Someone on my GChat list had an intriguing link included in their status message. I saw “inauguration”, and since that historic event is still very much on my mind, I clicked it. I was led to the Boston Globe’s website, to a feature called “The Big Picture: News Stories in Photographs“.
Yesterday was a historic day. On January 20th, 2009, Barack H. Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America – the first African-American ever to hold the office of U.S. Commander-in-Chief. The event was witnessed by well over one million attendees in chilly Washington D.C., and by many millions more through coverage on television and the Internet. Collected here are photographs of the event, the participants, and some of the witnesses around the world. (48 photos total)
Picture number 38 caught my attention, setting my browndar off before I could even read the caption underneath it (which I’ve quoted, well, underneath it):
Pakistani Christian children hold portraits of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama during a prayers ceremony for global peace in Islamabad, Pakistan on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2009. (AP Photo) [Globe]
At first glance, I didn’t notice the word “Christian”. I just saw “Pakistani children”. I thought I’d just post the picture plus a quick blurb about where I found it, and isn’t it sweet, etc. But for obvious reasons, I started surfing around, and a rambling post was born.Over the past five years, I’ve made numerous references to my family’s faith and Christianity as it exists in Kerala, but Christianity exists in every South Asian country (admittedly in miniscule numbers, in some of those nations). The first non-Indian brown Christian I ever met was my ruthless Montessori pre-school teacher in San Francisco. She was Sri Lankan and my parents strongly encouraged her to get old-school naddan on me, if I were naughty enough. That meant that if some little white kid did something wrong, they were gently scolded. If I did something wrong, I got hissed at and pinched. My parents were overjoyed that they were really getting their money’s worth.
It would be 14 years until I met another Desi who was Christian; at Davis I discovered that someone wasn’t just using an anglicized nickname. “Wait, that guy’s actually named ____??”
“Yeah. He’s Christian.”
me: Baroo?
“Not like you. He said he’s Pakistani.”
me: wow.
“Yeah. Now there are two of you…and three hundred of us!”
I still don’t know all that much beyond a vague, depressing sense that it’s rather dangerous to be a Christian (or a Hindu) in Pakistan, due to the brilliantly just Blasphemy laws, which require nothing more than the insinuation of disrespect towards Islam, to ruin someone’s life:
Ten years ago today, Bishop John Joseph, Catholic bishop of Faisalabad in Pakistan, shot himself dead on the steps of the Sahiwal district court in protest at the abuse of the country’s blasphemy laws. Ten years on, little has changed in Pakistan.
The blasphemy laws impact everyone, regardless of religion – and the tragedy is that almost every case is completely fabricated. When the laws were first introduced, they were used primarily as a tool by extremists to target religious minorities – Christians, Hindus and others. These days, however, Muslims have got wise to the potential for using the blasphemy law against each other to settle personal scores.
The reason is simple. The blasphemy law requires no evidence other than an accusation made by one person against another.
There is no proof of intent, and an inadequate definition of blasphemy. When it comes to court the accuser does not even have to substantiate the charge. If the judge asks what the accused actually said, the accuser can refuse to elaborate, on the basis that by repeating the alleged statement they themselves would be blaspheming. [Guardian]
See? Brilliant!
This made me wonder about the Christians in Pakistan; we all know that Sikhs and Hindus had been there before partition, but I’d never heard much about the history of Christianity in that country. I have a deplorably lazy habit of assuming that the answers to such questions tend to involve colonizers and missionary types. Let’s see if I get lucky:
The exact introduction of Christianity to the South Asia is a debatable topic, with the Syrian Christian community in Kerala, South India being recorded as the earliest. Missionaries accompanied colonizing forces from Portugal, France and Great Britain, but in north western Ancient India, today’s Pakistan, Christianity was mainly brought by the British rulers of India in the later 18th and 19th century. This is evidenced in cities established by the British, such as the port city of Karachi, where the majestic St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Pakistan’s largest church stands, and the churches in the city of Rawalpindi, where the British established a major military cantonment. [wiki]
Had no idea about any of this:
Christians in Punjab and Sindh had been quite active post 1945 in their support for Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s Muslim League. Even before the final phase of the movement, leading Indian Christians like Pothan Joseph had rendered valuable services as journalists and propagandists of the Muslim League. Jinnah had repeatedly promised all citizens of Pakistan complete equality of citizenship, but this promise was not kept by his successors….In the mass population exchanges that occurred between Pakistan and India upon independence due to conflict between Muslims and followers of Indian religions, most Hindus and nearly all Sikhs fled the country, but the Christians remained. [wiki]
I have a million reasons for wishing my Father were still alive, but the one which is relevant to this post has to do with Jinnah, specifically the declamatory 15-minute rant he used to launch in to upon hearing his name. When I was younger I thought it was odd that my Dad, who was born in 1937, was so much older than everyone else’s parents. Now I wish I had written it all down.
I wanted to find out more about the ceremony for global peace in Islamabad at which that picture was taken, but all I found were a few more photographs of the event and no news story. Oh, well. It’s poignant how the inauguration of our latest President has affected not just this nation, but the world. South Asians for Obama, indeed. 🙂
229,599,181 people and growing. Sure it may be 20% now. But if 20% of the population had tuberculosis that should be cause for concern among the other 80% no? I’d hate to use the disease metaphor because I don’t like the idea of equating belonging to a religious affiliation as being diseased, but it is the best way of articulating that just because a special interest group is small does not mean it is powerless to effect change in the long run.
If you don’t like the disease metaphor just think of social instability in Afghanistan. How do you think it is that the Taliban, a comparatively small band of armed mujahuddein, managed to bring the entire country under their heel? That’s the thing with social forces. A small but concentrated and dedicated interest can generally beat out a larger and more powerful but unorganized mass. How do you think the US Congress continues to shell out billions to subsidize farmers that the vast majority of the country could care less about?
To quote Barack Obama: “One voice can change a room, if it can change a room it can change a city. If it can change a city it can change a state. If it can change a state it can change a nation. And if it can change a nation it can change the world. Your voice, can change the world.” We should be mindful that such power can be used for both good and evil.
153 · NV said
There is not current law in India which provides for free, universal education to all children. The constitution has an set up an INTENT to do so, and it was never carried out in full, not even on paper. The closed we have is the government school system, which are not universal (universal- required for all children between any age range, for example, ages 6-12), are not accessible to all children, either because they are too far away, they only exist on paper, or families cannot afford school uniforms and to buy books, let alone the ones that DO exist with poor/non-existent teaching.
There is a pretty decent higher education system, but keep in mind that that serves about 7% of the population, many of whom paid for private schools for primary education, books, tuitions, etc that many families cannot afford.
“How about Hindus (I am looking at you, Kiran P) treat minorities in India with the same respect they demand from the majority in the west!”
Minority religious groups in India are treated with much more dignity than minority religious groups in most any other country. The government funds Islamic schools but will absolutley not issue government money to Hindu schools. Imagine Moslems in America or any other country where Moslems are a minority blaring morning prayer calls over loudspeakers so that everyone in the city can hear it. Imagine that being tolerated in any other country. The government advances affirmative action programs for minority religious groups and “backward” castes, even if the members of the “backward” castes are more wealthy than a more “forward” sudra caste member. The notion that minorities in India are treated poorly is absurd. In India, Christians, Muslims, Jains, Buddhists are treated the same, if not better than, Hindus. It’s absurd propoganda to suggest otherwise.
I like how you conflate all Hindus with Kiran P’s opinions and impose the “Hindu” mannerisms you decry to Kiran P. It’s called the statistical fallacy. Ascribing the characteristics of a(n) individual(s) to a larger group and then assuming all members of said group adhere to the same characteristics.
Way to twist my words around. I said you can’t have a credible national identity that insists on splitting hairs between members of the nation according to narrowly defined interests.
So dangerous, and so false, and so completely embarrassing, in fact, that it propelled America to be the greatest nation in the world. The same nation that fought a long and bloody war to end slavery, establish the United Nations, and spur the decolonization movement on.
I’ll take that to a poor, third-world cesspit whose residents are too busy fighting amongst themselves to actually accomplish anything greater any day.
You can save the studying nuances of American history for late high school/college. For school kids the national mythos needs to be unifying. People need to identify with the cultures and traditions that define the nation. I am an Indian Hindu immigrant to America. I don’t like baseball, I don’t eat hot dogs, and I don’t go to church but I still acknowledge that these are important characteristics of America as a nation and I respect them for that. I’m not going to start complaining about how America is anti-secular because they give Christians time off on Christmas without giving me a day off for Diwali.
156 · LinZi said
You just repeated what I said and omitted the parts where I explained why it still only exists on paper. Remember what I said about patronage and how impossible it is to get money to where it is supposed to go (pretty important to set up a school and healthcare system) when your politicians and civil servants are too busy appealing to the narrowly defined special interest that got them into power rather than serving the nation as a whole?
I am not biased against religions, I respect everyone’s belief system and feel that as long as you are not harming others, you should be able to worship as you see fit.
And, your metaphor of disease once again just reinforces the fear and hatred that you continue to type. If you are strong and passionate about your religious beliefs, why are you so scared of the “growing” minorities? What do you have to fear? Why not stop looking at them as “others” and start accepting that India is and has been one of the most diverse nations world wide. What’s wrong with that? Isn’t that something to celebrate? Shouldn’t you see try to see national identity as more than religion, or in your mind, Hinduism? Can’t a Malayali Syrian Christian, a Punjabi Sikh, a Jain from Gujurat, and a Hindu from U.P. all count themselves as an Indian national?
Maybe if you stopped trying to label India as Hindu, stopped spending so much time dwelling on the ‘scary’ minorities taking over your country and actually try to educate yourself and see other citizens, you ( as one person) could even help dispel communalism, and create a place were people of different religions can live together without riots, inflammatory speechs, ripping down each others religious buildings, and so forth.
Violence breeds violence. Hatred breeds hatred. Why would you want to continue that by pretending that Indian Muslims, Christians, Zoroastrians have less claim on their country than you?
@ Jayz:
I think you guys might be talking past each other. You’re referring to “positive” discrimination by the government (those are sarcasm quotes, not scare quotes) to the detriment of Hindus. Karen is referring to invidious discrimination by people in society independent of government to the detriment of non-Hindus.
Personally I am not a big fan of either. But my subjective opinion is that the concern of the special interest groups is too often geared towards punishing the “advantaged” rather than uplifting the disadvantaged. Karen’s sentiment that Hindus in general are all racists because of the perceived lack of respect shown to her is counterproductive since it only sows further animosity by not only bad-mouthing an entire group of people, but by assuming as a given that we’re all bad people and, dare I say, not very Christ-like. Disagree without being disagreeable, kill them with kindness, and all that jazz.
Linzi,
Per your bio you are someone “currently finishing graduate school. In the future I am considering opening an organization to work with families in India”. I am an Indian citizen having lived in 25 years and speaking from experience, not a touristers view. You will not be able gauge India in a short time. Talk to Francois Gautier and you will know. Or Koenrald Elst. to get a better picture.
You have mixed up everything in your replies without reading previous statements, just ranting, suiting missionary agenda. The only issue I was disagreeing to is unethical conversions. Go back and read. You are also not able to identify who a Hindu is. In the broader sense everyone who follows Indic values irrespective of religious affiliation is a Hindu, this is the “way of life” definition. Everyone in India is a Hindu except for evangelical christians and radical Islamists for whom masters are either in Vatican or Arabia in that sense. This is number one threat to Indian national identity.
CIA is American agency. Considering what Bush has done to India and CIA’s active involvement in conversion enterprise it’s best you keep this to yourself and missionaries.
Always speak considering what has happened to humankind in the name of Church and Intolerant God.
Karen’s sentiment that Hindus in general are all racists because of the perceived lack of respect shown to her is counterproductive since it only sows further animosity by not only bad-mouthing an entire group of people, but by assuming as a given that we’re all bad people and, dare I say, not very Christ-like. Disagree without being disagreeable, kill them with kindness, and all that jazz.
Amazing! My ‘sentiment’ or ‘perception’ of Hindus as racists is absolutely false. No one says all Hindus are bad people (just you, NV). Bigotry, by claiming minorities are taking over the majority is my cause for complaint. Why not as LinZi says, we celebrate diversity. Treat everyone with respect (not just rhetoric but action). And let every person follow a religion of their choice (conversion or not). The problem seems to arise only because ‘many’ (a statistically valid word, I hope) Hindus are convinced ‘their own’ are getting converting to Christianity and are appalled about the audacity of the ‘other’.
That may be true, if you selectively quote my statement to ignore the part where I said “I’d hate to use the disease metaphor because I don’t like the idea of equating belonging to a religious affiliation as being diseased, but it is the best way of articulating that just because a special interest group is small does not mean it is powerless to effect change in the long run.” Jeez.
I didn’t say you were biased against religions. I said you were biased against people who consider religion and tradition important.
Are you talking to me or a strawman of me? I didn’t say I’m worried about religious minorities. I said I’m worried about minority groups that are willing to deliberately otherize themselves. Christians who identify more as Christian than as Indian. “Dravidians” (ha) who try to insist that they’re not really Indian. Muslims who try to pass themselves off as Arabs because they’ve been thought Hindus are outsiders. This is what concerns me because it splits Indian identity apart. India’s indigenous traditions (including the Eastern Orthodox Churches) are a-okay because they’re proud and unabashedly Indian. Of course, when you have large and growing numbers of minority religion that are actively trying to set themselves apart from the mainstream that is a threat to national unity and needs to be curtailed.
I don’t see where I said only Hindus can be Indian. I said Indian culture has been primarily shaped by Hindu norms. It’s the same way American culture has been primarily shaped by Christian norms. I consider myself American and I am very proud to be so. But I am not going to bad-mouth American Christianity (in it’s tolerant Deist iteration) in an effort to define myself. I’m happy to be Hindu but I acknowledge that mainline American culture is Christian. I don’t see why this causes people so much existential angst when American Christianity is replaced with Indian Hinduism.
157 · Jayz said
hmm:
Fear and fundamentalism in India
In the Indian state of Orissa, Chris Morris finds communities in shock following a wave of anti-Christian violence, which has forced thousands to flee. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/7672228.stm)
Most Punjabi Christians are lower castes. If somebody tells me that they know a person is a Punjabi Christian, I automatically think he/she is a choora.
Most Pakistani Christians are chooras, so as well getting shit for being non-muslims, they also suffer from caste discrimination. Bhatti is also a common choora Christian surname.
I can’t be bothered to read all the hindu vs muslim crap above, but what I can say, is that in Punjab, many muslim pir shrines are maintained by Hindus & Sikhs. Sufism is popular and there is a shrine in my village with pictures of both Hindu gods and the Ka’aba.
164 · LinZi said
So was the murder of the Swami and his two attendants in a school classroom full of kids by armed thugs that set that whole conflagration off an example of Anti-Hindu violence as well?
Diversity through organized campaigns of conversion? Brilliant marketing tactic. I suppose it is kind of like how diverse Europe became when Celtic, Gaulish, Nordic, Iberian, Roman, Greek, Slavic, etc. religions all got swallowed up by Christendom.
161 · Kiran P said
How can you assume I am a tourist, how do you assume my credentials?
I used the CIA factbook as a very general, as I noted, approx gauge of numbers, just because it was quick and easy to look up, find another more reliable source, I don’t mind.)
Also, I am not a Christian, let alone a Missionary! Do you assume just because I am from the U.S. I must be a Christian? Bring on more stereotypes, what else can you assume about me without even asking?
I would define who a Hindu by asking someone “what religion do you follow” If they answer “Hindu”, why then I would suggest they are a Hindu. Clear? I don’t think my Jain, Sikh, or Syrian Orthodox friends would tell me they are a Hindu, do you? I also don’t think they are radical Islamists, or evangelical Christians. (Nor are so most Muslims and Christians in the world!)
118 · Kiran P said
Watch out, now. You’re not really trying to link pornography, teachers abusing students and several other things with Christianity in America, are you? You’re starting to sound like a troll. Don’t discredit yourself by verging on territory prohibited by our commenting policy.
Everyone else, thank (almost all of) you for trying to keep the debate constructive.
163 · NV said
And America shouldn’t build it’s identity in that wat. Whoever said that Diwali should be a holiday in the U.S., right on, how about Eid and Holi, too, for starters? “God” should not be in pledge of allegiance, and America should build it’s identity on what it truly is, a nation of diverse people from across the entire globe. And we should be proud of that. Why do we need to build a Christian norm, why do we need to build a norm based on any one religion?
Linzi and Karen,
You have amateur knowledge of India and dyanmics there. Despite repeated explanations you say what you want to say.
Read the Bush and CIA links I posted above.
Read the damage done to humanity by church and evangelicals
Things They Don’t Tell You
Christian Terrorism in Northeast India
and then we shall discuss whether forced conversions are OK are not?
If you have sanity you will not come back trying to defend the indefensible.
Thanks for the hint!
163 · NV said
And America shouldn’t build it’s identity in that wat. Whoever said that Diwali should be a holiday in the U.S., right on, how about Eid and Holi, too, for starters? “God” should not be in pledge of allegiance, and America should build it’s identity on what it truly is, a nation of diverse people from across the entire globe. And we should be proud of that. Why do we need to build a Christian norm, why do we need to build a norm based on any one religion?
And I say Indian is a land of many different cultural, ethnic and religious groups, different areas and people are shaped by many different norms. Just because you may have been shaped by Hindu norms doesn’t mean everyone is.
Please don’t ban Kiran. His comedy act is fantastic! Maybe you can consider substituting Melvin with him.
.
SM Intern, It’s right there and still you missed it. No! I am very sane 🙂
154 · NV said
…and yet…you just did. Funny, that.
@Kiran: I said the formal census numbers are probably undercounts, but I would be really surprised if they undercounted by SO much that it would have undermined LinZi’s argument. If it would have I’d have brought it up. 😀
@LinZi:
Don’t you think it’s a bit unfair to assume bigotry on his part because you opted to use a different (and Western) definition of the word? Kiran P didn’t pull his definition out of the air. It traces back to V. Savarkar and is as valid a definition (and I’d argue the most valid definition) of a “Hindu” as you will find.
If you wanted to get more specific it gets hard precisely because of how hard it is to draw lines between various Indic traditions as it is. But you could split it along Shaivism, Vaishnavism, Shaktism, Vedanta (which itself has various subheadings), and so on and so forth. And that’s just the astika schools of thought! Defined more broadly, the term you’re looking for when you hear “Hindu” would more properly be referred to as Santana Dharma.
118 · Kiran P said
But you did do it.
174 · Kiran P said
I could say that Kiran P. is a troll but “that is not fair and I won’t do it”. Except I just did. See how that’s problematic?
171 · Kiran P said
I never said I support Christian fundamentalists, either! Nor did I ever once state that I support forced conversions! I don’t support anyone forcing their religion on ANYONE else, in any form, and that includes a majority group who retaliates verbally, politically, or physically because they feel threatened by other religions in their own country, as well as fundamentalists trying to coerce groups into joining their religion.
Hold the phone there buddy Kiran’s analogy was perfectly appropriate. He was pointing out that associating those things with Christianity in America is as ridiculous as trying to lay misogyny, caste, etc. at Hinduism’s feet in India.
You really ought to take more care before threatening to swing the ban hammer around like that. I mean, Kiran even linked you to an article by Rajiv Malhotra explaining in more detail about how social evils in India, because they are in an Indian context, get studied and framed in a way that social evils in America don’t.
Because that would be inane? A society that doesn’t take measures to maintain its own integrity is eventually destined to be engulfed by ones that do. And usually the ones that engulf it are going to be much less open and tolerant than the one that was too naive to safeguard itself.
Wow. It’s amazing how you guys manage to take a clause in which I say “I realize this comment could be construed as A way but that’s not the way I mean it” and interpret that to mean “Hey guys. I think A.” The intellectual dishonesty is staggering.
SM Intern,
.
Is SM truly fair when it ignored the following statements from Dhoni regarding Hinduism?
where hindu misogynistic practices like widow burning, widow shunning, temple prostitution of girl children, child marriage etc arose if not from brahminism? Who introduced devadasism, untouchability, casteism etc to India?
179 · NV said
Those sort of statements remind me a lot of the people who say “I’m not a racist but…” and then follow with an extremely racist statement.. Is it really different to say, this analogy sounds horribly hatefilled, but I am still going to use it?
180 · Kiran P said
What to do, Kiran? Even S-M lovers like the missionary position every once in a while.
@SM Intern:
Now you’re just really being unfair to him. Refutation by analogy/parallel argument is a pretty standard logical refutation that you would pick up in any philosophy, logic, debate, or law school class. If you quote it out of context it would sound bad, that’s why you need to read quotes in context. Otherwise you’d be putting on a kangaroo trial.
SM Intern,
I was just showing the futility of making such erroneous statements to Dhoni by stating and then negating it. Somehow how this seems to have raised your alert level while condoning his action. Do your sympathies lie somewhere?!
Wow, I never would have thought of PBS as a font of wisdom, but I’m watching “The Story of India” right now and they just mentioned “Islamic conquest” “forced conversion” and “intolerance of Hindus [in Rajasthan]” in the same minute. I have no idea how this is going to evolve, I just tuned in, but for a short, short moment, right-side-up world reappeared in spite of all attempts to re-write history. Woot!
Kiran, we do try and be fair. At the same time, it’s a private site with no guarantees about anything, so YMMV.
It’s not my thread- Anna’s offline. I’m just trying to keep things constructive, so the discussion can stay open until she’s back.
Back to religion and South Asia, everyone, and this is a wide interpretation of that topic. No more comment from me.
181 · LinZi said
Oh wow. So now you’re going to be the PC police too? Nice.
Well respected scientists, sociologists, political scientists, and anthropologists use epidemeological examples to illustrate how ideas, cultural notions, and religions spread all the time. If you were actually steeped in that literature you’d be aware of the parallel. I included the disclaimer because I knew the moralizing PC folks in this place would see that example and jump on it for that reason since context only seems to matter when it’s used to concoct apologetic paeans to terrorists around here.
184 · Kiran P said
Now now. Don’t assume malice as an explanation where lack of sleep will do.
rob,
Here’s a note for you.
185 · rob said
Oh no! Narendra Modi has taken over PBS!!!!
179 · NV said
When did they threaten to ban him? Wow, the assumptions and exaggeration are staggering. That read like a caution, to me. If they wanted to ban him, they could have done it by now. They obviously see some value in keeping him around. But don’t let that you from inferring some nefarious bias about a moderator’s comments.
Linzi in #181, said is so much better than I did, in the following about both you and Kiran:
189 · Kiran P said
Hey. He properly calls it Aryan Migration rather than Aryan Invasion. That is good enough for me. As far as the scholarship is concerned it is probably the most likely explanation in my eyes. Migration of pastoralists from central Asia make beautiful babies with the remnants of the Harrappan civilization. They are fruitful and they multiply. This is in contrast to modern India, where all we do is multiply.
191 · CR said
My apologies, NV. In the time it took me to try and format my comment, I missed yours at #188.
Fair enough and I agree with NV regarding lack of sleep possibility too!
You said “religion and south asia”. Hope people know about RISA and Wendy’s Child Syndrome
what is YMMV ?
191 · CR said
<
blockquote>Linzi in #181, said is so much better than I did, in the following about both you and Kiran:
Thanks for backing me up… feeling a bit frustrated over here. 🙁
I didn’t imply “nefarious bias.” In fact, if you employ the wonderous modern invention known as “the scroll wheel” you would have seen me say “Now now. Don’t assume malice as an explanation where lack of sleep will do.” in reply to Kiran’s intimation of bias.
I am frankly a bit sad about being pigeonholed as the racist curmudgeon. I was really going for more of a sanctimonious, smarter-than-thou asshole thing.
193 · CR said
Well I guess we’re even now. Because I missed your reply #193!
@Kiran
YMMV = Your Mileage May Vary
YTMND = You’re The Man Now Dawg and is a much cooler reference, but not at all relevant to anything going on.
196 · NV said
you aren’t succeeding on the smarter-than-thou, but 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, and you did manage to succeed on the bigot thing, so aces to you!
199 · stand up said
<
blockquote>196 · NV said
Is that the end? Should I go to sleep now?
182 · stand up said
Heh heh. Brilliant
166 · NV said
I love how when you say “minorities aren’t discriminated against in India” and I give one obvious and recent example of discrimination against minorities, then you just turn what was said to mean “Hindus are never discriminated against”, which of course, I never once said. So let me make this clear. Communalism is BAD. Discrimination is BAD. Racism is BAD. No matter who does it, against who. End of Story.
Back to the topic.
http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=402815
Pictures of some beautiful churches in Pakistan. Looks like almost all are constructed in British period. I’d be interested to know if there are new churches being built. I see new churches / temples / masjids coming up in India every time I visit.
More importantly do people know of any new temples being built in Pakistan after 1947. I’d be very curious to know.