12 November 2020, NIICE Commentary 6471
Pulkit Buttan
Afghanistan is a landlocked country of South Asia which borders Central Asia on the western front. Political turbulence had ruined the country since long, but it took an event like the 9/11 attack to draw the attention of the world towards Afghanistan. Afghanistan, a predominantly Muslim country, is also home to non-Muslim minorities like Sikhs and Hindus for a long time that has their roots from India. Contemporarily, they constitute 0.3 percent of the population. Both the communities have been an integral part of the socio-economic and cultural life of Afghanistan. Most of the Sikhs and Hindus belong to major trading communities like Arora and Khatri.
Under Ghaznavi rulers, we can find the reference of Hindus living as dhimmi (protected people) in Afghanistan. Later traveller Ibn Batuta referred to Nath Yogis in his account. Baburnama describes the Gor Khatri temples in Old Peshawar. The earliest reference to Sikhism in Afghanistan has its roots in Janam Sakhis that traced Guru Nanak’s visit to Mecca, Baghdad and Kabul. It also speaks of Maan Chand, son of Khan, becoming a follower of Guru Nanak. History also witnessed religious conflicts like- Misls, a Sikh confederacy, which had put up a strong defence against the plundering forces of Abdali. The Sikhs have been politically active as well, like- Mangal Singh Bedi, participated in Loya Jirga (Parliament of 1925), Diwan Niranjan Das (State Ministre of Finance and Trade in the 1920s), Jai Singh Fanni (founder of Naujawaan Sikh Sabha in 1965 and elected as an independent parliamentarian in 1969). The rise of radical forces turned tables for the Hindu and Sikh community of Afghanistan which forced them to flee.
Political Turmoil and the Rise of Taliban
Political turmoil had started in Afghanistan in the 1970s with the assassination of President Mohd Daud Khan in 1978 by members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). A similar fate met by his successor. Afghanistan soon became the theatre of Cold War politics and set the stage for further ruin. After the Soviet withdrawal, the US-backed Mujahideen forces captured Kabul in 1992 and ousted President Najibullah. Subsequently, wealthy Afghans including Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs started fleeing the country. Lawlessness escalated under the Mujahideen rule, exemplified by the 1998 Jalalabad attack and Tanda attack. Non-Muslims were often forcefully converted to Islam and faced endemic social discrimination. Members of these communities came to India under the Aab Gang scheme. Although the Sikh and Hindus were allowed to live as dhimmi, they were discriminated on various occasions and had to pay jizya (tax paid by non-muslims).
After the defeat of the Taliban by the hands of Northern Alliance in 2001, Afghanistan started rebuilding its infrastructure under the Hamid Karzai government. Although initial years were peaceful and witnessed the return of 25 Afghan Sikh and Hindu families from India, tensions again surfaced when warlords joined the government, and illegal seizure of property of minorities took place. Afghanistan witnessed vitiation of law and order and terror attacks in which the Sikh leadership was targeted like Nirmohan Singh (2016) and Avtar Singh (2018).
In late 2016, the Afghan government reserved one seat each for both the communities in parliament. On 1 July 2018, another terrorist attack took place in Jalalabad that killed 15 Sikhs and 4 Hindus. Till 2019, there were around 850 Sikhs and 60 Hindus residing in Afghanistan. Their economic situation has also exacerbated, exemplified by the fact that once used to be an affluent trading community in Afghanistan has now been reduced to trade in herbal medicine and spices only. On 25 March 2020, the attack by IS gunmen on Har Rai Sahib Gurudwara took place in Kabul that killed at least 25 people.
International Response
The international community, on various occasions, have shown their support for the Afghans’ minorities. Post Jalalabad attack, in 2018 the Canada India Foundation (CIF) urged Canada to accept Afghan Sikhs and Hindus. In July 2020, 25 Canadian MPs requested their Immigration Minister to facilitate a special program under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act to bring Afghan Hindus and Sikhs to Canada. In the USA, 20 senators urged the administration to grant emergency refugee protection to both the communities in Afghanistan. They had asked the state to prioritise resettlement opportunities under the US Refugee Admission Program.
Within South Asia, apart from Pakistan, India too has opened doors for the Afghan refugees. Among the 18000 Afghan Sikhs living in India, around 50-60 percent have acquired Indian citizenship, and the rest are either refugees or on long term visas. They are living in areas of Punjab, Delhi and Haryana. After the 2020 Kabul attack, the Indian government took measures like fastening the visa process for members of these communities, facilitating priority visas to around 600 people and an opportunity to apply for long term visas. The praise for this initiative was overshadowed as the Afghanis already residing in India for the past 30 years started demanding Indian citizenship. They have to renew their visas every year and were waiting for the enforcement of the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019. However, many of them prefer to migrate to Canada or the UK. They complained regarding the delay in the processing of documents. They are living in a perplexing situation as many even do not have refugee status.
Conclusion
With more than two and a half million refugees, the South Asian subcontinent must act at a regional level to solve this crisis. The states’ handling of refugees in the region has been characterised by arbitrariness, flouting of voluntary repatriation and less domestic legislation. However, there are critical historical junctures in refugee protection like the 2004 South Asia Declaration on Refugees, but it puts states under no obligation to protect the refugees. Afghanistan is a sole signatory to the UNHCR convention in South Asia. South Asia can develop a regional framework and learn from the 1969 OAU (Organisation of African Unity) Convention. A regional framework, supplemented with some domestic legislation, can ensure the principle of responsibility sharing and voluntary repatriation.
At the Asia Pacific level, migration-related institutions were established like the inter-governmental Asia Pacific Consultation on Refugees, Displaced Persons and Migrants (APC), supported by both United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and International Organization for Migration (IOM). It includes Afghanistan with India, Pakistan, Iraq etc. Its mandate was more inclusive as it included refugees, displaced persons, irregular migrants and trafficking. It is no more active, and the region must make an effort to revive it or to establish a new collaboration on such terms to initiate a dialogue at a much broader and inclusive level.
