"Number of Indian citizenship granted to people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minorities groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan during the year 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 . An AP report from Kabul said: Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. As he puts it, the population has shrunk to 300 people, who currently reside in Nangarhar and Kabul provinces. A large number of Afghanistan's Hindus and Sikhs say their social problems have multiplied and they face serious difficulty. Dr Giustozzi is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), International Relations and International History (IDEAS) and In this time of crisis, India has opened its doors for them. Consideration of issues 2.1 Credibility In a country where the overwhelming population is Muslim and the state religion is Islam, members of non-Muslim minority communities in Afghanistan face issues of . 20h Badakhshan. According to Minority Rights Group of Afghanistan, Hindus and Sikhs are pressurized to convert to Islam and face disruptions in funeral and cremation ceremonies by the local officials. "In 2012, when I went to Afghanistan for making my documentary, the local Sikh population was 3,000, which has now been reduced to a mere 300," he said. "In 1992, they were a 220,000-strong community, just. Today, the minority who persevered are forced to leave behind a lifetime, in fear for . With their roots in Ghazni and Kabul, like many Sikhs and Hindus, her parents emigrated to Europe when Taliban fighters took over Afghanistan in the mid-1990s. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to leave the country of their birth to escape the insecurity and a once-thriving community of as many as 250,000 members now counts fewer than 700. "In this regard, I most humbly request you that the Government of India may kindly consider giving special visas to the around 700 Sikhs and Hindus stuck in violence and strife struck Afghanistan and evacuate them (on consent basis) immediately on the similar pattern as done in the year 2020," the Congress leader urged. No official data exists, but community members say they are down to around 7,000 people, the majority of whom are Sikhs, from roughly 200,000 before the country's civil war began in 1992. Hindus, Sikhs Suffer as Marginalized Minorities. Afghan conflict India will help Hindus and Sikhs who want to leave Afghanistan, says MEA The ministry added that the suspension of commercial flights has paused India's repatriation efforts. NEW DELHI: A group of 110 Hindus and Sikhs will arrive in New Delhi from Kabul on a chartered flight on . An ancient connection. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are . A brief history Afghan Hindus and Sikhs have an enduring presence that is interwoven into the fabric of the country's history. The people rescued from Afghanistan are Afghan Hindus and Sikhs and these include 4 Indians who could not get out of Afghanistan. Sikhs and Hindus live primarily in urban areas, particularly Sikh and Hindu communities make up a tiny amount of the Afghanistan population, with currently around 1,300 Afghan Sikhs, and 600 Afghan Hindus. The Sikh and Hindu communities have lived in Afghanistan for centuries but now make up less than one percent of Afghanistan's population of approximately 30 million.1 Prior to the collapse of the pro-Soviet regime in 1992, there were nearly 200,000 members of the two communities.2 Recent victimization of Sikhs and Hindus. Religious persecution, discrimination, and forced conversion of Hindus perpetrated by Muslims has caused the Afghan Hindus, along with Buddhist and Sikh population, to dwindle from Afghanistan. The origin of Afghanistan's Sikh and Hindu population goes back centuries, even before the existence of the country, explains Inderjeet Singh, author of the book Afghan Hindus and Sikhs: History . 20 TH Century . Page 7 of 44 Hindu families. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. A lot of Sikhs while participating in their religious festive Vaisakhi complained that despite a guarantee for the safeguard of their religious and social rights in the Afghan Constitution and laws, the behavior of their Muslim countrymen are not satisfactory. Feeling alienated, Sikhs choose to leave Afghanistan. Later on Tuesday, Indian authorities launched a new fast-track visa system for Afghans which will enable any citizen of the country - irrespective of their religious affiliation - to apply . 3,117 from minority communities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh granted citizenship, says Centre Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai said the number of Indian citizenship granted to people belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Christian minorities groups from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan during the year 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 is 3,117 Contrary to the common assumption that Sikhs in Afghanistan are recent immigrants of Indian origin, the Sikh community is in fact indigenous to the . 1.2 Points to note 1.2.1 Despite separate histories and religions, Hindu and Sikh communities in Afghanistan are interconnected and are frequently referred to as a single community (see Hindu and Sikh communities in Afghanistan ). Viral Updated on: Tuesday, August 17, 2021, 11:18 AM IST 'Why is this religion-specific?': India to repatriate Sikhs, Hindus who wish to leave Afghanistan; netizens question 'why not Muslims?' Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh Population" dated 18th May 2011 and "Afghan Sikhs, Risk on return to Kabul" dated 20th May 2011. The community's numbers have been declining for years because of deep-rooted . The Sikhs were from the Pashtun, Hindkowan and Punjabi ethnicities and were concentrated in the major cities of . Since then, the small Sikh and Hindu communities in Afghanistan have made mult. Again, some MPs were not satisfied. The situation is so bad that, close to 99 percent of former Hindu and Sikh citizens of Afghanistan have left the country over the past three decades. Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh Population" dated 18th May 2011 and "Afghan Sikhs, Risk on return to Kabul" dated 20th May 2011. In 1952 the Indian government offered to provide refuge to all Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan. "Sikhs and Hindus are natives — not outsiders," says Puja Kaur Matta, an Afghan Sikh anthropologist, who now lives in Germany. Otar Singh, the head of Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh community and a former member of parliament, said conditions . Once home to a thriving and ancient population of Hindus (and later Sikhs) dating back to the Indus Valley Civilization more than 3,000 years ago, Afghanistan is now 99.7% Muslim. Sikhism in Afghanistan is limited to a small population, primarily in major cities, with the largest numbers of Afghan Sikhs living in Jalalabad, Ghazni, Kabul and to a lesser extent in Kandahar. Close to 99 per cent of Hindu and Sikh in Afghanistan have left the country over the past three decades. Taliban to allow Hindus and Sikhs be part of Afghanistan development. Narender Singh Khalsa, the one and only MP who represents the community in the Afghan Parliament, estimates nearly 350,000 Sikhs and Hindus lived in Afghanistan in 1970s. the person is Hindu or Sikh. The . Since then, decades of instability and religious . On March 25, an IS gunman killed 25 Sikhs at Gurudwara Har Rai Sahib in Kabul. Afghanistan. Sikhs and Hindus of Afghanistan in Limbo after March Deadly Attack. As per historical accounts, there were more than 60,000 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan but by 2019 they have reduced to a thousand and are mainly restricted to Kabul, Jalalabad and Ghazni. Close to 99 percent of former Hindu and Sikh citizens of Afghanistan have left the country over the past three decades. A special flight that has been chartered by the Indian government is set to bring back stranded Indians and Afghans who are Sikh and Hindu, according to the Indian World Forum (IWF), as per TNN. New Delhi: A special repatriation flight from Kabul with around 110 people including Afghan citizens belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities, is set to arrive here on Friday. 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. Combined with a wide range of population approximations in the absence of official census data, the Afghan Sikh population was estimated to be between 200,000 and 500,000 in the 1970s. Hindus and Sikhs constitute a fraction of the Afghan population. 2.3.1 Although the exact number of the Sikh and Hindu population in Afghanistan is not known, it is a small minority, estimated to be between 1,000 to a few thousand. For 30 years they have been subject to harassment, persecution, and terrorization orchestrated by the Taliban. An investigation by TOLOnews reveals that the Sikh and Hindu population number was 220,000 in the 1980's. That number dropped sharply to 15,000 . A large number of Afghanistan's Hindus and Sikhs say their social problems have multiplied and they face serious difficulty. In the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's population of 36 million, 300 Afghan Hindu and Sikh families are the invisible minorities: the 25 March attack on Gurdwara Har Rai in Kabul's Shor Bazaar, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),cast the spotlight on them once again. Local Afghans and the Afghan government condemned it as an attack on their brethren, specifically 'Lalas . New Delhi: A special repatriation flight from Kabul with around 110 people including Afghan citizens belonging to the Hindu and Sikh communities, is set to arrive here on Friday. 43. India has evacuated 565 stranded persons from Afghanistan since August, the govt has said. The very small Christian population cannot worship openly and is at risk of attack by the Taliban and . Following a mass exodus in the past few decades, there are estimates that only around 700 Hindus and Sikhs remain in Afghanistan, although numbers remain uncertain and fluctuating. In the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's population of 36 million, [1] 300 Afghan Hindu and Sikh families [2] are the invisible minorities: the 25 March attack on Gurdwara Har Rai in Kabul's Shor Bazaar, by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),cast the spotlight on them once again. Under the rule of the Taliban in the late 1990s, Hindus and Sikhs were asked to identify themselves by wearing yellow armbands, which was however . The Hindus and Sikh minority population have been facing all sorts of discrimination in Afghanistan. Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. According to some Sikh NGOs, there was over 2.25 lakh population of Sikhs and Hindus in 1970s, but gradually their number started declining and now there are not more than 300 Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan with 285 alone in Kabul. Afghanistan, one of the world's most troubled countries, is home to a diminishing population of Sikhs and Hindus, who trace their roots in the country as far back as the 16th century. A vast majority (81.6%) of Hindus and Sikhs say they think Afghanistan is heading in the wrong direction, and only 13.1% say Afghanistan is heading in the right direction. During the 1980s, estimates show a sharp decline to about 200,000-300,000. Home is where the heart is While hundreds of Afghan Sikhs and Hindus are seeking refuge in Kabul, a granthi (Sikh priest) in Jalalabad insists on staying in his hometown. Founded about 600 years ago in the western plains of India, Sikhism combines elements of Hinduism and Islam. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. In 1988, on the first day of Baisakhi festivities, a man with an AK-47 stormed a gurdwara in Jalalabad and gunned down 13 Sikhs and four Afghan soldiers. - Quora So does their population in the country. Hindus and Sikhs were flourishing as traders in Afghan society. The vast majority of Hindus and Sikhs fled Afghanistan over the past several decades, with only around 3,000 remaining in the country, as documented in HAF's latest human rights report, Hindus in South Asia and the Diaspora: A Survey of Human Rights, 2017. Contemporarily, they constitute 0.3 percent of the population. Sikh population was fewer than 1,000 families and that Hindus had all but left the country. The flight . In the late 1980s, there were about 500,000 Sikhs scattered across Afghanistan, many . Up to early 1980s, three to five lakh Sikhs and Hindus were residing in Afghanistan. KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. Dr Giustozzi is a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), International Relations and International History (IDEAS) and Some afghans call the Taliban Punjabi as a way of saying that they're controlled by the punjabi elite in Pakistan. Afghanistan. According to Singh, there were at least 2 lakh Sikhs and Hindus (in a 60:40 ratio) in Afghanistan until the 1970s. • Hindus and Sikhs are considerably less optimistic about the direction of Afghanistan, compared to the rest of Afghans. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are . Among the people affected by these troubles are children, their parents and daughters of India who married Afghani Sikhs and settled there. Half of them went back to India through Iran over next few years. Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. A Sikh holy man prays at a Kabul temple. 7 12. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to . The historic community of Hindus and Sikhs is on the verge of extinction due to the targeted persecution of non-Muslims in Afghanistan. Afghanistan was a multicultural country a few decades ago but today, out of Afghanistan's 38 million population, just 650 Sikhs and 50 Hindus remain. Sikhs and Hindus had made their place in Afghan society and had set up . KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to . Anthropologist and South Asian Studies scholar Robert Ballard, in his 2011 work, The History and Current Position of Afghanistan's Hindu and Sikh Population, suggests that Sikhism in Afghanistan . Today, just about a few hundred Sikhs remain, and the number of Hindus in Afghanistan can be counted on the fingers. Only one of the eight Sikh gurdwaras in Kabul is operating. Nearly 99% Of Hindus, Sikhs Left Afghanistan in Last Three decades. A lot of Sikhs while participating in their religious festive Vaisakhi complained that despite a guarantee for the safeguard of their religious and social rights in the Afghan Constitution and laws, the behavior of their Muslim countrymen are not satisfactory. Judging by the subsequent presidential decree announced on 3 September, they found open ears and the Hindu-Sikh community will receive its reserved seat in the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for 2015. They criticised this assessment on the basis of the numbers registered during Daud's presidency (1973-78) indicating that 17,000 Hindu and Sikh families were living in Afghanistan, and their population could not have decreased since then. Many Sikhs came as merchants to Afghanistan in the 19th century. The Sikh and Hindu community has been in Afghanistan for centuries but harassment, poverty and violence have pushed most of its members to leave Afghanistan. Before the Mujahedeens took control of the country in the 1980's Afghanistan had a Sikh and Hindu population of around 220,000. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are choosing to leave the country of their birth to escape the insecurity and a once-thriving community of as many as 250,000 members now counts fewer than 700. The insecurity that ensued would have a remarkable and disproportionate impact on Afghanistan's religious minorities, with informal censuses suggesting the Sikh and Hindu population went from over 700,000 in the 1970s to just 15,000 in the first years of Mujahideen rule in the early 1990s. About 2000-3000 Hindus & Sikhs from NWFP has crossed over to Afghanistan to escape partition riots. Afghan Hindu and Sikh families wait for lunch inside a Gurudwara, or a Sikh temple, during a religious ceremony in Kabul . Comparing At a press conference last month, President Ashraf Ghani's spokesman, Sediq Sediqqi, said that members of the Afghan Sikh and Hindu community will return once peace is restored. During the 1970s, the Afghan Hindu population was estimated to number between 80,000 and 280,000 (0.7%-2.5% of the national population). TOLOnews is Afghanistan's first 24-hour TV/online news channel covering national, regional and world affairs. There were at least 2 lakh Sikhs and Hindus (in a 60:40 ratio) in Afghanistan until the 1970s. Sikh and Hindu population numbered 220,000 in the 1980's. Both the communities have been an integral part of the socio-economic and cultural life of Afghanistan. Till the beginning of the 1990s, there used to be at least 63 functional Gurudwaras in Afghanistan. There are about 1,000 Sikh and Hindus left in Afghanistan, and the sense of security was heightened after the massacre in Gurudwara Guru Har . The population ratio between Afghan Sikhs and Hindus is estimated to be 60:40, as both populations are frequently merged in historic and contemporary estimations. KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking . After the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, the homes of several Hindu and Sikh families were seized by warlords, forcing them to live in one of the two Sikh temples in the Afghan capital of Kabul. Back to Contents 2. The population of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan has been dropping, raising fears this religious minority will soon disappear completely from the country.Su. The community's numbers have been declining for years because of deep-rooted . Funnily enough, you as a Punjabi Sikh would be more liked than a Punjabi Muslim in Afghanistan because Afghans accuse Pakistani Punjabis as being behind the Taliban. With growing threats from the local Islamic State affiliate, many are . Afghanistan vows to protect its Sikh, Hindu minorities. The interim Taliban government (movement banned in Russia) assured minority communities in Afghanistan that the country is a . Afghanistan was a multicultural country a few decades ago but today, out of Afghanistan's 38 million population, just 650 Sikhs and 50 Hindus remain. Once boasting as many as 100,000 members in the 1990s, the country's Sikh population, according to community leaders, has fallen to an . Why did the Sikh, Buddhist & Hindu population in Afghanistan decrease from 12.7% (in 1947) to 0.3% (in 2021) whilst India's Muslim population increased from 7% to 14% in the same period? There are reports of a population of 700,000 Hindus and Sikhs in Afghanistan in the 1970s. The flight . Both religions were well represented in trade and government administration. "It is estimated that Hindus and Sikhs make up around 3,000 Afghans scattered across provinces of Kabul, Nangarhar and Ghazni," says Singh. 7 12. India already had 6 million refugees from Pakistan (& vice-versa) hence they offered . Various sources agree there are between 200 - 300 Sikh and . There was a Sikh and Hindu population of as much as a quarter of a million people in Afghanistan in the early 1940s. The population of Sikhs and Hindus in Afghanistan has been dropping, raising fears this religious minority will soon disappear completely from the country.Su. An AP report from Kabul said: Afghanistan's dwindling community of Sikhs and Hindus is shrinking to its lowest levels. By contrast, 40 years ago an estimated 50,000 Sikh and Hindu families lived in Afghanistan.