Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Why Don't Indian Muslims Migrate to Pakistan?

"One of the more intriguing nuggets about the Africa emigration story is that far from fleeing poverty, migrants out of the continent are likely to be relatively well off, and are rarely from the most destitute families"    Mail and Guardian Africa

The above quote comes to mind when answering an oft-repeated question: "Why don't Indian Muslims migrate to Pakistan?" This question of why don't all of the Muslims migrate out of India to Pakistan and other Muslim nations is most often asked by the Hindu Nationalists who seek to make their country 100% "Hindu Rashtra".

Indian Muslims Most Deprived:

Muslims in India are the most deprived among various groups. In fact, they are worse off than even the lowest caste Hindus called Dalits or untouchables, according to data available from multiple sources, including Indian government report. They suffer from widespread discrimination at the hands of the Hindu majority in education, employment, housing and in the criminal justice system. They have significantly lower levels of development than their Hindu counterparts.  So why don't they all migrate out of India?

Why Don't Indian Muslims Leave India?

This question of why don't all of the Muslims migrate out of India to Pakistan and other Muslim nations is most often asked by the Hindu Nationalists who seek to make their country 100% "Hindu Rashtra".

The question, however,  does deserve an answer. And the answer is: Poorest and least developed people tend to stay put where they are; they do not migrate. It's only people who have a certain level of income and skills who are more likely to migrate to other countries for better opportunities. This fact has been well-established by multiple studies conducted in Africa.

Here's an except of African Development Bank report on migration:

"Results show that despite increase in the absolute number of migrants, Africa, particularly SubSaharan Africa has one of the lowest rate of emigration in the world .... Poorer countries generally have lower rate of emigration ......Bad socio-economic conditions generally seem to lead to higher rate of emigration by highly skilled individuals. Generally, migration is driven by motives to improve livelihoods with notable evidence on changes in labor market status. Often, self-employed or unemployed émigré ended up in wage employment. The paper outlines policy issues emerging from the migration trend in Africa."

Migration vs Human Development Source: Hein de Haas








The Poorest Least Likely to Emigrate:

Data shows that increased human and economic development is initially associated with increasing emigration. Any form of development in the poorest countries of the world is therefore likely to lead to accelerating emigration. Such findings contradict conventional thinking and force us to radically change our views on migration. Such rethinking can be achieved by learning to see migration as an intrinsic part of broader development processes rather than as a problem to be solved, or the temporary response to development “disequilibria”, according to The Conversation, a US publication.

Summary:

There is a strong inverse correlation between poverty and emigration. The poorest citizens of a developing country are least likely to emigrate. People with higher education and better skills are most likely to leave developing nations for better opportunities abroad. This data explains why Indian Muslims, most of  whom are worse off than the untouchables, tend to leave India in proportionally much smaller numbers than their Hindu counterparts.

Related Links:

Haq's Musings

Muslims Are the New Untouchables in India

Pakistan: A Blessing for Muslims of Sindh and Punjab

Modi's Pakistan Policy

Hinduization of India

Indian Muslims Worse Off Than Dalits

Gujarat Muslims Ignored By Indian Politcians

Are Muslims Better Off in Jinnah's Pakistan?

India's Guantanamos and Abu Ghraibs 

59 comments:

Rks said...

"Muslims in India are the most deprived among various groups".

Muslims in India are most poorest. I agree. But they are not deprived. Muslims ruled India for 1,000 years. After the end of Muslim rule,they have become poor due to indiscipline.

Muslims tend to have very large families. In India it is difficult to have a decent lifestyle with more than 2 kids. Muslims who take crae of themselves with better family planning are doing well. Average Muslim family has at least 5 kids. In India nobody discriminates in Jobs in Private sector. If you are well qualified, you get the job.In government sector many states are giving Muslims reservation. Example - UP, Maharastra , AP, T.Nadu etc. But in my opinion it is not correct.

Take examples of Azim Premji and other industry stalwarts. Premji was at one point in the top 20 richest in the world. Worth 17 Billion $. A shia muslim- he who would have failed in Pakistan.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/comment-the-muslim-businessmen-of-india-1383602

Anonymous said...


We are talking about post 1947, right because you are harping about Sachar report which came out in 2005.

Magar Ustaad, even the well off muslims from India do not wish to migrate to Pakistan. Lot of them are in the Bay Area, USA (not much less than pakistani muslims). Many of them (less educated ones) are in gulf states too.

There is a reason why Indian muslims do not immigrate to Pakistan and that it that they know that it is worse than India.

Your post does not prove anything except the fact that you are well aware of Indian Muslim's rejection of Pakistan.

BTW isn't it cute that you accept Sachar report but not Hamodoor Rehman commission's report on the atrocity (read genocide) committed in 1971. Your word of the day is
CONVENIENCE.

Riaz Haq said...

19640909rk: "Average Muslim family has at least 5 kids."


You discredit yourself and your entire argument by making such false and bigoted claims and negative stereotyping of Indian Muslims.

Indian Muslim women's total fertility rate is about 3 (3 children per woman) and it is rapidly falling, in fact it;s falling faster than for Hindu women.

http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/population-growth-slowing-for-all-on-sex-ratio-muslims-better-than-hindus/

Riaz Haq said...

Anon: "There is a reason why Indian muslims do not immigrate to Pakistan and that it that they know that it is worse than India."


Once an person, including an Indian Muslim, reaches a certain level of development and income to migrate, he or she evaluates all options. And the usual rational conclusion is to migrate from a developing country to a developed country rather than from one developing country to another.

But numbers of such Muslims is very low compared with their Hindu counterparts.


Anon: " Lot of them are in the Bay Area, USA (not much less than pakistani muslims)"


False. There are 35,000 Pakistani-born Muslims in San Francisco Bay Area, far higher than the 25,000 Indian-born Muslims, even though the population of Muslims in India is higher than that in Pakistan. Besides, this is such a sample of South Asian Muslims that it can not be representative of the hundreds of millions of Muslims living in South Asia.


Anon: " BTW isn't it cute that you accept Sachar report but not Hamodoor Rehman commission's report on the atrocity (read genocide) committed in 1971."


Have you read either of the two reports? Obviously not. If you had you wouldn't be making such a ridiculous statement.

Hamoodur Rahman Commission report challenged the claims by Bangladesh authorities that 3 million Bengalis had been killed by Pakistan army and 200,000 women were raped. The commission, put the casualty figure as low as 26,000 civilian casualties.

Its primary conclusion was very critical of the role of Pakistan's military interference and misconduct of politicians as well as intelligence failure of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) permitted the infiltration of Indian agents all along the borders of East Pakistan

http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/12/debunking-bangladeshi-nationalists-1971.html

Singh said...

then why Afgan is sitting in PAK? and Syrian in EU

Riaz Haq said...

Singh: "then why Afgan is sitting in PAK? and Syrian in EU"


There's a big distinction between migrants and refugees.


Afghan refugees in Pakistan are mostly poor. They have been driven out by war. The better off among them have moved on to Europe and America.

But Syrian refugees in Europe are generally better educated and middle class. The less fortunate are languishing in Syria's neighboring nations.

Riaz Haq said...

False #terror charges against #Indian #Muslims cause for concern: #India's Gowda #Islamophobia http://toi.in/NZtgyZ20 via @timesofindia

Touching on an issue that has for long agonized Muslims in India, Union minister for law and justice DV Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday said he is concerned about false terror charges slapped on Muslim youths that are followed by acquittals due to lack of evidence across the country. More importantly, he said legal reforms are in the pipeline to address such cases.
Gowda, here for the 'Vikas Parv' celebrations to mark two years of the Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the centre, said, "Cases of arrest of Muslim youths on false terror charges are a matter of concern. We are thinking of bringing in changes. The law commission is working on a report in this matter to bring about reforms in criminal procedure, bail, prosecution lapses, etc. A Supreme Court judge is the chairperson of a panel preparing the report, and there are other legal experts who are helping in preparing this report, and it is being worked upon."

Gowda's remarks on the thorny subject have come barely a week after home minister Rajnath Singh told TOI that "the government has settled for a calibrated approach to terror investigations, advising police to adopt a more sophisticated approach, including de-radicalisation strategies, rather than necessarily prosecuting all suspects".
Singh had then gone on to point out how the Delhi Police had recently released seven of the 10 suspects held for their alleged involvement in a Jaish-e-Mohammed terror plot. "You would have seen only three of the lot were arrested. We are working in a balanced manner. Earlier, all would be sent (to jail)," he had then said.
Slapped with untenable terror charges, many Muslim men have lost the prime years of their lives as they languished in jail. After their release they have found it difficult to adjust to a world that has changed in the interim, graduating from buses to metros, banks to ATMs, landlines to smartphones.
Recently, Nisaruddin Ahmad was acquitted in the Babri anniversary blast case after he spent 23 years in a Jaipur jail. There have been others too. Mohd Amir Khan was acquitted in 17 out of the 19 terrors charges he was fending off, but only after being incarcerated for 14 years. He had been charged with setting off 20 low-intensity bombs over 10 months during 1996-1997 in Delhi, Rohtak, Panipat and Ghaziabad. He told TOI on Tuesday: "The government has policies to rehabilitate surrendered terrorists, but nothing for those who are falsely charged."


In the past, six Muslim men accused of being trained operatives of Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islam (HUJI) were acquitted of the terror charges for lack of evidence by a special court in Lucknow. Five Muslim youths who were arrested in 2006 by the Mumbai police from different parts of the city on charges of terrorism were also acquitted this year. Gulzar Ahmad Bani, an alleged Hizbul Mujahideen operative who had been in jail from 2001 in a blast case in Agra, was set free for want of evidence by a local court.
The problem runs deep. A film based on legal activist Shahid Azmi, who himself faced false charges and after his release fought to defend those accused wrongly in cases of terrorism, poignantly points that out. Mufti Abdul Qayyum, who had spent 11 years in jail and was later acquitted by the Supreme Court in the Akshardham attack case, wrote a book, 'Gyarah Saal Salakhon Ke Peeche', narrating the stories of trumped up terror charges.

Ravi Krishna said...


"False #terror charges against #Indian #Muslims cause for concern: #India's Gowda #Islamophobia http://toi.in/NZtgyZ20 via @timesofindia"

Hmm interesting. CAIR and US politicians tell the same about innocent muslims being watched, entrapped and imprisoned.

Riaz Haq said...

RK: " CAIR and US politicians tell the same about innocent muslims being watched, entrapped and imprisoned. "

Yes, Islamophobia exists in both America and India.


The difference is that, unlike India, there are Muslim civil rights groups like CAIR and strong voices, including presidential candidates like Bernie and Hillary, opposing it in America.

Riaz Haq said...

Very few #Pakistani Hindus fall for #Indian propaganda. Most regret going to #India. Want to go back home. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Its-a-sad-ghar-wapsi-for-Pakistani-Hindus/articleshow/50460817.cms

en as Pakistani-origin singer Adnan Sami was granted Indian citizenship, many disillusioned families are going back to the neighbouring country after spending many years in Gujarat.
In the past one year, at least 100 families — most of them Sindhis and Kutchi Gujaratis — have returned to Pakistan after spending many years in Gujarat waiting for the elusive Indian citizenship. Many more are packing their bags saying their 'Ghar Wapsi' to India had proved an illusion.
Motiram Khatri, 37, who fled Pakistan in 2009 to settle in Ahmedabad, has applied to go back to Sindh. Khatri, a grocer in Pakistan, had started a mobile shop in Dehgam on the city outskirts to sustain his family of five. However, a police case was filed against him allegedly for violating visa rules which prohibit him from stepping out of the city.
"I could not get any job or place on rent in Ahmedabad. What crime did I commit if I went just 15 km from the city for my family's survival?" asked Khatri, who said he will revive his grocery business in Sindh once he returns to Pakistan.


Rambhai Bhimani, president of the Ahmedabad-Thara Lohana Samaj, confirmed that in the past one year, nearly 100 Hindu families, who had fled Pakistan and come to Gujarat for security and a better life, had gone back.
"It is ironical, Hindu organizations have launched 'Ghar Wapsi' campaign to bring Hindus who had converted to Islam back into their fold but they do little to embrace those who are their own," said Bhimani.
Dr Ramesh Lohana, 38, left his successful practice in Karachi in December 2012 for a secure life in Ahmedabad. Now, a disillusioned man, he is waiting for his children's exams to be over so that he can go back to Pakistan.
"My practice earned me Rs 2.5 lakh a month. Here, no hospital was willing to give me a job. I was forced to take up a supervisory job in a garments shop for Rs 25,000. Authorities and ordinary people look at us with suspicion. We feel like second-class citizens," said Dr Lohana who is preparing to leave in April.

Anonymous said...

"Indian Muslim women's total fertility rate is about 3 (3 children per woman) and it is rapidly falling, in fact it;s falling faster than for Hindu women.
"

Isn't Pak's population growth at a higher rate than India. As per World Bank's figures, India's growth is 1.2% and Pak's 2.1 (based on 2014). So it seems Indian muslims are smarter than their Pakistani brothers and sisters.

Riaz Haq said...

Ramesh: "Isn't Pak's population growth at a higher rate than India. As per World Bank's figures, India's growth is 1.2% and Pak's 2.1 (based on 2014). So it seems Indian muslims are smarter than their Pakistani brothers and sisters."

Pakistan's higher population growth, including Pakistani Hindu population growth that is faster than Muslims, is a blessing in the long run.

Countries with growing population and younger demographics will out outperform those with declining populations and older demographics.

That's the reason economies Europe and Japan are very slow while those in Asia and Africa are growing much faster. The US is doing relatively better because American TFR is still above 2.


Countries, most recently China, are finding that it is far more difficult to raise low fertility than it is reduce high fertility. The countries in the European Union are offering a variety of incentives, including birth starter kits to assist new parents in Finland, cheap childcare centers and liberal parental leave in France and a year of paid maternity leave in Germany, according to Desert News. But the fertility rates in these countries remain below replacement levels.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/07/pakistans-growing-population-blessing.html

Majumdar said...

Prof sb,

You have stated two hypothesis. One that IMs are poorer and more deprived than even dalits and tribals in India. Second, that richer and less deprived that you are more yoy are likely to emigrate. By that logic, shouldnt there be more dalits and tribals in the Bay Area than IMs. Perhaps you can confirm?

Regards

Riaz Haq said...

Majumdar: "By that logic, shouldnt there be more dalits and tribals in the Bay Area than IMs. Perhaps you can confirm?"

I have not seen any stats on it.

But there is an Ambedkar Association here in North America. Perhaps they have better info.

http://www.aanausa.org/

Ambedkar Association of California was recently very active in California textbook controversy to defeat Hindu Groups' demanding removal of references to caste discrimination in India.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2016/04/hindutva-outfits-lose-california.html

Anonymous said...

"Pakistan's higher population growth, including Pakistani Hindu population growth that is faster than Muslims, is a blessing in the long run.
"

We can have our differences, but let us agree that a high population growth for Pakistan is nothing but a time bomb. Pak just does not have resources to support such a high growth. From lack of jobs to water, everything will be under pressure.
(same applies to India)

The biggest snake oil ever sold is that demographic dividend. It works, but only to a limit. India and Pakistan have population way above the optimum limit. There is a reason why India's growth is not trickling down to everyone.

Anonymous said...

http://www.aanausa.org/

As much as I detest caste based discrimination, I have to point out that dalits do not walk the talk. For decades they have been threatening to convert out of Hinduism (almost all to Bhuddism), to escape casteism, but their numbers prove nothing of that sort is happening. The reason is not hard to guess: They like the benefit of the affirmative action given to them in generous numbers.

Anonymous said...

Conversion to Buddhism does not deny you affirmative action benefits.So guess again...

Unknown said...

Riaz sahab Budget came out ....please elighten us on that

Riaz Haq said...

SQA: "Riaz sahab Budget came out ....please elighten us on that"


I will share my thoughts on it via a video I plan on posting here tonight.

Meanwhile, here are the key data points:

Total Spending: $47 billion

Tax Revenue Target: $39 billion

DeficitL $8 billion

Distribution:

37% to debt payment


23% to development


19% to defense


3% to subsidies


18% all others


Defense budget increased by 11%. After the increase, Pakistan's defense spending is $8,077 per solider annually, while India allocates $17,554, Turkey $31,184, Saudi Arabia $269,060 and the USA spends $426,814 per soldier annually.

Riaz Haq said...

In another shooting tragedy on a #US campus, lessons for #India. #UCLAShooting http://scroll.in/article/809270/in-another-shooting-tragedy-on-a-us-campus-lessons-for-india … via @scroll_in

Indians are used to telling themselves that India and the US are “the world’s two largest democracies”, as the cliché goes. The two societies, however, resemble each other most closely in extremely unsavory ways. First, both societies are deeply marked by violence.

Scratch the surface of Indian life, Urvashi Butalia has argued, and the “façade of peacefulness very quickly disappears”.

The violence is also celebrated in popular culture, for example, in Bollywood and Hollywood, as a mechanism for legitimate justice in the wake of a failure of the law. Routinised to the point of being banal, such violence is masked by the rhetoric of Indian and American exceptionalism, in which violence is defined simply as an unfortunate aspect of an otherwise gloriously multifaceted society.

Tambi Dude said...

"The two societies, however, resemble each other most closely in extremely unsavory ways. First, both societies are deeply marked by violence."

So the daily killing of minorities in Pakistan (today an Ahmedi was shot dead) counts as act of peace ?? (fixed raised eyebrows)

But then we are used to being told that islam is a religion of peace.

Riaz Haq said...

The Other Side of Silence
Voices From the Partition of India
By URVASHI BUTALIA

I looked at what the large political facts of this history seemed to be saying. If I was reading them right, it would seem that Partition was now over, done with, a thing of the past. Yet, all around us there was a different reality: partitions everywhere, communal tension, religious fundamentalism, continuing divisions on the basis of religion. In Delhi, Sikhs became targets of communal attacks in 1984; in Bhagalpur in Bihar, hundreds of Muslims were killed in one of India's worst communal riots in 1989; a few years later, the Babri Mosque was destroyed in Ayodhya by frenzied Hindu communalists (supported, openly and brazenly, by political parties such as the Bhartiya Janata Party, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Shiv Sena), and later, thousands of Muslims were again targeted in Surat, Ahmedabad and Bombay. In each of these instances, Partition stories and memories were used selectively by the aggressors: militant Hindus were mobilized using the one-sided argument that Muslims had killed Hindus at Partition, they had raped Hindu women, and so they must in turn be killed, and their women subjected to rape. And the patterns were there in individual life too: a Muslim and a Hindu in independent India could not easily choose to marry each other without worrying about whether one or the other of them would survive the wrath of their families or communities; if such a marriage broke up, or for some reason ended up in court, you could be sure that it would be accompanied by public announcements, for example on the part of the judiciary, about those who had accepted the two-nation theory and those who had not.


https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/b/butalia-silence.html

Riaz Haq said...

RK: "So the daily killing of minorities in Pakistan (today an Ahmedi was shot dead) counts as act of peace ?? (fixed raised eyebrows)"

So the violence in India and US is because of violence in Pakistan and Islam?

What a justification!!!

Kya Hoga said...

A DOSSIER MUST BE PREPARED ABOUT VIOLENCE IN INDIA AND SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED NATIONS!

Riaz Haq said...

KH: "A DOSSIER MUST BE PREPARED ABOUT VIOLENCE IN INDIA AND SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED NATIONS!"

UN needs no dossier, The UN and the World already know how violent India is toward untouchables, women and religious minorities.

Modi, the butcher of Gujarat and now Prime Minister of India, was persona non grata in the western world for over a decade.

Proud Pakistani said...

But is is Pakistan's minorities whose numbers are vanishing,one way or other. And one of the ways is they are taking asylum in other countries. I am sure asylum seekers would be much more than Pakistan.

Riaz Haq said...

PP: "But is is Pakistan's minorities whose numbers are vanishing"

This is false propaganda.

The fact is the Hindu population in Pakistan is growing faster than the Muslim population.

In fact, Pakistani Hindu population is among the fastest growing in the world, growing faster than the Hindu populations in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Indonesia.


Hindu fertility rate (TFR) of 3.2 children per woman in Pakistan is much higher than national fertility rate of 2.86. With 3.33 million Hindus, Pakistan is currently home to the world's 5th largest Hindu population. By 2050, Pakistan will rank 4th with 5.6 million Hindus, surpassing Indonesia which is currently ranked 4th largest Hindu country, according to Pew Research.


http://www.riazhaq.com/search?q=hindu+population

Very few #Pakistani Hindus fall for #Indian propaganda. Most regret going to #India. Want to go back home. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Its-a-sad-ghar-wapsi-for-Pakistani-Hindus/articleshow/50460817.cms

Even as Pakistani-origin singer Adnan Sami was granted Indian citizenship, many disillusioned families are going back to the neighbouring country after spending many years in Gujarat.
In the past one year, at least 100 families — most of them Sindhis and Kutchi Gujaratis — have returned to Pakistan after spending many years in Gujarat waiting for the elusive Indian citizenship. Many more are packing their bags saying their 'Ghar Wapsi' to India had proved an illusion.
Motiram Khatri, 37, who fled Pakistan in 2009 to settle in Ahmedabad, has applied to go back to Sindh. Khatri, a grocer in Pakistan, had started a mobile shop in Dehgam on the city outskirts to sustain his family of five. However, a police case was filed against him allegedly for violating visa rules which prohibit him from stepping out of the city.
"I could not get any job or place on rent in Ahmedabad. What crime did I commit if I went just 15 km from the city for my family's survival?" asked Khatri, who said he will revive his grocery business in Sindh once he returns to Pakistan.


Rambhai Bhimani, president of the Ahmedabad-Thara Lohana Samaj, confirmed that in the past one year, nearly 100 Hindu families, who had fled Pakistan and come to Gujarat for security and a better life, had gone back.
"It is ironical, Hindu organizations have launched 'Ghar Wapsi' campaign to bring Hindus who had converted to Islam back into their fold but they do little to embrace those who are their own," said Bhimani.
Dr Ramesh Lohana, 38, left his successful practice in Karachi in December 2012 for a secure life in Ahmedabad. Now, a disillusioned man, he is waiting for his children's exams to be over so that he can go back to Pakistan.
"My practice earned me Rs 2.5 lakh a month. Here, no hospital was willing to give me a job. I was forced to take up a supervisory job in a garments shop for Rs 25,000. Authorities and ordinary people look at us with suspicion. We feel like second-class citizens," said Dr Lohana who is preparing to leave in April.

Riaz Haq said...

Video: It is time to make #India free of #Muslims, says Sadhvi Prachi of #VHP. #Modi #BJP http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/sadhvi-prachi-make-india-muslim-free-2839903/ … via @vuukle


Touching off a controversy, VHP leader Sadhvi Prachi on Tuesday said it is time to make India free of Muslims.
Known for courting controversies, the Sadhvi claimed the mission of a Congress-free India has already been “accomplished” and it is now time to rid the country of Muslims.
“Now that we have achieved the mission of making a Congress-free India, it is time to make India Muslim-free. We are working on that,” she said in Roorkee where at least 32 people were injured last week in a clash between two communities over forcible evacuation of a scrap dealer’s shop.


Khanpur MLA Kunwar Pranav Singh Champion’s house was attacked by members of a community alleging their sacred book was also desecrated by his supporters. The Sadhvi claimed that the attack on Champion’s house was part of a premeditated conspiracy.
Champion, one of the nine Congress MLAs who revolted against Chief Minister Harish Rawat, recently joined BJP.


On the forthcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, she said if BJP projects Yogi Adityananth as its chief ministerial candidate, it was bound to win 300 seats in the state.
Prachi had often been in the news for asking people to boycott films of Bollywood Khans and demanding a CBI probe into all Muslim educational institutions including Aligarh Muslim University and madrasas in Deoband to check anti-national activities.

Anonymous said...

Sadhvi Prachi is nobody now.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/india/sadhvi-prachi-not-a-vhp-leader-says-vishwa-hindu-parishad_1861127.html

Riaz Haq said...

Ramesh: " Sadhvi Prachi is nobody now. "


How about Pravenn Togadia? Is he also no longer VHP?

Will raise India's Hindu population to 100% from 82%: Togadia

A day after RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat described India as a "Hindu rashtra", senior Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia on Sunday said efforts will be made to "increase" the percentage of Hindus in the country, but skirted the issue of religious conversion.
He also said Bhagwat's assertion of "Hindu rashtra (Hindu nation)" at the Kolkata convention is like a "gospel" for VHP.
"We are going to take percentage of Hindus to 100 in country. Currently there are 82 per cent Hindus in India, and we don't want this number to be halved. We won't tolerate Hindus becoming a minority in the country," Togadia, who is also international working president of VHP, said while addressing a function here.
Togadia however skirted the issue of religious conversions during his address.

Alleging that innocent Hindus are "being converted" to other faiths by "allurement", including cash, Togadia said VHP will provide security to Hindus in the country besides whatever help they may need in foreign countries.
Reiterating VHP's opposition to "Love jihad", Togadia said that his outfit wants to "eradicate the social evil of caste from Hindu society".
In his address to a Hindu convention in Kolkata yesterday, Bhagwat had defended the current controversial campaign of the Sangh Parivar and dared the opposition to support a law banning religious conversions. He had also described the country as a "Hindu rashtra." To a query on the issue of religious conversion, Togadia refused to comment, saying, "a raging debate is already going on in Parliament on this issue."
"VHP is awakening 100 crore Hindus of the country so that each one of them will get food, education, medicine and employment," Togadia said replying to a query whether the focus on religious conversions by various Sangh Pariwar outfits is at variance with the talk of development by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

http://www.firstpost.com/india/will-raise-indias-hindu-population-to-100-from-82-togadia-2001047.html

Riaz Haq said...

Global Migration? Actually, The World Is Staying Home

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/why-global-migration-statistics-do-not-add-up-a-1090736.html


The refugee debate creates the impression of unprecedented mass migration. That image is completely incorrect. The real question, when we look at migration globally, is why there is so little of it.


Take a tape measure. Unroll the tape to about two meters (six feet) and place one end against a wall. The distance between you and the wall corresponds to the world population of about 7.3 billion people. The number of people worldwide who left their native countries in the last five years -- in other words, migrated -- takes up about one centimeter (three-eighths of an inch) of the tape measure. That number amounted to 36.5 million, or 0.5 percent of the world's population. All others, or 99.5 percent of the global population, are non-migrants, or people who were living in the same country in 2015 as in 2010. They represent the other 199 centimeters on the tape measure.

The basic problem, Abel explains, is that all migration figures come from the United Nations, which measures migration by combining the numbers of migrants and refugees from all countries. The UN defines migrants as "persons living in a country other than where they were born." The data are derived from individual countries' censuses and refugee registries.

In a recent press release, the UN announced the latest total number as follows: "The number of international migrants -- reached 244 million in 2015 for the world as a whole, an increase of 71 million, or 41 percent, compared to 2000."

244,000,000: What a huge number!

41 percent -- an increase of almost half!

Well.

First, let's take a look at the 41 percent increase. It relates to absolute numbers, which are not reasonable benchmarks here. In 2000, the UN counted 173 million migrants. That was 2.8 percent of the global population of 6.1 billion at the time. Since then, the world population has grown to 7.3 billion, so that the 244 million migrants in 2015 make up 3.3 percent of that total.

So why doesn't the UN communicate the information as follows: "Since the year 2000, the share of migrants in the world population grew by 0.5 percentage points?" Because it sounds less concerning?

Here's the situation. The UN doesn't receive enough money. Its World Food Program, for example, is radically underfunded, as are its aid campaigns for Syria. Coming from this position of need, the UN always turns up the volume when announcing its figures. Dependent as it is on money from its members to relieve its distress, the UN underpins its appeals with dramatic terms like "all-time high," "new maximum" and "record low." By doing so, it contributes significantly to the imbalance in the migration debate.

But the bigger problem lies in the number itself, 244 million. Why?

"The figure has several serious weaknesses," says Abel, and yet it is spread around the globe by hundreds of media organizations, press agencies, NGOs, politicians and even academics. Numbers like these, or their international equivalents, from which they are derived, serve as the basis for debates, studies and laws. Why? Because there is no more credible source than the UN. This widespread perception leads to phrases like these: "The world has 41 percent more migrants now than in 2000, UN reports" (Toronto Star). "UN: Number of global migrants soars to 244 million" (Newsweek). Or, conversely and especially distorting, on the website of Swiss television: "Fewer and fewer people are living in their native countries."

The number, 244 million, isn't incorrect. It just says very little about all the things you would want to know when you think about migration.

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi's #India: #Muslim man struggles with freedom 23 years after 'wrong' conviction on false #terrorism charges http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36431935

India's Supreme Court acquitted Nisar-ud-din Ahmad of terrorism offences last month, after he had spent 23 years in prison. He tells BBC Hindi's Imran Qureshi that he is struggling to start his life afresh at the age of 43.
Mr Ahmad and two others were released from a jail in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan after the Supreme Court overturned their convictions in terrorism offences, citing insufficient evidence.
They had been convicted by lower courts of planning blasts in five trains in December 1993, which killed two passengers and injured another eight.
More than two decades later, Mr Ahmad said his family was struggling to believe that he had actually returned to his home in Gulbarga in the southern state of Karnataka.
"My mother comes and touches my head in the middle of the night just to be sure that she is not dreaming her son is home," he said.
He added that the police had built their case against him on what he called "fabricated confessions" allegedly taken from him, his elder brother Zahir-ud-din Ahmad and two others.
But the top court said in its ruling that "the conviction and sentence [of Mr Ahmad] is completely unsustainable".
"In the absence of any other material on record to lend any semblance of corroboration to the confession, we find it extremely difficult to sustain the conviction and sentence...," the court said.
'Fabricated confession'
Mr Ahmad still vividly remembers the day he was arrested by the police on 15 January 1994.
He had been getting ready to go to his pharmacy college.
"I was held illegally for 43 days before they produced me before a magistrate. They beat me, tortured me, hung me upside down and beat me some more. I begged and pleaded with them to let me know what wrong I had committed. Then they made me sign a fabricated confession," he told BBC Hindi.

Anonymous said...

Musdlims ont deserve to live i India.
They asked for a separate country and they got it.
So now they should pack their bags and get lost.
or else they will be kicked out.

Riaz Haq said...

Why #Bangladesh is a bigger threat to #India than #Pakistan today. #ISIS #AlQaeda #Taliban http://www.oneindia.com/feature/why-bangladesh-is-bigger-threat-india-than-pakistan-today-2131965.html?utm_source=article&utm_medium=tweet-button&utm_campaign=article-tweet … via @oneindia

The worry is of course the radicals' reaching the eastern border and the opportunity is to bring Dhaka closer to New Delhi than it is to Beijing for China has shown a determination in challenging India by encircling it through the smaller countries in South Asia. New Delhi needs to engage with Bangladesh for it poses a bigger security threat than Pakistan today. At the same time, it offers a huge economic opportunity to integrate South Asia like never before. IS has a better chance of reaching India via the eastern front The IS has a better chance to flourish in Bangladesh and enter India from the east for two reasons: first, the IS has a bigger challenge to reach India from the west owing to the presence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Bangladesh, on the other other hand, is a more fertile territory for the IS to grow, thanks to the country's shrunk space for media and other freedom and the inability of the government to deal with the problem. Secondly, India has a more clumsy border to the east which is also given lesser strategic significance compared to that with Pakistan or China. We have seen in the recent past how extremist elements have been entering easily in the border state of West Bengal and conducting sinister activities. If New Delhi doesn't act to tighten things up in the east, the potential of India-Bangladesh relations could not just be ruined but even India's internal security would be jeopardised.

Read more at: http://www.oneindia.com/feature/why-bangladesh-is-bigger-threat-india-than-pakistan-today-2131965.html

Riaz Haq said...

As 7th largest immigrant population, #Pakistanis not eligible for US diversity visa. #Pakistan #America #Immigration

http://tribune.com.pk/story/1147303/7th-largest-immigrants-pakistanis-no-longer-eligible-us-diversity-visa/

According to the US law, diversity laws are only allowed to counties that have low rates of immigrants, said US consulate in Karachi’s spokesperson Brian Asmus, during a media tour of the Karachi consulate’s visa section on Friday. Pakistan had 104,000 immigrants in the 10 years between 2005 and 2014, he said, explaining why Pakistanis are no longer eligible.

The state department has only stopped diversity visas and there are a lot of other options, such as petitions, student, visit and exchange programme visas, which come under the non-immigrant category. “One can always apply for immigrant visa if they have immediate family in the US,” explained US consulate’s Non-Immigrant Visa chief Mary Pellegrini.

She also explained that it takes around one year for spouse and children, two years for parents and, for siblings, the time can vary up to a decade.

Nevertheless, the Pakistanis who have managed to immigrate are doing pretty well. According to a recent survey, an average Pakistani in the US earns $63,000 every year while an average US citizen earns only $51,000 a year, said Asmus.

Asmus dismissed the misconception that fewer Pakistanis are able to get visa for the US. The percentage of applications is increasing every year and the number of Pakistani citizens getting visas has also increased by 20% between 2014 and 2015, and another 20% between 2015 and 2016, he said.

The US Consulate in Karachi only deals in non-immigrant visas while immigrants visas are dealt at the embassy in Islamabad. Last year, the consulate issued a total of 72,000 visas across the country. So far in 2016, the US consulate in Karachi has issued a total of 14,400 visas.

Riaz Haq said...

75% of #India's #Muslims live below the poverty line. #Modi #BJP https://goo.gl/uz0FG1 via @CatchNews

In another effort to counter the anti-minority image of the Modi government, Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi visited Muslim-dominated Mewat in Haryana last week for a "progress panchayat". Recently, Mewat had witnessed a communal flare up.

Naqvi said that minority empowerment is 'Raj Dharma' of his government while he inaugurated a 100-bed girls hostel and laid the foundation stone of a higher secondary school.

Poverty is the biggest challenge for the minorities as 75% of Muslims live below the poverty line and discrimination based on caste, religion and region still exist in India, admitted Naqvi.

When a minister admits to a problem, it is time for some introspection. So here is a reality check:

52,93,339


- Number of Muslim students who appeared for the bi-annual basic literacy assessment test in August 2015.

- Of this, only 36,84,253, or 69% successfully passed the test.

- In Punjab, which is soon going to elections, only 49% could pass the test.

59.1
%
- The literacy rate of Muslims in India.

- The national average is 64.8%.

- Additionally, 1 in 4 Muslim students in the age group 6-14 years either never attended school or dropped out.

- "Muslim parents are not averse to modern or mainstream education and to sending their children to affordable Government schools. They do not necessarily prefer to send children to Madarsas. However, the access to Government schools for Muslim children is limited. Schools beyond primary level are few in Muslim localities. Girl schools are fewer," said the government in Lok Sabha in May 2016.

12
%
- Or more, is the share of Muslim male workers who are engaged as street vendors to earn their livelihood.

- The national average is less than 8%.

- "Self-employment (which falls under the unorganised sector of the economy) is the main source of income for the Muslim community," says the government.

- Out of all socio-religious categories, Muslims participate more in production (especially textile, tobacco), sales related activities as against professional, clerical, managerial and technical jobs. This leads to vulnerable job conditions for the community.

Rs 1,000
crore
- The amount of money the union government spent in modernising madrasas in the past seven years, according to data-journalism website IndiaSpend.

- There are also nearly 24 schemes/initiatives for educational empowerment of Muslims run by the ministry of Minority Affairs.

- However, unspent funds, sometimes due to refusal to take part in initiatives or lack of project proposals, is a major problem in the path of the minority, caste and tribal development.

- For instance, according to Right to Information filed by IndiaSpend, about Rs 2.8 lakh crore of Dalit/tribal development fund remained unspent for the past 35 years.

Clearly, Naqvi has a lot of work to do ahead to change the situation.

Riaz Haq said...

No Improvement in Condition of #Muslims in #India Ten years after Sachar Report. #Modi #BJP http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/ten-years-after-sachar-report-no-major-change-in-the-condition-of-indias-muslims-4444809/ … via @IndianExpress

On November 30, 2006, the 403-page report of the Sachar Committee, on the social, economic and educational condition of Muslims in India, was tabled in Parliament. The Committee, headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Rajinder Sachar, was set up soon after the UPA 1 government took over, and it submitted its findings in less than 2 years.
The Report highlighted a range of disabilities faced by the community, and made a slew of recommendations to address the situation. It placed Indian Muslims below Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in backwardness. Among the many issues it highlighted were the huge mismatch between the percentage of Muslims in the population and in decision making positions such as the IAS and IPS, and the general poor representation of the community in the police.

An analysis of government data show that most indicators have not seen significant improvement in the years since the Report was submitted. In some cases things seem to have, in fact, deteriorated — in 2005, for example, the share of Muslims among India’s police forces was 7.63%; in 2013, it fell to 6.27%. The government subsequently stopped releasing data on police personnel broken down by religion.
In the years both preceding and following Sachar, Muslims continued to have the lowest average monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) among all communities. The work participation rate for Muslim men increased only slightly to 49.5% in 2011 from 47.5% in 2001; for Muslim women, the increase was even smaller, from 14.1% in 2001 to 14.8% in 2011.

Perhaps the most telling figures are in the IAS and IPS, the country’s top officialdom. The Sachar Committee recorded the percentage of Muslims in the IAS and IPS as 3% and 4% respectively. These numbers were 3.32% and 3.19% respectively on January 1, 2016, Home Ministry data show. The fall in Muslim representation in the IPS was due primarily to a steep fall in the share of Muslim promotee officers in the IPS — from 7.1% in the Sachar Report to merely 3.82% at the beginning of 2016.
As per the Census of 2001, Muslims were 13.43% of India’s population; in 2011, they were 14.2%. The increase of 24.69% in the population of Muslims between the two Censuses was the smallest ever recorded for the community.
The sex ratio among Muslims remained better than that of India overall in both 2001 and 2011, and the percentage of Muslims living in urban centres too remained higher than the national average in both Censuses.

Riaz Haq said...

Yoginder Sikand, author of "Beyond the Border" on Sindhi Hindus in Pakistan

Following the partition, most of the wealthy Hindus of Hyderabad fled to India. Only some of them, mainly the Amils and the Lohanas, remained in the town after Pakistan came into being, Ran-ji said. A few had flourished in the new country but, particularly in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid in India in 1992 and the ensuing mass violence against Muslims across the border, what had been a trickle of Sindhi Hindu migrants to India had threatened to turn into a flood. Hundreds of Hindu temples, many of them small roadside shrines, others large, unused structures, had been destroyed across Pakistan, including in Sindh, where most the country's Hindus lived. Mercifully, Ram-ji said, less than a score of Hindus were killed in the violence, nothing compared to the thousands of Muslims who were slaughtered by Hindu mobs in India. ....Increasing number of Sindhi Hindu merchants had begun to send at least one of their sons to settle in India and set up business there, so that in the event of the conditions for Hindus in Sindh worsening they could, if they felt compelled to, migrate en masse across the border. But this was not an option for the vast majority of Sindh's Hindus. Eighty percent of the Hindus in the province were desperately impoverished Dalits....Procuring a passport, traveling more than a thousand miles to Islamabad to apply for a visa at the Indian High Commission, and the taking the train from Lahore to Amritsar was much beyond their meager means. But, even if they managed to get to India, were would they go? Who would employ them? "And", Ram-ji added matter-of-factly, "in India, too, they would still be treated as Untouchables".


https://books.google.com/books?id=xoJICgAAQBAJ&pg=PT142&dq=beyond+the+border+yoginder+sikand+hindu&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjuhY7wnMjRAhVJ-2MKHSWrBIoQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=beyond%20the%20border%20yoginder%20sikand%20hindu&f=true

Riaz Haq said...

#Pakistan has 2nd largest population of migrants from #India. More #Indian #Muslims, minorities migrate than #Hindus

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/03/india-is-a-top-source-and-destination-for-worlds-migrants/

India is the top source of international migrants, with one-in-twenty migrants worldwide born in India. As of 2015, 15.6 million people born in India were living in other countries. India has been among the world’s top origin countries of migrants since the United Nations started tracking migrant origins in 1990. The number of international Indian migrants has more than doubled over the past 25 years, growing about twice as fast as the world’s total migrant population.

Nearly half of India’s migrants are in just three countries: the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan and the United States. About 3.5 million Indians live in the UAE, the top destination country for Indian migrants. Over the past two decades, millions of Indians have migrated there to find employment as laborers. Pakistan has the second-largest number of migrants, with 2 million.

Almost 2 million more live in the U.S., making up the country’s third-largest immigrant group. Among Indian Americans, nearly nine-in-ten were born in India. As a whole, Indian Americans are among the highest educated and have some of the highest income among racial and ethnic groups in the U.S.

India is also one of the world’s top destinations for international migrants. As of 2015, about 5.2 million immigrants live in India, making it the 12th-largest immigrant population in the world. The overwhelming majority of India’s immigrants are from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh (3.2 million), Pakistan (1.1 million), Nepal (540,000) and Sri Lanka (160,000).

India’s religious minorities have been more likely to migrate internationally. Religious minorities make up a larger share of India’s international migrant population than they do among the nation’s domestic population, according to 2010 Pew Research Center estimates. For example, about 19% of the Indian international migrant population was Christian, compared with only 3% of the population in India. Similarly, an estimated 27% of the Indian international migrant population was Muslim, compared with 14% of the population in India. The reverse is true for Hindus: Only 45% of India’s international migrant population was Hindu, compared with 80% of the population in India.

Riaz Haq said...

I Am A Practicing Muslim. My Concerns Right Now For India Are... by Indian Journalist Rana Ayub

http://www.ndtv.com/opinion/in-response-to-naseeruddin-shah-1707581


My family was forced to move from the cosmopolitan Sahar village to the rather lower middle class Deonar which was considered safer. My brother and my father applied for a credit card thrice while we lived in that area and were which was rejected on all occasions.

We were told later that these companies have specific instructions to not issue cards to Muslims living in 'such' areas. The building in which we stayed was next to the famous Deonar dumping ground and the abattoir from where the stench would fill the neighbourhood. But we and many like us continued to stay there because it was "safe".

Despite maintaining the best of hygiene, we had to live with the stink and airborne diseases. BMC workers who would mark their presence every morning in the swanky neighbourhoods of Mumbai like Peddar Road didn't mind taking days off in our neighbourhood with the garbage piling up because we (the Muslims and our many lower middle classes companions) could live with it.

Another problematic assertion in Naseer's column is that Muslims must stop feeling victimized. I have and continue to believe as a Muslim who has had to bear two communal riots that the community, like most communities in India, has been resilient and has chosen to put its dreaded past behind it, voting in every election for a change. But when every day you have videos emerging asking Muslims to chant "Bharat Mata ki Jai" before they are thrashed and cattle traders are lynched in public, the Muslim of the country does not feel a healing touch on the scars of the past.

If indeed we are so concerned about the plight of Muslims, their education, hygiene, then the topic of discussion should be to ensure that Muslim-dominated areas, government schools for Muslims have the same level of cleanliness and attention paid to them as other areas of Swachh Bharat. Muslims in this country have moved beyond the pain of the Babri demolition, but if the well-being of Muslims is indeed the criteria, those in power move on from Ayodhya and lets discuss corruption in the Waqf Board whose proceeds could help get Muslims access to higher education and a better status in society.

The alleged participation of Indian Muslims in ISIS is 0.0002 percent of the total number across the globe. To fault them for this and use it as an excuse to deny the 99.99 percent Muslims a dignified life is the worst one can offer to one of the largest minority in the country which has a glorious past in the country's freedom struggle. And which is now, as I keep hearing from many around me, leaving me feeling like a "second-class citizen".

(Rana Ayyub is an award-winning investigative journalist and political writer. She is the author of 'Gujarat Files', a book on the politics of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah in Gujarat.)

Unknown said...

You talk about 'most' poor Muslims in India being unable to migrate because of poverty. So you're saying that if poverty were not a factor they would migrate? Then according to your logic the rich and middle class Muslims in India would have long since migrated by now, and yet that has not happened.

Why then, does the Indian cricket team still have Muslim players? Why are the Khans the kings of Bollywood and not the Pakistani film industry? Why do Muslims still occupy prominent positions in politics, business, arts, science, and the armed forces? Why didn't Aziz Premji not pack up his bags and head to Pakistan the moment he made enough money? Why did Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Azad work on India's missiles and not Pakistan's? Why do Pakistani artists try to make it big in Bollywood instead of Indian Muslims heading to Pakistan for the same? Why does Afghanistan disdain Pakistan so much and yet favor India?

Hindus in Pakistan are leaving in droves, yet how many Indian Muslims, even affluent ones, want to emigrate to Pakistan?

And you think that Pakistan does so much better than India with regards to treatment of minorities? Rinkle Kumari, Dr. Asha Lata, and the thousand or so minority women who are kidnapped, raped and married to their rapists in Pakistan every year would like to have a word with you.

You might be delusional enough to think that Pakistan is so much better than India at everything. Too bad the rest of the world doesn't think so.

Riaz Haq said...

SK: "You talk about 'most' poor Muslims in India being unable to migrate because of poverty. "

The overwhelming majority of Indian Muslims are worse off than even Dalits, according to your own government data in Sachar Commission report and updated recently. Unlike the middle class, they lack the resources needed to migrate out of India. Of course, the rich Muslims in India have little incentive to leave.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2014/05/maulana-azads-grandniece-says-muslims.html

SK: " Hindus in Pakistan are leaving in droves"

This is false propaganda. The fact is that Hindu population in Pakistan is among the fastest growing in the world.

http://www.riazhaq.com/2015/06/pakistani-hindu-population-among.html

Unknown said...

Of course, the rich Muslims in India have little incentive to leave.

That is not what you were implying. According to you most, if not all, Muslims in India would emigrate to Pakistan given enough money. And yet the emigration rate from India to Pakistan is, for all intents and purposes, zero. Muslims in India aren't split into rich and poor. A sizable proportion is middle class. I have more than a few middle class Muslim friends. None of then ever displayed the slightest desire to leave India. One of them actually turned down a high paying job in Bahrain because she prefers to remain an Indian citizen.

And you think that the fact that Hindus are leaving Pakistan in droves is false propaganda? These sources certainly do not seem to think so.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-34645370
https://www.dawn.com/news/1105830
https://tribune.com.pk/story/450929/pakistani-hindus-seek-indian-citizenship/

Those are all Pakistani news outlets by the way. Funny how Pakistani newspapers are printing 'false propaganda' against their own country.

And when you describe how India is a failed state, while Pakistan is doing so much better according to your amazing calculus, make sure to mention the 1000 or so Hindu and Christian girls who are kidnapped, raped, and forcibly married to their rapists each year in Pakistan.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/02/15/pakistani-hindus-lose-daughters-forced-muslim-marriages/97013614/

Also be sure to mention how Osama Bin Laden was found just a stone's throw from a military facility.

The whole world is courting India. Modi has forged strong links with heads of state in the US, Europe, Israel, and even the Islamic world. On the contrary nobody is giving Nawaz Sharif time of day. Why would they? Pakistan has nothing to offer to the world.

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2011/05/16/the-double-game

Even Pakistan's 'Islamic allies' aren't so keen anymore. Iran and Afghanistan have actively hostile relations, while Saudi Arabia only cares when it needs Pakistan to send soldiers for its wars.

Pakistan's exports have declined since 2008. The common perception of Pakistan in the international community is that it is a haven for terrorists, unable to control the snakes that it's raised in its own backyard at best and actively feeding them at worst. Nobody is buying Pakistan's protestations of innocence. Nobody cares anymore. They've all seen what partnership with Pakistan will get you by watching the US' dealings. Pakistan has no credibility left.

http://newsweekpakistan.com/bridegroom-of-jihad/

https://www.dawn.com/news/1243093

Pakistan has recieved huge sums from the US every year in military and civilian aid by effectively putting a gun to it's own head. And the US is finally losing patience.

https://www.dawn.com/news/432325

And despite all this, you're actually so delusional that you think that India is the failing country and Pakistan is soaring to new heights.

Too bad for you that the rest of the world doesn't seem to think so.

I bet this comment never makes it past moderation. No matter. As long as you've seen it, it's served its purpose.

Riaz Haq said...

SK: "According to you most, if not all, Muslims in India would emigrate to Pakistan given enough money."


You're wrong. Here's what I wrote in my post:

The Poorest Least Likely to Emigrate:

Data shows that increased human and economic development is initially associated with increasing emigration. Any form of development in the poorest countries of the world is therefore likely to lead to accelerating emigration. Such findings contradict conventional thinking and force us to radically change our views on migration. Such rethinking can be achieved by learning to see migration as an intrinsic part of broader development processes rather than as a problem to be solved, or the temporary response to development “disequilibria”, according to The Conversation, a US publication.


SK: " And you think that the fact that Hindus are leaving Pakistan in droves is false propaganda? These sources certainly do not seem to think so.

Media headlining some Hindus leaving Pakistan is not representative of reality. If Hindus were leaving in drives, their population would decline ot remain flat; it's in fact increasing faster than the Muslim population in Pakistan. Read more here:

http://www.riazhaq.com/2017/07/fact-checking-farahnaz-ispahanis-claims.html

Riaz Haq said...

A study in contrasts: Muslims in India vs Pakistan by Dr. Ata ur Rahman ... The per capita income of Muslims in Pakistan is about $1,460 while the per capita income of Muslims in India is only about $400 – less than one-fourth of the country’s national Indian GDP. About 52.3 percent of Muslims in India live below the poverty line, with an average monthly income of $5 or less. Muslims constitute about 14.5 percent of the total Indian population. However, only between two percent and three percent of them pass the civil services examinations.
----
The literacy level of Muslims in India is also much lower than the national average. Only about four percent (one in 25) of Indians who receive education up to the high school level are Muslims, while only 1.7 percent (one in 60) of college graduates in India are Muslims. When we consider that one in seven people in India is a Muslim, these figures bring out the stark disparities that exist in India between Hindus and Muslims. In his book, ‘India’s Muslim Problem’, V T Rajshekar states that Muslims “are in many ways worse than untouchables and in recent years they are facing dangers of mass annihilation”.

The mass killings of Muslims in Indian towns and cities also add strength to the Two-Nation Theory. About 630 Muslims lost their lives during the 1969 Gujarat riots. This was followed by anti-Muslim violence in the Indian towns of Bhiwandi, Jalgaon and Mahad in 1970 when a large number of properties of Muslims were burnt and many Muslims killed. During anti-Muslim violence in Moradabad in 1980, about 2,500 Muslims were killed by extremist Hindu elements. Another 1,800 Muslims were slaughtered in the state of Assam in 1983 in a village called Nellie. The official 600-page Tiwari Commission Report on the Nellie massacre has remained a closely guarded secret since 1984.

The destruction of Babri Masjid in December 1992 by Hindu nationalists led to the Bombay Riots. BBC correspondent Toral Varia concluded that the riots were “a pre-planned pogrom” that had been in the making since 1990. According to many independent scholars, extremist Hindu rioters had been given access to information about the locations of Muslim homes and businesses through confidential government sources. This violence was planned and executed by Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist group led by Bal Thackeray.

The anti-Muslim riots that occurred in Bombay in January 1993 following the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, were reported in the following manner by international and Indian newspapers:

“Bombay: Day after day after day, for nine days and nights beginning on January 6, mobs of Hindus rampaged through this city, killing and burning people only because they were Muslims. No Muslim was safe – not in the slums, not in high-rise apartments, not in the city’s bustling offices – in an orgy of violence that left 600 people dead and 2,000 injured...Interviews have suggested, moreover, that the killing, arson and looting were far from random. In fact, they were organized by Hindu gangs, abetted by the Bombay police, and directed at Muslim families and businesses. The extent of police cooperation with the Hindu mobs appears to have spread through the entire police force, excluding only the most senior officers...neither the Maharashtra authorities nor the central government in New Delhi made any effort to stanch the flow of blood.” (The New York Times, February 4, 1993)

“Tragedy has struck Surat (Muslim) women… for them, it was hell let loose... While men were thrown into bonfires, torched alive or had burning tyres put around their necks, women were stripped of all their clothes and ordered to ‘run till they can’t… run”. (The Times of India, December 22, 1992).

https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/223824-A-study-in-contrasts

Unknown said...

The bias and one sided nature of your arguments is truly something to behold.

The per capita income of Muslims in Pakistan is about $1,460 while the per capita income of Muslims in India is only about $400 – less than one-fourth of the country’s national Indian GDP. The reason for that is because - as you yourself pointed out, the rich and upper class Muslims migrated to Pakistan during Partition, while the ones who stayed behind were mostly those who couldn't afford to leave.

Muslims constitute about 14.5 percent of the total Indian population. However, only between two percent and three percent of them pass the civil services examinations. That is because fewer apply in the first place. There is no conspiracy to keep Muslims out of the Civil Services. Case in point, Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam Azad.

Only about four percent (one in 25) of Indians who receive education up to the high school level are Muslims, while only 1.7 percent (one in 60) of college graduates in India are Muslims. That says more about the culture of Muslim families themselves than it does about India's education system. There is no conspiracy to keep Muslims out of schools and colleges either.

The mass killings of Muslims in Indian towns and cities also add strength to the Two-Nation Theory: You've gone into great detail about the mass killing of Muslims in India, but funnily enough you seem to have forgotten the mass killings done BY Muslims in India. 80% of the terrorist attacks in India were committed by the Indian Mujahideen. Of the remaining 20%, the major share goes to the naxalites.

Pakistan started four wars with India and lost all four. That wasn't 'Hindu' India attacking Pakistan with aggression, that was Pakistan acting out and getting their ass handed to them.

"Bombay: Day after day after day, for nine days and nights beginning on January 6, mobs of Hindus rampaged through this city, killing and burning people only because they were Muslims. No Muslim was safe – not in the slums, not in high-rise apartments, not in the city’s bustling offices – in an orgy of violence that left 600 people dead and 2,000 injured."

Interesting how you conveniently did not mention the exodus and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits in your spiel. Especially the part where mobs of Muslims roamed the streets shouting "We want Kashmir, without Pandits but with their women."

"The mass killings of Muslims in Indian towns and cities also add strength to the Two-Nation Theory." And you know what exposes the Two Nation Theory for the utter tripe that it is? The mass killings of Muslims in Bangladeshi towns and villages. Those weren't Hindu on Muslim atrocities, those were Muslims killing Muslims. India didn't make the Pakistan Army go in and start raping and murdering people en masse. Just like India didn't make Pakistan raise terrorists in its backyard.

Since it's inception, Pakistan has become a headache in the international community. Pakistani passports are the second most useless in the world, right behing Afghanistan. Successive world leaders have done their best to keep Pakistan from disintegrating because, as one US diplomat said, Pakistan is the only country in the world that negotiates with a gun to its own head.

Meanwhile in Pakistan the Army runs the show, stealing increasing amount of money from the public in its ceaseless attempt of achieving parity with India. The civilian government is nothing but a farce. There hasn't been a single legal transfer of power in Pakistan since its inception. Up to a thousand minority girls, mostly Hindus and Christians, are abducted each year, raped, and forcibly married to their rapists, while the police sit idly by twiddling their thumbs.

But it is India that is the inferior country, India that is aggressive, India that is unreasonable. Meanwhile the poor innocent Pakistanis are being targeted worldwide in some global Zionist conspiracy to keep Pakistan down.

Sure buddy whatever you say.

Riaz Haq said...

THE EXPRESS TRIBUNE > PAKISTAN
298 Indian emigrants granted nationality in last five years

By Qadeer TanoliPublished: August 20, 2017

https://tribune.com.pk/story/1486290/298-indian-emigrants-granted-nationality-last-five-years/

The National Assembly has been informed that 298 Indian emigrants have been granted Pakistani nationality during the last five years.

“From 2012 till April 14, 2017, a total number of 298 Indian emigrants have been granted Pakistani citizenship,” says a statement issued by the Ministry of Interior in response to a query by MNA Sheikh Rohale Asghar of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz during the ongoing session of the lower house of parliament on Saturday.


In 2012, 48 Indian emigrants were granted Pakistani nationality, which rose to 75 in 2013 and 76 in 2014. Only 15 were given nationality in 2015, while 69 got it in 2016, until April 14 this year, 15 Indians got nationality, the statement says.

Pakistan is believed to be a country where getting nationality has always been a difficult task, but innumerable illegal immigrants from many countries, especially Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh and Burma, are living here, it added.

Pakistan is hosting approximately 1.6 million registered Afghans, while according to some reports, there are another 600,000 undocumented Afghan refugees living in different parts of the country.



Riaz Haq said...

There are 16,501 Indians are also living in Pakistan illegally as of 2015.

https://tribune.com.pk/story/929229/over-280000-immigrants-living-in-pakistan-says-nisar/


Between 1979 and 1981, there were estimated to be roughly 18,302 Indians who were overstaying illegally in Pakistan.

India today, Volume 7. University of Virginia: Thomson Living Media India Ltd. 1982. p. 60.

Riaz Haq said...

PAKISTANI MIGRANTS: A TIGHTROPE BETWEEN OPPORTUNITY AND DISAPPOINTMENT
Mar 20 2018
Sabrina Toppa

https://www.migrant-rights.org/2018/03/for-pakistani-workers-migration-is-tightrope-between-opportunity-and-disappointment/

Pakistan’s Pashtun belt has many extended families depending on one person to make ends meet, Umer says. “Most of the time, 30-50 members of an extended family are dependent on a single worker’s salary,” adds 22-year-old Sajjad Hussain, a student from Waziristan. The burden is much higher on Pashtun families.“The main reason they go abroad is because there are no job opportunities in Waziristan.” The region is beset by economic underdevelopment and the fall-out of Pakistani military operations and U.S. drone strikes, and there are few industries to employ young men outside of subsistence agriculture. Residents of Waziristan often migrate to other provinces in Pakistan in search of economic security, but often return empty-handed. “They’re living overseas for five to six years because life is better there,” Sajjad says.

---------------------

Today, Pakistan is the second-largest exporter of migrant labour in South Asia, and remittances account for 7% of the country’s GDP. In 2017, approximately half a million Pakistanis migrated overseas through legal channels, though it is estimated that a far higher number sought out migration through irregular channels. Many Pakistanis spend up to USD 9,000 to find a job in countries like Saudi Arabia — in some cases spending 14 times their monthly salary for the opportunity to work abroad.


-----------------

Pakistani migrants pay some of the highest recruitment fees in the world for the opportunity to work abroad, says Nasir Iqbal, an Islamabad-based researcher who has studied the cost of Gulf migration. Migrants who rely on friends or family to find jobs often pay astronomical recruitment fees, resulting in asset depletion and heavy debt traps. Part of the problem derives from the fact that most Pakistani migrants organise their jobs outside of the government’s official channels – raising the cost exponentially. If a migrant pursues labour migration through formal means, he normally pays $200-$900 for a bundle of services, the two largest components of which are visa fees and the recruitment agent’s fee. To go to Saudi Arabia outside official channels, the average labourer spends upwards of $4,000 toward the cost of migration. To reach the UAE, the amount is $2,000 on average. Migrants seeking jobs in Saudi Arabia are required to work through a licensed recruitment agency in Pakistan and the Saudi embassy, but some skirt this altogether.

Hitesh Chandna said...

There is no discrimination happening in India. Muslims are themselves responsible for their poor conditions. They give birth to 5 to 10 children and provide them education in Madarsas. In Madarsas, they are brain washed and instead of inheriting progressive thinking, they get fixated to orthodox and traditional school of thoughts. India's president and Vice President were muslims- Dr.APJ.Abdul Kalam and Mohmamed.Ansari. Before writing anything against India, you should do in depth research. There are large number of muslims in India who are recruited at high ranks in Indian government and MNCs. The muslims in our country who educate there children, live a decent lifestyle. But in your nation hindus, shias, Ahemadies, sikhs and christians are forced to pay Jaziya. There women are abducted. No hindu in your nation is recruited at top positions in govt and private offices. You force them to convert there religion. The economic and political condition of Pakistan is already worse. Your nation is run by non state actors like Lashkar-Ae-Toiba an Hizbul. So instead of nurturing regressive school of thoughts, you should actually burture your generations with progressive belief system. Women are forced to do house hold taks and remain behind a veil(Burqa). My advise is to focus on your great nation.

India is 8 times bigger than your nation and has a vast population too. In fact unfortunate incidetns happen with Hindus, Muslims, sikhs, Christians, and other communities too. In indians jails, innocent whether Hindus or Muslims are being put behind bars just on the basis of suspicion. There is a large popualtion of hindus who are living in slums. So with your half baked knowledge, you can't generalize that msulims are dsicriminated.

If anyone will commit crime, he will be put behind bars.In India we have developed and backward states, so depending on the mindset in that particular region, crime or suppression keeps on happening.

Unknown said...

I would like India to become a Hindu Rashtra

Riaz Haq said...

Myth: If poor countries get more aid, people won’t migrate
Some political leaders say that if we give more development aid to poor countries – especially in Africa – then their citizens won’t want to move away.

Truth: Economic growth leads to more migration

When countries develop, their citizens have more resources and skills, which allow them to migrate. This is called the “migration paradox”. Mexico, the Philippines and Turkey – all middle-income countries – produce substantial numbers of migrants. Very poor people don’t have the resources to migrate. The right to migrate is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

http://journey.caritas.org/?myth=poor-countries-get-aid-people-wont-migrate

Riaz Haq said...

#Modi-loving #Hindu Nationalists spew the usual Hindutva #Islamophobic tropes about #India's #Muslims. Here's the growing gap between Hindus and Muslim populations: 1951 Census: 269 million more Hindus than Muslims. 2011 Census: 794 million more Hindus https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/09/21/population-growth-and-religious-composition/

https://twitter.com/haqsmusings/status/1612881554174529537?s=20&t=3DgccaesALoJlvs2903mhg

1. Population growth and religious composition
BY STEPHANIE KRAMER
India’s population has more than tripled in the six decades following Partition, from 361 million (36.1 crore) people in the 1951 census to more than 1.2 billion (120 crore) in 2011. As of 2020, India gains roughly 1 million (10 lakh) inhabitants each month, putting it on course to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2030, according to the United Nations Population Division.
Though religious groups grew at uneven rates between 1951 and 2011, every major religion in India saw its numbers rise. For example, Hindus increased from 304 million (30.4 crore) to 966 million (96.6 crore), Muslims grew from 35 million (3.5 crore) to 172 million (17.2 crore), and the number of Indians who say they are Christian rose from 8 million (0.8 crore) to 28 million (2.8 crore).

However, there is some evidence that Christians may be undercounted. People who indicate that they are Christian on the census are not able to also identify as belonging to Scheduled Castes (historically known as Dalits, or by the pejorative term “untouchables”). Members of Scheduled Castes are eligible for government benefits, reportedly prompting some people in that category to identify as Hindu when completing official forms such as the census.4 In the 2015 National Family Health Survey – a large, high-quality household survey that does not exclude Christians from Scheduled Castes – 21% of Christians interviewed said that they belonged to Scheduled Castes.

Riaz Haq said...

"If you repeat a lie a hundred times, it becomes the truth," Mr. S.Y. Quraishi added in an interview to PTI on his book.
The propaganda, he said, has become “very blatant” and gained traction, and it’s time to challenge the narrative perpetuated against the community over the years.

https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/time-to-call-the-bluff-bust-myths-created-by-hindutva-groups-to-demonise-muslims-sy-quraishi/article34011389.ece

India continues to add a lot more millions of Hindus each year than Muslims.

India's Hindi belt is the biggest contributor to India's population:

https://scroll.in/article/865569/indian-population-is-growing-much-faster-in-the-north-and-the-south-is-paying-the-price

Clearly, then, it makes little sense to talk of India’s population problem without discussing the vast disparities that characterise how the population is growing across states. Have a look at this map:

Most news about fertility rates tends to separate the data by religion. But given that states and not religious communities make up India’s constituent units, significant differences in population growth rates among states will affect Indian politics far more explicitly. As the map shows, there is a clear cleavage between South India and North India. The south is blue, with fertility rates lower than the replacement rate, meaning that fewer babies are being born than people are dying – a trend that would eventually result in a declining population. The north is mostly orange or red with Uttar Pradesh and Bihar – two states that together make up a quarter of India’s population – recording very high fertility rates of 2.74 and 3.41, respectively. The result: in 1951, Tamil Nadu’s population was slightly higher than Bihar’s. Six decades later, Bihar’s population is nearly 1.5 times Tamil Nadu’s. Madhya Pradesh in 1951 had 37% more people than Kerala; in 2011, it had 217% as many.

Riaz Haq said...

There are more Indian migrants living in Pakistan than the United States

https://qz.com/india/926009/there-are-more-indian-migrants-living-in-pakistan-than-the-united-states#:~:text=By%20far%20the%20largest%20numbers,now%20live%20in%20the%20US.

While many Indian migrants move to far-flung, wealthy countries like the US, Canada, and the UK, a large number of them ends up right next door in Pakistan. According to a new study by Pew Research, in 2015, Pakistan was home to the second-largest number of Indian migrants after the United Arab Emirates.

In the past 25 years, the number of international Indian migrants has more than doubled, growing nearly twice as fast as the world’s total migrant population. In 2015, 15.6 million people born in India were living in another country; that means one in every 20 migrants globally was born in India.

In a 2010 study, Pew Research found that India’s religious minorities were migrating at a much higher rate than Hindus, who made up 80% of the country’s population. About 19% of the migrants from India are Christian, though they form only 3% of the country’s population. Also, Muslims made up 27% of the Indian migrant population living abroad, compared with roughly 14% of the population in India.

By far the largest numbers of Indian migrants—about 3.5 million— live in the United Arab Emirates. Pakistan is the second-most common destination with two million, while 1.97 million Indian migrants now live in the US.

Riaz Haq said...

Pakistan Ranks 4th Highest Source of Foreign Remittances to India

https://www.southasiainvestor.com/2016/02/pakistan-ranks-4th-highest-source-of.html


February 27, 2016Pakistanis sent nearly $5 billion to help their relatives in India in 2015, according to data released by the World Bank. This makes Pakistan the 4th largest source of foreign remittances to India, putting Pakistan ahead of Kuwait and the United Kingdom. Only United Arab Emirates, United States and Saudi Arabia sent more money to India.

Source: Wall Street Journal 
With over 1.4 million Pakistanis born in India, there are literally millions of family connections between the two countries and millions of reasons a person in Pakistan might find a way to get money to relatives in India. The money could be sent for a brother in need, a cousin’s wedding, an uncle’s funeral or even to help educate a niece, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.


Source: Hindustan Times
I personally know people in my own circle of friends and family in Pakistan who regularly send money to relatives in India to help them out in times of need. Such remittances are used to build homes, educate children, pay for health care or girls' weddings.

While Muslims in Pakistan have prospered, the Indian Muslims have become the new untouchables in their land of birth. They suffer widespread discrimination in education, employment, housing and criminal justice. Muslims make up 13% of India's population but 28% of Indian prisoners. Similarly, Christians make up 2.8% of India's population but 6% of India's prison population.  Meanwhile, the newly elected parliament has just 4% Muslim representation. Housing discrimination in India is so bad that an Indian MP Shashi Tharoor recently tweeted: "Try renting an apartment using a #Muslim name (In #India )".

The latest World Bank remittance offers yet another confirmation that the South Asian Muslims who migrated from what is now India to Pakistan have fared relatively better in terms of economic and other opportunities. Pakistani Muslims have the means to help their relatives in India. It reinforces my own anecdotal observation during my visits to both countries.  I see that my own relatives in Pakistan are much better off than those in India. My Pakistani relatives enjoy better opportunities for education and jobs giving them higher standards of living than those in India.

In fact, Pakistan has continued to offer much greater upward economic and social mobility to its citizens than neighboring India over the last two decades. Since 1990, Pakistan's middle class had expanded by 36.5% and India's by only 12.8%, according to an ADB report titled "Asia's Emerging Middle Class: Past, Present And Future.

Riaz Haq said...

India is a top source and destination for world’s migrants

India’s religious minorities have been more likely to migrate internationally. Religious minorities make up a larger share of India’s international migrant population than they do among the nation’s domestic population, according to 2010 Pew Research Center estimates. For example, about 19% of the Indian international migrant population was Christian, compared with only 3% of the population in India. Similarly, an estimated 27% of the Indian international migrant population was Muslim, compared with 14% of the population in India. The reverse is true for Hindus: Only 45% of India’s international migrant population was Hindu, compared with 80% of the population in India.

-----

India is also one of the world’s top destinations for international migrants. As of 2015, about 5.2 million immigrants live in India, making it the 12th-largest immigrant population in the world. The overwhelming majority of India’s immigrants are from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh (3.2 million), Pakistan (1.1 million), Nepal (540,000) and Sri Lanka (160,000).


https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/03/03/india-is-a-top-source-and-destination-for-worlds-migrants/

Riaz Haq said...

The fertility rate in India is higher than in China and the U.S., but it has declined rapidly in recent decades. Today, the average Indian woman is expected to have 2.0 children in her lifetime, a fertility rate that is higher than China’s (1.2) or the United States’ (1.6), but much lower than India’s in 1992 (3.4) or 1950 (5.9). Every religious group in the country has seen its fertility rate fall, including the majority Hindu population and the Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain minority groups. Among Indian Muslims, for example, the total fertility rate has declined dramatically from 4.4 children per woman in 1992 to 2.4 children in 2019, the most recent year for which data is available from India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS). Muslims still have the highest fertility rate among India’s major religious groups, but the gaps in childbearing among India’s religious groups are generally much smaller than they used to be.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2023/02/09/key-facts-as-india-surpasses-china-as-the-worlds-most-populous-country/

Riaz Haq said...

The Education Ministry data showed that the number of Muslim students decreased to 19.21 lakh in 2020-21 from 21 lakh in 2019-20.

https://indianexpress.com/article/education/enrolment-of-muslim-students-for-higher-education-dips-to-4-6-aishe-2020-21-8413124/



AISHE 2020-21: Enrolment of Muslim students for higher education decreases to 4.6%
The Education Ministry data showed that the number of Muslim students decreased to 19.21 lakh in 2020-21 from 21 lakh in 2019-20.

The number of Muslim students enrolling for higher education in India has dropped in the 2020-21 academic year compared to the previous year, according to a report by the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2020-21.