabis became more geographically widespread and took up many diverse occupations.
Of those who emigrated to Pakistan, those who moved to Sind never did integrate and formed the basis of the Mohajir ethnic and political society. Those who emigrated to other locations like Punjab did integrate.

Since it is 65 years since the partition, the question of resettlement and citizenship of those affected by partition of undivided india has largely become moot. More recent migrations, from Tibet, Nepal, Bangladesh etc … are more relevant.