NEW DELHI: As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hamid Karzai inked a historic strategic pact in the ballroom of the majestic Hyderabad House on Wednesday, top officials from both India and Afghanistan were paraded to witness the signing. In the frontline of the Afghan delegation was Sham Lal Bathija, Karzai’s senior economic adviser and the highest ranking Afghan Hindu in the Afghanistan administration.
Bathija, whose rank is equivalent of a minister, knows that his story is rather compelling–especially as a member of a minority in a country which has seen extreme Islamists in power. “Afghanistan is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural nation and we are one of the cultural elements… There are Hindus, Sikhs, temples and gurdwaras there—maybe not in great shape, but they are there. It was once a considerable larger community of Hindus and Sikhs, but it has shrunk to a minimal level,” he says.
Most of Afghanistan’s Hindus and Sikhs now have migrated to India and the West. For Bathija, born and raised in Kandahar, it was education and employment which led him to leave Afghanistan for decades.