Arresting Subtle Narrative of Pakistan regarding Sikh Conversion
South Asian cinema has often engaged with the trauma of Partition and its aftermath, exploring themes of displacement, identity, and survival. This painful chapter has been engaged by cinema by highlighting the extreme pain of individuals with themes of personal hardships and of emancipation.
However, in Pakistan, among these narratives, a recurring motif is the portrayal of Sikh women converting to Islam, seen in films such as Larki Punjaban (2003), Khamosh Pani (2003), Suraiya (2020- Bengali short film), and the older Punjabi film Chann Veryam (1981). These stories typically depict Sikh women, separated from their families during communal upheaval, finding shelter or protection with Muslim communities and ultimately embracing Islam. While dramatised for narrative effect, such portrayals can shape perceptions, presenting conversion as a voluntary or positive outcome without fully exploring issues of coercion or identity loss.
This cinematic theme intersects uncomfortably with current reports from Pakistan, where religious minority women—including Hindus, Christians, and Sikhs—face abduction, forced conversion, and coerced marriage. In 2022 alone, human rights observers documented 124 cases, including 81 Hindu women, 42 Christian women, and one Sikh woman, many of them minors. Approximately 60 per cent were under 18 years of age. These cases are concentrated in Sindh and Punjab, with victims often subjected to legal and social pressures that make resistance difficult.
The 2023 Population and Housing Census of Pakistan, included Sikhs as a separate category. The official figure for the Sikh community was 15,998 people nationwide. The community’s small size—estimated at a few thousand—means even isolated incidents have significant cultural and psychological impact. In late August 2025, police in Pakistan’s Punjab province registered a First Information Report (FIR) in the case of a Sikh girl from Nankana Sahib, near Lahore, whose family alleges she was abducted and forcibly converted to Islam and married to a Muslim man named Mohammad Hassan.
According to court and police records, the girl submitted a written statement in the Lahore High Court saying she had converted to Islam and married Hassan of her own free will, and she accused her family of wanting to harm her — a claim her family rejects.
While films are not expected to serve as documentaries, repeated storylines in which Sikh women readily assimilate into Islam risk simplifying or normalizing a complex and sensitive issue. Narratives rarely depict women resisting conversion, asserting their faith, or being reunited with their families, leaving a gap between cinematic representation and lived reality.
For Indian and diaspora audiences, these stories resonate beyond the screen, reflecting broader concerns about minority rights, freedom of religion, and cultural preservation in South Asia.
Recognising the difference between voluntary and coerced conversion is essential, both for understanding historical experiences and for engaging with contemporary human rights issues. Cinema, while a vehicle for storytelling, carries the responsibility to present nuanced perspectives, particularly when addressing subjects that remain highly sensitive for vulnerable communities.
