[Reader-list] Kashmiri Pandits: Will their scars ever heal?

[Aditya Raj Kaul]

Kashmiri Pandits: Will their scars ever heal?
Hard News - http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2009/03/2679

* "Their relatively small numbers coupled with a tradition of non-violent
protest have made the Kashmiri Pandits irrelevant in the political
discourse"*

*Anuja Khushu Jammu*

*"I want to see my apple trees, take me to my orchards. I want to sit under
the Chinar tree. Want to see my fields, my cows, buffalo sheds. Take me to
my Kashmir,"* says Gunwati, 75, everytime when someone happens to pass by
her home or comes to see her family.

Neha Pandita, 16, who lives in Mishriwala Camp, says that her parents burst
into tears everytime they remember their lives in Kashmir. *"Sometimes I
enjoy these things, but only in dreams and not in reality. I want to see all
these in reality."*

Even today, the years of living under constant stress has left women like
Gunwati ravaged. While Gunwati longs for the land of her youth, for young
Neha, they do not even form the stuff of memories. She has spent most of her
growing years in a camp in Jammu, only hearing about the homeland from the
older generation. Both the women are Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced out
of their homes in the Kashmir Valley because of the violence during the
years of militancy beginning in the early 1990s.

The impact of the conflict on these women and on thousands of people is
directly related to the daily environment in which grenade explosions,
improvised explosive device blasts, killings and encounters were more common
than perhaps a routine day at work or a family gathering for the evening
meal. The pain of experiencing brutal killings, of damaged residences and
watching communities migrating to other regions, all had a direct bearing on
the psyche of the people who lived in the conflict zone.

The fallout of this has been highly detrimental to the collective psyche of
people across Kashmir leading to wide-spread stress-related disorders. For
the community of Kashmiri Pandits, however, this has been compounded by the
fact that they have been rendered homeless and rootless. Now, living in
Jammu , they still carry the scars.

As many as 300,000 people fled their home and hearth, reduced to living the
lives of refugees outside Kashmir. In what appears to be a flicker of a
moment, they lost almost everything that their lives were based on: their
roots, identity, homes, possessions and, most painful, their sense of
belonging. Even their memories were full of the trauma and tragedy of being
uprooted.

Even after 18 years of migration, majority of the Kashmiri Pandits are
living in squalid camps in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi with families of five
to six people often huddled into a small room. Living in abysmal conditions
in camps, they face spiraling health and economic problems. Sometimes, a
single room is shared by three generations. At other places, sometimes, six
families lived in one hall separated by partitions of blankets or bedsheets.
For those who lived in the idyllic environs of the Kashmir valley, this
degeneration of life has been unbearable.

Leading neurologist, Dr Sushil Razdan, conducted a study to estimate the
prevalence of dementia among the elderly population in a migrant camp at
Mishirwala in Jammu. He found that it is 6.5 per cent among the Kashmiri
Pandits aged 60 years and above which is higher than that reported from
other parts of India. "Such individuals, mostly middle-aged, are unable to
adjust to the cultural setup, language, environment alien to them and so
many other things," says Dr Razdan. They feel cut-off and experience a sense
of aloofness as most of the youngsters in search of a better future have
moved to different parts of the country and even abroad, leaving their old
parents alone, he says.


A 1997 study based on inquiries at various migrant camps in Jammu and Delhi
revealed that there had been only 16 births compared to 49 deaths in about
300 families between 1990 and 1995, a period during which terrorist violence
in J&K was at a peak. Deaths were recorded mostly of people in the age group
of 20 to 45. Dr KL Chowdhary, an eminent physician and neurologist.
Says, *"Causes
for the low birth rates were primarily identified as premature menopause in
women, hypo-function of the reproductive system and lack of adequate
accommodation and privacy."*

The trauma of the exodus has taken a toll on all. The incidence of
stress-related conditions like insomnia, depression and hypertension have
increased and birth rates have declined significantly. Doctors who have been
treating members of the community say that they had aged physically and
mentally by 10 to 15 years beyond their natural age and this trend could
threaten their very existence as a community. The larger questions of loss
of identity and roots plague them along with problems stemming from their
daily lives.

The days of heightened militancy have receded and the spectre of violence is
fading out. Yet, the trauma of the conflict remain particularly on those
whose lives have changed beyond recognition. The political parties,
government machinery, judiciary, media and NGOs, have all failed to fight
for the cause of these hapless people. The silence on the plight of Kashmiri
Pandits is deafening. Their relatively small numbers coupled with a
tradition of non-violent protest have made them largely irrelevant in the
political discourse.

After the exodus of 1990, most Kashmiri Pandits were hopeful that they would
one day return to their homes in the Valley with same honour and dignity
they once had. But, the months stretched into years, and, now the years have
stretched into a decade-and-a-half of exile. The end is nowhere in sight.
The yearning for their homeland is still confined to the dreams that Gunwati
and others like her cherish of once again seeing their precious Chinar trees
and apple orchards in the Kashmir valley.

*Charkha Features*