‘Indians Believe In Akhand Bharat’: Zardari Claims Pakistan’s Hindus Want To ‘Be With Us’

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari has claimed that Indians “believe in Akhand Bharat” while asserting that Hindus in Pakistan “would rather be with us” than India. Addressing a gathering in Pakistan on its Independence Day on August 14, Zardari said Pakistanis and Indians have different perspectives, adding that Pakistan’s Hindu minority is free to practise its faith.

Zardari’s remarks came while he was speaking about the cash-strapped country’s relations with India, its armed forces and the wider geopolitical situation in the region. Pakistan was partitioned from British India and celebrates its Independence Day a day before India.

Notably, global rights organisations have repeatedly raised concerns over the treatment of religious minorities in Pakistan. Human Rights Watch’s 2026 report said blasphemy laws and discriminatory legislation continue to leave minorities vulnerable to arbitrary arrests, prosecution and mob violence, with Ahmadis facing additional restrictions under anti-Ahmadi laws.

It also documented attacks on Ahmadi places of worship and cases involving forced marriage and conversion of women from Hindu and Christian communities.

What Did Asif Ali Zardari Say About India?

Zardari said that Indians have a different point of view. He claimed they believe in Akhand Bharat. He contrasted that with Pakistan's identity as a Muslim-majority country. He said Pakistan has a Hindu population of around 3–4% and claimed Hindus there are “as free as anywhere else” and would prefer Pakistan over India.

“The Indians have a different point of view, they have their own agenda in mind… We are Muslims, they are not. But we are Muslims of the mindset that we tolerate. We have 3-4% Hindu population in Pakistan and they are as free as good as anywhere else they were. They would rather be with us than be with them,” he said.

Hindus In Pakistan

According to the European Country of Origin Information Network (ECOI) report, the process of social and religious homogenisation has led to dwindling Pakistani Hindu community. While in 1941 non-Muslims constituted approximately 20% of the population of West Pakistan, a decade later their proportion had fallen to just 4% of the same area.

The report stated that approximately 5,000 Hindus leave Pakistan each year due to religious persecution, many travelling to India. The majority of those migrating from Pakistan are from the province of Sindh, where a large chunk of the Hindu population in Pakistan resides.

History of Independence

The shared birth of the two nations stems from the Indian Independence Act, 1947. The legislation, introduced in the British Parliament on July 4, 1947, and passed into law on July 15, stated, “As from the fifteenth day of August, nineteen hundred and forty-seven, two independent Dominions shall be set up in India, to be known respectively as India and Pakistan.”

Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India, who signed off on the documents that created the two countries and partitioned Bengal and Punjab, chose the mid-August timeline for a specific reason. He settled on August 15 because it was the second anniversary of Japan's surrender in World War II.