About Us

 Tolerant Resilient and peace loving Afghan Hindu’s

• Afghanistan was originally a Hindu country, Its ancient name was ‘Upgansthan’ Hindu Afghans were born there, and have lived in Afghanistan for generations, statue of Buddha has stood in Bamiyan for more than 2,000 years and a mountain in Kabul is named AsaMai, after a Hindu goddess , Maa Durga.

• The ageless Asa Mai Mountain, the 2,000-year-old Buddha, and the Mathura Das Temple may still stand, but there will be no worshipers, generations of Hindu Afghans will grow up on foreign shores without knowing their land, culture, and language.​

• The once-thriving Hindu community in Afghanistan which numbered over 50,000 has now dwindled in different parts of the world.

• The Hindus & Sikhs were mostly prosperous merchants, dealing in Textiles, Dry fruits, Pharmaceuticals, Currency Exchange and Indian merchandise.

• "Although some small number of intellectual worked for the Afghan institution in leading positions. Hindus have been so powerful that they had even controlled the financial hub of Kabul the Shazada Market, Hindus have done well, and made themselves a very visible minority.

• Kandahar had more Hindus, Jalalabad, which had once been controlled by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, had a large population of Sikhs.The capital city of Kabul had a big temple ( Asamai Mandir ) which had a Hindi school and taught religious scriptures and Hindi.

• In those days Hindus were very safe because they were treated with respect and honors, generally Muslims and Hindus lived in mutual respect and friendship.

• Real problems of the Hindus began when the leftists and fundamentalists came to the forefront after the collapse of Dr Najib government in 1992.

• So as Afghanistan slowly disintegrated, Hindu population escaped the country. Many Hindus and Sikhs have fled to safety in India, Europe, Canada and the U.S. Those who stayed behind were either too poor or too greedy.

• Indeed, contrary to the oversimplified concept of all Hindus were rich traders, there were many struggling, who had no way of paying passage out of war-torn Afghanistan. Over the past 40 years, the Hindu community have had to flee, one by one, from their beloved homeland of Afghanistan where they were born and brought up, and now scattered into the far corners of the world.

• Thousands of Hindu Afghans have seen their loved ones, their community and their way of life evaporate before their very eyes, and virtually all 50,000 Hindus have fled. A sizable number of refugees have joined family members in India, Germany, England and Canada. The U.S. has a small community of Hindu and Sikh Afghans totaling about 8000 people, mostly living in the east coast.

• We have lost a peaceful pre-war Afghanistan that was a time when people were innocent, when there wasn't much (enmity). There was little religious intolerance. Hindus and Muslims were friends. They were a God-fearing people, living in peace. People have lost the culture they had for centuries.

• Something has been lost in this war, and it cannot be found again.​       Credit: Lavina Melwani