In 1947, the British Raj left India. They left behind a legacy of growing antagonism and violence amongst followers of different religions, with modern conflict superseding the subcontinent’s rich history of interfaith expression and community.
British colonization changed the way people saw one another, causing a shift from coexistence among different faiths to British enforcement of monolithic religious labels. British imperialism succeeded in the weaponization of difference—a strategy whose dire consequences are still seen today as India and Pakistan’s leadership shifts towards political extremes.
The seeds of Muslim-Hindu conflict were sown by the 1871 census of India conducted by the British Raj to gain knowledge and enhance control over India’s diverse communities. This census introduced specific religious categories that Indians with fluid religious identities had to slot themselves into. With the 1909 Minto-Morley Reforms, Muslim separatists were granted the right to a separate electorate, furthering the political framework that set the stage for the eventual partition of the subcontinent. These reforms legalized “communalism,” or the idea that religion is the basis for civic identity.
This restriction of complex religious identities eventually led to the subcontinent’s partition into India and Pakistan. The legacy of partition and colonization has spiraled into the modern Pakistani Muslim-Indian Hindu conflict we see today, where faith-based state identities are still pitted against each other. These differences have been emphasized for political gain by politicians and extremist groups, leading to a national culture with disdain for its neighbors. Newer political leadership and cultural changes emphasize religious nationalism, exclusion of religious minorities, and indoctrination of hatred against the other.
Under the leadership of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, religious divisions have only worsened with the push for Hindu nationalism and marginalization of minority religious groups. India’s Hindutva movement combines militant nationalism with Hinduism, contributing to a national landscape of Islamophobia.
Similarly, Pakistan’s prevalence of anti-Hindu sentiment goes directly against the principles of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who envisioned a state where social status and religion weren’t intertwined. Pakistan’s Hindu minority faces discrimination, including social media hate campaigns and social exclusion, where Islamic words such as “kafir,” or non-believer, are weaponized directly against Hindus. Inflammatory online discourse has real-life consequences for the Hindu minority in Pakistan, as proven by violent mob attacks, desecration of Hindu temples and displacement of Hindu communities.
The mutual destruction of places of worship in both India and Pakistan exemplifies systemic hostility. In Pakistan, a Ganesh temple in Punjab was desecrated, and the Hindu community there was displaced. In India, a 300-year-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh was destroyed to build a highway. The mirroring of these situations is a brutal reflection of the two countries’ unnecessary vitriol against each other.
Digital hate speech also has very serious consequences for young Hindu girls, who are victims of forced conversion through marriage. This has been a recurring pattern in Pakistan, where marginalized Hindu girls, mostly from impoverished and rural areas, are coerced into marrying Pakistani Muslim men and converting to Islam without proper consent. Amplifying these local crises, the growth of social media platforms has been utilized to promote hateful rhetoric from both sides further.
Ultimately, while the British Raj departed in 1947, its psychological strategy of encouraging conflict while seizing control has had lasting effects that have rooted themselves in Muslim-Hindu relations between India and Pakistan. Colonization sparked a vicious cycle of violence and discrimination, which is continuously fueled by social media, misinformation, and intolerance. Until both nations actively dismantle state-imposed nationalist religious identities, stop the systemic exclusion of other religions, and reclaim their shared history, the partition of the subcontinent will remain a wound that never fully heals.