Seth Naomal to return from his grave?

The Sindh Assembly on Wednesday was divided following a minority lawmaker’s claim of Hindu girls in interior Sindh being forcibly converted to Islam. He warned of another Seth Naomal rising up. According to historians, Naomal (1804-1878) appeared in the post-independence Sindh as a traitor to his people and his land. His “treachery” – the act of collaborating with the British – was also the prism in which he was seen in the nationalist appraisal. “Today you are irked by the Baloch [separatists] and tomorrow you would feel the same at the hands of Hindus,” warned Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Pitanbar Sewani, also a member of Sindh Assembly’s Standing Committee on Minority Affairs. Backed by another minority lawmaker Saleem Khursheed Khokhar, the lawmaker tabled an out-of-turn resolution in the House recommending the Sindh government “to approach the federal government to frame the law to stop the forced conversion to save/secure the minority community.” Commenting on the resolution, Sewani claimed that a Hindu girl was kidnapped, married and then forcibly converted to Islam in a recent incident reported from Mirpur Mathelo. “What message are you giving to Hindus? Hindus would never leave Sindh. Don’t create another Naomal,” the PPP lawmaker said. Calling for legislation to protect local minority members from “forced conversion”, he said he is not against converting to Islam, but it should be done at will and not by force. Khokhar, a Christian legislator, also condemned the highhandedness of “some opportunists who are forcing Hindu girls to convert to hide their sins.” Over the speeches of the two minority members, the following hour exhibited an apparent division in the provincial legislature along religious lines, with the Muslim lawmakers defending Islam or questioning the charges against Muslims forcing Hindu girls into marriage and conversion. The chair referred the resolution to the Law Department for finding out whether or not a law already exists against forced conversions.