TIME TO REBUILD, REDISCOVER AND RESTART
Kashmir, the land of Rishis and Sufis, was not a place, not a region, not a province and certainly not a borderland. It was, for all practical purposes, a fabric of coexistence for all Kashmiri’s. It was a beautiful homeland for inhabitants of different faiths and multiple cultural ethnicities who lived in harmony with each other.
Unfortunately, all of this got derailed by time due to the Kashmiri resistance movement in late 80’s and early 90’s, catalysed by the support from the fringe elements across the border. In a matter of short time, it spread like a fire and took an ugly turn especially when the religious places of minorities were gutted and the indigenous Hindus comprising only 5% of the total population were selectively targeted and horrendously assassinated. The fear psychosis was created among the Hindu population as occasional calls were made from mosques on loudspeakers and print media, Aftab and Alsafa, was used to release a message, threatening all Hindus to leave Kashmir immediately, sourcing it to the militant organization. The walls were pasted with posters of same message, cinema halls were closed, time was reset to the Pakistani standard time and establishments including shops, buildings and educational institutes were painted green as a sign of one single religious rule.
Following a spate of targeted assassinations of minorities and lack of community’s sense of security, interspersed with a host of highly provocative, communal and threatening slogans, the mass exodus of over 95% of Kashmiri Pandits occurred in a matter of few weeks in Feb-Mar 1990. More of them left in the following years so that, by 2011, only around 3,000 families remained. This exodus was a result of a genuine panic among the Pandits that stemmed as much from the religious vehemence among some of the insurgents as by the absence of guarantee for the Pandits' safety issued by the Government of that time.
These displaced people who left everything in valley and struggled for their survival were neither considered ‘refugees’ nor as ‘Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs)’ by the Indian Government fearing international involvement in Kashmir, which it considers to be its internal affair. Rather the diplomatic term ‘Migrant’ was prefixed to their plight so as to dilute both the intensity of situation and intent behind this exodus. The mass migration from valley to the lower half rendered them helpless and the ones who owned the palatial houses and wide farms were forced to live in refugee camps, under tents, poorly ventilated accommodations, sometimes in unkempt and unclean surroundings. As the exile lasted longer, the languished stay also generated tensions with the host communities—whose social and religious practices, although Hindu, differed from those of the Brahmin Pandits—and rendered assimilation more difficult. Many displaced Pandits in the camps succumbed to emotional depression and a sense of helplessness.
Kashmiri Pandits in exile have written many autobiographical memoirs, multiple novels and poetry to record their experiences. Many attempts were made to highlight the issue of Kashmir and its inhabitants on big screen as well but none could make any impact. A recent movie, The Kashmir Files, which has taken the electronic, social and mainstream media by storm highlights the sufferings of Kashmiri Hindus. Life is never lived in terms of black and white nor can be the circumstances painted in that very way. However, the movie has been successful in highlighting the pain and agony of the sufferers but has not been able to portray the apathy on the part of the government as Gawakadal massacre also occurred during this exodus time. The movie has done a good business on commercial front with record breaking IMDB rating, 100 crore plus box office collection and has one of the highest viewership status across the country. The success story of this particular movie need not be rated on the basis of these parameters as for a Kashmiri Pandit it is not just a movie, it is an emotion that is engraved very deep into the minds of every concerned individual. The deep rooted wounds that had healed with time have got explored and the expectations of some kind of justice have got reignited. From a sufferer’s point of view, the success of this movie should be on the basis of steps that Indian government, hopefully, will be taking to rehabilitate the sufferers and prevent their cultural genocide. In addition, the judiciary and the local civic bodies also need to tune in to smoothen the process of rehabilitation and justification.
On the Judiciary front, the demand to create "special crimes tribunal" to look into the ethnic cleansing and crimes committed should be accepted. On the governance front, the government of India should provide one time compensation for displaced Kashmiri Hindus who are not able to apply for govt jobs; ensure their return with full dignity, security and civil rights by demarcating the land in and/or around kashmir and give them the quota under economically weaker section category as was done by Shiv Sena leader in Mumbai by waiving off admission fee for displaced kids in various engineering colleges helping not only the families in exile but also stabilising their future. On the local level, the civic bodies should come forward, engage themselves in verbal conversation with positive minds, complement each other’s ideology and chalk out a minimum working alternative to accommodate each other without any ill feelings.
Even after being in exile for 32 long years, if we are able to get this minimum after watching this movie, I will consider it as a true success story, otherwise it will be like any other reel movie that glorified the painful emotion of Kashmiri Pandits without any solution and created an environment of hatred, while the sufferers will continue stepping towards a cultural genocide and observe 19th January as ‘The Exodus Day’, all through their life.
Dr. Pawan Suri
Psuricardio@gmail.com
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