Yaar, Samjha Karo’Ammar Shahbazi: No, you don’t get lynched or forcibly converted if you are a Hindu living in this city, unlike your brethren in certain parts of the country. But your sense of being different is often stoked in the unlikeliest of situations, especially when you interact with the wider community and identify yourself as a Hindu. A small, seemingly trivial incident, brings home this painful reality and offers a reminder of how deeply entrenched everyday discrimination can be. Rajesh*, a student and social activist who runs a school for poor children near Punjab Chowrangi, wanted to print a panaflex with a picture of the baby Lord Krishna, on the occasion of Janmashtami — the birthday of Krishna — which is being celebrated across the world today (Friday). To a Muslim and someone not aware of this attitude, it seemed surprising that Rajesh felt his routine task would not be an easy one. He had delayed the job of getting the material printed, and his Hindu friends in the printing business were already overbooked with orders. Ambling from one printer’s shop to another on Pakistan Chowk, the hub of the printing industry in the city, Rajesh carries a sample color printout he has designed for the panaflex, and shows it to the shopkeepers. All he gets in return are blank looks and polite smiles and the address of a printer a few lanes away who prints ‘Hindu material’. With a wry smile on his face, Rajesh points out how terrible it feels to be put through this humiliation. “On major occasions like Janmashtami, we can’t afford to leave anything to the last moment; people here usually don’t print pictures of our deities, because they find them ‘jinxed’, I guess.” Agha, one of the printers who declined to print Rajesh’s ‘Hindu material’, doesn’t want to explain why he did not take the order. “Bus Yaar, Samjha Karo” (buddy, please try to understand!), he said with a sheepish smile. On my insistence, Agha divulged that some of his workers refuse to work on pictures of “Murtis” (statues) in Ramazan. However, Rajesh said that the printers routinely decline to print their religious material, irrespective of whether it is Ramazan or not. “I usually go to a Hindu printer because that’s the safest bet. They do the job without whining, keeping the sacredness of the material in mind.” Amar, a Hindu who works nearby, concurs with Rajesh. “Yes, there are people here who decline outright taking printing orders from Hindus, especially if the printers are of a religious bent,” he said. “But many Muslims do not mind either.” Amar said that discrimination surely exists but it is not something widespread. “I print this kind of material here and my employer, who is a Muslim, does not say anything to me.”The Muslims printers, when approached, are usually evasive about their behavior. One of them, a twenty-something man named Qasim, said that it’s forbidden for Muslims to help spread the religious message of non-Muslims, so he does not want to become a part of this activity. Rajesh said he just wanted to print a panaflex for the Hindu children in the school he runs. “It’s an important event so I wanted to make it a bit special for them. But I think this year I will have to go without the panaflex. But who knows, somebody might just take the order.” So Rakesh kept on trying his luck, with the sample in his hand, moving from one shop to another on Pakistan Chowk.
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