This small town in Pakistan is the living embodiment of religious harmony

By Munawwar Ahmed

Search for Pakistan in the news and you’ll find yourself bombarded with a slew of negative headlines about the country’s battle with terrorism, violence against minorities, and misogynistic attitudes and crimes.

While there is truth to these headlines, this flat portrayal in the media fails to fully represent the country’s 179.2 million people, and everything they have to offer and allow us to go beyond Pakistan’s prevailing stereotype.

Take the little known town of Mithi, for example.

Located in Tharparkar, a district of the Sindh province, Mithi (meaning soil in Urdu) has never witnessed any incident of religious intolerance, kidnapping, extortion or homicide in recent history.

With the lowest crime rate for a city at an unbelievable 2 percent, Mithi has been voted the most nonviolent district in Pakistan. While the standard of living is relatively poor, and persistent droughts continue to plague the region, it is the uniquely refreshing collective attitude of the town’s community that has shaped Mithi to what it is today.

Religious Pluralism at its finest

Mithi is a place where Hindus fast during Ramadan and a Muslim does not slaughter cows, out of respect for each other. Hindus lead Muharram processions and Muslims light up their homes to celebrate Diwali. The oasis of religious harmony, smack dab in the middle of a presumably troubled nation, has against all odds given the world a real-life example that tranquil existence is not just a myth reserved for idealistic conversations at family gatherings.

Nearly 80 percent of the town’s population is Hindu and the remaining 20 percent Muslim, but their capacity to observe religious pluralism is indeed remarkable.

“We, Hindus and Muslims, have lived like one family in this village for the last 200 years. Not a single communal feud has ever been reported that could have threatened communal harmony here. We share each other’s joys and grief,” said 85-year-old Faqir Dars, a resident of Munghat village, about 100 km away from Mithi Town.

Having coexisted for over a century now, Mithi has personified interfaith harmony within the Sindh-dominant Sufi culture and, with the absence of communal feuds, the residents stand by staunchly for one another, believing religious tolerance is an integral part of their culture.

While the media often associates Pakistan with Talibanisation, oppression of ethnic and religious minorities and forced conversion into Islam, Mithi buries the dead, Muslim or Hindu, in the same cemetery reiterating their harmoniously unbelievable coexistence.

Hope in the face of adversity

Even within the most trying of conditions, the bonds of humanity withstand and supersede religious and cultural differences within the town as an inspiring example of brotherhood for communities, cities and countries around the world.

According to Zaffar Junejo, community development expert and CEO of the Thardeep Rural Development Organisation, it is the lack of economic disparity and common struggles that has amalgamated contrasting communities.

“Here, almost all people are relatively disadvantaged,” said Junejo. “Muslims and Hindus have similar economic profiles. There is no gap between the rich and the poor; it is economic disparity that can create a sense of deprivation and lead to crime.”

But when over 80 percent of Tharparkar’s water resources were deemed unfit for drinking due to the region’s worsening drought last month, the provincial government of Sindh pledged $53 million to install solar-powered reverse osmosis purification plants in response to the situation.

Despite the hardships, the residents of Mithi stood united.

For 45 year old Rekha Meghwar of Mithi, unrestricted access to clean, drinking water was a definitive first in her lifetime. “It is really hardly less than a miracle for us that we can now drink sweet and clean water, for the first time in my entire life.”

With a fairytale-like, harmonious existence and record-low crime rates, the residents of Mithi stand as the epitome of compatibility that blatantly contradict the recurring media portrayal of longstanding, tense Hindu-Muslim relations.

Taking a leaf out of Mithi’s simple example is perhaps now more important than ever. In the face of devastating tragedies and violence that plague countries around the world and continue to pepper media headlines, the residents of Mithi and the inspiring unity that binds them together certainly prove and remind us that humanity is surprisingly capable of peace and serenity.