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

[Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्]

Dear Sonia,

I don't think I was being either naive or offensive.

best
shivam

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 10:58 AM, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Shivam,
>
> I'm surprised that it's you asking this question.  It is both offensive and
> naïve to suggest that Pandits are not returning because they are holding on
> to a sense of victimhood to further political ends.  Though there are,
> undoubtedly, political formations that benefit from the continuing
> displacement of the Pandits, including the Government of India, it is wrong
> to suggest that over 200,000 people who have lost their homes, lands and
> livelihood would prefer to stay in some dump in the plains because of
> political gain.
>
> Would you think like that if it had happened to you?  I wouldn't.  If it was
> safe enough for me to return, I would.  The way things are at present no
> Kashmiri Pandit would risk moving back without guarantees of safety to life
> and limb.  Who will give them that, the GoI that has been helpless when
> massacres have taken place?  Kashmiri Muslims, who themselves are at risk
> from the militant's gun?
>
> Tragically, in the past, every time the GoI announced some package to
> facilitate the return of the Pandits and the press made a noise about a few
> families returning, there were massacres of the Pandits that had remained in
> the valley: Wandhama, Telwani, Sangrampora, and Nadimarg. The killings were
> brutal and they were brutal because the killers wanted to send out a message
> in no uncertain terms.  I doubt anyone in their right minds would ignore
> that and put their loved ones at risk.
>
> The return of the Pandits would signal the end of militancy and a real
> return to normalcy.  Obviously there are groups that will oppose this unless
> it is part of a deal between India and Pakistan on Kashmir.  Only with a
> formal end to the war, a settlement of the Kashmir issue, with the
> declaration of various packages for various groups, can the Pandits actually
> return.  Until then, of course individuals are free to come and go and
> nobody is 'holding a gun to their heads,' but that is surely not the same
> thing.
>
> Interestingly, there are many thousand Kashmiri Muslim  men stranded on the
> other side of the border who left Kashmir in the early days of the movement
> and long to return to Kashmir.  They fear arrest and torture.  I met some of
> them when I was in Pakistan.  They, too, dare not risk returning until the
> formal end of the war.
>
> With so many lives at stake-- those who have left, those whose lives remain
> hellish in J&K, it is imperative that we keep pressuring the governments of
> India & Pakistan to settle this issue.  Sadly, the momentum has been lost
> because of domestic compulsions in both countries, and I don't see things
> getting resolved in a hurry.
>
> -sj
>
>
> On 7/17/08 6:42 PM, "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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