On October 4, 2018 TRT World Research Centre held a roundtable meeting on the “Muslim Minorities of South Asia.” This was part of a series of roundtable meetings forming part of the two-day TRT World Forum 2018, which included eight public sessions and 11 closed sessions. This closed session was held in English under the Chatham House Rule. This rule stipulates that ‘when a meeting, or part thereof, is held under the Chatham House Rule, participants are free to use the information received, but neither the identity nor the affiliation of the speaker(s), nor that of any other participant, may be revealed.’ The session aimed to discuss the issue pertaining with the Muslim Minorities of South Asia, looking closely at India, Myanmar and Sri-Lanka. Historical factors in all three societies within the framework post-colonial timeline were discussed and analysed. Rising Islamophobia along-with emergence of hard-line Hindu and Buddhist sentiments has punctuated the anti-Muslim / minority attitude in these regions. In India, the current ruling government comes with the rhetoric of India being a Hindu state. Likewise in Myanmar and Sri-Lanka, Buddhist extremists have subjugated the Rohingya and Muslims population respectively. As the crisis seem to continue, experts called in to reach a joint collective international approach to curb down the hard-line attitudes against the Muslim minorities.
Muslim Minorities of South Asia
