Every year on January 19, Kashmiri Pandits routinely take out processions, sit on dharna and hold protest meetings demanding their honourable and secure return to the Valley. Media also cover these events ritualistically. Next day, it ceases to be a story or a matter of concern. Sadly, there is no Steven Spielberg to keep shocking our nation’s conscience by bringing alive their sufferings cinematically. Our filmmakers can only think of filming atrocities against Kashmiri Muslims but have no heart to tell the story of the exodus of Pandits.
Twenty-six years ago, Pandits left the Valley when JKLF and Hizbul Mujahideen threatened them to convert to Islam or leave. To lend credence to their threat, Pandits were selectively targeted and killed. Subsequently, men, women and children were massacred at regular intervals at Sangrampura (1997), Wandhama and Prankote (1998), Raghunath Temple (2002) and Nandimarg (2003). In Wandhama, 23 Kashmiri Pandits were butchered tellingly on the holiest night of Ramzan, coinciding with Shab-e-Qader. Over hundred Hindu shrines and temples were also destroyed.
As a result, virtually the entire population of Kashmiri Pandits were uprooted from the land of their ancestors. Today, there are no more than 2,700 to 3,400 Pandits living in the Valley, which is less than 1 per cent of their population in 1990. The majority who escaped the butchery have since been accommodated in nine camps in Jammu and 15 camps in Delhi, where they live amid squalor and unrelenting poverty. The unhygienic living conditions have caused their high death rate and low birth rate. A few who were blessed to be financially and educationally more stable escaped their religious persecution and are now reasonably well settled in other parts of India.
Whether one terms the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits an exodus or whether they were victim to genocide or ethnic cleansing is immaterial. It is also inconsequential how many Pandits (220, 650 or 3,400, claimed differently by different organisations) were killed or whether they were induced by Governor Jagmohan to leave. The fact is that almost an entire population of Kashmiri Hindus was uprooted from their land to avoid persecution at the hands of Muslim terrorist outfits. That brings us to the core issue, whether Pandits can ever return to the Valley and live there as before. The answer is no. It is easier for Farooq Abdullah to say that onus of returning is on Kashmiri Pandits, but let him think little less hypocritically. Will anyone like to go back when he hears of ISIS and Pakistani flags being unfurled and cheered by Islamic fanatics, when he witnesses daily incidents of Islamic terrorists fighting for merger of Kashmir with Pakistan, and overwhelming numbers of Muslim residents wanting independence? Is it fair to expect from Pandits that they muster courage to return to Kashmir, riding merely on promises to have them resettled honourably made by a few?
What should Kashmiri Pandits then do? Some favour giving them a separate homeland in the southern part of Kashmir. Others suggest that separate composite township be built to house them. Other demands like minority status, reservation in Assembly seats etc. are gettable, but their exclusivity will make them more ostracised and an object of more hatred by the Muslim majority. No political party is going to ever provide them a separate space or composite settlement in Kashmir for that will adversely affect their image of their alleged commitment to India’s pluralism, diversity and secularism. Since Pandits neither have numbers nor financial or political clout nor do they have a voice in the media to force the state and Central governments to rehabilitate them on their terms, it is time they thought of unorthodox ways to secure their future.
Kashmiri Pandits should understand that nostalgia of pre-1990 days will only make their existence more painful. Their hope lies only with big business houses who should be encouraged to come forward to adopt them and give them dignity of living. Surely their cause deserves better understanding than organising sports extravaganzas, sustaining corrupt political parties and multiplying their profits.
amarbhushan@hotmail.com
Bhushan is a former special secretary, R&AW