Religion in Pakistan - before Islam and before 1947

nycxbarbie · January 7, 2013, 3:47am

Re: Religion in Pakistan - before Islam and before 1947

Facts about the pre-Muslim ancestors of Pakistanis:

The word/term “Hindu/Hinduism” is a recent construct. It were the
Muslim invaders who for the first time in history imposed this foreign
term in South Asia to the countless distinct local religions. Not a
single pre-Muslim era Brahman, Buddhist, Jain, or any other South
Asian scripture/inscription mentions the word “Hindu/Hinduism”.

Before the advent of Islam, the majority of people in the region of
Pakistan were Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Animists/Pagans/Shamanists.
Brahmanists/Shaivites were a minority in Pakistan. Harappans ate beef,
buried the dead, had no Hindu temples/idols/deities, etc. RigVedic
Aryans forbade idolatory, ate beef, sacrificed cows, had no caste
system, most Hindu deities were absent among them, etc. Under Persian
rule, Zoroastrianism started to spread. Similarly, Greek Paganism
spread under the Greeks. Asoka brought Buddhism, which was later also
propagated along with Zoroastrianism and Animism/Shamanism/Paganism
under the Bactrians, Sakas, Parthians, and Kushans. White Huns
(Iranian Huns/Hepthalites) were not very fond of Buddhism.

A significant minority of Pakistanis are descendents of Arab,
Iranian, Turkic, Mughal and Afghan invaders/migrants, who just like
the rest of the ancestors of Pakistanis were Zoroastrians,
Animists/Pagans/Shamanists, and Buddhists before Islam.

Pre-1947 region of present-day Pakistan only had 15% non-Muslims,
out of which half were Sikhs. Many of remaining half that were Hindus
were actual migrants from the region of present day India during the
British rule. For example, most of the Hindus in pre-1947 Karachi had
migrated from Gujarat/Rajasthan during British rule because of
Karachi’s economic boom then.

On the pre-1947 non-Muslim population in present day region of
Pakistan:

W. Punjab: 9% Hindu, 11% Sikh

Sindh: 10% Hindu, 5% Sikh

NWFP: 2.5% Hindu, 2.5% Sikh

Baluchistan: 3% Hindu

Other Sources:

According to the UN and other respected organizations, 12-24 million
is the total estimate of migrations from both India and Pakistan
(East Pakistan included) of Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs combined at the
time of partition!!! So if Hindus and Sikhs are taken as 50% of that
figure, since there was an almost equal exchange of population, that
would make about 6-12 million Hindus-Sikhs in both East and West
Pakistan that migrated to India. Now, we know that there was almost
an equal (50% each) number of migrants leaving East and West Pakistan
(although Hindu population in East Pakistan was higher), that would
make the Hindu-Sikh population in West Pakistan about 3-6 million.
Now we know that West Pakistan’s population at that time was about 25-
30 million which makes the total Hindu-Sikh population about 12-20%
(+ add the current 1.5%) in West Pakistan before partition. Also, it
is estimated that out of the non-Muslim population in West Pakistan,
+40% were Sikhs, so that leaves Hindus with even lesser numbers. We
know that Sikhs do not consider themselves as Hindus and they are
fighting for independence from India.

References:

Check your local library on the UN statistics on the country’s
history of population demography, it will also confirm this. Other
sources such as the World Almanac clearly states: “More than 12
MILLION Hindu & Moslem refugees crossed the India-Pakistan borders in
a mass transferral of some of the 2 peoples during 1947; about
200,000 were killed in communal fighting”. Also the Library of
Congress states: “The most conservative estimates of the casualties
were 250,000 dead and 12 MILLION to 24 MILLION refugees”.

On the meaning and origins of Hinduism:

"The term Hinduism … was ] introduced in about 1830 AD by
British writers. " [Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 `Hinduism’ 519 ]

“The term Hindu was first imposed on south Asian nations by the
Afghan dynasty of Ghori in the 12th century; this term was never
used in south Asia prior to the Muslim era and is not even found in
early (pre-12th century AD) Brahmanical or Buddhist texts. Such a
term and concept has no historical depth in any social, religious,
ethnic or national sense past the 12th century when Mohammed Ghori
for the first time named his conquered subjects Hindus.” [G. Singh,
Sakasthan and India, Toronto, 1999, p. 20]

“Hinduism, as a faith, is vague, amorphous, many-sided, all things
to all men. It is hardly possible to define it, or indeed to say
definitely whether it is a religion or not, in the usual sense of
the word.” [Jawaharlal Nehru, The Discovery of India, New Delhi,
1983, p.75]

“Frankly speaking, it is not possible to say definitely who is a
Hindu and what Hinduism is. These questions have been considered
again and again by eminent scholars, and so far no satisfactory
answer has been given.” [Swami Dharma Theertha, History of Hindu
Imperialism, Madras, 1992, p. 178]

“Hinduism defies definition… It has no specific creed.” [Khushwant
Singh, India: An Introduction, New Delhi, 1990, p. 19]

“The more Hinduism is considered, the more difficult it becomes to
define it in a single phrase… A Hindu may have any religious
belief or none.” [Percival Spear, India: A Modern History, Michigan,
1961, p.40]

"The term Hinduism … was ] introduced in about 1830 AD by
British writers. " [Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 `Hinduism’ 519 ]

“The term Hindu was first imposed on south Asian nations by the
Afghan dynasty of Ghori in the 12th century; this term was never
used in south Asia prior to the Muslim era and is not even found in
early (pre-12th century AD) Brahmanical or Buddhist texts. Such a
term and concept has no historical depth in any social, religious,
ethnic or national sense past the 12th century when Mohammed Ghori
for the first time named his conquered subjects Hindus.” [G. Singh,
Sakasthan and India, Toronto, 1999, p. 20]

OK i have studied all this, your right, but kinda off a little

#2 Zoroastrians used to be the most accepted religion in the WHOLE world, back then almost everyone was Zoroastrians, even current day Hindus, Buddhist, Muslims…etc, so every bodies ancestors was probably Zoroastrian ( and this was far before 1800s or 1900s, this was like pre- historic)
(were not talking about pre-historic but early 1900s here (1947), Zoroastrian and Buddhist are two different categories and they were never practiced at the same time in the Indian Subcontinent, because Zoroastrian was pre-historic like in the early 2nd millennium BCE)

#3 The only known people that came to the Indian subcontinent of Arab decent, were Arabs that introduced Islam to south Asia, not any other

#4 Those statistic are NOT pre-1947, that’s was DURING 1947…Majority of Pakistan before 1947 was Buddhist, then also many or Hindus and Sikhs, and Christians, Muslims were actually a minority mainly found in current day Lahore…that’s why Hindu temples were not found as much as other parts of India, but they did exist because it was the second most accepted religion at the time and so did Sikh temples and history was all in that region, and in Lahore mosque would be seen, migration started far before 1947 when rumors were spreading and plans were being made (this plan probably took more than a couple hundred years, because Muslims and Hindus were always wanting to separate) they gave land for both sides (easy access for Muslims on either side) of India to Muslims, Bangladesh and Pakistan, they were literally random pieces, and the reason why Pakistan portion was bigger than Bangladesh was because Pakistan region had mainly Buddhists and less Hindus than other regions(though there were plenty there too) and thought they would be less bloodshed, almost all the Buddhists, and some poor Hindus and poor Sikhs that did not own much land, they fled because they had no problem leaving land and money…etc, before tension arose, while the small minority of Muslims in the Pakistan region were recruiting Muslims from Central Indian cities (like Mumbai), and they were promised food, money, and land; millions arrived and that’s how Pakistan got the Muslim majority later on…this was happening before 1947, when there were no borders and no records of the migration…The Hindus and Sikhs that fled during the 1947 partition were the ones that owned land and were resisting, but finally left, there’s still couple thousand left, but now its tougher to cross with the border, but are still migrating slowly to India…This is also the time when the 85% of the region was Muslim all of a sudden from Buddhist, Hindu and Sikhs during 1947 because no one kept track of the Buddhist leaving and Muslims coming in before 1947. Many died on both sides and VERY rarely any successful cases of converting was recorded, spiritually its impossible to convert someone by force they will always convert back. This was all in the hands of the British, they fled before they were killed in the bloodshed they created, Pakistan and India independence from them was basically a forfeit, it was a random idea they created out of the blue “like OK you go there, and you go there”, literally, and now two different countries, that caused so much trouble. People always ate beef, they still do in India i believe in the northern regions, where the law is less strict, where majority of the Buddhist and Christians live, some parts of Afghanistan, northern mountain regions, like Nuriastan, were also Buddhist or similar religions, but later conquered because they were a small excluded bunch and converting them meant little news of it spreading to other Buddhists, and it was difficult for them to flee, because they had to jump the Afghanistan- India (current day Pakistan) border, while Buddhists in current day Pakistan fled to the safe side before 1947 (before border was built) and during the partition is when both Pakistan and India got pasthus folks, 19 million in Pakistan and 11 million in India, not before. Today, very few are actually native Pakistanis, the only natives are the Kalash, Sikh and Hindu minorities that are still fleeing to India little by little, small amount of pasthus near the border, and also minority of Muslims that lived in Lahore. Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, and Buddhists in all of South Asian were all Hindus whether they live in Hindustan or Pakistan and whether they consider themselves that or not, genetically they are. Clans found Within some Hindus, Sikh, Christian are a mixture of European blood, and some clans within Muslims were with Arab blood. Kashmir and Sikhs are smart they don’t want independence now days and they both have a amazing reputation in India, because they know the same thing that happened to Muslims and Pakistan will happen again with Muslims scattered in both countries and they know their countries would just be considered a crumble of India and will not be successful.