PAKISTANI  HINDUS                                             

  WHO IS PAKISTANI HINDU ?
A Pakistani Hindu is a person who professes faith in the principles of the holy Vedas. A Pakistani in this instance is not only a person who is a citizen of Pakistan but also applies to those people who have recently emigrated from Pakistan and have a close interest and passion for their homeland. People who have emigrated from Pakistan in the past 60 - 100 years are also considered to be Pakistani Hindus. Pakistani Hindus are the indigenous people of Pakistan and the Pakistani Hindu culture is the world's oldest culture and it is the indigenous culture of Pakistan.

Traditionally, Pakistani Hindus have not referred to the name of their religion as "Hinduism". This was a name given by foreigners to identify those people living in the vicinity of the Sindhu River (Indus). Pakistani Hindus have always referred to their religion as Vedic Dharm. Sometimes, Vedic Dharm is referred to as the Aryan religion. The word Aryan means Noble in Sanskrit.

  What languages do Pakistani Hindus speak ? 

Population (1998): 2.18 million (This is 2.0% of Pakistan's population of 144.974 million, which is drawn from UN population estimates).
Hindus living in  all over Pakistan but in Sindh province they are big minority and in  Mirpur Khas and Tharpar Kar Pakistan's desert district they are in majority In sindh's other districts also Hindus are in living in Karachi, Hyderabad, Sanghar, Dadu, Larkana, Nawab Shah, Thatta, Badin, Ghotki, Jacobabad and in Pakistan's other cities Sialkot, Lahore, Bahawalpur, Multan, Peshawer, Quetta, Mardan, Sawat and Gilgit. Mostly they are related with the agriculture but some Hindus doing business.      

Pakistani Hindus speak a multitude of languages that reflect their cultural heritage and their geographical location. Sindhi and Panjabi are the most common languages and are spoken by a significant proportion of the Pakistani Hindu community. Other languages spoken by Pakistani Hindus include Baluchi, Pashto and Kashmiri. In addition, some Pakistani Hindus can speak Seraiki and Farsi. As the lingua franca, Pakistani Hindus speak Urdu. The religious language of Pakistani Hindus is the world's oldest language, Sanskrit.

  Religious Literature of Pakistani Hindus 

The world's oldest religious books - the holy Vedas are amongst the most important books which are part of Pakistani Vedic literature. The holy Vedas are in the world's oldest language - Sanskrit. The Bhagvadgita, the Mahabharata, the Shri Ramayan are just some of the rich literature which form part of the proud heritage of Pakistani Hindus. The world's longest poem, the Mahabharata which discusses many philosophical issues is over 5,000 years old.

  What is the history of the Hindus ?

Though underplayed by the government today, Pakistan's Vedic community has an ancient culture going back tens of thousands of years. Pakistani Hindus have a lot to be proud of and listed below are only some aspects of the rich heritage of Pakistani Hindus:

Mohanjodaro, one of the world's oldest city was designed and inhabited by the ancestors of Pakistan's Hindus and was abandoned 5000 years ago due to a change in the flow of the Sarasvati river. Mohanjodaro, the oldest standing city in the world provided it's residents with running water, a central market, granary as well as providing each resident with the world's best sewerage system. The United Nations has recognised the importance and significance of this city. 
Takshashila (Taxila) is the world's oldest standing University and is located near Rawalpindi. Students from as far as China came to obtain a religious based education. The city was established by Bhagvan Shri Ramchandra's brother, Shri Bharat ji. 
The city of Lahore was named after Bhagvan Shri Ramchandra's son, Shri Lav. According to archaeologists, a significant amount of the construction of the present day Lahorekot (Lahore fort) was constructed by the government of the ancient Hindu kingdom of Singhapura. 
An incarnation of Bhagvan Shri Vishnu, Bhagwan Shri Narsingh appeared to protect his devotee Shri Prahlad from the tyrant Hiranyakashyap in the holy city of Multan over 10,000 years ago. 
The Punjabi town of Harrapa (Whose name translates to "The city which is protected by Bhagvan Shiva" from the Sanskrit language), is amongst the oldest remaining examples of a Vedic city in the entire world and the pride of Pakistan's ancient glory. 
The Punjabi city of Rawalpindi is over 3,000 years old and was the site of a Monastery which was established by Vedic Jogis (Monks). It attracted pilgrims from all over Pakistan, Central Asia and China. 
Pakistan's strong and brotherly friendship with China was established in ancient times by Pakistani Hindus over 2,000 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and religious students crossed the Himalayas to visit sacred places in Pakistan including the ancient University town of Taxila. 
The Hindu empire of Gandhara stretched from Kazakhstan in the west to India in the east and was centered around Peshawar and Kandahar. It lasted over 5,000 years and was a driving factor in the spread of Pakistani Vedic culture to Central Asia 
The name Peshawar is derived from the Sanskrit name for it which is Pushpapur - the city of flowers. 
The holy Shri Ramayan was written by the Saint Shri Valmiki ji north of Wagah in Punjab over 15,000 years ago. 
The name for Manohora Island in Karachi is derived from the Sanskrit word Manohar which means attractive hence the name Manohardveep (Manohora Island). This name refers to the attractive setting of the island in ancient times. The Kingdom of Bhagvan Shri Krishan (who is an Avtar of Bhagvan Shri Vishnu who appeared on this Earth only 5200 years ago) was only several hundred kilometres away in Dwarka and Bhagvan Shri Krishan is some times known by the name Murali Manohar - The attractive God who holds a flute. 
The Pandavas are said to have spent some of their time in exile from the Kingdom of Hastinapur in the vicinity of Sialkot which is in the eastern half of Pakistan's Punjab province.
The Sindhu River (incorrectly known as the Indus River) is holy to Pakistani Hindus for many reasons. The primary reason is because the Sindhu River's source is the holy Mansarovar Lake in Tibet. 
The Sarasvati River has beeen holy to Pakistani Hindus for over ten thousand years and is mentioned many times in the holy Rig Veda. 
The traditional name for Charsadda in the North West Frontier Province is Pushkalavati - City of the Lotus and was founded by the younger brother of Bhagvan Shri Ramchandra ji - Shri Bharat ji. 
The traditional name for Quetta is Shalkot which translates to Shining Fort from Sanskrit and the traditional name for Hyderabad is Nahrankot. 
This page has been established with the intention of being a common "meeting place" for Pakistani Hindus and those who have an interest in Pakistan's ancient culture. We also wish to provide resources which members of the community may find useful. 

BHAGAT KANWER RAM - A SINDHI HINDU SAINT

Sindh has been blessed with many saints and mystics. One of the most popular saints, in recent times, was Bhagat Kanwerram, born in a small village in upper Sindh in 1885 in a grocer’s family. Even as a child, he showed great talent for singing and his father put him up with a prominent holy man in the area - Saeen Satramdas. From this Guru, he imbibed spiritual teachings, a sense of genuine humility and love for a simple life.

Bhagat Kanwerram enriched typical Sindhi form of temple worship called - "bhagat". With ghunghroos on his ankles, dressed in a long robe and pugdee, he would sing and dance reciting mythological epics and folk tales in his own operatic compositions. Bhagat would commence in a temple courtyard after dusk, when it was cooler, and continue till early hours of the morning. Large adoring crowds, gathered to watch him, were enthralled with spiritual devotion.

He received millions in offerings that he either gave away generously to the poor and needy or used to build temple courtyards and dharamshallas. He turned away no one - Muslim, Hindu or untouchable, strong or week, even dacoits. He did not keep a penny for himself, supporting his family in a meagre, simple lifestyle by continuing to work at their small grocery business.

Being in great demand, he traveled widely all over Sindh performing bhagat in durbars, especially at the death anniversaries of local saints. Then infant record company HMV made 10 records preserving 20 of his kafis and bhajans. These were the first and most popular records at that time in Sindh.

There are many legends of his piety and miracles. Seeing a tired old woman, he carried her load of firewood on his head and escorted her home. Once a woman put her dead baby in his arms for blessings. Accused by the mother, his prayers revived the baby.

On Nov. 1, 1939, at age 55, while on a train from one bhagat to another, two fanatics assassinated him. Like the throngs who gathered to greet him at every station, they had just bowed to him; he had bowed to them in return and given them some fruit as parsad.