[Reader-list] Kashmiri 'bandits' should .... return to their ancestral home - Washington declaration

Fri Jul 18 15:59:41 IST 2008

Dear Pawan,

Many thanks for your reply, although it was directed at Kshmendra, who
has surprisingly not replied so far. Sometimes I wonder whether
Kshmendra exists at all or if he is elusive like the solution to the
Kashmir dispute.

> Regarding the 16000 crore package , the finer things
> about the package is not known to many people and
> most of the media just caught up with the headlines.
> We may discuss the 16000 crore package sometime else.

The details have indeed come out:
http://www.greaterkashmir.com/full_story.asp?Date=26_4_2008&ItemID=51&cat=1

Your attempt to brush this away makes me wonder even more: now when
the government is paying to share substantial costs to return to the
Valley, now that militancy is at its lowest, why don't you return?
More details about how the package would be operationalised are
immaterial because various Pandit leaders have rejected the very idea
outright.

> When you quote that many Kashmiri hindu businessman spend 6
> months in Kashmir , i may not disagree that the few people do.
> I am sure you know the percentage of Kashmiri
> Hindu businessmen . Kindly share it with rest of the group.
> My idea is that it is less than 1%.

Well, I met some such and was told about them. But the point is that
if it is safe for some to live for six months, why is it unsafe for
others to live for twelve months? You can say that a certain district
is still unsafe, you arre afraid, but why can't those in Srinagar want
to return.

One point you haven't answered is: WHY WOULD SOMEONE WHO HAS SOLD HIS
PROPERTY RETURN? I am told that 7 in 10 migrants have sold their
properties and have thus given up their stake in the valley -
something that the Pandits who refused to migrate are pained about.
What are the reasons for selling property?

> where they are welcome as tourist
> but not as permanent residents

This is completely untrue. The local population is in fact guilty that
the Pandits were kicked out in the first place, and the 'separatists'
regret it even more because the Indian government used the plight of
the Pandits as a scoring point against the separatists.

(For the same reason not a single yatri was attacked, and in fact
Muslims held langars in Srinagar, during nine days of strike,
agitation and CRPF firing in the Valley. It was not so much an act of
charity but a politically calculated act of restraint.)

> Also once bitten is twice shy , and Kashmiri
> Hindus have been bitten more than 8 times in last 1000 years .

And the Pandits have been migrating for ages. In my city, Lucknow,
they have had a rich history, as also in Delhi. Not all Pandits are
refugees, and not all pandit refugees live / lived in camps - somehow
the discourse on pandits have stereotyped a hardworking, literate,
upwardly mobile community as refugees and  nothing else.

> This time the return has to be on terms of Kashmiri Hindus.
> And one of the term is a separate homeland with a
> full flow of Indian constitution.

Pandits did not leave Kashmir in protest of the J&K constitution. In
1989 Pandits did not say, "Extend Indian Constitution to Kashmir or
we'll leave." They left because of threats of violence and if the
threats of violence have been replaced by calls for return and
assurances of safety, why don't they return? And most refugees went to
nearby Jammu where the 'full flow' of the Indian Constitution applies
as much as it does in Sopore. There were also Pandits displaced within
the valley many of whom have accepted a rehabilitation package from
the J&K government.

Why should Pandits have a separate homeland? And if that is what they
want, why shouldn't Kashmir have independence from India? This seems
to be going in the logic of the Partition of India. The kashmir issue
is an unsettled sore thumb of the partition.

The Pandits were and are a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir
which had independence for three months, which is the only state to
have its own flag, its own Constitution, rules debarring outsiders
from buying land. It has 28 vacant seats for PoK but this logic is not
extended to the Parliament of India. J&K has a UN observer mission, it
has an LoC rather than an international border - in short, even the
Constitution of India indirectly admits that kashmir is a disputed
territory.

Now you can demand a separate homeland for Pandits or demand whatever
whether you are living in Anantnag or Amsterdam. But, again: that is
not why you left Kashmir. You left because of killings and threats,
and now that they are no more, why don;t you return? And cosnidering
you have sold your land, do you even want to return? Would my dear
friend ARK leave Ramjas College and go to Kashmir University - or the
Vaishnu Devi university or the proposed Sharda Peeth for that matter?
If 2500 people who are still there and who never migrated, can live
there, why can't you?

And Kashmir has something stronger than the 'full flow' of the Indian
Constitution. It has the Indian army, BSF, CRPF at every nook and
corner.

best
shivam

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:04 AM, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Shivam ,
>
> I appreciate your curiosity.
>
> Regarding the 16000 crore package , the finer things about the package is not known to many people and most of the media just caught up with the headlines. We may discuss the 16000 crore package sometime else.
>
> When you quote that many Kashmiri hindu businessman spend 6 months in Kashmir , i may not disagree that the few people do. I am sure you know the percentage of Kashmiri Hindu businessmen . Kindly share it with rest of the group. My idea is that it is less than 1%.So if less than 1% Kashmiri Hindus visit Kashmir , where they are welcome as tourist but not as permanent residents , that should not be a quoting figure for normalcy.
>
> Also once bitten is twice shy , and Kashmiri Hindus have been bitten more than 8 times in last 1000 years . This time the return has to be on terms of Kashmiri Hindus.And one of the term is a separate homeland with a full flow of Indian constitution.
>
> For Kashmiri Hindus , the political reasons do not make any reason for their non returning . They don't have a representative in assembly or the national parliament. The reason has everything to what they had witnessed sometimes back , which made them run away to save lives and honour.
>
> Regards
>
> Pawan Durani
>
>
> On 7/17/08, Shivam Vij शिवम् विज् <mail at shivamvij.com> wrote:
>>
>> While a typo can be ignored, the question is worth asking: what prevents
>> pandits from being 'faciliated' to return? Militancy has declined, nobody is
>> holding a gun to Pandits' temples and quita  few happily (especially
>> businessmen) are spending six months in the Valley and six in Delhi. But
>> many. Why has the package of Rs. 16,000 crores been rejected? Do Pandits
>> even want to reurn, considering 70% have sold their land back home? And why
>> don't they want to return, considering they can buy land? Is it political
>> reasons rather than safety? Is is that many non-Jammu migrants are well
>> settled in Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, New York? Is it that returning would mean
>> giving up the political uses of victimhood and let 'separatists' say, "Look,
>> even the Pandits are back." I am not making these allegations but asking
>> questions. Like all communities the Pandits are a divided community.
>> Kshmendra Kaul does not represent them all. Everyone has different reasons
>> and different circumstances.
>>
>> best
>> shivam
>>
>>
>> On 7/16/08, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > A "International Kashmir Peace Conference" was held Washington D.C,
>> > 14th-15th July. It adopted the "Washington Declaration".
>> >
>> > The website of "Association of Humanitarian Lawyers", one of the sponsors
>> > of the Conference, furnishes the text of the "Declaration"
>> >
>> > Point 8 in it reads "The Conference calls for protection of all minorities.
>> > All the displaced persons including Kashmiri bandits should be facilitated
>> > to return to their ancestral home."
>> >
>> > http://www.humanlaw.org/kashmirstatement.html
>> >
>> > Did not know that "bandits" had been displaced out of Kashmir. At least
>> > they are being called 'displaced' and not 'migrants'
>> >
>> > KK
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > _________________________________________
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
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