Chasing the Moon

There are thousands of Pakistani Hindus living in pathetic conditions in temporary settlements on the dusty outskirts of Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Barmer in Rajasthan, as also in Gujarat, Punjab and New Delhi. According to the Home Ministry as on June 30, 2012, as many as 18,185 Pakistan nationals were staying in India on Long Term Visas. Just last year, over 5,012 Hindus came to India, of which 1,248 did not return to Pakistan. 
 

But these figures do not take into account those who are too poor to access passports and visas and who risk their lives every day to cross over the fence to bordering Gujarat, Rajasthan or Punjab. 

 

TSI met Shumar, Bhagwan and Pehalwan Ram, brothers who were sold to work as bonded laborers to a Pakistani landlord. Tired of daily beatings, they crossed the fence from Rahim Yar Khan in Pakistan’s Punjab in the dead of night a few years ago. “We decided that we will either live in India or die trying,” says Bhagwan Ram, adding that they had no sense of direction but only their grand mom’s words that their village in India was under the moon. “We just ran towards the moon. Thankfully, the border fence was partly buried under the sand dunes and we crossed over,” he says. 

 

But India’s border police caught up with them fairly quickly. They remained in jail for one year and six days. They were released after a relative in Jaisalmer became their guarantor. According to the 2001 census,as many as 8,47,687 people have migrated to India from Pakistan over the last 20 years. Similar data was not available in the 2011 census. But even these figures do not take into account illegal immigrants like Bhagwan Ram and his brothers.