Hari Parbat Hill Map, Drawn on a Shawl, 1850s. |
Information that is easily available online:
Info. not often mentioned (however recalled by poet Zareef Ahmed Zareef):
in bits and pieces
Hari Parbat Hill Map, Drawn on a Shawl, 1850s. |
Information that is easily available online:
Info. not often mentioned (however recalled by poet Zareef Ahmed Zareef):
More on the malicious propaganda and lies against Kashmiri Pandits produced in elite Indian universities. Or rather the mediocrity of the work peddled out on the subject. Above is an extract from a paper titled “The Caste of Migrants: Affirmative Action and the Case of Kashmiri Pandits” (2018) by Pushpendra Johar, Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi. The paper sets out to prove how “reservations” for “Kashmiri Migrants” are against the notion of reservation laid out on India constitution and such. How does the paper go about it? By talking about KP supposed affluence and influence hundred years ago. And even here, to make the argument, the paper relies on secondary sources that themselves are part of deliberate lies. Where it cannot lie, it just creates a smoke screen in which reader is unable to read the data without bias. For the above passage it relies on “Islam and Political Mobilization in Kashmir, 1931-34, Ian Copland (1981). Copland is much cited in such studies and now considered an authority. As we shall see, it has flaws. A flaw an outsider can easily or deliberately make, and no one will question it as ‘KPs as exploiters of Kashmir” is a settled theme in public discourse on Kashmir.
The paper by DU guy claims 78% gazetted post were held by Hindus and Sikhs. Then in next line, instead of Hindus, he mentions Kashmiri Pandits, to imply this 78% was Kashmiri Pandits and Sikh that held “all the job”. The writer makes the basic mistake of assuming that all Hindus in the state were KPs.
Fact:
In 1931, according to census data, 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.
Next, quoting Copland, he makes the oft repeated claim that in 1931: “in Mirpur tehsil 94 % patwaris were Kashmiri Brahmin”. Ian Copland indeed mentions it, and this claim has found its way into many scholarly works including the “Hindu rulers, Muslim subjects” by Mridu Rai (2004), a work much loved by Tahreekis for providing them the excuse for their violence on minorities of the state and for claiming the whole J&K as a Muslim territory. Copland mentions his source as “Report by Major General R.G. Finlayson on the visit of Inspection and Enquiry into Mirpur Tehsil” (1932). The “secret” report was result of riots of January 1932 in Mirpur in which Muslim majority killed and displaced the Hindu and Sikh minority. There were “Jathas” moving in from Punjab, hearing rumors about the scale of killings, they were rushing to kill Muslims. The situation was brought under control, but migration did happen. The British believed economic grievances to be the real reason for communal flare-up. Copland forwards the same argument. All fine. But, what are Kashmiri Pandits doing there in the quote of Copland? Were 94% patwaris in Mirpur tehsil Kashmiri Pandits or Kashmiri Hindus?
No.
The actual wording of Finlayson in the report (attached) mentions just “Hindus” and not Kashmiri Pandits.
Wajahat Habibullah in HT interview Jan 17, 2020 |
There is a theory why ethnic cleansing become possible. The root of it is an amoral society*. In such a society those at the top start seeing a group as something other than people. In some uncivilized places people think of “others” as parasites, in civilized Kashmir, KPs are seen as just enemy agents since the time of Mughals. The absurd, the amoral, is so normal that the solution to KP issue is presented as telling people that KPs are actually oil wells so missed in Kashmir. Thus often such articles tell you benifit of KPs, that they can do wonder for education sector on Kashmir, that they are good doctors, or engineers etc, they can bring “normalcy”. As if Majority in valley has to be convinced that KPs is the missing brick from his broken house wall. We are no bricks, we are people. Even the most useless, vile, poor, pathetic of KPs don’t deserve to have to play this 25-30% game for next 30 years, and then try and “buy” their way back into Kashmir. We are talking about people who have nothing to show as “inheritance” (ironically communist in that aspect) and these babulog are telling majority in valley that KPs should move their oil mills to Kashmir. As what…collateral? Houses of most KPs are already lost collateral. Investment that our grandparent and parent generation made.
Why feed such amoral nonsense to people?
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This is in response to “Pandits as pariah, legally” by Haseeb Drabu, in Greater Kashmir, April 30, 2020.
Drabu’s piece rests on careful omission of facts and deliberate inclusion of usual bile. The only legible thing in the write-up is the use of word “pariah” in the title, a “persona non grata”…an outcaste…a person who the society eats up and then vomits outside the boundaries…then walls are built to keep them out. Often these walls are perfectly sounding arguments built on solid gleaming bricks of history. And to keep the people inside the wall happy, unquestioning, the tale of “Pandit” monster who has been hounding poor mazloom Kashmiri Muslims from five hundred years ago, is graphically remembered.
Drabu’s excuse for writing all this: a patronizing “concern” for the wily Kashmiri Pandits, that he now assumes is somehow is not smart enough. That the “smart” community was celebrating a law that was unfair to them. He is not bewildered by it. Because, the reader gets it, if it is bad for them and they are still celebrating, either they are dumb or pure evil. Gist of what already the masses in Kashmir have been sold in the valley till now. Drabu, is making it all the more clear for them.
But, is it true?
All these years, in all discussions on KP exodus matters, the population of KPs impacted by the secessionist movement, “the migrants” has been measured only by numbers of registered migrant families (there was no individual count). The rule change means nothing to them. They are all accounted. They are the bulk. As for those not registered as migrants…something as election cards, rev. records etc. can be considered. Already something like this is done by Relief Commissioner for former government employees who never registered. As for others, KPs who left in 40s/50s/60s….they didn’t even have a chance in previous Kashmir fiefdom setup …now if they wish they can take the normal root in new law. And they don’t need to worry who is married where and to whom. All they need is peace, which of course is another matter and subject to guns of Pakistan.
The concern for KPs shown by Drabu is just a ruse to show to show how KPs are somehow in intellectual pits now.
He should remember that Kashmiri Pandits raised the slogan of “Kashmir for Kashmiris”…not “Kashmir for Kashmiri Pandits”…the present violent mess in the state if because of “Kashmir Banega Pakistan”, but you can’t talk about it, you be deemed “occupier”/”collaborator” and once you are deemed that, all you can do to redeem yourself is remind the people of Pandit monster. You can compare the present generation to Pandit Shankar Lal Kaul, Jia lal Kilam and J.L. Jalali, but it should be remembered that these leaders also walked away from Shiekh Abdullah’s brand of Kashmiriyat Kashmiri Nationalism as formulated by Sheikh is based on what Orwell called “Negative Nationalism”…it didn’t know what it was…until it starts defining what it was against. It is nothing without the “Other”. Thus we see it defining itself in beginning as “against landlords”…and eventually morphing into “against pandits” or rather they now proudly say in Kashmir against “certain kind of” pandits, “rest are welcome”. Of course, overtime and scenarios the “kind” they are against keeps changing and “they” get to define who they are against whenever they take shelter under nationalism. Not surprisingly no Kashmiri Muslim public intellectual is ready to be “anti-national” to The Cause, great Cause, which is like a shifting goal post based on the political position, physically, the intellectual takes in the power.
When an Kashmiri intellectual is shifting post, one of the clear sign of it is that he will start talking about the history of Dhars, Kouls etc in the valley. It is a tradition coming down from Shiekh himself. It was under him that KPs were shaped as the perfect enemy. It is under his that narratives were created.
73.21 % of KPs were illiterate. That should puncture the myth (that even KPs like to boast): KPs were highly educated class. The edge of education was only with the 9.36% English literate KPs among a total KP population of 55055. That’s just 5,154 individuals. To compare: There were 5231 educated KMs in the state with their population of 796392. Of them about 340 knew English.
Drabu causally tells us the shawl-trader princely class, the “cerebral pioneer of the freedom struggle of Kashmir”, opposed the state subject law.
What Drabu does not mention (but does mention without saying) here is that religio/political leadership of Kashmiri Muslims asked (and were granted also in part) that rather the non-Kashmiri Muslims (of Punjab) should be given jobs in the state as the state was Muslim majority. They had no interest in “Kashmir for Kashmiris”, yet (as KPs, Sikhs, etc were still a sizeable part of what was called “Kashmiri” back then. Today, “Kashmiri” the word is used just to imply Muslims by the progenies of these pioneers of Tahreek. And who do they “other” among them? The Muslims from plains that they asked for.
What is the charge on Pandit monster? That in 1917, ever selfish Kashmiri Pandits raised the slogan when it suited them. If so, didn’t the KM leadership also make their choice based on what was convenient to them at the time? If Ashai’s word of “non-mulki” Muslims might be more sympathetic to their plight seems fair, then by same logic if Pandits today claim “non-mulkis” from the plains might be more sympathetic to their plight than the “mulki” KM bureaucracy, why the hue and cry?
Saligram was brother of Hargogal Kaul, the man who started Sanatan Dharam Sabha. Hargogal Kaul was a man born and brought up in Punjab in a KP family that had settled there in earlier times of persecution. A “non-mulki” as much as a Nehru. Hargogal arrived in state around 1876. He was quickly branded a British agent and rumor started that he had drowned some KMs in a boat. He was a fierce critic of the Maharaja and was even banished from the state for some years. He was charged by Wahabi leader Yahya Shah of hurting religious sentiments of muslims in around 1898. Bazaz’s clearly mentions “Kashmir for Kashmiris” started in 1920s. Slogan was coined by Shankerlal Koul. If Drabu has based him opinion based on “Emergence of political awakening in Kashmir” (1986) by Upendra Kishen Zutshi (incidentally a KP ), he already knows all this.
In 1907, KM representatives while asking for education funds for Islamia school were writing to Maharaja thanking him for protecting them from Arya Samajis , the evil brains behind Congress whose main agenda is Hindustan for Hindus. Sounds familiar?
It must be remembered here that in Glancy Commission, KPs were represented by rationalist, Premnath Bazaz…while the KMs were represented by religious heads and businessmen. Bazaz sided with the KMs. For that Pandits never forgave him. That much is much recounted in Kashmir, but is not remembers that in late 1960s, while in exile in Delhi, Bazaz accepted he was wring, that he gave-in into the obvious communal demands of KM leaders in the commission just because he thought it will create “goodwill” for pandits in the valley. That is all there is to it. Pandits have been trying to gather the currency of “goodwill” for a century now, all while actually losing ground, physically in Kashmir. It was this “goodwill” currency system in which a KP is seen as a good harmless government teacher but an evil bureaucrat ever ready to backstab “Mother Kashmir”.
Drabu claims till KMs were no competition to KPs, the KPs took then along. When muslims became competition for jobs KPs went against them. This claim flies in the face of well known facts.
Fact that KP-KM political unity only came about in late 30s after KMs started having their demands met. After there were communal riots, after “Roti-agitation” (1932). A riot for which Kilam was conveniently blamed, triggering it by a speech. Yet, Kilam (along with Kashyap Bandhu and Prem Nath Bazaz) became one of the building block of what later NC sold as “Kashmiriyat”. That’s how Muslim Conference became National Conference. Bazaz calls it golden era of unity.
But it was Sheikhs’ recourse to communalism post 47 that put an end to it. One can rather claim that KPs were taken for a ride. Their support sought when it was needed, when it was needed to be in good books of Congress and progressives. In the “Naya Kashmir” manifesto a seat was reserved for a KP representative in the assembly. What happened of it? Post independence, KPs, a dispersed minority were actually disenfranchised. Even in areas where they were in majority, delimitation was carefully done to keep them out. Drabu is taking names of KPs, long dead KPs, without knowing much about them. In 1950, J. L. K. Jalali (a man who in 1920s waged lone campaign against grain hoarder and black marketers ) wrote about the brutal realities of “Naya Kashmir” and the dangerous form of Nationalism sold by NC to masses, at the core of which was the theory of “evil KP”:
“I am a Kashmiri to whom Kashmir has always been the dearest of treasures, and suffered for it. To me the nationalism of today is nothing a garbled version of majority communalism directed towards a definite end.”
Telling tales of evil pandits used to a hobby in Kashmir, now it seems to be a profession, particularly of former bureaucrats, courted by center from time to time. There is no other reason why someone, who lives in a community where crackers are burst after terror attacks, would rather than writing about it, would tell those crackers how fanatic Pandits were distributing sweets on abrogation of a law. All these are nothing but attempts to save their own skin but blaming the eternal pandit for all the invisible webs they themselves have woven.
For this class Bazaaz was to write:
Therefore, to keep people in darkness and not to make them politically conscious and socially awakened became a vested interest of Kashmir politicians. A policy was evolved to make Kashmir Muslims feel perpetually in terror of the hostile Hindu majority and depend upon the local coreligionist leaders for protection against it. Article 370 was frequently maligned and abused, and conditions were created not to allow it to outgrow its utility as originally intended but to make it a permanent feature of the Indian Constitution. In this atmosphere while the leaders thrived, the position of average Kashmiri worsened. The Central leadership of the Congress was caught in a web woven by the National Conference leaders before they could realize what was happening.”
It was again Bazaaz who wrote what the actual cost of KM secessionism would be, or rather the cost of communal majoritarian KM politics, which community will first bear the actual cost of it and how KPs will and must respond.
A reminder: 98% of Pandits today live in places (all over the world) where there are “immigrant” yet equal citizens. It comes from present. The world as it is. Not as it was. The progenies of Kaul, Kilam, Jalali, Bazaz are all outside Kashmir. Probably as divergent in their individual political stands at their ancestors were. But, they are all outside. There was there becomes of decades and decades of “othering”.
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“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
Remains of Bhairav temple Chattabal 2009. Pic: Autar Mota |
In 1951, the Food Control Department of Jammu and Kashmir State encroached upon and occupied the Bathing Ghat and other premises of Bhairav temple Chattabal. They started using the place for distributing rations. The temple was desecrated. I grew up hearing stories of the desecration. But, I assumed may be post 1990, my family was exaggerating. My family comes from the area, my grandfather used to take me to the Ghat and show me the lock on the temple and the ruins. I was eight. Over the decades my grandfather saw the temple of his ancestors desecrated multiple times, in 1973 a mob threw chappals into the Hawan kund and in 2008 we saw a glimpse of the burnt remains of the temple. He was eighty. I wrote about it. The story was still not clear to me.
I recently came across postscript to the story in a small footnote in the book “Crisis in Kashmir”(1991) by Pyarelal Kaul (who was with Praja Socialist Party).
Why did Pandits chose Vaishnavi as a representative?
This act of Vaishnavi sets him apart from the new age “Pakistani Bhattas and Bhattanis” of present generation who are incapable of doing the same, [among them is Vaishnavi’s grand-daughter Mona Bhan]. All they can do is push stories of “Kashmiri Muslims performing last rite of Kashmiri pandit” and then while living outside Kashmir write about dead pandits who loved Kashmir to be part of Pakistan. They can sell fear of Hindu India and at the same time sell the idea of peace with Muslim theoretic state of Pakistan and a Sharia compliant paradise Kashmir. Forgetting that from Bazaz to Vaishnavi, all of them have written about obvious growing religious fanaticism of Pakistan. It is they who are also enablers of the environment today in which a pandit writing a petition about desecration of a Hindu temple in Kashmir would be labeled “Sanghi Batta”. Vaishnavi today would have been labeled Sanghi Batta out to demonize Kashmiri Muslims. No matter what they say or write the true meaning of these events cannot be changed for the victims. The temple is dead.
It was this dispute from 1950s that foretold that my family would be forced to leave their ancestral place someday. In late 60s, some of the families from our extended clan started leaving the place. Some moved to Delhi and some to other localities. My grandfather stayed on but he did purchase a piece of land in Jammu in late 60s after selling a piece of land in Chattabal near Lakad Mandi. All of them knew what was coming, they didn’t know the date. All of them were preparing for the inevitable.
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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.
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.
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Date to refute the propaganda that perpetuates the myth that Kashmiri Pandits were elite exploitative class of the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Total KP population: 55055
30947 Male +24108 Female
Working Male: 17919
Working Female: 1389
Dependents: 35744
People who worked as Agents/Managers/Forest officers, their clerks, rent collectors:
Male: 294
Field Labourers/Woodcutters:
Herders/Milkmen/Livestock:
Artisan and other workmen:
Transport Owner/Manager:
Labourer/boatmen/palki carrier:
Traders:
People who had State job as a means of additional income:
People who had some other means of income on top of State job:
People holding Religious Posts:
Lawyer/Doctor/Teacher:
Other Jobs:
Living on their incomes from the funds:
Employed in Domestic service:
Contractors/Clerks/ Cashiers:
Labourers:
Male: 47
Female: 4
Beggars/Criminals/in jail
People who earned from Land:
Commissioned Gazetted Officer in Public Force:
Gazetted Officer in Public Administration:Male: 6
Other Public Administration:
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.
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.
State Service:
Exploitation of animals and vegetation :
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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The book “Kashmir: Exposing the Myth behind the narrative” (2017) is written by Khalid Bashir Ahmad, a former Kashmir Administrative Services person who served the State Administration in powerful positions as Director Information and Public Relations and Secretary, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, besides heading the departments of Libraries and Research, and Archives, Archaeology and Museums. The book, the latest fat brick targeted at Pandits, aims to prove that the whole Kashmiri Pandit narrative, ever since the beginning of history, is a bunch of lies, a “myth” and it goes about the task by masking anti-pandit propaganda as scholarship. In his zeal to write an all encompassing exposé, the author has unintentionally produced the finest document on what drives the anti-pandit sentiment in Kashmir valley and which class produces it for the gullible masses.
The book tries to settle the 1990 debate by trying to prove that Kashmiri Pandits have been a lying race since 6th century A.D., around the time Nilmata was written that too after annihilation of the Buddhist religion by “militant” Hindus. It’s does not try to debunk parts, it tries to do so the whole.
The author’s understanding of theory of history is so rudimentary, his approach so flavoured with politics of present times that he does not even realize the utter nonsense he has presented through partial quotes cooked in furnace of deliberate malice . No, Kalhana did not use “Mind’s eye” to write about prehistoric Kashmir. Kalhana mentions “mind’s eye” in context of definition of purpose of a poet. The “mind’s eye” is the plane of the brain that gets triggered when one reads something that stimulates one’s imagination.
Kalhana describing the purpose of a poet writing about histroy |
Walter Slaje, the Austrian expert on medieval history of Kashmir and Rajatarangi explains the usage of these terms like this:
Slaje, Medieval Kashmir and the Science of History (2004) |
So, the reader thinks Jonaraja, he too was a lying Brahman who told lies about Sikandar just because Jonaraja couldn’t reconcile to the fact that the Hindu era of Kashmir was over. Some one teach director sahib about how not to read the past through the lens of present, lest someone claim that director Sahib is making the claim cause he can’t reconcile to the fact that Kashmir is right now partly ruled by Hindu BJP. It’s like saying that historians-artists of Kashmir will start to invent myths at the first sign of majority religion losing hold of business of running State. Err…isn’t that happening in Kashmir. [the usual reply from Kashmir: a muslim would never do that, only pandits can]. It would also mean that any Pandit rejecting the claims of the book about Jonaraja or Kalhana is obviously doing so because of what happened to him in 1990, and hence is lying. What buffoonery passes for history in case of Kashmir!
The author claims Kalhana was a essentially a poet and a believer of fairytales and hence can’t be trusted, Jonaraja hated Muslims, hence can’t be trusted. But, in this chapter while mentioning the faults of Jonaraja, author asks why Jonaraja didn’t mention Hallaj’s visit to Kashmir. There is a widely and newly found belief in Kashmir that Mansur al-Hallaj (857-922) visited Kashmir in 896 AD. The source of the claim comes from “The Passion of Al-Hallaj: Mystic and Martyr of Islam by Louis Massignon” translated and edited by Herbert Mason (1982/94). Massignon’s work was translation of 13th century manuscripts of “Tadhkirat-ul-Awliyā” (Biographies of Saints) by Attar of Nishapur (1145). Attar was essentially a poet, here the Kashmiri author would like to trust the words of a poet who wrote about miracles performed by Sufis. Interestingly, in the same work of Attar, we read about Kashmiri slaves serving missionaries in Persia. Author ignores all this. [Read: Hallaj in Kashmir]
In all this the facts reader in Kashmir is not told:
Lawrence based his writing on Peer Hassan (1832-1898) and not some pandit. It is not as if Pandits poisoned Lawrence’s ears against Muslims. Hassan has written at length about it in his “Tarikhi-Kashmir”. Interestingly, the “historian” makes no reference to Hassan in this section.
Reader is not told that GMD Sufi, again a Muslim, in 1949 in his “Kashir A History Of Kashmir” wrote at length about the tyrannical Afghan period and mentions persecution of Hindus as well as Shias. Sufi does not use Kachru as source for Afghan period but uses him for Sikh period during which he lived. For Afghan period he uses Muslim sources, works of afghan era, all of which mention persecution.
Sources used by GMD Sufi. |
And finally if someone working for Afghans at high post means it was all peaceful back then for the rest of the community, surely the author of this tome himself working as a government employee for Government of India in 1990s should be read as benevolent nature of the government and a general sign of how peaceful the 90s were.
In between, innumerable inanities, the book also reminds the reader of valley that Kashmiri Pandits are different than rest of Hindus. Proof: Krishna cult had no presence in Kashmir. There are no Krishna statues or temples in Kashmir. The reader is here not told that Kalhana starts his Rajatarangini with mention of Krishna in relation with King Gonanada. The reader is not told that exclusive elaborate Krishna sculptures across India are a recent phenomena. Before that there was more elaborate Vaishnav cult theories centered on various avatars of which many are now considered minor. The reader is not told of the “flute player” on the walls of Martand.*
Why does author bring it up? Because in 1980s, Kashmiri Pandits publicly started celebrating Krishna Janamashtami and the Kashmiri fundamentalists cum conspiracy theorists saw in it the attempt of Kashmiri Pandits aligning with alien “Indian culture”. In such attempts these fraud “intellectuals” try to dictate who is a good native Kashmiri Pandits true to Kashmir and who is bringing in Indian Culture. Back in 80s, all such Indian Kashmiri Pandits were branded Sanghi Pandits.
Hai jo peshani pe Islam ka teeka Iqbal /
Koi Pandit mujhey kaihta hai to sharm aati hai.
Guess being Director of something in government has its perks. The modern brahmins…those that control the texts…control history. But, I guess most Pandits would thank this book for giving out those FIR details.
In case of Bhan family, using an RTI, the writer finds that the killing did happen and then claims the gruesome details of the killing, flinging from the top floor, were figment of KP minds as the police report don’t offer any detail. Earlier he has already tried hard to prove that either KP killings were carried out by State or for being “informers”. Why now he feels the need to prove that killings were not “gruesome”? Guilt. All proof need to be erased. All blood stains wiped clean.
He then proceeds to expose “Pandit” propaganda using a quote from a Hindutva site to prove that KPs have never ever, never ever, never ever since 14th century, fed the cows.
Most of the killings of minorities in Jammu and Kashmir have been “adopted” online by Hindutva sites. No, you won’t find any neutral site easily with clear data and facts. On hindutva sites written by non-Kashmiris, regurgitation of data has high amount of mutation. Which leads us to this comedy of fools: The professional KM “historian” reads a “fact” and then in his expert 14th opinion decides to cook pandits in a medieval oven of fresh “facts”.
He writes that the hindu propaganda site claims:
“15 [Kashmiri] Pandits who had gone to graze their livestock were murdered ”
He then informs the readers that the elite Kashmiri Pandits never have taken cattle for grazing, ever! That’s all he could come up with to cast the spell of doubt on the killing! So Kashmiri Pandits didn’t die because Pandit wouldn’t touch the job. The discussion ends up about “status” of pandits in ancient Kashmir.
The fact:
The hindutva site mentions: “15 Pandits who had gone to graze their livestock were murdered ”
The “historian” added the word “Kashmiri” to it and started discussing cattle grazing habits of Kashmiri pandits.
The fact: The killing did happen. It was not Kashmiri Pandits. But 15 Hindus of Chirjee near Kishtawar in Doda who were killed by terrorist. The entry for it in not found on any Indian government site online but in US congress report on Human rights.
It didn’t occur to the “historian” (and wouldn’t probably to his readers in Kashmir) that in villages, Pandits used to have cows at home, and like any other villager, this pandit too used to take his cows from grazing. See…now we are talking cow. Isn’t that how most discussions end up these days? Utter ludicrous diversions that don’t allow you to get to the facts.
In dealing with exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, reader is told using account of Muslims that Pandits left Kashmir in aeroplanes. The usual Jagmohan Conspiracy is forwarded as the culmination of centuries old cruel games that pandits like to play.
It was done so because Kashmiri Pandit tell their story in that sequence. Pandits claim to be “aborigines”, claim Rajatarangini as “their” history, claim they suffered under Muslim rule, suffered losses in 1947 partitions, were beaten to ground politically in 1967 agitation over “Parmeshwari Handoo case”, suffered rioting in 1986 in Anantnag and were finally forced to flee in 1990.
*The Flute players. It is wrong to thing of this image as Krishna. If you are Hindu, if you accept rest of my arguments, if you don’t understand the or know the subject enough, there is a good chance you will accept this as evidence. This is confirmation bias. The bias with which this whole book is written. A muslim reader of the book would have tough time acknowledging it.
The image of Krishna dated 1/2 nd century A.D is infact found on a boulder in Chilas (POK) along with that of Baldev and even Buddha. A Pakistani expert of Kashmiri origin, A. H. Dani mentions it in his “Chilas: the city of Nanga Parbat” (1983).
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Some more lies from the author:
According to Bashir, cunning Brahmins modified (disfigured) Buddhist statues to give them Hindu look. He calls it Buddhist statue…not Gandhara statues. Bashir calls it “5th century Buddhist statue.”If one reads what he has written…there is only one conclusion that a lay reader in Kashmir with no real access to Hindu culture or original sources would assume: Brahmins mutilated Buddhist statues to make them Hindu. He bases his claim based on writing of Aijaz Bandey about an Ekamukha Shivling in a temple in Baramulla. Something he reveals (rather hides) in bibliography. And if one actually reads Bandey about that Shiv ling…we read something else completely. We read about how Gandhara art influenced Hindu art in Kashmir. Bandey does not make it sound like Hindus disfigured Buddhist statues to make Hindu gods out of them. Bandey writes about art assimilation. He even accepts there were already such Hindu images in Gandhara. Khalid Bashir Ahmad’s skewed logic if one extends to Muslim art in Kashmir, all Kashmiri traditional Muslim Ziyarats are Buddhist and not just influenced by Buddhist art.
Also, if one knows the basic history of Kashmir…one would know that Mihirkula brought in priests from Gandhara in Kashmir…something that local priests resented. How are these foreign priests supposed to have created a highly localized document like Nilamata?
Example of how the text from Bashir’s book is getting used for propaganda online. The section on left occurs in Bashir’s book.
Propaganda: Stein thought Kalhana’s text was corrupted.
Fact: On page 377 of “Rajatarangini: a chronicle of the kings of Kasmir, Volume 2” Stein is infact talking about the condition of a manuscript of Nilmatapurana found by Georg Bühler. More particularly, Vitastamahatmya. Not Rajatarangini.
Fact: Stein spent his life proving the merit of Kalhana’s Rajatarangini in historical sense by mapping its text to real places, real people as mentioned on coins and inscriptions on sculptures/temples.
Fact: Had manuscripts of Rajatarangini and Nilmatapurana perished like rest of ancient manuscripts of Kashmir, had some families not preserved, our knowledge of old Kashmir would have been next to nothing. Your ultra-nationalistic pride of having thousands of year old history would have been just hot air.
Another use of the quotes from Bashir’s book used for online propaganda. Here again, Bashir’s ability to lie would amaze anyone who has actually read the sources.
Anand Kaul wrote ‘The Kashmiri Pandit’ in 1924. Lawrence used the term “death, conversion or exile” already in 1895. But, of course, the propagandists know most people in Kashmir would easily accept that a Pandit lied being “Brahman Qaum”.
Fact: “Butshikan” term for King Sikandar was used by Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah for his Tarikh-i Firishta (1612). And he mentions the persecution of Hindus. It was not Kashmiri Pandits who invented the term. It was British to first latched on to the term. Anand Kaul only followed their lead. Unlike Bashir he had no access to Google, to know better. Postcolonialism hadn’t yet arrived.
“History Of The Rise Of The Mahomedan Power In India Volume 4. Enlish translation by John Briggs 1831. |
Fact: Jonaraja does mention that Sikandar did towards the end of his life change his ways. Jaziya was stopped.
Fact: Toward the end of Sikandar era we do find an old sculpture of Brahma that in Sharda has an inscription with name of King Sikandar on it, having being commissioned by a Hindu/Buddhist officer of the king.
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Another example of these half-educated charlatans befool the people. Clearly, the author has no actually understanding of the history of Shaivism in Kashmir. He is out of depth here, and yet he does not shy away from making a fool of himself. Here again, the reader is reminded that even Shaivism was a relatively recent import from mainland India by clever, deceitful, exploitative Brahmins. In his frenzy, the author ignores the actual facts and instead invents another lie: Tryambakaditya settled in Kashmir in 800 A.D.
Fact: Sangamaditya, the 16th descendant in the line of Tryambaka settled in Kashmir in 8th century. His father Tryambaka XV married a brahmin woman in Kashmir. In that he broke the the celibacy tradition of the “Siddhas” all of whom were given the title “Tryambaka”. The matrilineal society of Kashmir demanded that Tryambaka XV’s son settle in Kashmir. So, Sangamaditya the 16th descendant in the line of the mythical original Tryambaka settled in Kashmir.
Somananda, 4th descendant of Sangamaditya produced Shaiva literature (Sivadrsti) in 9th century.
[ref: Śaivāgamas: A Study in the Socio-economic Ideas and Institutions of Kashmir by V. N. Drabu]
Fact: This is how most famous Kashmiri Shaivite Abhinavagupta (c. 950 – 1016 AD) in his Gītārthasaṅgraha was re-interpreting “divine word of god” Gita to make the text more inclusive. This is how the ideas of Shaivite in Kashmir, were setting ideological base for coming of Lal Ded and Nund Rishi who would see all humanity as one. It was in a way Shaivite and their monotheism that made Islam not a completely alien thought for the masses in Kashmir.
Anyone who has actually read Trika system would know that Saiva system looked down upon temple worship, daily rituals of brahmins and even the Vedas were treated as inferior knowledge.
Yes, Kalhana and Kshemendra mock the priests and pretenders. That tells us even back then, just like now, there were charlatans. Even, Noor ud-Din Noorani in his time mocks the Mullas and their exploitative ways. This also tells us that back then Kashmiris had a culture of criticism. A culture that is missing in missionaries that arrived in Kashmir later.
The Mullas flourish on money
None pursue knowledge,
It’s all just another game
these selves
unrestrained
Seen them lately?
Catch them live
Try this old trick:
Announce a grand feast,
from pulpit
now watch
This Mulla run to the Masjid
These are the words of the saint of Kashmir, after whom the Srinagar airport is named ( built on a Karewa named after a Naga, Damodara).
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