THERE THEY CALL US HINDUS, HERE WE ARE PAKISTANIS

THERE THEY CALL US HINDUS, HERE WE ARE PAKISTANIS

Jürgen Schaflechner | India, Germany 2014 | 53 Min. | OmeU 

After the partition of British India in 1947 many Hindu and Muslim families left their respective homes to settle down in the newly created states. Political agitation in the preceding decades had helped to produce the feeling that both nations – Hindus and Muslims – needed their own homeland to thrive. Until today this so called “two-nation theory” is perpetuated in many South Asian countries. This documentary portrays the life of Pakistani Hindus who left their homeland due to alienation, unemployment, and religious prosecution. In search for a better life they reach India where they realize they are not treated as lost, fellow Hindu brothers, but as unwelcome Pakistani intruders. There they call us Hindu. Here we are Pakistani succeeds in giving the audience a direct approach to problems of the everyday life of these between-two-worlds stranded persons and shows the profound political and societal tensions between Pakistan and India.