[Reader-list] KPs and facts

[rashneek kher]

Just goes on to show that Pandits are not a monolith and thanfully each one
reatins his/her individuality as a thinking being.

On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 3:11 PM, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् <mail at shivamvij.com>wrote:

> 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
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-- 
Rashneek Kher
Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy
http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com