[Reader-list] Thinking Through Figures on Internal Displacementfrom Kashmir

[taraprakash]

O no. Jay Maharashtra is no more Shive Sena slogan. At least they don't have 
the monopoly. As they moved to Hindu Rashtra and with that to parliament, 
Jay Maharashtra became redundant to them and so available for new forces to 
appropriate. The already muddled political scenario is going to get messier 
as the communal Shiv Sena will again join hands with the communal BJP and 
Congress and MNS, who are not communal because the term communal in India is 
reserved for a particular kind of ideology, will form an alliance. As it 
gets messier, the political landscape will become fertile for military 
intervention. After which perhaps, we will be united again. Till then let us 
observe the political engineering.

Jai Dilli and Jai Florida (why not?)
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "inder salim" <indersalim at gmail.com>
To: <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Sunday, November 02, 2008 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Thinking Through Figures on Internal 
Displacementfrom Kashmir


> >
>>
>> Pawan
>>
>> Jai Maharshtra - Jai Hind.
>
> forget about  what i am doing, dismiss my actions as crazy or mad or
> anything stupid. i will not complian, i am certainly not angry/
>
> but for the sake of your own self , please answer what is is Jai 
> Maharashtra,
> and what was the relevance when you answered to following mail ( to
> Shudd's ) which ended with Jai Maharashtra,
> why not Jai J&K, or Jai Tamil Nadu etc..what is your relationship with
> the slogan which is Raj's,
> are you a Marathi or a Kashmiri?  tell me if you can ?
>
> yes, your friend, Dharti ji , and Aditya ji, can help you too,
>
> all  i want is to know why this Jai Maharashtra suddenly, when there
> is so much hate in Maharashtra against North Indians,
>
> or you think that it only poor people from Bihar and UP who are
> targeted by Raj, and you proudly join this national agenda of Raj's.
>
> I said, National, because you ended your mail with Jai Hind,
>
> so, my dear, please take a long breath, and have courage to say Jai
> Maharashtra again, but add, Jai Raj as well.
>
> I know, you will tell me and the whole List, that it is only because
> of Inder Salim, that  Pawn Durani joined Shiv Sena,
>
> you know, there is lot of humour in it.
>
> so, let us laugh,
>
> without malice towards one and all
>
> love
> is
>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> 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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>> _________________________________________
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>
>
>
> -- 
>
> http://indersalim.livejournal.com
> _________________________________________
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