[Reader-list] KPs and facts

Mon Aug 4 15:41:53 IST 2008

Yes, thanksfully indeed. Though I don't know if Kshmendra, Aditya Raj
Kaul and Pawan D agree with you on this, but then, they don't have
to...

On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 9:35 AM, rashneek kher <rashneek at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>> _________________________________________
>> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
>> Critiques & Collaborations
>> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
>> subscribe in the subject header.
>> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
>> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
> --
> Rashneek Kher
> Wandhama Massacre-The Forgotten Human Tragedy
> http://www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
> http://www.nietzschereborn.blogspot.com
>

-- 
National Highway http://shivamvij.com/