Tag: pandit affairs

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Pandits under Article 370 regime

Extract from "Eyewitness Kashmir: Teetering on Nuclear War" (2004) By Arun Joshi.
the charges

Extract from “Eyewitness Kashmir: Teetering on Nuclear War” (2004) By Arun Joshi. It nicely lists outs how KPs were shaped as the perfect enemy by politicians of Kashmir. How KPs were seen as Nehru agents (today they are called Modi agents), how it was whispered that it was KPs who brought down Sheikh Abdullah, that they were Indira’s little soldiers, privileged powerful community that was eating into the KM privilege pie, subverting their politics, how they were also “presstitutes” selling wrong narrative about Kashmir, how they were enemies of Kashmir since forever. 

The targeted killing  of Kashmiri Pandits in 89-90 was natural outcome of these whispers. They serve the ideological bases and justification for the cultural genocide unleashed upon the  community.

We are never told how the community was living under such charges and what purpose the charges served. We are not told why Kashmiri Pandits may resent the article. While a lot is written on how Article 370 was gradually eroding the “autonomy”and how KM majority politics perceived these changes to the status of conflict, nothing is mentioned about what was happening in Kashmir under the so called “autonomy” for decades and how KP community time and again was saved by Indian Constitutional ingress, the interpretation of constitution by Supreme Court, the so-called weakening of the Article 370.

Continue reading “Pandits under Article 370 regime”

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Q and A with Outlook Magazine

Last month had a brief  Q and A with Outlook Magazine on Kashmiri Pandit Literature and exile. 

1. What’s the significance of Kashmiri culture for a Kashmiri Pandit? Is it any different to them from say, the significance of Malayali culture to a Malayali living elsewhere in the country? What strikes you the most when you observe Kashmiri Pandit families — I realise you are one yourself –, their way of living, their food habits, the conversations, etc.?

A: Since you mentioned Malayali and since I am in Kerala for last many years, I can tell you one thing I found common is that both really love the land and culture they belong to. Both think of it as unique and ancient. Both interestingly are mutli-lingual and open to other cultural influences also. However, one big difference is that in case of Malayalis they have a common traditional festival like Onam in which Malayalis from all religious backgrounds take part and it is mass celebrated. In case of Kashmiri culture, the commonality of a festival does not exist. While Kashmiri Pandits take pride in Kashmiri culture, they also emphasise the fact that within it, their own culture is a subset. A Malayali living elsewhere in the country may have personal fears of losing out on culture but the actual culture is only thriving in the land of birth. In case of Kashmiri Pandits, exodus from Kashmir has meant that most of their culture is now diasporic in nature and concerns as reflected in the literature and art produced by them. There is constant fear that the culture is dying, so all the activities eventually tend to be self-aware acts about preservation. 

2. Loss is arguably the single most defining theme of literature produced by Kashmiri Pandits post the exodus. Are there other themes too? What was the literature about before the exodus?

Prior to 1989, literature produced by Kashmiri Pandits had concerns similar to artists belonging to other places in India. Post 47 and till 60s…bulk of popular writing was part of Progressive movement influenced by the left movement. We have Poet Dina Nath Nadim and his concerns for the common people. In this period a lot of literature was about communal harmony also. By 1970s, we have short story writers like Hari Krishen Kaul, still writing in Kashmiri but inspired by Western writers like Kafka. In this period, the concern deals with modernity and how it was changing the old Kashmiri society. Also, all this while we have a lot of devotional songs and music getting produced by the community. Poet Master Zinda Kaul’s main theme was devotional and spiritual. The theme spiritual is probably most popular in Kashmir and is most common in Kashmiri Muslim culture also. So we have a lot of mystical poets, even till half a decade ago, and their works celebrated by both communities and publicly sung. AIR was the hub of culture and lot of Kashmiri Pandits like Pushkar Bhan and Pran Kishore were involved with radio. Meanwhile, we also had writers like Sarvanda Kaul Premi who apart from writing poetry in Kashmiri were also translating Tagore into Kashmir. By 1980s, we see a crop of Hindi poets and writers also active in cultural scene. Novelist Chandrakanta belongs to this era. Her concerns in early work also deals with modernity and how Kashmir was changing.

Post exodus, bulk of Kashmiri Pandit writing has been in languages other than Kashmiri and the major tone has been nostalgic and longing for home. Initially it was mostly Hindi but in the last few decades English has become the language for capturing the experiences. I think in a few years in the community we will see new writings on how the community was changing and how they adapted, carried multiple cultures. Writing from people who are either comfortable or struggling to be comfortable with the past and present.

In the 90s we do have a lot of Kashmiri Pandits writing in Kashmiri about the loss of home. There are writers who only a few years ago were writing in Kashmir and writing about other themes and now find themselves out of Kashmir and just remembering Kashmir. The reach of these writers was limited. So, now some work on translations is also happening. There are people working on preserving the Kashmiri language among the community. Latin script for writing Kashmiri is gaining acceptance for the simple ease of use. But, arriving at a standard remains a challenge.

4. Do you write yourself too? If yes, what do you write? Would you mind sharing something please?

I do write. Some of the pieces have been published on various online News portals. I am co-founder of Game studio in Kerala and for last 10 years I have been running a blog “SearchKashmir” that archives bits of Kashmiri Culture. This involves telling stories that I have heard, personal stories of other people, folktale, history, old photographs of Kashmir, music, films, books, arts and artists. It is basically a collection of personal discoveries as I try to dig into the past. It started with a family visit to Kashmir in about 2008. I realized I knew very little about the place I belonged to and the kind of things about the place that interested me were not there online. So I went about cataloguing. Overtime, more people started sharing their own stories too.

3. Which poet/writer’s work do you relate to the most? What’s so profound about them?

Strangely, or not so strangely, like most Kashmiri Pandits of my generation my introduction to Kashmiri literature was quite late. In my teenage years, work of Ritwik Ghatak spoke to me. His understood exile like few in India could and successfully captured it on screen. Manto resonated. The violence, the odd-balls caught in history and the occasional wry humor. It was only much later, as often happens, I sought and found Kashmiri culture, or rather parts of it. There is Arvid Gigoo and his sardonic tone. There are poems of Prem Nath “Shaad” and Brij Nath Betaab in Kashmir capturing the violence of 89-90 and experience of exile in Kashmiri.

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Extracts and quotes from the interview were used in the Magazine:
August 2, 2020 issue 
[What the Pandits Lost: Trauma of exodus and the Kashmiri past of Pandits in the community’s art/How Kashmiri Pandits’ Loss And Longing For ‘Home’ Find Expression In Their Literature]
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Prem Nath Bazaz on Muslim Communalism, 1967


In the aftermath of Parmeshwari Handoo case of 1967, Prem Nath Bazaz went on to write an essay titled “Kashmiri pandit agitation and its Aftermath”. In it he exlained what lead to communal flare-up in the valley. He blamed Jan Sangh affliated Pandits for fanning the issue and generally suggested that KPs should try and play a contructive role in Kashmir, be more liberal so that Kashmiri Muslims may mirror it and try and be more liberal. The piece is often selectively quoted as proof of KP fanatism, however, in the same piece Bazaz tells us the root of the issue, how Muslim communalism was working in the valley and how Pakistan was fanning it.

“In 1947 at the time of partition which was accompanied
by inhuman deeds on a large scale in North and East India
the communal harmony was put to a heavy strain but the
Valley people rose to the occasion and successfully withstood
the wave of frenzy from outside ; the culture of the Valley
and its old traditions were heroically preserved. Other
occasions arose during the last twenty years when the people
had to pass through more severe ordeals but they did not
flinch or waver in maintaining their balance.

 That after 33 years of continued harmony the fires of
fanaticism were alighted afresh last August by Pandit
demagogues no impartial observer can deny. But while making
an objective appraisal of the unfortunate episode it would be
fair to point out that Muslims are not free from blame in
bringing about this situation.

 There can be no manner of doubt that a majority of
Muslims is obsessed with the desire that Kashmir should
accede to Pakistan. If that aim is achieved it is obvious Pandits
will have to leave their hearth and home and become refugees
in India. If there was any doubt about it the Azad Kashmir
Radio and, inspired by it, a by-no-means mute section of
Muslims has been constantly warning Pandits that the Valley
is bound to join Pakistan so they should take time by forelock
and be ready to depart. What alternative do these threatenings leave to Pandits but to determinedly oppose the demand and
tenaciously fight back with all resources available to them. It
becomes the foremost duty of even the liberal minded Pandit
democrat to defeat the Muslim purpose ; for self-effacement
is no part of the philosophy of liberalism or democracy.
Muslim politicians shall have to propose a solution which should be acceptable to the non-Muslims. It is well to remember that the Indian subcontinent was partitioned because the minority wanted it so. Had the issue been left to the vote of the majority (right of self-determination) the unity of the subcontinent would have been maintained. As long as the Muslims insist upon the right of secession Pandits will be morally right and politically justified in opposing the demand. This may appear unreasonable to the Muslim politicians but they will ignore it at their own cost.”

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P.S. In 1968, in the aftermath of 67 riots, my grandfather was convinced by his brothers to purchase a piece of land in Jammu. In 1990 after reaching Jammu, we found some of the land encroached (we let them be), and some part of the land missing, soil dug out and sold. In 1996, we managed to build four rooms over the remaining plot after spending a year, breaking savings and saving money. A few years later around 1998, the ancestral Kashmir house was sold to build four more rooms. Pandits, even Bazazs of the world, knew what was in store for Pandit community. Death or exile. 67 was the last time they put up a fight on the physical ground, in the streets. It also sealed their fate, Tahreek knew Pandits had to be removed from the equation.

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Previously: Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz on Article 370

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Jagannath Sathu on Plight of Pandits, 1952

KP farmer women.
1895

Jagannath Sathu was a radical humanist inspired by thoughts of M.N. Roy. He organized Kissan Mazdoor Conference and later was vice-president of KDU (Kashmir Democratic Union), the first Pro-Pakistan political party of the state. Along with Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz he was one of the few Pandits who challenged Sheikh Abdullah reign by backing Pakistan. In 1950s, he was exiled to Delhi along with Bazaz by Sheikh. He was also one of the first Kashmiri to be rounded by police on terror charges in Delhi. He was devotedly anti-communist (his piece on “Red-Menace” is rather famous in academic circles) since communists kept changing the horse they were backing in the conflict. 

Here’s an extract from 1952 pamphlet published by Sathu on “Plight of Minorities” in Kashmir, about the pandits he writes:

Pandits Suppressed Everywhere

Kashmiri Pandits are as a community an intellectual class in the State. For centuries, may be thousands of years, they have led the Kashmiri masses in education and culture. By dint of their efficiency, faithfullness and diligence they have manned the administrative machinery of the State under the successive rules of Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims, Mughals, Pathans, Sikhs and Dogras. But now for the first time under the secularism of the Kashmir nationalists, they were told that these qualities were of no use or value and it was the brute majority of the numbers that counted. Therefore not only were State Services refused to Kashmiri Pandits even when they were better qualified for these than the Muslims related to or acquainted with the nationalist leaders who were appointed; the Pandits already in Service were also superseded by their subordinates far junior to them in class and grade and inferior to them in academic qualifications. It becomes very poignant for a Pandit official to wok under an inefficient, less qualified, uninformed and inexperienced subordinate who promoted to a responsible job inly because he is muslim favoured by the nationalists. In many cases employees twenty or thirty steps junior have been pushed to the top.
Thus jobbery and favouritism is not confined to the sphere of Government services. It is applied everywhere. Government contracts in P.W.D., Forest, Panchayat, Revenue and other departments are also given to their own men by the nationalists. Relatives and friends of Ministers get the lion’s share. The dealers appointed by the Government to sell rationed goods are the favourites of the ruling clique. This also adversely affected the economic condition of the Kashmiri Pandits.
The agrarian reforms and the way they have been implemented by the Abdullah Government have hit the Kashmiri Pandits hard. We shall have to say a lot about these reforms at its proper place but here we would like to discuss their repercussions on the social life of the Pandits. More than thirty percent of the lands in the valley belonged to this community. A very insignificant fraction of the lands was bestowed upon the few members of the community as jagirs by the past rulers for some loyal services rendered. Most of the land in their possession was secured by Pandits either at the time of the first settlement of the land seven decades ago when not many people were coming forward to take the responsibility. of developing the barren regions of the valley. Land was then considered a great liability and only industrious people with some capital to invest could have land as a business proposition. A large slice of this land was also purchased by the Pandits after 1934 when propriety rights were granted to Kashmiris. Before that year the Maharaja was recognised, in law, as the sole proprietor of land in the valley. Pandits purchased agricultural land with their hard earned money in hope that it would yield good return to maintain them. When the agrarian reforms were introduced thousands of Kashmiri Pandits whose only source of income was land were thrown on the streets.
According to the Big Estates Abolition Act every landlord has the right to keep 182 Kanals of his land. But the nationalist leaders and workers have been touring far and wide in the valley advising Muslim peasants not to give any share of the produce to the Pandit landlords. When the guardians of Law and Order are themselves interested in preaching the defiance of law what redressal can be available to the poor Pandit. Thus the Act has practically taken away the whole land without compensation from the Pandits irrespective of their economic condition.

No remedy but exodus

With doors of Government services virtually closed on them; with government contracts almost totally denied to them; with trade and commerce in a chaotic condition in the State; with land snatched away from them; and above all, with insecurity and uncertainty all round in their home land, if Kashmiri Pandits found the demons of starvation, death and disrespect staring them in their face there in no wonder in it. Time and time again they approached the eminent Kashmiri Pandits such as Sapru, Kunzru, Katju in India, they even waited upon Sardar Patel, with their bucketful of woes. But evidently no body could help them so long as the Kashmiri Pandit Prime Minister of India was adamant on his policy about Kashmir. Having felt convinced that they could expect no sympathy from high political quarters at New Delhi and the unlimited power of the Kashmiri nationalists was in no way to be curtailed, having also realized that there could be no end to the abnormal conditions so long as the dispute over the accession issue between Indian and Pakistan continued Kashmiri Pandits decided to leave their motherland for good. What a wrench it must be to a Pandit to bid goodbye to his country of birth it is not difficult to imagine. Already about 20,000 Pandits, men, women, and children have come out and settled in different parts of India. If the present conditions continue for some time more there should be no doubt that the remaining members of the community will also leave their hearths and homes and they valley will be completely denuded of the Hindus.
From their bitter experience of the nationalist politics during the last two decades particularly since October 1947, the Kashmiri Pandits consider it quite risky and dangerous to remain in the valley; they are afraid of a flare up which might develop into a big conflagration, envelop the small microscopic minority, and reduce it to ashes. 

It is interesting that even such a partisan person, a pro-Pak person could back in 50s, could ( and indeed did) articulate Pandit concerns, their plight so clearly. Something the younger generation of Pro-Pak KPs, are now incapable of expressing publicly. The piece also makes it clear how Pandits came to acquire land post 1934. 

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Census Numbers of Kashmiri Pandits, 1921-1931

Date to refute the propaganda that perpetuates the myth that Kashmiri Pandits were elite exploitative class of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Year 1921


Total KP population: 55055
30947 Male +24108 Female

Working Male: 17919
Working Female: 1389
Dependents: 35744





People whose primary means of income was cultivation:

Male: 4376
Female: 731

People who worked as Agents/Managers/Forest officers, their clerks, rent collectors:
Male: 294

Field Labourers/Woodcutters:

Male: 2

Herders/Milkmen/Livestock:


Male: 4

Artisan and other workmen:


Male: 272
Female: 339

Transport Owner/Manager:


Male: 10

Labourer/boatmen/palki carrier:

Male: 68

Traders:


Male: 2070
Female: 12

People whose Principal means of income was State Service:

Male: 3844
Female: 31

People who had State job as a means of additional income:


Male: 481
Female: 1

People who had some other means of income on top of State job:

Male: 208
Female:5

People holding Religious Posts:


Male: 74

Lawyer/Doctor/Teacher:


Male: 57

Other Jobs:


Male: 129
Female: 1

Living on their incomes from the funds:


Male: 98
Female: 4

Employed in Domestic service:


Male: 1742
Female: 46

Contractors/Clerks/ Cashiers:


Male: 51

Labourers:
Male: 47
Female: 4

Beggars/Criminals/in jail


Male: 80
Female: 3

People who earned from Land:


Male: 1025
Female: 214

Commissioned Gazetted Officer in Public Force:


Male: 1

Gazetted Officer in Public Administration:Male: 6

Other Public Administration:


Male: 2970
Female: 3
Literacy rates


Total KP population: 55055

Total Literate: 14,740
of them 14456 Male and 284 Female

Total Illiterate: 40,303
of them 16, 479 Male and Female 23824.

Literate in English: 5,154.
of them 5104 Male and 50 Female

That means 73.21 % of KPs were illiterate (53% of Males were illiterate).  That should puncture the myth (that even KPs like to boast): KPs were highly educated class.

However, the edge was only with the 9.36% English literate KPs among 55055 and 34.97 % among the KP literates. No other community had more number in this category.

To compare: There were only 5231 educated KMs in the state with their population of 796392. Of them only 340 knew English and among them only 5 woman knew English.

Things were to change from KPs and KMs in the next decade.

Year 1931

In 1931, Kashmiri Pandit population increased by 14.6 percent. Though it might sound high. The total increase in number was only 8056. From 55055 it moved to 63088. Number of educated people among KPs increased by 31.9 percent. 

It is claimed in myths that KMs were deliberately kept uneducated by the Maharaja (and some even claim by KPs), however, the reason for illiteracy among Muslims is explained in the 1931 report:
“The backwardness of Muslims is the result of their concentration on the soils which does not permit the agriculturist to devote sufficient time and energy for his personal education or the education of his children.”
Yet, efforts were made to get them educated. In the State, the number of schools doubled from 670 in 1921 to 1246 in 1931. [Shri Pratap College, Srinagar gave Rs 1500 scholarship for Muslims and Prince of Wales College, Jammu gave Rs 3000.]
The census report says on the progress among KMs.
“The community that has evinced the keenest interest in augmenting its ranks of literates in beyond doubt the Kashmiri Muslim. In population they have added only 70 persons to 100 of their strength but in literacy they have more than quadrupled the number. “
Their population increased by 69.7 % (this drastic increase partly because “Hajjams” started entering Kashmiri Muslim as their caste) to 1352822 from 796392. The number of literate increased by 313.4 percent. 
According to the report:
“When we look to absolute figures only without reference to the population of each caste the Kashmiri Muslims show the highest number of literates viz. 21,639, followed by Kashmiri Pandits with 18,915“
In 1921 there were only 5231 literate KMs while in 1931 the number grew to 18,915, the biggest absolute number in the state, 
In 1921 there were only 5 English literate KMs per 10000 of their population. In 1931, the number became 25. That’s an increase of 20%.
Yet, in case of Srinagar city (whose population increased by 22.5 % from 1921 to 1931) we read:


“The total number of literates in the city of Srinagar is 17,575 out of which 16,480 are males and 1,095 females. The proportion of literates per mille [1000] of the total population of the city is 101 being 174 for males and 14 for females. If we exclude population below 5 the proportions would rise to 117 for persons, 198 for males and 16 for females. Amongst Hindus, the proportion of literates works out to 344 while amongst Muslims it dwindles down to 39. The obvious reason is that the Hindus in the city are mostly Kashmiri Pandits or outsiders attracted by the prospects of trade to whom literacy is the one thing needful for conducting their business. The Kashmiri Pandits as already stated have a very high degree of literacy because of the traditions amongst them of following Government service as their calling in life. The Muslims on the other hand are devoted to indigenous arts and crafts which though more paying do not demand literacy as a pre-requisite.”
The KPs still had the advantage in English in the entire state. For KPs there was an increase of 50 percent.  From 1045 per 10000 in 1921 it grew to 1588 in 1931. 
The report records: “The Kashmiri Pandits hold an enviable position in the State in the matter of English literacy having 1588 literates per 10000 of the population. Their males have a much higher proportion viz 2, 789. The Kashmiri Pandit is by tradition a Government servant for which the requisite equipment is a knowledge of the English language to which he has turned in a greater measure than any other caste.”
Still, for every 1000 KP men 635 were literates and 365 illiterates. Over all the number stood at 369 per 1000. Other communities were of course worse than KPs, but Khatris (386/1000) were better than KPs in literary. Even in the field of female literacy they were better place. They had 178 literate females per thousand compared to (24 for KPs, 22 for Sheikhs , 21 for Brahmins, 1 for Kashmiri Muslims)
Now, let’s see what did this “tradition of Government service ” for KPs meant in numbers.
In 1931, there were 13133 total people in Public Administration and 12265 in State service
According to census, for every 1000 employees in State Service, about 305.9 were KP men and for every 100 woman employees in State Service, only 1 Female was KP woman. Overall, we can say 70% of State service comprised of other communities. 
This is the complete breakdown for KPs.
For every 1000 people employed in these fields, following were KPs:

State Service: 

305.9

Exploitation of animals and vegetation :

287.9
Industry: 
18.6

Transport 
4.8
 
Trade 
149.9

Public Force 
19.0
Public Administration 
1.5
Arts and Professions 
73.2

Persons living on their income 
20.1 

Domestic service 
98.7 

Insufficiently described occupations 
27.7 

Beggars, criminals and inmates of Jails
 2.7
The report noticed, “The Kashmiri Pandits are gradually relinquishing their ideal of Government service and turning to trade and even manual labour in increasing numbers.”
Then there is the question of unemployment. If KPs were spending so much effort getting education. was it rewarding? 
“The unemployed who possess a higher qualification than that of a matric are 289 only exclusive of 73 unemployed who are below 20 years of age. Of these 226 are Brahmans and 26 other Hindus. The Muslims number 37 only. It is very much in the fitness of things that the Brahman who inherits traditions of learning from the past should be most exposed to the uncertainty of employment. The Muslims and others who have a stake in the land naturally do not take to education keenly especially when the education provided in schools and colleges is of a purely literary nature and does not enable the bookish student to pursue any calling except that of a clerk in Government service without further training.”
This provides the backdrop form Roti agitation that city KPs launched in 1932 in response to Glancy commission that among other things sought to lower the requirement for Government jobs. This would have mean all the decade that KPs spent preparing for government job would have been wasted. KMs who by number were already most populous literate group with 21,639 would have been rightly seen as a threat by18,915 literate Kashmiri Pandits. It must have dawned on KPs that their future is at stake. 21,639 was a negligible number given the total population of KMs who were still into land and trade but for 18,915 KPs out of total 55055, the math looked fearful enough . How much of these fears were triggered by census itself is not hard to guess. Just like today Census becomes a political game, back then also in Kashmir, Census data was a political tool.
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Overall, if KPs were the exploitative class, there are probably the only exploitative class in the world in which majority of the people belonging to this class were not working in privileged positions. And KPs would be the only exploitative class whose population showed no drastic increase in population dues to all the “exploitation” they were doing.   

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Reference:
1. Census of India 1921 vol.22 Kashmir [Link] under by Chaudhari Khushi Muhammad, Governor of Kashmir.
2. Census of India 1931, Volume 14. Jammu & Kashmir State [Link] under Pandit Anant Ram Dogra, Census Commissioner and Director of Land Records and Pandit Hira Nand Raina, Assistan Census Commissioner.
3.  Census of India 1941, Jammu And Kashmir Parts I And II [Link] under Captain R.G. Wreford, Census Commissioner for the state

In 1941 census, the practice of giving data specific to KPs was put to an end. However, in the report we read, there were 76,868 Kashmiri Pandits in the state in 1941. And:

“Most of the Kashmiri Pandits are residents of Srinagar; over 62,000 live in the Anantnag District in which Srinagar City is situated. Another 11,000 were recorded in Baramulla District. The figures do not exceed a thousand in any other district except Jammu which has 1,367.”

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Recanting Yachu


Much of Kashmir conflict is nothing but men and women running on treadmill whose surface is Chess patterned. Mill seems to be churning and running but no one going anywhere. Some old ideas churned over and over again. Chess pieces falling off the board….same positions refilled at same spot on the Tahreeki mill with new chess pieces (most of them children of fallen pieces). One of the more interesting movement on this stupid treadmill chessboard is that of Pakistan loving Kashmiri Pandits who had M.N. Roy as their ideological father.

On the surface it seems nothing changed. But, if you look closely, you will find that when the design of the chessboard drastically changed in 1960, even some of their Pak loving pawn pieces saw the obvious darkness at the bottom of the ditch.

” I belong to a group in Kashmir which was the first to challenge, in a vocal way, the accession of the state to India. Lately we have been doing some rethinking about our basic postulates as well as assessment of the political situation. Though, I believe, I share this process, in varying degrees, with my other colleagues, I cannot commit them to my conclusions as we have no regular contact with one another, being scattered in jails, Kashmir and Delhi

Most of us drew our inspiration from philosophies like Radical Humanism, Socialism or even Gandhism. It is interesting to recall now that when we were supporting Pakistan’s case in Kashmir on secular and humanistic grounds, Sheikh Abdullah was leading religious crowds in mosques and elsewhere in the name of Islam (but not communalism) as also of Kashmiri nationalism to accession to India.

Now when our tribe has somewhat grown we do not feel happier in the new company and rather find that our real goal is further receding. Our opposition to India was not based on our love for the ideals on which Pakistan was founded. We were rather motivated by a democratic ideal in supporting what we considered was the wish of the majority. Secondly, we, particularly Hindus among us, were keen to rise above the interests of Hindu communalism and Indian nationalism.”

Yachu of Kashmir Socialist Party was the Publicity Secretary of Political Conference of Khawaja Ghulam Mohiuddin Qarra found in 1953, the first Pro-Pakistan camp in Kashmir. It had other Pandits like Raghunath Vaishnavi (who incidentally was the first one to petition against the Shiekh for failing to protect a Hindu temple in Srinagar), Badri Nath Koul, Prem Nath Jalali, Niranjan Nath Raina and Prem Nath Bazaz too. The extract is a piece by Shyam Lal Yachu titled “Rethinking in Pro-Pak Camp of Kashmir” from the book “The Story of Kashmir: Political development, terrorism, militancy and human rights, efforts towards peace, with chronology of major political events” (1995) ed. by Verinder Grover.

The new age Bazaazs, Vaishnavis, Yachus, Bhans and Kauls living outside Kashmir now saying violent crowds at mosques is not communalism. Again reminding people that only Hindus are capable of  rising above Hindu communalism and Indian nationalism. A muslim in a violent crowd cannot perform such feat of moral superiority. Tahreeki nepotists continue to sell violence as quest for democracy. 
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“Rethinking in Pro-Pak Camp of Kashmir” in which Yachu recommended merger with India appeared in Kashmir Affairs 1960.

The reason for this turn is provided by Balraj Puri (Editor, Kashmir Affairs, first published in his magazine in 1960). It had to do with the nature of Pakistan and it’s increasing isolation.

“India’s tough international line on Kashmir also had a demoralising effect on the secessionists. Krishna Menon declared in the Security Council debates in 1957 that Kashmir was as irrevocable a part of India as Madras and the Punjab. Pakistan’s international prestige was at a low ebb. The merger of several linguistic states in West Pakistan into a single province and the imposition of martial law were not inspiring events for the Kashmiris. Sham Lal Yachu, publicity secretary of the Political Conference, the only professedly pro-Pakistan party of Kashmir, declared in a lengthy statement that serious rethinking had started in his camp. He spoke of the advantages of Kashmir’s willingly becoming a part of India.”

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Shyam Lai Yachu, born in Kashmir in 1929. He died in 1996 and like most of the people of his community, generation, cutting across ideologies, he died outside Kashmir, in exile. He died in Delhi at a relatives place, having never married. 

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Kashmir based Tahreeki journal KashmirReader, did remember him, again in propagandistic manner, remembering him as champion of merger with Pakistan, conveniently forgetting the fact that he was one of the first Pandits of Pakistan camp who revolted when the true nature of Pakistan state became obvious. 
Ref: 
Shyam Lal Yacha, Kashmir Reader, June 2015. (Just as fresh bout of violence was about to start in Kashmir)

https://kashmirreader.com/2015/06/20/shyam-lal-yacha-i/
https://kashmirreader.com/2015/06/21/shyam-lal-yacha-ii/

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Pushing out left out Common sense

July 19 

In Greater Kashmir, we read the remaining Pandit families of Tral are collectively mourning Wani who, with a broad brush of humanity, we are told, as a kid was quite a joker.

“I did not eat anything that day, I swear of my son. How could we eat? He was like my son,” Devi said at her home in Tral-i-Payeen locality of the town.”
[Report: http://goo.gl/HY0MSm]

Maybe the poor people have not choice but to say that. After all, they accept their “protectors” are their neighbours and not the government supplied police post next to their house. Or maybe, they do really feel bad. Or may be both.
It reminded me of the passage from Rahul Pandita’s “Our Moon has blood Clots” where his mother in Jammu mourns the death of a kid who died a militant in Srinagar. Also, the report has no input from 10000 odd Sikhs that like in Tral (certainly till recently, a 2002 Report from previous elections: http://goo.gl/UG7q0N)

Meanwhile, BBC Hindi reported the strange case of a man named Jagannath, who had left Kashmir in 1990 but returned home in 2007. In recent violence, his house was pelted with stones and his wife received head injuries. The old man is again preparing to go into “self-exile”. May be would not leave. Maybe, like it is often happening these day, someone else would visit the place and we would hear that the entire news is wrong. All is fine with Jagannath. He momentarily lost sense. It was nothing personal. Violence was everywhere. We are all one in our pain. Pain the new binding glue of Kashmiriyat. Maybe, Kashmiriyat was just that. A quick “fix-it” to put together a broken glass.
[Report: http://goo.gl/ImiTc2]

So what is happening to pandits in Kashmir. Answer is simple: like other Kashmiris, they too are chess pieces in a great game. There are people who would not see the writing on the wall, instead, choose to whitewash the entire wall. Often facts are spun in a way they would make the “tehreek” kaleen look all clean, if not to a local buyer, certainly to a global buyer of great Kashmir conflict narrative factory.


Something similar was happening in 1990. One of the strangest report about Pandits to come from 1990 had this to say:


“It seems that common sense is dawning upon some Kashmiri Pandits who had migrated from the strife-torn valley to Jammu and other places early this year.”


These are the opening lines of an unsigned piece titled “Pushed Out?” from respected left journal EPW published in 24 Nov, 1990. Here, I would like to disclose, in November 1990, my family was living in Jammu on rooftop in a single storeroom after leaving Kashmir in March. Much water has flown down Jhelum since then, I have tried to count the waves moving from cities all around India. For past few years, I have been contributing my writings to EPW. So, I have some idea how seriously they take their work. Naturally, it makes me wonder how something like this got pushed there?
The answer is not difficult to understand. Back then too they were fighting the right.
“If one is to go by letters appearing in the local Srinagar Urdu press, the migrate Pundits living in refugee camps in Jammu are realising now that their massive fleeing was perhaps unwarranted, and that they had become pawns in the communal games of the BJP-Shiv Sena, politicians.”

Pandit question was tricky even back then, so it was simply explained away as stupidity of the community, foolish people got taken in by the propaganda of the right. To prove it, a propaganda piece from a Kashmiri paper was used as an alibi. The EPW piece went on to claim:

“They openly acknowledge their mistakes and are expressing their desire of returning to the Valley. An interesting exchange between some among the Pundit refugees on the one hand, and Kashmiri Muslims (including representatives of a militant organisation) on the other, in the columns of the Srinagar daily Alsafa News, indicates the changing mood and also reveals the machinations of the former governor Jagmohan who organised the ‘mass emigration’ of the Kashmiri Pundits in February-March this year. One KL Kaul living in the Nagrota Transit Camp in Jammu wrote a letter in the paper (dated September 18) stating that Jagmohan sent a message to the Pundits of the Valley in the first week of February to migrate to safer places since the government had planned to kill about 1,50,000 Kashmiri Muslims in its bid to overcome the uprising.”

This was the genesis of what would be called the “Jagmohan Plot”. The preposterous theory that all the pandits left because Jagmohan told them to leave so that he can kill 1 lakh-to-1.5 lakh young Kashmiris.

And the fact that EPW published it, lent it the credibility it craved. Credibility that is still shoved into Pandit face. Interestingly, if today you search for the article, it is available at a Panun Kashmir website. At the website, since EPW is not attributed, the article appears as if it was published by Panun Kashmir. In the way internet works these days, even this can be used as a “credible” source, anyone can claim, ”even your own stupid organisation accepts Jagmohan theory…check this link [http://goo.gl/0YqXX5]”. I am sure the threat letters to Pandits published in local Kashmiri papers were never discussed thread bare in the journal. And this fact is now used by right-wingers for their own appropriation of pandit narrative.

Interestingly, the only other “credible” source of this theory is a paper published in Washington, DC, in 1990 by an organisation called Kashmir American Council run by Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai of ISI money fame and a cousin of Geelani of Hurriyat. The paper was simply titled, “Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) Expose Jagmohan’s Plot” and had letter pieces titled “Runaway Pandits Confess”. I have a copy of that paper. More of that some other time.

I am not suggesting that EPW article was an ISI plot. But, the anonymous person (I suspect Balraj Puri) who wrote it was certainly being a fool, if not a tool. In the ideological battle, both left and right would like to see pandit story in a particular convenient way, mend and bend the plot to please themselves, even if the plots sound childish, even if the sources are dubious. They know a war is on, and it has to be won at all cost, even if it means selling a bit of lies.

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from searchkashmir collection
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hukus bukus telli wann che kus
Wangan batta photkha deag’e
Aazadi mangkha Kaw kaw
kin
Brahman bayas gardan kich kich

~ Lal Dread Andrabi

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Question Answer on Pandit Re-settlement in Valley


Originally written for Economic And Political Weekly as a web exclusive, 21 May, 2016

The Pandit Questions


There are areas in Kashmir where Shias live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Sunnis live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Sikhs live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Armies live.
There are areas in Kashmir where Terrorists live.
Areas marked and divided like compost bin.
Some houses there are even for Tibetan, Uzbek, Afghan and Iranian refugees.
They all have houses in Kashmir from which we often hear talk of war and peace.
Now, if you ask, “But, where do Pandits live in Kashmir?”
“I have heard three live about a mile from here, two a mile after that, seen them with my own eyes and the remaining—they all live in our heart.”
So lease me your big heart for a minute or two, I need to use the loo.

I recently had a long question and answer session with Michael Thomas of Pipal Presss on the “Pandit” question. He is working on a small docu-book based on his experiences of Kashmir. He has brought out similar books on his travels in Kutch and Chhattisgarh.

I met him in Kashmir and we did some travelling together. We have been discussing Kashmir a lot and given the current direction in which the ruling party is approaching the question of rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs), the usual Pandit questions came up.

Michael: Is the “Migrant Immovable Property Act” of 1997 still in force? On my last visit I saw a number of large empty Hindu houses and the wrecks. I wonder if others have been sold by agreement to Kashmiri Muslims and perhaps squatters occupy others.

Vinayak: The act is still in place. But people have found a legal loophole. Most of the sales that are happening now are essentially not sale, but transfer of ownership using guardianship of the property. KPs are transferring the “power of attorney.” Payment is usually done in cash. Which means it is mostly “black money.”

Also, a lot of property has been illegally occupied, with the Pandits getting almost no redressal and support from government, local police and lawyers. Most cases are tied up in lengthy paper work. All that one has to do in court is prove that the person is not a “migrant” and the sale is considered legal. Given that a lot of offices in the 90s were burnt down by terrorists, papers about ownership are often reported “lost” by various departments. I have relatives who are facing this issue.

Michael: It seems that Narendra Modi wants Pandit Hindu families to return to Kashmir as they are Kashmiri by birth. There has been talk of resettling in their old homes and the formation of three “colonies” (ghettoes in my view). It has been suggested to me that this is the propaganda of Bharatiya Janata Party/Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in the background) but on the other hand, that Pandit Hindus really wish to return to their homeland provided the terms are right. It strikes me that a lot of time has passed since the diaspora and things are different as families have settled in Delhi, the Middle East and in the United States. What is your opinion?

Vinayak: Yes, definitely the push is coming from the RSS. A lot of Pandits would like “colonies.” I would like the “colonies” to be there. But, what is a “colony”? If a Bengali moves to Delhi, he would know Bengalis stay around Chittaranjan Park, and in the beginning would prefer living there. If a Gujarati goes to the United Kingdom he would know the areas where he would be comfortable…he would seek Wembley. Sikhs will be in Southhall. Pakistanis would be in Bradford.

But, no one would say British are doing it deliberately. Or, that these are ghettos. It is the way societies work. Why else would there be a Jew town in Kochi, which incidentally now has a lot of Kashmiri Muslims. And yes, eventually, people move out.

But somehow when Pandits talk about living together in certain areas, the cause is seen as “insult” by Kashmiri Muslims because it would means Pandits are “distinct” and not comfortable living with Muslims. It is kind of ironic that those opposing “colonies” think Pandits to be Jews who displaced Palestinians.

I am not some third generation Kashmiri who wants land to live in Kashmir, I was born there. Yes, with time not many would be able to make this claim.

Those in Kashmir who oppose the move know this. They do not care if the colonies are “composite” or “exclusive,” the word “colony” rattles them, as if confusing it with colonisation.

And these Kashmiris are the same people who on moving to Delhi would prefer living in a Muslim majority area and not in an area where someone like Praveen Togadia is worshipped. And they want Pandits to move back to their old houses and keep the head down when a hate speech is made from the local mosque.

Given the recent history of the two communities, one cannot blame Pandits for not wanting to immediately live among them. I am okay with separate colonies, even as I would personally prefer to live in a mixed society. No one has the right to dictate to Pandits where they should live in Kashmir.

Michael: Recently I saw an article, which described Kashmir as a “junction of conflicts.” This fits with my emerging view and I can see no way out. It is as if Kashmir has a hand on the self-destruct button and would not compromise so that it can let go. It follows that India will continue to “control” Kashmir. Any comments?

Vinayak: I agree. Every party to this conflict has convinced themselves they have already invested too much and now are unable to step back. Conflict is now an industry in Kashmir. Too many people are profiting, from power hungry politicians, greedy bureaucrats, crazy Mulla religious heads, theorising academicians and “4th Estate.”

India is not going out of Kashmir. Indian security apparatus can be moved out. Army can be moved back to borders, a truth and reconciliation process can be started but both sides have to accept they have been unable to change the stance of the other party.

Kashmiri people need to stop confusing freedom with Sharia. Pakistan needs to stop its Jihad factories. India needs to reign in on its band of justice. If the history of the subcontinent tells us anything, it is this—there is only one idea really worth striving for in these lands and that is the idea on which India was founded.

Michael: If Modi is proposing three new colonies it sounds as though they are exclusively for Pandits, which would be a ghetto in my view because of its exclusivity. Do you think that is what he is proposing and if so do you think it is a good solution?

Vinayak: I think what they are proposing are “exclusive” townships. It will include Hindus and Muslims who were forced to migrate. Anyway, the concept of exclusivity is not new to Kashmir. Article 370 ensures that only Kashmiris can buy land in Kashmir. Hasn’t that exclusivity already made Kashmir a “ghetto” inside India?

I think what Geelani and his ilk are preaching to fellow Kashmiris is that if Pandits are settling in an exclusive area, even if it is very small, in the long run there will be more Pandits living in Kashmir, living in a certain area. Given that they are ready to keep the conflict going for a very long time. In the eventual solution of Kashmir, the Pandit area would mean division of Kashmir along religious lines…something akin to the two-nation theory that led to Pakistan. It is this fear that makes them oppose it.

This parallel with the two-nation theory is what is also stopping RSS to fully back Pandits on this. This would in a way be their approval of Jinnah’s theory. So, they are just using Pandits as a stick for beating Kashmiri Muslims.

I do not support “exclusive” townships but I do believe it is not for the majority community to dictate the terms on which we would return.

Michael: Finally, can you define “goondaism” for me please? I have a rough idea which is probably wrong!

Vinayak: By “goonda,” we mean in India essentially a person who will have his way purely based on his power to create violence. “Goondaism” is the way the majority community would like to have its wishes fulfilled by issuing threats of violence. They should not dictate to Pandits which kind of pandit is allowed back in Kashmir and which is not allowed.

In 1990, the Pandits that moved out were all kind of people, there were RSS supporters, there were communists, there were secularists, there were “Kashmiriyatists,” there were farmers, there were civil servants, there were religious conservatives and there were even atheists. Now, Geelani and his tribe are saying only good Pandits, the Pandits who would essentially keep quiet about political matters is the only kind that can survive in Kashmir.

Why?

When Pandits return, the people who return would be the same mixed set. Even though I have no love for RSS or BJP, but even their supporters have the right to return. “Goondaism” will only beget “goondaism” and it should in no way be encouraged.

Michael: One final question. If your family wanted to repossess the family home can they? That is to say, is the “power of attorney” reversible?

Vinayak: Legally, they do not have a purchase deed, so I guess it is reversible. There is even an extra piece of land which we just left with another good old neighbour without any paperwork…and that was a decade before 1990. I cannot think of moving any of them out and repossess the land. It would be another forceful displacement, this time for another set of Kashmiris.

If exclusive colonies are a bad idea, moving existing owners out and putting Pandits in their old house for the sake of creating mixed colonies is a worse idea. There would be a lot more bad blood among communities. But, returning of property that is forcefully occupied is another matter.

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Kashmir in Kerala film fest

I spent this Sunday doing nothing but watching films and just films. Traveled from Cochin to Trivandrum to catch some short films made by Kashmiris on the “Pandit” experience.

First up was in “showcase” segment Siddharth Gigoo’s The Last Day (12 min.). Siddharth Gigoo was already was a poet, then a novelist and now he is a filmmaker. The scene he picked to shoot is something that a lot a pandit’s witnessed and can relate to. Old pandits slow dying in Jammu with fading memories of Kashmir. The execution is simple. Not bad for a first attempt.

Second up was Rajesh Jala’s 23 Winters (30 min.), competing in ‘Fiction’ category. The story follows the “Back to Kashmir” trip of a pandit in Delhi named Bhota (a popular nickname among pandits of a certain generation) who is suffering from schizophrenia. It makes strong use of visuals and sounds to put the viewer in the mind of the protagonist. The experience is unnerving. Specially when you know it is not fiction.

The director was present at the function, so later had a little chat with him over a coffee (which he generously sponsored). Rajesh Jala was living with the real life protagonist Bhota as a neighbor in a Delhi camp for nine years. When he started shooting him last year, he didn’t know Bhota was going to visit Kashmir and have a breakdown. Rajesh went back to Kashmir to trace him and get him medical help.

I could hear sneers in the hall during the screening. Rajesh probably heard that. Even though I didn’t ask, he did mention its not a film for everyone and its the only way he could have made this film.

The use of radio sounds in the film reminded me of a little video I made around 4 years ago:

In addition to these two movies, there was Firdous/Paradise (11 min) by Tushar Digambar More. What this film offers is the ‘military’ experience of Kashmir. The episode takes place inside an abandoned Pandit house where a group of troops and a local Muslim villager, under some sort of protective custody, take shelter during a “cordon and search” operation. Here they share a brief conversation on the former owners of the house. By the end of the story we realize, unknown to him, the helpful and decent villager has lost his house to the operation.

The surprise for me in this little film was a sequence in which an officer goes through an old family album he finds in the house. The bits and pieces from this blog have again helped someone fill a gap.

A screenshot from the film

Photograph of of a Kashmiri Pandit Family taken in front of their farm house at a stones throw from the famous Neolithic site of Burzahom, Kashmir in 1930s.
Shared by a reader, Man Mohan Munshi Ji, in 2010

Although the makers didn’t give credit or a line of thanks. Some of those images are from this this blog. Some from vintage books. Some shared generously by readers from their private albums.

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Oddly enough there was a Bulgarian film too that somehow reminded me of Kashmir. Tzvetanka by Youlian Tabakov (66 min). This stylish documentary tells the story of modern Bulgaria, mapping it to the events in the life of a girl born in a bourgeois family just before World War 2. By the end of the war, her idyllic life is destroyed with the coming of communist regime. The regime ends in 1989, democracy comes, she thinks the world will now be a better place. It turns out to be a mirage. She realizes world is still the same. It’s the same men from the regime now championing the cause of democracy. Revolution came and nothing changed. It is clear that this woman has seen a lot in her life and yet her love for life is unshakable and inspiring.

 

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After catching these films (and around 15 others), I headed further south to Kanyakumari. Where I was greeted by this:

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Our Zoon isn’t Cheese enough

“Either it brings tears to their eyes, or else -“
“Or else what?” said Alice, for the Knight had made a sudden pause.
“Or else it doesn’t, you know.”

I still recall that late night phone call. Someone, a relative, had been killed in Srinagar. That killing became a vindication for my parents that the decision to move to Jammu, a decision much contested by my Grandfather, was right. A storeroom on roof of a relative was the right place for us, it was our refuge.

The stories of Pandit migration that most people read and write, is a story of a single night, and it goes like this, ‘And then that morning our family left in a …’ In my family’s case, it didn’t happen in a single moment. It wasn’t just one morning. We moved in parts. And there was more than one such morning. First one to leave was my choti Bua, who back then I used to call Didi. This was the time when threats to Pandit women were openly advertised. Then a few months later, as the frequency of killings increased, it was the turn of wives, children and some essential goods, mostly clothing and gold. My grandparents stayed back. After dropping his wife and children at a relative’s place, my father and some uncles went back for their respective parents. They got stuck in the city for a few week. It was the time when Srinagar experienced some of its first few long spells of curfew. During a brief pause in these spells, they too reached Jammu. My family reached Jammu from Chattabal.

And all this time, feeling of fear was unknown to me. In a way, my feeling of normality was protected by my parents and grandparents even as they were experiencing a situation that was questioning their sense of normal. In Srinagar, a city burning under a thousand guns, I was busy chasing cats and dogs. In Jammu, a city burning under a thousand suns, I got busy tracking toads and frogs.

Even that late night phone call didn’t change much for me, except for seeding a feeling that something terrible was in fact happening. That it all was not a game that gods were playing. That it was a game of men who believed in gods and paradise. That maybe I should remember it all.

The stories of those days arrived much later. Only after we learnt to speak again. As we learnt to revisit our memories. I heard these stories, over and over again, and because I was listening carefully, I saw them change and evolves, tales getting appended and deducted from the narrative  Till they achieved a definitive narrative form. Rahul Pandita’s Our Moon Has Blood Clots captures all the major points of this narrative. It’s a narrative that most Kashmiri Pandits believe in and hold close to their heart. And now for some families Rahul Pandita’s ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots’ too will become part of a family heirloom and an inheritance that consists of books like ‘My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir’ by Jagmohan, ‘Converted Kashmir by Narender Sehgal  (Utpal Publications, 1994) and some old issue of various community magazines. Based on one’s political position, one can judge whether it is a good or a bad company of books to keep. But one can’t deny that this book is trying to do what these older publications were never even aiming to do, or had no chance of doing. Trigger a debate, bring the narrative of Pandits into the mainstream, even perhaps rescuing it from right-wingers. A few years ago, the possibility that a Ramachandra Guha or a Patrick French should be interested in the story was there, but that they would openly talk about it, or even back it, wasn’t. So, I do think it is an improvement. It is something that Pandits were waiting for a long time. A public telling of their personal sorrows.

On page 86 of the book are the details of that phone call. Description of that killing which I grew up listening to in much more brutal details. A story recounted many times by my mother. It goes like this: They say when the killers shot him down on that bridge, the man fell to ground. His killers, with pistols in hand, came around to check on him and to make sure he was dead. The man on ground, in pain, raised his one hand and told his killers, ‘Bas. Be ha Mudus. Stop. I am already dead.’ A killer shot him through his hand.

The dead man’s son, a distant cousin of mine and more of a friend, just about the same age as me, went to a college only miles away from the college that I went to. Even during college days he remained one of the most decent guys I knew.  The decadence of college life barely touched him. They say he is a copy of his father, a man about whom a poet friend (in a poem quoted in the book) asked:

“I used to ask him every time
why doesn’t he possess the cunningness of Srinagar
I still await his response
My friend! Yes, I changed my address
since after your murder
it ceased to exist
the bridge of friendship, this Habba Kadal”

The son of that man is not online trolling Kashmiri Muslims, asking for their mass-killing at the hands of Indian Army. He is busy working, building a life, raising a family. He isn’t clinging to any sense of victim hood. But that doesn’t mean that the killing on that bridge didn’t take place. It shouldn’t be brushed aside just because it complicates an already complicated situation. Usually at this point, it becomes a question of who suffered more: ‘A lot of innocent Kashmiri Muslims, not just one, died on these bridges at the hands of Indian security forces.’ And then the usual. ‘True.True. But in this case, the perpetrators of these crimes are known to you. You know where to put your anger. The Security forces. The State. But who were killing the Pandits? Men with a dream. Men funded by another State. Men with orders. Men who were worshiped as saviors. Men who inspired at first fighters and later writers. Men who after spilling blood of innocents in the day, at night went back to a life of wives and children. Together dreaming of a bright future. Of course, Pandits question this dream itself. They curse the men who were dreaming. This idea of a religious state that will be a paradise. They point at the present and ask if this is the future they wanted. They point at the state of the State that funded it. They curse the idiot who first labeled these killers ‘Secular’. Then they curse the ‘Sickulars’. They curse the idiots who formed cozy narratives about what transpired.’

A million things transpired. You need a microscope, not a telescope.

In a world where victims, to prove a point, are increasingly either setting themselves aflame or blowing themselves up along with a few more people, it is not surprising that even well meaning people find it difficult to understand Pandit response (or even a lack of it). They fail to see a possibility that it is a community in which I can still have the freedom to argue with relatives of a dead terror victim about the political nature of help offered by Shiv Sena. I can critique their single track narrative of 1990s. It is a community in which I can keep asking my father questions, uneasy questions, till he acknowledges that he did see an innocent Kashmiri Muslim die at the hands of Security forces on a street outside his home during the weeks he was stuck in Srinagar back in 1990. Yes, this free space is at times shrinking and at times expanding too. It is a community always evolving. Always changing. There are Pandit writings from 1920s in which old men complain that the young are not following the ways of the old! That a way of life is dying. Of course, it is dying. But something new is always born.

What Kashmiris ask of each other, ask of the world, ask of the written text, is something that they themselves, the world in general and the text itself, seldom offers. They ask for an absolute truth.

Me, I am only interested in nature of text and its relativity. ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots’ provides some interesting twists to the known text about the events of 1947. From my family, I had already grown on stories of an earlier pandit migration, flight of relatives, from the border towns of Princely State of Kashmir to the capital Srinagar during the Kabili raid . But I first read about the scale of this migration in a Pandit community magazine some years ago. It was an entire series documenting the hardships faced by these people, all told mostly in personal narrative. I believe bits of these have gone into ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots’ in the section dealing with 1947. Here, in this section I found an interesting bit. In most of the historical texts dealing with the events of 1947, destruction of Mahura power grid by tribal men and the subsequent plunging of Srinagar into darkness is one of the most dramatic events of Kashmir story of that time. But in ‘Our Moon Has Blood Clots’, we read that the Mahura power grid may well have been switched off by an unnamed Pandit to signal fellow Pandits in a nearby village that their lives were in danger. Isn’t that interesting. Is it a literary invention? Is there space for invention in memoir? Or did the earlier texts miss this detail because no one even back then asked migrant Pandits their end of the story?

This book is letting the Kashmiri Pandits connect their stories and experiences in a way that no other book has done before. Rahul Pandita’s house was in Chanpore. Chanpore was my Matamal, the place of my Mama and Massi. I know that place. It too have taken walks along Doodhganga. Walks organized by my Nani, who would sometimes take the kids to a Gurudwara too. Rahul Pandita mentions the evening when the mosque got stuck by a lightening. I was there that evening. I was in the crowd that had gathered in front of it. Rahul Pandita mentions the night of 19th January. My sister was in Chanpore that night. Only six, and about two years younger than me, she doesn’t remember but when the mosques started playing the ‘Jihadi Tapes’, my Massi stuffed her mouth with Parle-G biscuits to shut her up. Rahul Pandita in Jammu went to Luthra Academy, it was the first school in Jammu that I too could find admittance in. I lost a school year in the process. Rahul Pandita changed 20 homes in Jammu. For me the number is more like 5. He writes about living at a place called Bhagwati Nagar. My Matamal, my Massi’s place in Jammu for a couple of years was Bhagwati Nagar. I know the sweet spot along the Neher where the water falls off with a gush. He writes about not belonging anywhere. I have spent last ten years moving from one place to another, living out of a bag. For him Kashmir is home, rest are all a house. And so it is with me.

In ‘Acknowledgments’, among many other people, Rahul Pandita thanks me and this blog for triggering memories of home. I am content to say that my contribution to this saddening book has been addition of some happy memories. Memories that I can’t truly call my own. I was delighted to see Deen’e Phila’safar‘s ‘Man in the river’ proof used in this book to embellish a sentence. It’s a story that I can’t call my own as it was shared by a friend of my father. I am told Professor Dinanath’s progenies are now settled in Germany. I was delighted to see the sentence that mentioned the play of bursting fish bladders. It’s a game I have never played, it was a memory shared at this blog by a reader, Arun Jalali. 
While I am on nature of memories, isn’t is wonderful that bits and pieces from this blog have already gone into an Indian Publication, into Kashmiri Muslim publications and now a Pandit Publication too.

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Buy Our Moon has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits from Flipkart.com

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