‘I am still waiting to become a citizen’
Bhil was 24 years old when, tired of taunts about his religion, he left for India with his family. Seven years later, he is still waiting to become a citizen. The Indian government grants citizenship only after a stay of seven years. He recounts how his prowess as a district level fast bowler in Sindh often attracted the wrath of fellow players unhappy with the captain who had reposed his faith in him. “They would often say: ‘Is kaafir ko tumne sar chadha rakha hai’,” Bhil recollects.
Ironically, he found that a democratic Pakistan brought more troubles for the Hindu community. “When Musharraf was ‘Sadar’ it was far better,” he says. But some things are the same on both sides of the border. Though he had paid R2,000 per passport to Pakistani custom officials an unpleasant surprise awaited him at the Attari border in Punjab. The custom official, sniffing his helplessness, pronounced his passport and visa fake and demanded R5000. Each time Bhil attempted to bargain with the official, the ‘fee’ amount was raised until it stood at R21,000. At this, his octogenarian grandfather begged for mercy only to be kicked to the ground. The old man began bleeding and slipped into a coma. At this, the custom official asked them to hand over “whatever they had”. “It was around 5:30 pm, two days before the ‘yaum-ejamhuriyat’ (Republic Day). I will never forget the face of that official,” he says. Bhil’s grand father was declared dead at a Delhi hospital of severe shock.
Tougher times lay ahead. The little money he had was spent on taking his grandfather’s body to his ancestral village in Jodhpur. The owner of the ambulance service refused to transport the body unless he was paid the full R7,000 up front. Bhil had only R6500. Help arrived from unexpected quarters — the driver of the ambulance, incidentally a Muslim, pleaded with his employer and told him to deduct the amount from his own salary if Bhil didn’t pay.
“He even paid for the food during the journey from Delhi to Jodhpur. The good man didn’t take any money despite my repeated insistence,” he says.