Buddhism, free from Brahminic influences, flourished in regions that now constitute Pakistan, during the reign of the Mauryan Empire in the 3rd century BCE under the patronage of Emperor Ashoka, who sent missionaries to spread the teachings of the Buddha (Dani, 1986; Thapar, 2002; Zwalf, 1996). Most of the people in Pakistan, even the social scientists and experts in cultural studies, believe that Buddhism is now a historical and archeological relic, which is pretty much true, and that there is no Buddhist left in Pakistan, the presumption that requires to cast an ethnographic gaze in the surroundings to verify it.
The decline of Buddhism in Pakistan began with the advent of Brahmin rule in the region in the 7th century before the Arab Muslims conquered it. Muslim rule brought about fundamental changes in the social hierarchical structure of the region in which Brahmanism mutated with Arab-tribal values of Saeyedist and Ashrafiya domination and the Dalit-pasmadna subordination in Punjab and Sindh. For the Buddhist majority of these regions, this change of masters brought about a nominal relief as they were relieved from Brahmnnism, but trapped into a new form of economic subjugation. To get rid of that subjugation by the Ashrfiya castes, the majority of the Buddhists converted to Islam thus reducing their level of exploitation by becoming pasmanda Muslims (Asif, 2016; MacClean, 1989; Wink, 1990). After the partition of the sub-continent in 1947 most of the Buddhist, Sikh, and Hindu population migrated to India. Some of the Buddhists who were left behind either converted to Islam or Hinduism.
Today, Pakistan is dominated by Ashrafiya caste Muslims with 96.35 percent identifying themselves as Muslims, and Islam is declared as an official religion. Hindus and Christians together constitute about 3.8 percent of the population. Buddhists are counted among ‘others’, a category that is not more than 0.11 percent. In 2017, the Pakistan Government put the number of Buddhist voters around 1,884. While lower caste Hindus are officially recognized as ‘Scheduled Castes, there is no such recognition of the caste hierarchies among other religions including Buddhists, the majority of which are underprivileged and considered to be lower castes by their Muslim and Hindu neighbors. These Buddhist communities are scattered across Pakistan mostly living in small villages and towns, and known by their Ethnic-Buddhist identity such as Balti, Brokpa (Rieck, 1995) living in Gilgilt-Baltitsand and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Jettmar, 1980), Baori living in Mandi Yazman and Rahimyar Khan in Southern Punjab, and Sindhi Buddhists in Mehrabpur town in upper Sindh. In urban centers like Karachi and Lahore, small Buddhist communities exist, often comprising immigrants from countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Myanmar. While these migrant communities maintain their religious practices and cultural associations, very much like their counterparts in their countries of origin (Ali, 2010), in this paper, I will attempt to foreground the plight of the survivors of Indigenous Buddhist communities that are living in Pakistan from the times immemorial.
Buddhists have no political constituency and are almost forgotten. Very few in Pakistan even know about their existence. Despite being politically insignificant, a few Buddhist activists have historically strived to seek recognition and space. For instance, some Buddhist activists proactively owned Pakistani identity in order to rescue themselves from being swallowed by the Hindu caste order. For instance, Tridev Roy, the Chakma chief, supported Pakistan during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War; he then left the Chittagong region and settled in Pakistan. He claimed to represent the Buddhists of Pakistan by founding and chairing the "Pakistan Buddhist Society" from 1996 until he died in 2012. Despite these attempts to survive, the Buddhist community does not seem to thrive. It is so small- consisting of a few houses in each Muslim neighborhood- it fails even to develop a Buddhist sub-culture that could safeguard them from the hegemonic influence of the Muslim culture.
While the Buddhist population began declining several centuries ago largely due to conversion to Islam, the imperceptible enculturation into the ways of local Muslims is the contemporary reality. For instance, although many Brokpa people of Gilgit-Baltistan have converted to Islam, yet they continue to carry some Buddhist oral traditions, festivals, and rituals and wish to preserve them as a vital part of their identity (Jettmar, 1980). Munawar Ali, a local Sindhi Buddhist activist bearing an Islamised personal name, fears that “there may not be a single Buddhist left in Pakistan in coming decades. Increasingly we are unable to find life partners for our daughters, and consequently, we are compelled to marry our daughters either into Hindu or Muslim families. Our daughters have to convert to Islam or Hinduism”. Lala Rajoo Raam, the representative of the Baori Buddhist community, also expressed similar concerns fearing that sooner or later all Baori Buddhists will be Muslims. While the government of Pakistan and international organizations have taken several measures to protect the Buddhist archeological sites (UNESCO 2020), there has been no significant step so far taken by the government to preserve and protect Buddhist communities living precariously on the margins of society.
In 2023, the government invited Fo Guang Shan, a large international Buddhist organization to reconnect the local indigenous Buddhist population to the wider Buddhist community globally. Yet, that effort was also limited to organizing a few token events, recital of prayers, and the singing of hymns to praise the Buddha. The perseveration and protection of the living Buddhist culture and people require more than that, particularly addressing their social exclusion by the privileged caste Hindus and Muslims. Using ethnographic methods, this paper attempts to explore the Buddhist lifeworld, and their lower caste status in order to find ways to create a Buddhist sub-culture, visibilise their lower caste existence in order to secure their fundamental rights. It delves into the fears, anxieties, and apprehensions of the Pakistani Buddhists, their unwarranted absorption into the Hindu minority and Muslim majority, influences of ashrafisation and savarnisation, and suggests remedial measures for the change agents at the local, national, and global levels.
The decline of Buddhism in Pakistan began with the advent of Brahmin rule in the region in the 7th century before the Arab Muslims conquered it. Today, Pakistan is dominated by Ashrafiya caste Muslims with 96.35 percent identifying themselves as Muslims, and Islam is declared as an official religion. Hindus and Christians together constitute about 3.8 percent of the population. These Buddhist communities are scattered across Pakistan mostly living in small villages and towns. Using ethnographic methods, this paper attempts to explore the Buddhist lifeworld, and their lower caste status to find ways to create a Buddhist sub-culture, visibilise their lower caste existence to secure their fundamental rights. It delves into the fears, anxieties, and apprehensions of the Pakistani Buddhists, their unwarranted absorption into the Hindu minority and Muslim majority, influences of ashrafisation and savarnisation, and suggests remedial measures for the change agents at the local, national, and global levels.