[Reader-list] KPs and facts

Mon Aug 4 16:28:12 IST 2008

Yes they dont have to......

On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 3:41 PM, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् <mail at shivamvij.com>wrote:

> 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
> >> _________________________________________
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> >
> >
> > --
> > 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/
>

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