[Reader-list] KPs and facts

[Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्]

Divided House, Delayed Return

Deep fissures in the Kashmiri Pandit community stand in the way of
government efforts to rehabilitate them, reports PEERZADA ARSHAD HAMID

http://tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=Ne090808divided_house.asp

SANJAY TIKOO, a Kashmiri Pandit living in Barbar Shah, Srinagar,
braved all odds and remained in the valley when thousands of Pandits
left their motherland. It was 1990 and the armed insurgency in Kashmir
had begun, followed by press releases in newspapers ordering Hindus to
leave.
No one home Most of the high-security government flats built
exclusively for returning Pandits have found no takers Photo:Javed Dar

The Tikoo family were defiant and resolute. They would not migrate.
They weathered the pressure and fear and lived on in their ancestral
home. Eighteen years later, those days remain vivid for Sanjay. He
clearly remembers the prolonged strike calls, the curfews and, above
all, the migration of fellow Pandits from the valley.

Sanjay credits his mother for the decision. "I thank the women of my
house and, particularly, my mother, who gave her steadfast support to
our decision. If either she or my sister had shown even the slightest
weakness, we too would have fled, forced to uproot ourselves," muses
Sanjay.

The Tikoos were soon singled out. A threatening letter was nailed to
the entrance of their house. Sanjay clearly remembers that fateful
day.

"It was July 16, 1990. I had gone to the top floor of my house to
smoke a cigarette. While pacing up and down, I saw a group of people
reading something on our gate. I rushed down and brought the message
in," recalls Sanjay.

At about the same time, posters purportedly written by militants
became ubiquitous. Along with threats such as the one Sanjay's family
received, they contained strike calls and reports of militant
activities. Disturbed, Sanjay discussed the letter with his family and
then approached a local Urdu newspaper, which published the letter
along with his family's decision: they would not leave the valley and
were willing to face the consequences. Thereafter, a group of
militants belonging to the Al-Umar Commandos approached the family and
denied having issued the letter. This increased the confidence of the
family and encouraged them to stay back.

The relief department of the state government estimates that 56,148
families, including a few Muslim families — approximately 2.5 lakh
people — migrated from their homes following the armed insurgency
during the period 1989- 92. Of this, 34,690 families went to Jammu and
19,338 to New Delhi. While police records say 209 Pandits were killed
in Kashmir in the past 18 years, Pandit organisations put the figure
at about 1,100. An estimated 20,000 Pandit families, however,
preferred to stay.

These people occupied scattered pockets in urban and rural areas,
detached from each other. This forsaken community faced difficulties
in their social life that were felt acutely during marriages,
religious functions and, most of all, when performing the last rites
for their dead.

"During the initial years, finding brides for our sons was difficult
as few migrants were ready to send their daughters back to the valley.
There were no priests to perform prayers. However, the situation is
now improving and people don't consider marriages to families in the
valley that dangerous," Tikoo says.

Sanjay initiated efforts to unite Pandit families and strengthen their
interaction. He and his friends founded the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh
Samiti (KPSS), which is undertaking a census of Pandits in the valley.
They advocate the safe return of Pandits and oppose government plans
to give Pandits high-security residential flats.

"The government has constructed separate buildings and has given CRPF
security to them. However, this is an effort to create a Palestine-
Israel type divide in Kashmir," asserts Tikoo.

The KPSS is also critical of hard-line Pandit organisations like Panun
Kashmir and Roots in Kashmir, because of their demand for a separate
homeland in Kashmir, northeast of the Jhelum. The KPSS considers
Kashmir a political problem and a dispute between India and Pakistan.

Panun Kashmir believes that the insurgency was a communal riot
engineered by Islamic fundamentalists to drive the minority Hindus
from the valley. They accuse Muslims of ethnic cleansing. Panun
Kashmir has demanded land along the Jhelum in south Kashmir to be
secured to build colonies for Pandits. The group also wants this zone
to be made a Union Territory.

"Our community has suffered badly. We have been uprooted from our
homeland and unless adequate arrangements are made, we won't go back
and will continue our fight for our rights. Residential flats are not
the solution — that's just moving us from one camp to another. Our
return to our motherland should be final and secure, so that we will
not be forced to leave again," asserts Ajay Chrangoo, Chairman, Panun
Kashmir. Chrangoo has been living in Jammu since his migration and
strongly advocates a separate homeland.

Chrangoo refers to flats constructed at Mattan in South Kashmir and at
Sheikhpora on the outskirts of Srinagar that the state government has
spent crores on, in order to coax Pandits to return. No Jammu Pandits
were ready to return here, and most flats remain locked.

Another voice representing the migrant community is the All India
Kashmiri Samaj. Headed by Ram Krishan Bhat, it works to keep the
Kashmiri sentiment alive among Pandit youth. Though he praises the
Pandits who remained in the valley and calls them "daring", he says
their continued presence in the valley is not enough to convince other
Pandits to return.

Chrangoo disagrees. "There is nothing special in some Pandits staying
back. While some members of the community stay behind in conflict
zones where there is a mass exodus, this can't obscure the bigger
picture — the fact that most Pandits have fled. Moreover, those who
remain, remain in fear," he adds.


THE LARGE numbers of Pandit groups — representing migrants and
non-migrants — claiming to fight for the rights of Pandits have
confused people both in India and abroad. The clamour of voices has
added to the complexity of the issue. While all groups claim to
represent the aspirations of Kashmiri Pandits, all of them differ on
when, where and how Pandits should return. "Pandits are as divided as
the Muslims are," quips Sanjay Tikoo.

Sanjay Saraf, a migrant politician, adds another dimension to the
debate. Saraf plans to contest the coming assembly elections and is
state president of the Lok Jan Shakti Party.

Recently, national and regional parties from outside the state have
started making inroads here. The elections will see candidates from
the SP and the BSP, who have held rallies in Srinagar.

Saraf, however, relies more on Muslim votes than on Pandit ones.
Though he is a migrant, he has been visiting the valley regularly for
the past seven years for party meetings and constituency visits. He is
critical of Panun Kashmir and Roots in Kashmir that are headquartered
outside Kashmir and describes them as stooges of fundamentalist
forces. "They are dancing to the tune of the BJP and the VHP and are
trying to create a communal wedge," Saraf alleges.

The divide among Pandits deepened during the recent crisis over land
for the Amarnath shrine board. While most Pandit organisations based
in Jammu and New Delhi favoured the transfer of land to the board, the
valley-based KPSS stood alone in its demand for the pilgrimage to be
placed under resident Kashmiri Pandit organisations. Saraf supported
this demand from the beginning. "Pandits cannot remain outside the
valley and pay mere lip service to the cause. We have to be here to
say we belong to the land. Raising a hue and cry while staying outside
hardly matters," avers Sanjay Saraf, while acknowledging KPSS'
efforts.

Ideological differences have increased the divide between migrant
Pandits and those who stayed back. Eighteen years after Pandits fled
the valley, various groups continue to pursue their own agendas and a
consensus remains elusive.

WRITER'S E-MAIL
peerzadaarshad at gmail.com
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 5, Issue 31, Dated Aug 09, 2008