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

Fri Jul 18 16:10:25 IST 2008

That is a personal question directed only at me. Yes, perhaps I
wouldn't, particularly if I am part of a community that is
overwhelmingly not in favour of returning, and I would return only
with a large group. And particularly if I am well settled in a job in
Delhi.

best
shivam

On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 4:08 PM, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, your take entirely, but you still haven't answered my question, which is
> would you not return to your home because you wanted to score a political
> point?
>
>
> On 7/18/08 4:00 PM, "Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्" <mail at shivamvij.com> wrote:
>
>> 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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