35-years-of-kashmiri-pandit-exodus-an-identity-staring-at-extinction

January 19 marks the ‘Kashmiri Pandit Exodus Day’. It was on this day, 35 years ago on the night of January 19, 1990 when thousands of Kashmiri Pandits, like frightened pigeons fled their nests in Srinagar, the capital city of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

 

The atmosphere in the Srinagar city was full of terror and horror as the cries of Jihad were billowing out from each and every mosque at the highest decibel through the loudspeakers. It was a night of terror and trauma. While a few managed to flee and take the treacherous Srinagar-Jammu highway in the dead of the night, most of them converged on the Tourist Reception Centre, waiting for the first available bus that could take them out of what had turned from heaven to hell. 

 

On the night of January 19, the loudspeakers from the mosques were broadcasting the specially scripted ‘jihad’ songs aimed at inspiring the faithful to fight for the “freedom”, while at the same time warning and threatening the non-believers either to “convert or to leave or to die”. The songs are still haunting those who heard them that night. ‘Ay mard-e-mujahid, jaag zarra, abb waqat-e-shahadat hai aaya’. This song was for the believers to join the ranks of ‘jihad’ against India for the freedom of Kashmir. Hundreds of people were influenced and inspired to take to militancy. 

 

There was another song, ‘Ay kafiro, ay jabiro, Kashmir hamara chhod do’. This was aimed at the non-believers asking them to leave Kashmir. There was an infamous slogan, ‘raliv, czaliv ya galliv’ (convert, flee or die). And most of the Kashmiri Pandits opted to flee to save their culture and their identity. A few who were not able to leave, had to pay the price with their precious lives. It is a civilisational record, which may not have any parallel, that not a single Kashmiri Pandit converted to Islam in 1990. They preferred to live as paupers or die, than to convert. This is a fact not recognised much. 

 

Thirty-five years is not a long time in history. But it certainly is a very long time for a single generation. One complete generation has moved past. Those who were in the prime of their youth, have crossed their 70s and 80. One generation which was in its 50s, 60s or 70s has perished. Some of them died the same year in the harsh summers of Jammu and Delhi with the heat strokes, illness and snakebites. Hell was being let lose on a community proud of its, at least two-thousands year old identity and recorded history. 

 

While the ‘Jihadi’ uprising in Kashmir was not quite spontaneous as it was simmering for a long time, the mass response it got from people was certainly instant. There were some immediate global factors responsible for that. The USSR was forced out of Afghanistan by the ‘Mujahideen’. Kashmiri Muslims started believing that if the mighty Russia, a superpower, can be evicted out of Afghanistan, why can’t India be “thrown out” of Kashmir? 

 

Second, the USSR was breaking up as several Central Asian states were seceding or getting freedom. Kashmiri Muslims believed, Kashmir can also secede anytime. 

 

Third was the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, which was marked with massive mass protests with lakhs of people joining demonstrations. The Communist regimes in Eastern Europe fell overnight. The common Kashmiris, who did not have proper understanding of the developments there, started believing that like the Eastern European countries were “getting freedom”, same way they can also get it. The change of regime in Europe was thought to be “independence from Russia”. People in Kashmir at that time started believing that “independence” was round the corner. 

 

As it was the winter in Kashmir, many influential and well to do Kashmiri families move out to plains to Jammu, Delhi and other parts, for a few months. Most of them started rushing back to Kashmir, “lest they get stuck in India and might find it difficult to travel back to Kashmir” afterwards. Such was the hysteria bordering paranoia, and misplaced belief that “independence” was just a few days or weeks away. For them, even a month sounded like a long time for India to leave Kashmir! 

 

The only irritants were the Kashmiri Pandits, the symbols of Indian state, the “leftover infidel” who should be cleansed off the valley. There was a collective effort at terrorising them across the Kashmir valley. Since most of them lived in the capital city of Srinagar, it was the main centre to create terror. This was followed up with selective killings across the Kashmir valley in small towns and villages. Eventually Kashmir was cleansed off the “infidels”.

 

To the modern generation, both the Kashmiri Pandits living outside and the Kashmiri Muslims living in the Kashmir valley, this description might sound exaggerated and sensationalised. Only those who went through this nightmare can recall and remember it. In fact the situation was more serious and horrible than that. 

 

But the Kashmiri Pandit community has not held it against anyone, particularly those who were responsible for the situation where they were left with no option but to leave. Probably those people who saw emancipation in the eviction of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 have started realizing that they were wrong. 

 

Kashmiri Pandits have left everything behind and moved ahead. Most of them are settled well outside Kashmir, in places like Jammu, Delhi, Chandigarh, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai and other cities. The new generation that was born here is already past its 30s now, doing well. Many have settled abroad also. 

 

However, what is at stake is their distinct “cultural identity”. Kashmiri Pandits are counted among, and equated with the ‘Brahmins’ in the Hindu religion. Yet they are distinct and different from the Brahmins living in the rest of the country. Their rituals are different. Festivals are different. Their food habits are different. But broadly they follow the Sanatan Dharam followed by every Hindu, maybe with certain variations. 

 

For a long time in the post-independent India, Kashmiri Pandits held positions of power and influence in the government of India. The first Prime Minister of the country, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was a Kashmiri Pandit, who had quite a few members of his community among his close aides. This tradition was followed up by his daughter, Ms Indira Gandhi, who also depended a lot on Kashmiri Pandit advisors. It also continued even till the time of Rajiv Gandhi for some time.

 

After the exodus because of the Islamic extremism, it was natural for the Kashmiri Pandits to incline towards the Bharatiya Janata Party. The party did come to the community’s rescue at the time of migration. Although the BJP was supporting the VP Singh government from outside when the exodus took place, it could not do much to prevent its exodus. 

 

However, the Congress governments led by PV Narsimha Rao and Dr Manmohan Singh did help and support the community immensely. In fact, Dr Singh scores ahead of all other Prime Ministers when it comes to providing aid and assistance to the community.

 

The only challenge the community right now is faced with is its distinct identity. Thanks to the strong culture and tradition of education and learning, the community has done quite well economically and financially and is thriving across the country and even abroad. What is worrying is that it is gradually merging and melting out in the local traditions and cultures. Inter-community marriages are now a norm. For thirty-five years, the community has managed to sustain its identity, whether it manages to survive for another 35 years more as a “distinct community with an exclusive identity” is a million dollar question.

 

The community’s only hope of survival as a “distinct identity” is its “return” to the Kashmir valley, its home for at least two millennia. That cannot be possible without the support of the government. Although the Bharatiya Janata Party has been in power at the centre for more than ten years and, certainly for five years more, there has not been any initiative or effort to arrange and organise the community’s settlement in the Kashmir valley. 

 

However, the people have hope. What looks to be a difficult and challenging task, may not be as challenging actually. Even the abrogation of Article 370 was once thought to be impossible. But that was eventually abrogated. Return of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits should be “accepted” as a challenge by the government of India. The ‘return’ of Kashmiri Pandits has been in the agenda of manifestoes of all political parties whether the BJP or the Congress. But nobody appears to be serious about it when it comes to implementing the promise. 

 

It is quite impossible for the Kashmiri Pandits to return to the same places they left in 1990. As already mentioned, that generation has almost passed away and the following generation is well past its 50s and 60s. The government of India needs to devise a plan for return with settling the community at one place. It can identify more than one pockets of settlement in different places within the valley. 

 

The Kashmiri Pandits are the aborigines of Kashmir and they have the “first right” over the Kashmir valley. This right needs to be recognised and enforced. It is wrong to blame the community that it is not interested in moving back. Of course the community cannot move back on its own without a proper plan that addresses all concerns, including survival and security. 

 

Kashmiri Pandits’ distinctive identity is at its stake. It can survive only with and in Kashmir.