Hazaras and Their Degree of Tolerance for Other Communities
By
I.A. Rehman
January 14,
2021
SALUTE the
Hazaras, one of the most gentle, peaceful and civilised communities in
Pakistan. It was unfair to oblige them to supplicate for the prime minister’s
attention — something they were entitled to receive without asking. The brutal
and most horrible killing of 11 miners was a national catastrophe that should
have brought to the scene the highest responsible authority in the land without
anybody formally inviting it. What actually happened did not raise the
government’s credit for its ability to respond to a national disaster and to
honour its obligation to commiserate with its citizens over a terrible tragedy.
Who are the
Hazaras and what have they done?
The Hazaras
migrated to Balochistan over a long period in the 19th century and they were
made to wait for decades before they were accepted as citizens in the land they
had settled in. Their first vocation in Balochistan was to serve in the British
Indian army and this enabled them to offer army chief Gen Muhammad Musa.
But as the
Hazaras were neither Sardars nor big landlords they didn’t have opportunities
to oppress tenants at will. They chose to provide educated cadres to facilitate
the management of the province’s affairs. There was a time they provided 70 per
cent of the provincial government’s secretarial staff (now down to 20 or even
less).
However,
the Hazaras were able to rise to eminence in business and industry. They
acquired ownership of mines and opened large departmental stores.
The
situation started becoming adverse for the Hazaras with the rise of religiosity
in Balochistan. The previously empty marble mosques started attracting sizeable
congregations. The arrival of religiously inspired militants from Punjab, the
use of Balochistan as a launching pad for militants operating in Afghanistan,
and finally the establishment of Taliban headquarters in Quetta made the
environment unfriendly and eventually hostile to the Hazaras.
The fate of
the Hazaras also began to be affected by developments in Afghanistan. When the
Hazaras in Afghanistan joined the government there, the Hazaras in Pakistan
were punished by the militants. Worse, the Hazaras found evidence to support
their suspicion that their tormentors enjoyed the support of powerful sections
in the government, even if the whole government was not a party to their
suppression. These suspicions were grounded in the officials’ blatant
indifference to their complaints and the persistent failure to proceed against
the Hazaras’ persecutors. When action was at last taken against a couple of
persons, they were allowed to escape from prison.
The Taliban
campaign in Afghanistan also generated an anti-Shia wave in Balochistan and the
Hazaras became victims of systematic attacks. In numerous incidents they were
pulled out of public transport vehicles, subjected to identify checks and
killed if their Hazara identity was established. For a long time, they were
unable to put up any resistance but eventually they learned to reply to
violence in the same coin, though on a small scale.
What
completely disheartened the Hazaras was the fact that running normal business
became more and more hazardous. They could not operate their mines and
maintaining efficiency at their departmental stores became impossible. Many of
them chose to abandon their fairly good jobs and went abroad in search of
secure employment or business opportunities. One of their favourite
destinations was Australia, and reports started to pour in of loss of life
during attempts to travel from Thailand to Australia in rickety boats that
often failed to reach their destination. But those who reached Australia made a
good impression on their hosts. Australian authorities especially admired the
industriousness of the Hazara womenfolk and their readiness to manage shops. In
short, the discipline of diligence and honest dealings enabled the Hazaras to
overcome the biases all communities have against immigrants of different racial
stock and different habits.
The problem
the Hazara workers face in an environment that has been made hostile to them by
militants belonging to a different sect is that their identity is exposed by
their facial features and national identity cards are checked only for ensuring
that no non-Shia gets killed.
Despite all
the hazards, the Hazaras have continued their educational mission. They run
schools and colleges that are open to children belonging to all religious
denominations and have been trying to establish a university for some years.
They try to ensure that girls have as easy an access to educational facilities
as boys and gender disparity in education is lower among them than in most
other communities in Pakistan. Police records will confirm that although crime
by Hazaras is not unknown they lag far behind other communities in making a
living by crime, including common aberrations such as extortion and blackmail.
Anyone who
has had contact with the Hazaras over a reasonable period will not fail to
confirm that despite all the hazards they face they retain a healthy outlook on
life and are full of optimism that they will survive whatever hardships are in
store for them. A most striking feature of the Hazaras is their degree of
tolerance for people belonging to other communities and denominations, which other
communities in the country would do well to emulate.
The
Hazaras’ desire to gain the attention of the highest in the land has a history
of unredeemed pledges made to them. It is true, as the information minister
thoughtlessly keeps reminding the Hazaras that misfortune has not befallen them
for the first time, but it is also true that remedial measures promised to the
Hazaras have not materialised. The prime minister did the Hazaras no favour by
flying to Quetta after dictating terms. In any responsible dispensation, the
head of government would have commiserated with the disaster victims without
being invited. Kindness hedged with conditions has little value. Incidentally,
the episode marked the formulation of what may be accepted as an Imran Khan doctrine
according to which public demands cannot be accepted because then the dacoits
will come up with their demands. Wonderful.
The nation
has reason to be grateful to the Hazaras for setting models of forbearance in
the face of calamity.
Original
Headline: Salute the Hazaras
Source: The Dawn, Pakistan
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-sectarianism/hazaras-their-degree-tolerance-other/d/124070
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