[Reader-list] Thinking Through Figures on Internal Displacement from Kashmir

Sun Nov 2 12:39:24 IST 2008

IInder,

till date i have not got a reply ohn when you would get yourslef
photographed in the Mosque premesis like you got one done in Martand Temple.

Pawan

On 11/1/08, inder salim <indersalim at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> dear Pawan,
>
> Vafadari bashart-e ustuvari, asl-e imaan hai
> Mare buut khane mein, to kabe mein gard do Brahman ko ( Ghalib )
>
> Condition of realization of 'belief' is faithfulness with a deep
> commitment.
> And if the Brahman dies in the temple of  idols, bury him  the Kabba.
> #
> Commentary: I asked my professor, he said, the belief  ( Imaan ) here,
> is not about Religion, but about universal human values, such as
> Love…. and if the idol worshipper, the Brahmin, dies in a temple of
> idols, then dig a pit in kabba and drop him there. Well, Ghalib never
> bothered to perform Haj, and as inheritor of deep Indian Sufi
> traditions of erstwhile Sufi Saints and poets, he, therefore, must
> have found Hajis no better than Brahmins. ( just an interpretation
>
> well, if  you can please convey the below mentioned  couplet to Jai
> Maharashtrawalla,, Jai Bals, Jai, Rajs and Ji Bharat lovers. here it
> is again
>
> BAITHA HAI JO KI SAYAH -DIVAR-E- YAR MEIN
> FARMAN-RAVAE KISHVAR-E- HINDUSTAN HAI ( Ghalib )
>
> HE, WHO GETS TO SIT IN THE SHADOW OF THE WALL OF THE BELOVED'S HOME,
> IS INDEED THE EXALTED RULER OF INDIA
>
>
> without malice towards one and all
>
> is
>
> On Sat, Nov 1, 2008 at 2:11 PM, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > Dear Shuddha,
> >
> > It is a disaster for any nation to have a person like you as a citizen .
> >
> > Kashmiri Pandits have not stopped any other displaced community from
> raising
> > their voices.
> >
> > Since , we Kashmiri Pandits have been victimised , it is but natural for
> us
> > to raise our voice for our rights. Once we get our rights, then only we
> can
> > support others.
> >
> > Mind it , we are fighting for ourselves and it is a unpaid job, unlike
> some
> > surrogates who act proxy for secessionists in Kashmir and support their
> > cause by trying to create an opinion.
> >
> > Also Shuddha , just shut up your lip service for Kashmiri pandits. We
> know
> > where you are coming from ! Don't play around with words.
> >
> > Your words , as always are manipulative with an agenda....... dont play
> > around and instead take a walk.
> >
> > I am sure this group by now knows your plans and agenda.
> >
> > And dont worry , till the killers of Kashmiri Pandits are not hanged in
> the
> > Tohar jail........Panun Kashmir and Roots In Kashmir would not rest.
> >
> > We have to set an example , once for all. We have already suffered 10
> > migrations in 10 centuries.........
> >
> >
> > Now ...no more........
> >
> >
> > No need to be sad ...Shuiddha.....
> >
> >
> > Pawan
> >
> > Jai Maharshtra - Jai Hind.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On 10/29/08, Shuddhabrata Sengupta <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> >>
> >> Dear All,
> >>
> >> Apologies for what will be a lengthy posting. And those driven to
> >> exasperation (like me) by the repeated monopolization of this list by
> >> matters 'Kashmiri' may not want to read this. But, those who are
> >> interested in more general matters to do with the politics and
> >> rhetoric of the representation of victimhood, might.
> >>
> >> I have read with interest the ongoing discussion on the plight of the
> >> displaced Kashmiri Pandit community in India. I totally agree with
> >> Kirdar Singh's recent declaration of sympathy for the displaced
> >> Kashmiri Pandit community, and hope that an improvement in conditions
> >> on the ground in Kashmir and India will enable displaced Kashmir
> >> Pandits to return to their homes in safety and dignity. I support the
> >> implementation of whatever practical and fair measures that can be
> >> taken to ensure that this can happen.
> >>
> >> It needs to be recognized that there are significant voices in
> >> Kashmir that insist today (both within and outside the movement for
> >> liberation from occupation) that a future for Kashmir without
> >> Kashmiri Pandits is not worth fighting for. Those who refuse to
> >> listen to, or acknowledge these voices, live in a denial of their own
> >> making.
> >>
> >> Having said that, I need to point out that a large number of those
> >> who speak for Kashmiri Pandits on this list and on other public fora,
> >> and the organizations that they represent, such as Panun Kashmir and
> >> Roots in Kashmir, are in my opinion, part of the problem, not of the
> >> solution. Their aggressive efforts to monopolize the public space for
> >> discussion of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit question is obstructive
> >> and loaded with a deeply divisive and communal agenda that
> >> perpetuates a cycle of hate and prejudice.They are committed to a
> >> politics of confrontation and antagonism that makes it more, not less
> >> difficult for Kashmiri Pandits to return to the Kashmir valley. They
> >> are also more than willing to be used by right wing forces such as
> >> the BJP and other mainstream parties (including sections of so called
> >> secular parties such as the Congress) that want to keep the so called
> >> 'Kashmir question' alive as a means to blackmail Indians and
> >> Kashmiris into submission for the sake of their agenda of an
> >> extractive and authoritarian state.
> >>
> >> In fact, it could well be said that they have a vested interest in
> >> the perpetuation of the pitiable state in which the majority of
> >> displaced Kashmir Pandits find themselves in today. As long as
> >> Kashmiri Pandits can be projected to the world as in a permanent
> >> status of victimhood and abjection, organizations like Panun Kashmir
> >> (all factions) and Roots in Kashmir, and their political mentors will
> >> continue to be in business. The repeated and monotonous attempts by
> >> these individuals and the organizations and networks they represent
> >> need to be seen in this light.
> >>
> >> While expressing our full sympathy with the plight of displaced
> >> Kashmiri Pandits, it is important at the same time not to lose sight
> >> of the fact that the displaced Kashmiri Pandits are one, and only one
> >> of the many displaced communities in India.
> >>
> >> Also, it is important to keep in mind that no other displaced
> >> community in India has had as much attention bestowed upon it as have
> >> displaced Kashmiri Pandits. This does not mean that there should be
> >> less attention given to the genuine and legitimate problems and
> >> concerns of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, it only means the
> >> monopolization of the discussion on internal displacement in India by
> >> the monotonous repetition of the woes of displaced Kashmiri Pandits
> >> does a great deal of violence to other communities that have been
> >> displaced. It also prevents an effective solidarity from within
> >> internally displaced communities on the question of displacement. In
> >> the long term, this can only be a disaster for the displaced Kashmiri
> >> Pandit community. It is a disaster for which organizations such as
> >> Panun Kashmir and Roots in Kashmir are responsible, and many sensible
> >> displaced and other Kashmiri Pandits are beginning to see through
> >> this game today. Hopefully, it is only a matter of time before these
> >> organizations are exposed and isolated from within the displaced
> >> Kashmiri Pandit communities that they currently hold in their
> >> stranglehold.
> >>
> >> The current leadership of organizations such as Panun Kashmir and
> >> Roots in Kashmir, and their representatives on this list and other
> >> fora have displayed a degree of 'Kashmiri Pandit exceptionalism' that
> >> needs to be seen as deeply insensitive to the plight of all
> >> internally displaced communities in India, and ultimately damaging to
> >> the constituency that they claim to represent. One would have thought
> >> that the experience of speaking for and on behalf of one displaced
> >> community (the Kashmiri Pandits) would have sensitized them to the
> >> predicaments of other communities that share their fate.
> >> Unfortunately that is not the case, neither organizations such as
> >> Panun Kashmir and Roots in Kashmir, nor their sympathizers in
> >> political parties such as the Bharatiya Janata Part and the Shiv
> >> Sena, nor their partisans in Hindutva outfits such as the Rashtriya
> >> Svayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Bajrang Dal, nor
> >> indeed the many prominent writers and intellectuals such as Arun
> >> Shourie, Swapan Dasgupta, Sandhya Jain and others who have commented
> >> on the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits have ever thought it
> >> necessary to make common cause with other displaced communities.
> >>
> >> This means that as far as most of the above are concerned, the plight
> >> of displaced communities other than Kashmiri Pandits is of no
> >> consequence. My concern with the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits
> >> stems from the predicament of their displacement, not because they
> >> are Kashmiri Pandits. This is what makes it necessary to view their
> >> displacement and abjectness in a way that is connected to the
> >> displacement and abjection of the many other communities.
> >>
> >> We might consider also, that of all the internally displaced
> >> communities in India, it is the displaced Kashmiri Pandits who have
> >> had the maximum political leverage extracted for them and on their
> >> behalf. This 'leverage' ranges from -
> >>
> >> a) special legislation to protect their rights to property left
> >> behind by them (J&K Migrants Immovable Property: Preservation,
> >> Protection and Restraint of Distress Sales Act, 1997)  to a stay on
> >> court cases and civil judicial processes involving displaced Kashmiri
> >> Pandits (J&K Migrants: Stay on Proceedings Act, 1997)
> >>
> >> to a series of
> >>
> >> b) administrative measures concerning health, housing, education, ex-
> >> gratia payments, stipends and employment enacted by central as well
> >> as state governments specifically with regard to displaced people
> >> from Jammu and Kashmir, the overwhelming majority of whom, happen to
> >> be displaced Kashmiri Pandits.
> >>
> >> In fact, the state government of Jammu and Kashmir had in 1997
> >> constituted an Apex Level Comittee under the chairmanship of the
> >> Revenue, Relief and Rehabilitation Minister to look into all aspects
> >> of the problems of displaced Kashmiri Pandits and suggest solutions.
> >> A sub committee headed by the financial commissioner (planning and
> >> development) was constituted to prepare a plan for the return of
> >> migrants. This sub committee finalized an Action Plan for the
> >> returnand rehabilitation of Kashmiri migrants involving a total
> >> amount of Rs. 2589.3 crores.
> >>
> >> In the interim, many special relief packages have been announced from
> >> time to time from the discretionary funds of the Prime Minister for
> >> the upgradation of assistance to displaced Kashmiri Pandits living in
> >> camps in Jammu and Delhi Even the defence ministry has on occasion
> >> released funds from its 'Security Related Expenses' (SRE) fund for
> >> the improvement of camp infrastructure.
> >>
> >> [for details of all of the above, see 'Government Relief to Kashmiri
> >> Pandits and their Rehabilitation' - Annexure 1, pgs 91 - 101, in
> >> 'Kashmiri Pandits: Problems and Perspectives - A Dialogue for Dignity
> >> - Report  of the Conference on Kashmiri Pandits held at the Observer
> >> Research Foundation, New Delhi, 2003, published by Rupa & Co. in
> >> association with the Observer Research Foundation, Delhi, 2005]
> >>
> >> I am not for a moment suggesting that these measures are adequate to
> >> the needs of the displaced Kashmiri Pandit community. What I am
> >> however acutely mindful of is the fact that no other internally
> >> displaced community in India has had as much resources spent on it,
> >> as many special measures (legislative and executive) taken on its
> >> behalf and attracted as much media attention as displaced Kashmiri
> >> Pandits have had. Compared to the conditions in which other
> >> internally displaced communities in India live, displaced Kashmiri
> >> Pandits are in a far more advantageous position. This ought to have
> >> made the most vocal amongst those who claim to be their spokepersons
> >> less aggressive, less narcissistic and more compassionate.
> >> Unfortunately, that is not the case.
> >>
> >> Let us now turn to seeing exactly what the conditions of other
> >> internally displaced communities in India are like.
> >>
> >> I am going to quote extensively here from reports and facts available
> >> at the website of the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, an
> >> international rights group that concerns itself with the situation of
> >> internally displaced communities the world over. Specifically, I am
> >> looking at the webpage within this site that concerns internal
> >> displacement in India.
> >>
> >> see - <www.internal-displacement.org/countries/india>
> >>
> >> This is an excellent site, and is totally non-partisan. It highlights
> >> the plight of all internally-displaced communities, without biases
> >> and is a good place to get to know a balanced overall picture of
> >> internal displacement in India (as well as elsewhere)
> >>
> >> ON DISPLACEMENT FIGURES
> >>
> >> "The most common figure for the total number of internally displaced
> >> in India is 600,000. This figure comprises:
> >>
> >> · at least 250,000 people displaced from Kashmir (government figure)
> >> · 45,000 people who are still displaced along the Indian side of the
> >> Line of Control between India and Pakistan and cannot return despite
> >> the ceasefire
> >> · 230,000 displaced in Assam due to the conflict between Santhals and
> >> Bodos during the 1990s
> >> · 31,000 Reang displaced from Mizoram to Tripura
> >> · 45,000 displaced in the state of Chhattisgarh due to insurgency"
> >>
> >> (these figures at the moment do not include the large numbers of
> >> people displaced in the Kandhamal district of Orissa due to the anti-
> >> Christian violence there, of which the site has good reports and
> >> updates.)
> >>
> >> The site goes on to say -
> >>
> >> "These groups reside in camps and are therefore relatively easy to
> >> identify, but they constitute only part of the picture. The number of
> >> 600,000 does not include thousands of displaced in the Karbi-Anglong
> >> area of Assam and in Manipur where fighting between ethnic groups and
> >> counter-insurgency operations have displaced whole villages during
> >> the past few years. Many are displaced temporarily and are able to
> >> return after some weeks or months in displacement while an
> >> undetermined number are still displaced and receive no assistance. In
> >> Tripura, as many as 100,000-300,000 people of Bengali origin are
> >> estimated to have been displaced for the same reasons during the past
> >> decade, but no information exists about the return or continued
> >> displacement of this group (AHRC, January 2007, "Tripura"). In the
> >> state of Chhattisgarh, it is assumed that thousands have escaped the
> >> conflict between the authorities and Maoist groups by crossing over
> >> to neighbouring states, and they too are not part of the statistics.
> >> Nor does the figure take in the flight of migrant workers, as for
> >> example in Assam in January 2007 when Biharis were forced to leave in
> >> a matter of days due to threats and killings by local insurgents. The
> >> current estimate should therefore be seen as representing the camp
> >> population only and not those internally displaced who largely live
> >> unassisted with friends or relatives, or blend with other slum
> >> residents on the outskirts of the urban areas.
> >>
> >> It is therefore fair to assume that the total number of displaced is
> >> far higher than the figure of 600,000, although it is not possible to
> >> give a global estimate."
> >>
> >> ON RELIEF CAMPS
> >>
> >> "The relief camps for internally displaced in the North-East are
> >> reportedly in a deplorable condition. Camps for the displaced across
> >> the region are said to lack adequate shelter, food, health care,
> >> education and protection. This pattern has been confirmed by earlier
> >> reports which have documented that displaced throughout the North-
> >> East face severe hardship. Many of them live in public buildings and
> >> makeshift shelters, with little health care and no access to formal
> >> education (SAHRDC, March 2001). Both in Assam and in Tripura, acute
> >> food shortages and lack of health care leave internally displaced in
> >> acute hardship (MCRG, December 2006; AHRC, January 2007, p.136). The
> >> state governments say they have no money to provide relief to the
> >> displaced population and that they depend on support from the central
> >> government. Furthermore, thousands of those displaced by local
> >> insurgent groups in the state are reported to have received no relief
> >> at all, and are camping alongside roads in makeshift houses seven
> >> years after having been displaced (Deccan Herald, 22 May 2005). In
> >> Assam, it has been documented that the relief camps in the region are
> >> a major recruitment ground for trafficking of women to other places
> >> in India (BBC, 10 April 2007; IRIN, 17 May 2006).
> >>
> >> The same situation is reported from other relief camps for internally
> >> displaced in India. In Chhattisgarh, several reports have documented
> >> that the relief camps offer neither adequate assistance, nor
> >> protection to the internally displaced. In Gujarat, there are reports
> >> of immense trauma among children and women who witnessed atrocities
> >> or were victims of the 2002 riots (IIJ, December 2003, pp.64, 67;
> >> HRW, July 2003). Also, the displaced Muslim population faces acute
> >> poverty as their livelihoods were largely destroyed during the riots.
> >> Continued discrimination has left most of them unemployed, with
> >> female-headed households being particularly vulnerable. The relief
> >> camps have inadequate basic amenities such as potable water, sanitary
> >> facilities, schools and primary healthcare centres (AHRC, 10 January
> >> 2007, pp. 19-20; Bisht, 16 January 2007; AI, January 2005, 7.6.c;
> >> IIJ, December 2003). "
> >>
> >> ON INDIAN GOVERNMENTS POLICIES REGARDING IDPs
> >>
> >> "The Indian government has repeatedly expressed reservations in
> >> international fora about the UN Guiding Principles on Internal
> >> Displacement, which it sees as infringing its national sovereignty.
> >> India has no national IDP policy targeting conflict-induced IDPs, and
> >> the responsibility for IDP assistance and protection is frequently
> >> delegated to the state governments. Furthermore, although it is well
> >> documented that Indian military, paramilitary and police forces have
> >> engaged in serious human rights abuses in conflict zones, there have
> >> been no attempts at transparent investigations or prosecutions of
> >> those responsible (HRW, 12 September, 2006)."
> >>
> >> ON AD HOC AND DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT REGARDING DIFFERENT IDP
> >> POPULATIONS
> >>
> >> "Although the Indian government provides support to conflict-affected
> >> populations, such assistance is mostly ad hoc and does not correspond
> >> to the needs of the displaced. State governments are assigned the
> >> main responsibility to assist and rehabilitate the displaced, but
> >> practices vary significantly from state to state (Nath, January 2005,
> >> p.68).
> >>
> >> The Indian government has been accused of discriminatory treatment of
> >> internally displaced because the displaced Kashmiri Pandit population
> >> overall receives much more support than displaced communities
> >> elsewhere in the country (NNHR, 19 February 2007)."
> >>
> >> The Indian government has been accused of failing to adhere to the UN
> >> Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement and other international
> >> human rights standards in its response to displacement in Kashmir and
> >> Gujarat (AI, January 2005; HRW July 2003, p.38; ORF, September 2003).
> >> One survey conducted among different displaced communities in India
> >> reveals that over 55 per cent of the internally displaced do not
> >> receive any support at all and only 13 per cent receive any
> >> assistance from the authorities. The report also reveals that more
> >> than 70 percent of the surveyed population believe that return will
> >> be impossible, a fact that underlines the need for the government to
> >> work out sustainable solutions (MCRG, December 2006, p. 16). In
> >> Gujarat, human rights organisations blame local authorities as well
> >> as the state government for failing to address the needs of the
> >> displaced altogether, despite promises made by the government with
> >> regard to rehabilitation (IIJ, December 2003; HRW, July 2003).
> >>
> >> INTERNAL DISPLACEMENT DUE TO DEVELOPMENT
> >>
> >> "Available reports indicate that more than 21 million people are
> >> internally displaced due to development projects in India. Although
> >> the tribal population only make up eight percent of the total
> >> population, more than 50 per cent of the development induced
> >> displaced are tribal peoples – in India also known as Scheduled
> >> Tribes or Adivasis (HRW, January 2006). Ongoing research indicate
> >> that between 1945-2000 the number of displaced who did not receive
> >> rehabilitation could be as high as 50-60 million people."
> >>
> >> Clearly, all of the above indicates that the problem of displaced
> >> Kashmiri Pandits in India needs to be seen within a larger
> >> perspective. And when we take that perspective into account we
> >> realize that displaced Kashmiri Pandits constitute what might be
> >> called the 'creamy layer' (by virtue of the disproportionate amount
> >> of resources and attention that they obtain) of the overall situation
> >> of internal displacement in India.
> >>
> >> Finally, a brief note on the extinction of cultures and human
> >> populations, a question that has been raised by Kshmendra Kaul in one
> >> of his recent postings. I fully agree with Kshmendra, we need to pay
> >> careful attention to the problem of cultural extinction. But even
> >> from that point of view, the situation of
> >>
> >> According to census figures, Kashmiri Pandits constituted 15 % of the
> >> Valley's population in 1941. This came down to 5 % by 1981 and 0.1 %
> >> by around 2003. While a significant proportion of the decrease of 4.9
> >> % (registered between 1981 and today) can be attributable to the
> >> political conditions pertaining since 1989-90 (the years that Pandits
> >> say there were targetted and forced to leave), to what can we
> >> attribute the 10 % decline (from 15 % to 5 %) in the Kashmiri Pandit
> >> population in the Kashmir valley between 1941 and 1981?
> >>
> >> In those forty years, India's writ ran unchallenged in the part of
> >> Kashmir held by India,  and the Kashmiri Pandit elite was very much
> >> part of the governing equation, both in the Kashmir valley, as well
> >> as in India. Clearly, a significant section from within the Kashmiri
> >> Pandit population (which was highly educated and considerably
> >> affluent) did not, in those forty years care as much for the
> >> retention of its cultural ethos in the Kashmir valley as much as it
> >> did for the betterment of the material prospects of members of the
> >> Kashmiri Pandit community in metropolitan India and elsewhere.
> >>
> >> In other words, while I totally agree with Kshmendra that we are all
> >> diminished when a community as culturally and intellectually vibrant
> >> as the Kashmiri Pandits find themselves virtually effaced from their
> >> homeland, I do at the same time think that this condition requires
> >> Kashmiri Pandits today to do some soul searching as to why they were
> >> so eager to abandon the Kashmir valley in the years between 1947 and
> >> 1989. Had they stayed on, or retained an interest in the way in which
> >> the valley was systematically misgoverned, under the aegis of the
> >> Indian occupation, then perhaps conditions might indeed have been
> >> different. '
> >>
> >> I still think that there is hope, no sensible person in Kashmir (no
> >> matter what their politics or affiliation)  for a single moment
> >> refuses to recognize that Kashmiri Pandits are part of the cultural
> >> mosaic of Kashmir. In countless conversations that I have had my with
> >> who stay in Kashmir, I have heard people state that they yearn for
> >> the return of all displaced Kashmiri Pandits because Kashmir feels
> >> incomplete without them. Perhaps a new generation of displaced and
> >> other Kashmiri Pandits will reciprocate (over the heads of Panun
> >> Kashmir and Roots in Kashmir) and re-engage with what is going on in
> >> Kashmir in a spirit of solidarity. For this to happen, there needs to
> >> be a recognition of the difficulties that everyone in Kashmir has
> >> faced in the last sixty odd years, and a reversal of the cultural,
> >> political and demographic abandonment of Kashmir by a section of the
> >> Kashmiri Pandit elite that began, not in 1989, but much earlier.
> >>
> >> I hope that this helps us clarify the terms on which the discussion
> >> on internal displacement, and the internally displaced Kashmiri
> >> Pandits, and the politics of perpetual victimhood can ensure, and I
> >> hope that the exploitation of a vulgar quantification of pain and
> >> oppression, which I personally find deeply distasteful, may cease on
> >> this list. We do not need to prove to each other how much worse off
> >> we are in our individual capacities in order to develop an argument
> >> against oppression.
> >>
> >> regards,
> >>
> >> Shuddha
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> _________________________________________
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> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
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>
>
>
> --
>
> http://indersalim.livejournal.com
> _________________________________________
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