Cultural Decimation of Pandits

This is in reponse to Mr Ashrafs article that appeared in the Greater Kashmir [http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=1_7_2007&ItemID=4&cat=17]...

The article “Migration to Cultural Decimation” made good reading. It was nice to know that there exists a subset within the larger Kashmiri Muslim community that rightly sees the en mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits as a human tragedy and “expresses” it as such.

It gives Mr Ashraf tremendous credibility as a writer, when he points out the fact that Muslims that could afford it, also chose to move out from the valley. For, it indicates a balance of thought and absence of partisan thinking that plagues both KP and KM writings on the above topic. What happened to Pandits was unfortunate, but what happened to Kashmiri Muslims in the valley was worse, for they got abused both by the Army and those that they had thought of as Saviors. Violence and abuse is condemnable irrespective of source and cause.

Having said that, I would like to point to the fact that he has chosen to make some hasty and simplistic conclusions which go against logical thinking and ground observations of the time they refer to. These being:
1. The “Tehrik” was nationalist in character
2. Unconditional migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley
3. Kashmiri Pandits being allowed to live their life peacefully under the Muslim rule in Kashmir

Today when Muslim intelligentsia of the Zafar Mehraj variety and their ilk look back and analyze why the assumption of supposed Nizam-e-Mustafa by April 1990 did not fructify, they realize the reason was the assault on Hindu Minorities and their resultant exodus that undid it. When I look back, I feel convinced that it was not the masses on the street and killings of Pandits that drove my parents to walk out of the valley. It was the nature of slogans that emanated from the mosques and brutality with which the murders of Pandits were executed that compelled them to run for Honour and Life in that order. I wonder how this thing was missed by the author. For the record, I was only a ten year old when we had to flee. When you have posters outside your house and the neighbors’ already having been killed following the poster pasted on their gate, I wonder what the authors reaction would have been to it if his name had been Ram Koul. Would he like a foolish brave heart have stood up to join the growing list of Kafirs exterminated or in a mad rush left everything behind? I wonder how he chose to conveniently forget those dreaded Hit Lists posted on all nooks and cranies, the slogans of “Asyi Ghasyi Kasheer Bataw ros…” [we want Kashmir without Pandit men but with their women] and many more. Those definetly were not signs of a plural, nationalist character. Claiming that KP migration in that context was unconditional sounds plain non-sense. I am a liberal and do not care who is in power as long as they dont poke their noses in my way of life, so are most of the Pandits. I am sure Pandits would not have fled if the bullets that fell them had not come from terrorist guns. They would have stayed and struggled along if the aim was a plural and vibrant Kashmir and not Nizam-e-Mustafa.

In hindsight it was a calculated assault on the Pandits, designed to make them leave the valley. There was a sense of finality that time, ably helped by announcements from across the border that Azadi was not too far away. And in that false euphoria the Muslim Terrorist Leadership advanced the program that was to be unleashed against the Pandits by a few months.

And by no stretch of imagination would I blame the general Muslim population for it. They were as much confused and afraid. I remember my father telling me about his friend in Jawahar Nagar, who was shaking like a leaf on discovering an AK47 in his house, brought in by his elder son. I also remember and appreciate the affection that I have received from the neighbours in Murran, Pulawama who even today are all addressed as Maam’s. That can never be forgotten.

As far as I am concerned, personally, before moving back to the valley – Bag and Baggage, I would wish to see this fundamentalist, terrorist leadership in its place and that’s the deepest part of the Dal Lake. I am convinced, without them, there is no problem absolutely between the Muslim and Pandit community. We would live they way we used to - peacefully and with love.

When in Mahabharta, Pandavas wanted to reconcile with Kaurawas at whatever conditions Kaurawas put, Krishna stopped them, saying that any compromise that’s built on the premise of “Fear” and “Helplessness” does not last for too long. I am sure Pandits don’t want Muslims to role the red carpets for their return. All they need is an assurance that morally bastard, fundamentalists are not at the helm, nor they have the say that they apparently have had in the recent past. Is that being conditional in any way, what so ever?

As far as cultural decimation is concerned, I am not sure how much of that will come true. Remember there was a time, when only 7 families of Pandits were left in Kashmir . This is not the first time that Pandits have been forced to convert or perish, it is the 14th time in recorded history. I look back at the past and feel comforted. Feel comforted, because I know History has a habit of being repeated. The question is only of time.

And if thoughts like the ones expressed in this article are an indication, then that day is not too far away when I will be again breathing the fresh air of my beloved Kashmir .

Looking forward to more such articles from Mr. Ashraf's pen and from others and hopefully next time, without simplistic assumptions and sweeping generalizations.