[Reader-list] On Exodus and Migration - Muslims, Pandits and Kashmiris

Mon Aug 25 21:43:03 IST 2008

Dear Sonia,
Thanks for clearing. Well first of all inflating figures about Pandit migration has more to do with dole handouts by the govenrment. In mid 1990s, there was a massive scandal in Jammu where Pandit migrants cloned their numbers to claim extra dole - This was also used to gain money and propaganda edge from various 'agencies' and it still continues. I am in awe of Pandit fertility as now the figure stands at half a million. One of the senior RSS leaders in Delhi told me last year that the Pandits are not interested in going back, because they are making a lot of money - both aid as well as that is unaccounted for by claiming to be displaced. I can't vouch for the sentiment, but i know the Pandit 'sufferings' has assumed Biblic proportions. With officially 209 Pandits attributed to have been killed by Kashmiri militants, it is being called a 'genocide' and 'ethnic cleansing' and 'Holocaust'. The improper employment of term 'holocaust' in present day Pandit
 discourse sounds utter insensitivity and blatant disregard to six million Jews who perisched in Nazi action 60 years ago.

We have to keep this in mind that out of the project Hindu population of 130,000-140,000 in Kashmir Valley, not all of them were Pandits. Nearly one fourth of them were Panjabis or Dogras who mainly lived in Srinagar and some small numbers in other places. Even if we take that 100,000 of them were Pandits, only two thirds of them made their way out of Kashmir. According to the Kashmir government sources - by April 1990-end, the exodus of Pandits was complete. I know many Pandit friends, who have spoken on record that they were forced by the CRPF sent by the Governor to 'clear off'. Balraj Puri has pointed out to that in his book Kashmir Towards Insurgency and I have spoken to him about this. Similarly, recently Wajahat Habibullah has given his side of the story how Kashmiri leaders approached him early 1990 saying that why Hindus were migrating and that they smell a conspiracy. When Wajahat brought this to the notice of Jagmohan Malhotra, he ignored his
 advice and rather facilitated and catalysed the process. i have been thinking for all my life about pandit migration - I have been the only journalist in Kashmir, and i repeat only journalist, who has written about it in early 1990s bringing the plight of Pandits, particularly those who belonged to rural areas, to the notice. Not long ago - it came to my notice. From January to July - 1990, the most brutal phase of Indian oppression, most of the days were consumed by curfews. If I couldn't go to nearby town of Islamabad from my location at Bijbehara, how did Pandits manage to get trucks and taxis even in the far off villages and all at the same time when Kashmir was envoloped with the worst of choas and people had no means to deal with it.

About the Muslim Migrants in Azad Kashmir
Well frankly I can't dispute your figure as i am not totally sure about it - so won't argue. But many people have told me that the figure is around 100,000. Not so strange, when i asked Sardar Attique a couple of years back about the figures - he was as clueless as any Pakistani politician is about anything and everything. True to their national tradition, Pakistani and AJK government has kept this figure as secret as well.

Massacre at Jammu
The figure of Muslims massacred by the Hindu Dogra army in conivance with the civilian Hindu population is in excess of quarter a million. There are various sources to derive this figure as safe. However, we must not forget that Hindus and Sikhs were also killed on the other side - but 1. There number was a couple of thousand (my apologies - not trying to trivilise anyone's death or destruction) and 2. It was not a state assisted killing. I have pointed out at it in my review to the book 'Lentha: Mujahid ki Diary' on Kashmir Affairs. You may follow the link: http://www.kashmiraffairs.org/lentha_shibli.html

And Why am I talking about this
We need to keep the exodus of Pandits, migration of Kashmiris and ethnic cleansing of Jammu Muslims in perspective. We can't selectively talk about one group suffering because they had to leave their houses. We need to be fair and demand an equal treat for all - Pandits, Kashmiri Muslims and Jammu Muslims - and perhaps bring them all together to show that exodus/migration is not one particular community has suffered from, but all the Kashmiris. And I forgot to mention - internal displacement of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims engineered by the Indian Army supported renegades. I remember doing a small research project on it for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) soonfater 1996 elections, and the number was staggering - we calculated more than 100,000 Kashmiris whose houses and orchards were destroyed and livelihoods obliterated and they had to live in pennury. These people still suffer and no one talks about them.

I hope this is useful.

Warmly,
Murtaza

--- On Mon, 25/8/08, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
From: Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Oranges won't work anymore
To: "Kashmir Affairs" <kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk>, "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>, "S. Jabbar" <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, 25 August, 2008, 1:10 PM

Dear Sonia

You MUST be a Kashmiri Pandit pretending to be of some other ethnicity.

OR Maybe you too are an "Agent" of the Govt. of India. You could also be from the Hindutva cadre of BJP or VHP or Bajrang Dal. Heavans forbid.

These are shots in the darkness of SARAI caused by postings that are at most times filled with bias, prejudice and presumptions with added liberal (pun not intended) doses of ignorance and misrepresentations. 

Whatever else you are, you come across to me as an independent thinker who is not a bandwagon-person nor is tempted into taking fashionable 'liberal' positions on issues (pun intended). That does not mean that you and I think alike on all subjects. 

1.  It is reported in August 2002 that 11 polling stations have been reserved for KPs (migrants) for the about to come elections. 8 in Jammu, 2 in Udhampur and 1 in Delhi. 

The report also says that 150,000 KPs (migrants) in "other" parts of the country could cast their votes by postal ballot. This is as per an Election Commission official.

This would mean that apart from the majority of  KPs (migrants) who had landed in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi there were some 150,000 KPs (migrants) more who had moved to places other than Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi.

2.  A June 2007 report about one of the Prime Minister's Working Groups headed by Hamid Ansari quotes figures from this WG to say:

 " ..........the total population of Kashmiri Pandits in the valley before migration was about 3.5 lakh. While a majority migrated to Jammu and other parts of the country, about 18,000 stayed back as of 1997." 

The report also quotes another set of figures (note that these are figures for Jammu alone) to say:

"As many as 30,206 Hindu families, 2,120 Muslim families and 1,749 Sikhs are registered as migrants with the state government and are now living in Jammu."

3. The official website of J&K Govt in an August 2000 report mentions:

"According to the Koul Report, there were 56,689 families (migrants of all communities) in Jammu and elsewhere in the country in 1997. Of them 31,490 families were in Jammu alone and 19,339 families in New Delhi."

It might be pertinent to point out that "families" were not registered as "nuclear families" but covered the direct lineage (excluding girls married out and including girls married into the family). Most cross-references for registration were linked to the "residence" in Kashmir before the 'migration'. In most cases there were 3 generations who had been living together and who were registered as a "family". 

4. CIA's "The World Factbook" mentions 600,000 IDPs in India anbd says that about half of those are Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir.

5. The Geneva based (mandated by United Nations) Internal Displacement Monitoring Cell (IDMC)  notes that the lowest number of Kashmir Pandit IDPs found from sources was 56,246 families. It translates that into the number 250,000 and credits GOI with being the source.

IDMC notes that the Highest estimates  of (Kashmiri Pandit) IDPs found from sources was QUOTE "Maybe as many as" 450,000 UNQUOTE. It credits U.S Committee for Refugees (USCR) as the source.

Kshmendra

PS. 
There is another aspect of Migration/Displacement of Kashmiri Pandits which never gets highlighted.

If one may call the post 1988 displacement an 'exodus', between 1947 and 1988 also there was an outflow of Kashmir Pandits from Kashmir for various reasons that had nothing much to do with being terrorised, even if they faced intimidation.

This was because of 'lack of opportunities' in Kashmir. This 'lack of opportunities' became a 'fait accompli' forced upon the KPs when admission to professional educational institutions  (read Medical and Engineering) started taking place on the basis of religious ratio-proportions. (I think only 10% or maybe 20% of the admissions were on 'competitive' basis). This was followed by "recruitments" and "promotions" also following the same principle though this might be difficult to substantiate though there was such an "Executive Order" for "promotions" after a specified level.

This understandably led to a constant year after year diaspora out of Kashmir towards Educational Institutions and Jobs. They were not migrating out, strictly speaking, because the "permanent residence" continued to be in Kashmir with major part of the immediate family also left behind. So children studying 'out' had their parents back in Kashmir. Those who had taken up Jobs outside also had their parents in kashmir and in many cases also the spouse and children.

If this is understood, it might be easier for some to appreciate that the Internal Displacement of Kashmiri Pandits that occured as an exodus out of Kashmir post 1988 was not confined to those numbers who physically moved out of Kashmir but also those who used to but now could not go back. Many were 'forced out' by the situation. Many had to 'stay out' because of the situation.

Census figures and numbers from Electoral Rolls could never give the full picture of the Internal Displacement.   

--- On Mon, 8/25/08, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:

From: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Oranges won't work anymore
To: "Kashmir Affairs" <kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk>, "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, 2:41 PM

Dear Murtaza,

The official figures of GoI put the Pandit refugees or internally displaced
persons (not migrants) at 100,000.  The Pandit organisations dispute that
and claim a higher number.

You put the numbers of Muslims massacred in Jammu in 1947 as 250,000.  The
Statesman correspondent in '47 had reported 60,000 dead.  Since I found
this
a very high figure even when compared to massacres in the Punjab (because
the killings in Jammu happened within a much shorter period) I had
interviewed old-timers of Jammu who were witness to the times and
specifically asked about this figure.  Each had felt the figure highly
exaggerated-- including Ved Bhasin, Balraj Puri and others who have
otherwise opposed communalism all their lives.

You also quote the number of Kashmiri refugees post-1990 in Pakistan as
100,000.  This is again an inflated figure.  The official Pakistani figure
is 15,000.  When I met with Kashmiri youth in Rawalpindi 2 years ago and
they had asked me to do something to enable them to return, they had put
their figures at 30,000.  I would guess it's somewhere in the middle.

In times of crisis some feel the need to inflate figures.  If there are 6
rapes it's not good enough, it has to be the whole village of women.  If
2,000 are killed it seems insignificant when other sites of horror like
Cambodia, Vietnam, the battlefields of the First World War, the
concentration camps of the Second can claim millions dead.

Can we pause for a moment and see what it is we are doing?

On 8/25/08 1:39 PM, "Kashmir Affairs" <kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk>
wrote:

> Pawan,
- There is by no way, I repeat no way, more than 100,000 Kashmiri
> Pandits as migrants. And this number is almost same as those Kashmiri
Muslims
> who were forced to migrate to Muzzaffarabad. While I am not trivilizing
> migration (without any prejudice to the stated cause) I think it is
important
> that when we talk about migration - we have to talk about both. In
addition,
> two million Kashmiri migrants living in various Pakistani cities have to
be
> included into it as there is at least half a million of them who would
like to
> come back.

in solidarity,
Murtaza

--- On Mon, 25/8/08, Pawan Durani
> <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
From: Pawan Durani
> <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Oranges won't work
> anymore
To: kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk
Cc: reader-list at sarai.net, "Aditya Raj
> Kaul" <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
Date: Monday, 25 August, 2008, 5:48
> AM

Murtazas figures seem to be as good as his "impartial" understanding
of
> Kashmir. What a figure ? 1,00,000 KP's migrated out of Kashmir !
I wonder how
> many marks Murtaza got in mathematics , unless he was very good only at
> divisions.

Pawan 

On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 3:48 AM, Kashmir Affairs
> <kashaffairs at yahoo.co.uk> wrote:

Wonderful. Indian 'democracy' has only one
> policy prescription in Kashmir - whole scale murder. A friend who has been
at
> very top post in IB recently wrote back to me that 'those who
don't want to
> live in India should migrate'. It seems had they not attacked the LoC
March
> whole Kashmir would have gone to the otherside. Not a bad proposition in
my
> view - life is more precious than land.

In 1947 - quarter a million were
> massacred in Jammu and two million forced to migrate.

In 1990 - 100,000
> Pandits had to leave and similar number of Kashmiri Muslims from villages
> along the LoC migrated to Muzzaffarabad.

In 2008 - thousands of Muslim
> families have been forced to leave Jammu and adjoining Hindu majority
> areas.

- 'Democracy' is just getting better. And what a wonderful way of
> scapegoating - anti-nationls, terrorists.

Welcome to Rene Gerrard's world -
> Mimesis and Violence.

Murtaza Shibli

www.kashmiraffairs.org

--- On
> Sun, 24/8/08, Aditya Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com> wrote:

From: Aditya
> Raj Kaul <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>

Subject: [Reader-list] Oranges won't work
> anymore

To: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>

Date: Sunday, 24 August,
> 2008, 7:16 PM

  *Oranges won't work anymore*

By Joginder Singh,
> Ex-Director CBI

 The CRPF Inspector-General was transferred from Srinagar
> on August 13 after

an uproar in the Kashmir Valley, led by terrorists and
> their supporters, who

alleged excesses by the Central paramilitary force. He
> was also denied the

President's police medal for fear of controversy and
> wider protests. There

is nothing new in this kind of approach as the
> decision-makers are far

removed from reality. Meanwhile, it is the police and
> the security forces

that continue to face life-and-death situations, standing
> between chaos and

order.

 In 1990s, the then Governor of Jammu & Kashmir
> lost his job for taking a

tough stand against anti-nationalist elements. That
> did not help the

situation, nor will the recent transfer of the CRPF
> Inspector-General

restore peace. On the contrary, it will embolden
> separatists and terrorists

who will now think that they can get away with
> anything.

 Wherever the Government of the day has pursued the policy of
> appeasement

and has compromised on basic values, it has invited trouble.
> Terrorism in

the Valley flourishes in direct proportion to the political will
> to deal

with the same. It commenced with the kidnapping of Ms Mehbooba Mufti,
> the

daughter of Mufti Mohammed Sayed, former Home Minister, who is now a
> former

Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir. To secure her release, the
> then

Government had freed five dreaded terrorists. This emboldened
> the

separatists and the terrorists, and was enough to start a series of
> chain

reactions in the Valley from 1988 onwards. I am an eyewitness to
> these

events as I was the InspectorGeneralof the CRPF in Srinagar at the
> time.

 The Government's tendency to sweep such incidents under the carpet
> has

today resulted in terrorists openly dictating terms to the people;
> enforcing

the *purdah* system for women, closing down beauty parlours and
> cinema

houses, etc. The Prime Minister, like many before him, gave a
> laudable

speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Independence day this
> year as he

appealed to the masses to shun communalism.

 But unfortunately,
> the whole agitation in the Kashmir Valley is based on a

communal ideology.
> The truth is, communalism in one community generates

communalism in others.
> Otherwise, how could hordes of people led by

terrorists start a rally with
> the declared aim of crossing the LoC into

Muzaffarabad? The Government should
> have responded that those who cross the

LoC illegally will not be allowed
> back into the country.

 A series of misconceived policies, or the so-called
> people-to-people

contact, have brought about this situation. Otherwise, how
> could a

mainstream political party demand that Pakistani currency be declared
> legal

tender in Jammu & Kashmir? It would be wrong to say
> that

'transferring' 97

acres of forest land to the Sri Amarnath Shrine Board
> has led to the present

crisis. The separatists and terrorists have been going
> all-out to create

disturbances and problems as per the following report of
> the Jammu &

Kashmir

Government:

 "A total of 42,147 people, including
> 20,647 militants and 5,024 security

personnel were killed in the State
> between January 1990 and the middle of

February 2007... Violence left 33,885
> people, including 12,124 security

personnel and 21,659 civilians injured
> during the same period in the

State... 11,221 civilians were killed by
> militants and another 1,678 lost

their lives in grenade and Improvised
> Explosive Device explosions, while 173

civilians were killed when they were
> caught in clashes between militants. A

total of 3,404 civilians were killed
> in cross-firing incidents between

security forces and militants... The
> highest number of 1,438 civilians were

killed in 1996, the year elections
> were held after a gap of seven year,

while the highest number of 3,602 Army
> and other paramilitary personnel lost

their lives fighting militants in the
> same year. Jammu and Kashmir Police

lost 537 personnel since January 1990. As
> many as 438 Special Police

Officers engaged by the police in
> counter-insurgency operations were killed.

127 Village Defence Committee
> members were killed fighting militants in the

State. 613 security personnel
> were killed in a single year in 2001, which

was again the highest."

 Now,
> the question arises as to what can be done. Also whether what is being

done
> is sufficient. In 1990, the midnight protests were sparked by the call

given
> by 1,100 mosques, which had installed loudspeakers to call the

faithful to
> prayer. Loudspeakers in Kashmir's mosques, then as now, are

used

to give
> calls for anti-national activities, asking the people to gather in

the
> streets or at a particular spot to stage demonstrations. The then

Governor
> had ordered the disconnection of these loudspeakers, which itself

led to
> protests.

 It is a fact that many terrorists take shelter in places of
> worship. During

my recent visit to the US I was told that the police had,
> with the

co-operation of the Muslim community and their religious leaders,
> installed

CCTV cameras in mosques to monitor any criminal activity. In a
> situation

like that which prevails in the Kashmir Valley, which has been
> highly

communalised, it is impossible to get any kind of evidence to
> prove

anti-national activities as no witness will be willing to come forth
> to

depose. Mrs Margaret Thatcher used to say publicity is the oxygen
> of

terrorism. Any publicity which eulogises terrorism should be discouraged,
> if

not completely banned.

 Terrorist leaders, their supporters and
> sympathisers should be immobilised

by using the present laws and detained
> outside Jammu & Kashmir. The

Government has announced financial assistance
> for the families of terrorists

on the grounds that it is not their fault if
> the only earning member of

their family becomes a militant. This approach is
> fraught with danger and

the sooner it is given up the better. It should not
> become a scheme to help

traitors.

 Many so-called intellectuals talk about
> a referendum in the Valley. With

Pakistan having hijacked the anti-India
> movement, any referendum or election

will be irrelevant at this point of
> time. The first priority is to drive the

Pakistani terrorists out of the
> Valley and send them to the country of their

origin. The Government should
> stop all dialogue with these militants who are

nothing more than agents of
> Pakistan. Only a tough approach will send the

right signal that the
> Government means 
> business.

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