The Odyssey Of Kashmiri Pandits : Destination-Homeland-Panun Kashmir, by Dr. M.L.BHAT.

................................................................................................

THE ODYSSEY OF KASHMIRI PANDITS :

DESTINATION-HOMELAND-PANUN KASHMIR

Dr. M.L.BHAT.

................................................................................................

As one begins to read expecting a coherent account of the history and travails of the community, the very first puzzle of course is the cover- surely it doesn't portray a Kashmiri Pandit? - but then, as one reads, puzzle grows. The author isn't giving an academic compiled account of the history, but neither is it entirely a coherent storytelling of a personal nature.

What's more, author - very well read - diverts so often into philosophical ruminations, quoting from so very many illustrious poets, philosophers and more of yore, that one has to simply relax and proceed to hear out the recounting that's by now developed into a fireside story told by someone who personally suffered the horrors, and saw sufferings of others.

It suddenly gets through that it's a very quiet lament of grief, sung in sorrow, but as silent as wind flowing.

................................................................................................

One recalls a quiet conversation with a colleague, reinforcing the awareness of the events that were barely acknowledged officially or in media, but in an instant very real just looking at the colleague who wasn't one to indulge in pathos.

Was it before that or after, that another couple of colleagues had a hot and bitter debate about the then infamous report being circulated, regarding Indian military having raped a village? The staunch simple Eastern one was adamant that the report couldn't be true, it just couldn't. The modern Tamilian with avant-garde attire and lifestyle, argued that such faith stains reports to the contrary was simplistic.

He, descendent of Western migrants to Northeast, was right. In fact the said village didn't exist, no such horror had ever taken place, as eventually established some years later, by painstakingly conducted Western NGO investigations, and the lie had been as deliberately spread as the one about a ten year old Palestinian boy shot dead. That lie had been exposed by a Columbia University class, slightly earlier than that about Kashmir village. The bullet that killed the boy could only have come ftom the one direction the father wasn't protecting the boy, it became obvious on site inspection. He'd been shot by Palestinian terrorists.

And somewhere over halfway through this book, it suddenly becomes clear that the debate between my colleagues was just as misdirected. The horrors perpetrated had been by the others, not Indian military, but paki exfiltrated terrorists.

And that tallies either not only the details from autobiography of Malala, or reports about conduct by ISIS, but even the most recent conduct of taliban in Afghanistan issuing edicts about females.

But the lie was typical of a pattern that matched the one about the Palestinian boy - and the refugee camp massacre in Lebanon, early to mid eighties. That was blamed on Israel, falsely, but responsibility lay elsewhere, as Thomas Friedman exposed in his work on Beirut.

................................................................................................

" ... The winter months of January and February are holidays for educational institutions of the Kashmir Valley. These two months witness the influx of a large section of Kashmiri Muslim population to Jammu and Delhi for enjoyment in the plains. A great number of our colleagues visited our Camp College in the winter months of 1991—1993, to have a first hand feel of our plight after migration. The number dwindled gradually and by 1997, it was almost zero. Their reaction towards our migration was mixed. While some of them apparently were against it, the majority commented that it was a wise decision under the circumstances. The latter included many whose skin was touched by the turmoil in the valley.

"They frankly narrated the gruesome tales of suffering at the hands of the militants: “any Tom, Dick, and Harry with a gun in his hand dictates terms to any body in Kashmir, irrespective of his social status. A sweeper with an A.K.47 in his hand aspires to marry a landlord’s or a high official’s daughter. An illiterate servant with the threat of an A.K.47 proposes to marry an M.B.B.S. daughter of his master – the Khawja Sahib. Any body with a gun indulges in extortion of money from anyone—on the road, in one’s house, in the office, in the bus, anywhere, any time. In fact, the employees, the businessmen, the landlords, and the politicians made regular contributions to the cause of the “holy war.” The failure to do so would mean sure annihilation. The Story does not end here—the Foreign Militants, with the co-operation of the Local gun-wielders, indulge in barbaric sexual assaults and painful anal sex on Kashmiri Muslim Women. The gang rape of the most beautiful women was the routine, and in some cases the crime was followed by killing of the victim and that too after slicing off her private parts. The late night knock at the door of any house was sure episode of gang rape, or extortion, or slaughter or all-in-one. These are the glimpses of the Gun-Culture prevailing in the Valley and this is the “Holy War” going in Kashmir.”

................................................................................................

" ... The aim of Pakistan to indulge in low-cost proxy war against India was achieved easily and smoothly—the war which has been going on for the last 27 years, taking a heavy toll of innocent lives, and the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in 1989–90.

"The Local group of mass murderers was supported by an appreciable number of foreign terrorists. With the active cooperation of the locals, these foreign terrorists, unleashed horror for which the sky was the limit: the barbaric killings, the loot, the plunder, the heinous crimes, the rapes, and what not. A Muslim colleague of ours admitted frankly that these foreign terrorists indulged in rapes: of wives in the presence of their husbands, of daughters in the presence of their parents, of sisters in the presence of their brothers, and of mothers in the presence of their children. The story does not end here, these ‘beasts’ indulged in the highly painful anal sex of women before all and sundry, uttering to the innocent bleeding victim to recite ‘Kalima’ in order to get relief from the pain. ... "

................................................................................................

"My 4th trip to Kashmir was in September 2015. It was necessitated by the marriage ceremony of the son of Prof. Ismail at Baramulla. I had to reciprocate as all my Muslim friends had flown to Jammu to attend the Yagnopavit of my grand -son Pranit. This time only I and my wife flew to Srinagar, two days before the marriage ceremony. At Srinagar airport, Mr. Muzzafar, the cab-driver was waiting. Muzzafar is a nice jolly young man. When I revealed my programme and the no. of days of our stay in the valley, he accepted to take us anywhere in the valley except three places.

"Curious to know, I immediately wanted to know the names of those three places which he prohibited for us. The very first place, he mentioned was Pulwama, because it is infested with militants. I agreed and said, we had no intention of visiting that place. The second place which was out of bounds for us was Shopian. Ok, I agreed, we are not interested going there. The third place he mentioned was a shocking surprise for me. He named Pattan, as this town of North Kashmir along with the other two South Kashmir towns are the breeding places of militancy.

"When I asked Muzzafar how he would go to Baramulla without touching Pattan, he was quick to answer that he will fly at Pattan. We were amused at his humour. The moment we reached Hyderpora, a few kms, from the airport, we were greeted by the slogans, “Pakistan Zindabad,” and “Hum kya Chahtay: Azadi,” and also stone pelting and teargas shells. The traffic came to standstill. We were nervous. For about 15 minutes we were caught between the stones of the public and the tear gas shells of the security forces. Muzzafar could realize our plight. He encouraged us to bear with him. If anything untoward happens, he will protect us any cost. With this assurance, we had to be but silent. We could now see public running in the narrow lanes and by-lanes to save the onslaught of heavy tear gassing. Within no time there was peace and the traffic began to move. We were relieved.

"Muzzafar then told us that these things are normal at that part of the road because it lodges the residence of the separatist leader Ali Shah Geelani. He frankly narrated that the public especially youth get Rs. 500–1000 each to pelt stones at the security forces and shout the slogans in order to keep the pot boiling which has been on the boil for so many decades now, otherwise a common man has nothing to do with all this nonsense. This is the real story of unrest in the valley. The separatists at the behest of Pakistan provoke the common innocent mobs, and in the process, it is always the innocent who is killed."

................................................................................................

"“The Odyssey of Kashmiri Pandits” is a first person narration of a horrible tale of the sequence of cruelties and barbarism perpetrated on the original inhabitants of the Kashmir Valley, culminating in their mass exodus in 1989–90.

"This short story is an account of my personal experience and eye witness description of the hardships suffered by our community at the hands of the terrorists, the willing perpetrators, and the government of the day.

"The story begins with an account of 2000 years of the wandering of Jews, which in many ways resembles the six centuries old pathetic story of the Kashmiri Pandits.

"A historical account of the barbarism inflicted on the Kashmiri Pandits from centuries past is outlined. The reasons behind the present mass exodus have been described. The plight of the members of this community ever since the migration has been highlighted."

................................................................................................
................................................................................................

"THE STORY OF KASHMIRI PANDITS is one of the horrible stories of the world history. The general, social and psychological milieu in which they lived in their ancestral land of the world-famous Valley of Kashmir is very crucial for understanding of the genocidal actions of the perpetrators. Once the original inhabitants of Kashmir, the Kashmiri Pandits have now been plundered, humiliated, massacred, decimated, ... "

"The atrocities perpetrated on the Kashmiri Pandits, reminds one of the odyssey of Jews."

................................................................................................
................................................................................................

"In my school days, we learnt from the history books that Kashmir was once a huge pond called Sati-Sar, and a great saint named Kashyap used to inhabit it, engrossed in deep meditation. Therefore, the place was known as Kashyap-mour, meaning the den of Kashyap. The word, mour in Kashmiri means ‘den.’ With the passage of time, the name metamorphosed into Kashmir."

"Kalhana mentions the legend recorded in the Nilamat Purana about the origins the Valley which has been called “The Paradise on Earth.”: At the beginning of Kalpa, or Creation, the Valley was a lake hundreds of feet deep, called the Sati Sar or the lake of Sati, concert of Kashmiri’s preferred Lord, Shiva. In this lake lived the demon Jalodbhav or the One Born in Water, who terrorized the Nagas, snakes who guarded the waters (the word is still used in place names, as in Anant Nag). To the human eye, the Nagas either took a plain form, or sometimes appeared as clouds or hailstorms. In the age of the Seventh Manu, the Sage Kashyapa, father of the Nagas, learnt about the brutal oppression of his progeny while on a pilgrimage to the Himalyas.

"An angry Kashyapa appealed to Brahma the Supreme as well as to other gods. It was not a request which the gods could ignore and they took up position on the mountain peaks surrounding Sati Sar. But the demon had one infinite advantage—he was invincible as long as he remained in the womb of water. He simply refused to emerge. The Lord Visnu then called upon his brother Balabhadra to end the stalemate; he took up his ploughshare and pierced the closed ring of mountains at Baramulla. The waters drained from Sati Sar; Visnu engaged the demon and slew him with his disc. The pleased Sage settled in the dry Valley, and thus was Kashmir named after him. But when the gods and goddesses saw the Valley they were so enchanted by its beauty and they too refused to leave. And so the gods settled in the mountains of Kashmir, while the goddesses took the shape of the sparkling, abundant fertile rivers. Geologists rather spoil the legend by confirming it: by looking at the lacustrine deposits and pronouncing that yes, indeed, a great lake once did exist, a post Ice Age earthquake did shatter the mountains and dry the Valley. There are times when science should surrender to the legend."

................................................................................................

"Hindus in general and Pandits in particular have been at the receiving end of all maledictions in the Valley. A Kashmiri Pandit was invariably addressed by the catchword “Dhaali Bhata” by all Muslims young or small. When I enquired from the elders the real connotation of this word and the reason behind this acronym, they would brush aside the question saying that the Pandits ate more Dhaal (pulses) than the Muslims. With the passage of time, I inferred that it was nothing but a humiliating remark passed by the Muslims against the Pandits for our meek and modest nature. Another example of verbal assault suffered by the Pandits was a derogatory remark passed on our womenfolk: “Bhatni Bhatni Doudyay Mas, Yi Kehay Karuth Dhaali Gudvas” (May your hair catch fire, you Panditani, what have you done to this pot of Daal.). We were always addressed as Kafirs (infidels). They would often repeat: Bhata Maarun Chu Sawab (To kill a Bhata (Pandit) is a Virtue.) These and so many other insulting remarks passed from generation to generation, and Pandits pocketed the same, hiding their wrath under a smile and carried on."

................................................................................................

" ... We were only three Kashmiri Pandit families among about 500 Muslim families. The relations were very cordial. Pandits and Muslims shared their occasions of grief and pleasure. The remarks passed by the Muslims at the Pandits were taken in the stride by the latter. The village saw the First Graduate, the First Post-Graduate, the First Ph. D. and the First Professor in me."

" ... When forced exodus was thrust upon the K.P’s., leaving their homes and hearths behind in Kashmir in 1990’s, now 27 years past, nor once did either of my close friends have the feeling to enquire about my wellbeing. The only conclusion I can draw about the Muslim friends is best reflected in the famous words of Rousseau—“It would be better to abandon our over-rapid development of the intellect, and to aim rather at training the heart and the affections. Education does not make a man good; it only makes him clever–usually for mischief. Instinct and feeling are more trustworthy than reason.”

................................................................................................

"The ancient Hindu names of villages and towns of Kashmir Valley were gradually and systematically erased and replaced by Urdu names, not by illiterate people but by the so-called intellectuals of the Majority community, who were at the helm of affairs. A Kashmiri Pandit would feel shy in calling the famous town of south Kashmir, by its original name of Anantnag when Muslims loudly called it by the name Islamabad. I am not a linguist but observe that the dialect spoken by the common Kashmiri Pandit would differ from that of the common Kashmiri Muslim, in the respect that Pandit’s language contains more Sanskrit words, pointing to the language of Vedic times.

"The oppressions unleashed by the Afghan Governors on Kashmiri Pandits tell their own tale (1753–1819) There was a time, when only eleven Kashmiri Pandit families were left in the Valley, after persecuting and hounding out the majority of them. The persecutions and killings suffered by the Kashmiri Pandits during Aurangzeb’s rule are a story of horror and history speaks for itself. In the recent past, the tyranny and plunder committed by the Tribal Raiders of Pakistan in 1947 left the Kashmiri Pandits in utter despondence. Many Pandits migrated to other parts of India, leaving many behind at the mercy of their fate."

................................................................................................

"Needless to say, that the migrations of the Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley had been going on for the last so many centuries. For one reason or the other, the Kashmiri Pandit was made to suffer for no fault of his. The rationale behind the 1986 events in Anantnag, leading to the bulk exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits of that area, is best known to the then veteran political leaders of the state. Every body in the Majority community has been a willing perpetrator in one sense or the other, otherwise what is the logic behind pelting of stones and hurling of abuses on the Kashmiri Pandit houses after the end of a cricket match held somewhere between India and Pakistan. The irony of fate is that whether India won or lost, it was the Kashmiri Pandit, who had to face the music.

"The Administrative apparatus of the state has always been clever and cunning, partial and biased, and ruthless and merciless, with respect to the Kashmiri Pandits. It was a policy matter with the Government of the day to absorb maximum Kashmiri Pandits in the Education Department, as teachers in schools and colleges. The aim was obvious—to convert the mass illiterate Kashmiri Muslims into the educated class. Once the goal was achieved, who the hell are Kashmiri Pandits? Doors were always locked for a Kashmiri Pandit to claim an administrative post, though well-deserved by him. A few could sneak in through sheer luck and their clout in the corridors of power.

"The landlords among the Kashmiri Pandits were in course of time stripped off their holdings by the biased policy of Land to the Tillers.

"The discrimination against Pandits was not restricted to appointments in Government services, but in other walks of life also. The admissions in professional colleges have always been biased leading to frustration among the meritorious Pandit youth. Some affected Muslim candidates who can afford, sue the Government in the Court of law and manage to get the admission later in their own state, but the helpless Pandits had to gnaw the bone thrown to them by their destiny. What height of irresponsibility and callousness or deliberate and well planned infliction of suffering could match this act of those who are at the helm of affairs? It is always the wearer who knows where the shoe pinches. I know it because my shoe pinched in 1964.

................................................................................................

"The appointment of deserving Kashmiri Pandits as Gazetted Officers was always an eye-sore for the authorities concerned. In 1972, a group of affected persons left no stone unturned to seek justice from the then Chief Minister, Mr. Mir Qasim. They would grill him day in- and day out for not only the injustice done to us but also for his personal involvement in the appointment of a mere third class M.Sc. Candidate ignoring the higher meritorious candidates. They made him to accept the gross high-handedness and brazen-faced misuse of his high office, in appointing a relative of his with only 43% marks in M.Sc., while ignoring all others high in merit especially one with 65% marks. They used to meet the C.M. daily at his Private Residence at Maulana Azad Road in the mornings for about two months. A local Newspaper helped them in giving wide publicity of their plight in its editorials."

" ... Another example was the selection list of Assistant Surgeons issued by the State Public Service Commission, in which merit was brazenly thrown to the winds, and only influential candidates, sons and daughters and close kith and kin of the Ministers, relatives of the Honorable Members of P.S.C. were selected. ... "

"A glaring example of the intolerance level of the State Government towards the Kashmiri Pandits were two different Seniority Lists for Male and Female Lecturers of the School Department, which remained in vogue for as long as 25 years. The logic behind this non-sense order was that 90% of the Female List comprised Kashmiri Pandit Women. Even a lay-man knows that the Constitution of India grants equal rights to man and woman. What precedent of a draconian, an irrational and an unconstitutional ‘wisdom’ of Administration could match this ‘policy’ of the State Government? The persons affected became conscious of this injustice when their much more junior male counterparts mostly Muslims got promoted to higher scales in the course of time. Human nature being what it is, when a junior dictates terms to a senior, there is a feeling of agony and revolt. The height of injustice is that most of the women in the list were higher qualified than even their Pandit male counterparts. When merit becomes a demerit, experience becomes a minus point and sex becomes a fault, metaphysics has no place in this world. The irony of fate is that a non-competent teacher, a junior in service is picked and chosen as an Administrator, and a lesser qualified person teaches morals to his diametrically opposite sufferer. After a quarter century, good sense prevailed in those at the helm. The Seniority Lists were amalgamated after the damage was done. Some one became wiser after the event of inflicting misery to the daughters of the same soil, whose sons enjoyed the un-deserved fruits. I may be accused of citing petty and trivial examples as evidences in favor of the policy of elimination of the Pandits from the Valley. The fact of the matter is that nothing matters, but everything counts."

................................................................................................

"The period of time from the Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 to around 1986 in J & K State, may be classified as either, Peaceful Aftermath or Lull Before, Storm. This period saw a ‘sense of security’ inhabiting the minds of the Kashmiri Pandits, well-known for their ego of National Pride and rightly so. Simultaneously, the Muslim mind was latently brewing up the road-map for their Final Assault. ... I burnt my boats in the ancestral property by disposing off my share at throw-away price, to have my own house at Lal Nagar Chanpora, Srinagar. I had to sell some of my wife’s gold ornaments, to withdraw all Provident Fund money, and even to borrow from my close friends and relatives, to construct a house, which was destined to be my home for only two and a half years. It has been rightly said that fools build houses and wise men live in them."

................................................................................................

................................................................................................

"The Kashmiri Pandits have all along been deceived by Politicians, cheated by Leaders, robbed by Acquaintances, hurt by Friends, betrayed by Neighbors, assaulted by Fanatics, Eliminated by Perpetrators, and slaughtered by Militants. The only weapon with the Pandits was their sense of National Pride, desiring to be good Citizens, in a tension-free, peaceful and secure environment. Their hopes were always dashed to the ground by the men at the helm of affairs. When Jawaharlal Nehru, accompanied by Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, visited the Valley in 1940, he expressed his unequivocal support for the National Conference of Sheikh Abdullah, as the sole national organization in the state. More significantly, Nehru asked Kashmiri Pandits to abandon thoughts of minority questions and advocated joint electorates for the two communities, labeling separate electorates as the work of communalists. Two prominent Kashmiri Pandit leaders, Kashyap Bandhu and Jia Lal Kilam, resigned from the National Conference in the wake of Nehru’s visit. Without entering into the political intricacies of the time, an ordinary Kashmiri Pandit feels betrayed by Nehru – the one-time Migrant of their own community."

" ... Despite its ostensible finality, 1947 was not the end, but rather the beginning of Kashmir’s travails."

" ... The Raiders indulged in all-round loot and plunder, snatched golden ornaments from the Pandit womenfolk at gunpoint, whisked away with brass and bronze utensils, butchering the Pandits indiscriminately, and at some places slaughtered entire families. The irony of fate is that these horrible and gory tales of Kashmiri Pandits have gone unheard and unsung in History."

................................................................................................

................................................................................................

" ... When my parents got the inkling of the Raiders March, they left sweet home and hearth for a nearby village ... "

"Our Sweet home was not torched by the Raiders, not robbed by the Dacoits, not plundered by the Outsiders, and not looted by the Thieves. It was LOOTED by the MOHEMMADANS, PLUNDERED by the ADHERENTS OF ISLAM, ROBBED by the BELIEVERS OF FAITH, and TORCHED by none other than our own NEIGHBORS. The torched, tawny and tearful G.I. Sheets were shared equally by the Main Culprits of three adjoining villages. It was not me, but poor Late Subhan, our then domestic helper, who would ask: Is this, what Islam teaches us? Doesn’t Islam teach us to protect your neighbor? Is loot and plunder of an innocent person written in Koran?"

"Such and other more heinous and more barbaric acts were perpetrated on hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit families of Baramulla District by the Raiders alone and in league with the Local population. The far-flung Pandit families of the district were subjected to inhuman and brutal atrocities, at some places, entire families were wiped out."

................................................................................................

"In 1950 the government of Jammu and Kashmir passed the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, under which each proprietor could only retain 22¾ acres of land and the right of ownership in land in excess of this unit was transferred to the tillers to the extent of their actual cultivating possession………Most importantly, the weakness of the reforms was built into the machinery for their implementation. Since a majority of landlords were Hindus, the reforms led to a mass exodus of Hindus from the state. Additionally, the land reforms notwithstanding, the problems of acute scarcity of grain, high food prices, widespread unemployment, and starvation continued to beset the state during this period. ... Sheikh Abdullah made fiery speeches denouncing the Indian State and proclaiming his personal commitment to Kashmiri self-determination. On Nehru’s orders, Abdullah was arrested and imprisoned in August 1953, for a period of eleven years, until his release in 1964."

................................................................................................

" ... Many a time, the enthusiastic K.P. youth returned dejected from the Polling Booth, when they were told that their votes had been already cast. ... "

" ... The under-current of social separateness of Kashmiri Pandits from Muslims was always conspicuous in the educational institutions of the state."

" ... When I caught a student red handed while using unfair means in the crucial 12th class Annual Examination of 1975 at Anantnag, and recommended his case for rustication for three years under rules, duly endorsed by my superior, there was a huge uproar both from the students and some members of the Staff. When I resisted, I received threatening letters, but I did not yield. The case was dispatched to proper quarters for action under rules. Later, I learnt that the said candidate was the nephew of then Cabinet Minister. Lo and behold, after about 5–6 months, I found the same student in the Regional Engineering College, Srinagar as a 1st year student. I was chilled to the bone. The irony of fate is that same year, my nephew with First Class was refused admission in R.E.C. Srinagar, because my brother could not afford Rupees two lakhs to get the admission. You feel the pinch, but this is the routine and the order of the day. Many Kashmiri Pandit students like my nephew had to gnaw the bone fallen to their lot."

................................................................................................

"The social separation of K.P’s was the norm and Fridays were a hell for all law-abiding citizens. Every lane and bye-lane was thronged by the Faithful to offer Prayers. One fine morning, a Faithful Fanatic student hoisted the Pakistani Flag in a college campus in full view of the college administration. The Minority was squeezed in the culture of the Majority—loudly singing the songs of Pakistan, while relishing the butter-toast of India. The Eliminationist Feeling was gaining ground. This virus percolated down and infected the whole fabric of the society. The dividing line between dedication and dereliction was growing fatter and fatter. The thin wall between law breaking and law abiding was rupturing. When law makers become law breakers, there is chaos. Brains were being washed, minds were being indoctrinated, seeds of alienation and elimination were being sown, and the time of revenge of the “Holy Wars of 1965 and 1971” was ripe. Everything was meticulously planned inside the corridors of the Think Tanks. We Kashmiri Pandits did see the writing on the wall, but could not read it. Hints were hurled on us by close friends and acquaintances of the majority community, but we simply refused to understand. By 1988, everything was falling into place. When a colleague and close friend of mine silently told me to send my children to Jammu, I brushed aside his forewarning.

" I got the first inkling at the timber band-saw at Chanapora, where I had gone to saw 300 cft. logs of deodar timber for raising the 2nd storey of my house. The owner of the band-saw, a young bearded Muslim gentleman was amazed and told me paradoxically that I was venturing insensibly and that I was living in a fool’s paradise. His remarks put my mind churning circles like the blades of a chopper. The lines of Robert Frost at once struck my mind: “Home is something you somehow haven’t to deserve.” However, after two days I collected the sawn timber in required sizes, loaded the same in a truck with a daring heart, and then unloaded at my residence with a stuffed heart.

"I had invested all my earnings and savings for raising a beautiful house, which was not going to be my sweet home. But then, why should I worry. So many Pandits have constructed magnificent houses, so many are busy in doing so, and there are lakhs of Kashmiri Pandits in Kashmir Valley.

"I am still lucky that I have not drawn any loan from any bank or the Government Housing Department, otherwise I would be haunted by one more ghost, as Robert Frost put it:

"“A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.”

................................................................................................

"One could feel the stuffy atmosphere on the roads, in the streets, in the buses, in the offices, in the educational institutions, anywhere and everywhere. The Duck-back rubber shoes generally used in Kashmir in winter were in exceptionally high demand, so much so that a person already wearing it was taken to a footwear shop and offered a fresh leather shoe in exchange. When I enquired from a Kashmiri Pandit friend of mine, he simply retorted, “in which world are you living?” The rubber shoes were required by Kashmiri youth to cross the snow-covered peaks to reach P.O.K. and then infiltrate back after receiving militant training there. Things had come to such a pass and I was really in a deep slumber. Life was becoming choking and suffocating day by day. Traffic got disrupted for hours together, the reason—Cross-firing. The carpenters had been working for nearly one full month of April 1989 now, making the door and window frames for my 2nd storey, when one fine morning, I made the full and final payment of their wages, asked them not to come for work from the next day, and stopped the work midway. I called it postponement that time, but the destiny had something else in store for us.

"The atmosphere in the college was quite unusual. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry. The whispering and gossiping in isolation took the place of open and frank talks. The Prisoner’s Dilemma was conspicuous by its presence. When a Muslim friend and colleague of mine told me one day that soon we will hear of an object as small as a shaving blade at the feet of a human being bursting and blowing the body into smithereens, I thought something was definitely fishy, because the same friend had forewarned me to send my children to Jammu. Calmness and graveyard’s silence had struck everybody. Rumors spread like wild fire, which were mostly the actual incidents happening here and there—the wine shop was looted, there was a gun-fire somewhere, and so on. Back at home, my wife telling me that employees were taking their Service Books to their homes from the educational institutions for personal safe custody, added fuel to the fire. Many school buildings were razed to the ground, and the process continued unabated."

................................................................................................

"The two Vernacular Dailies of the Valley viz. THE SRINAGAR TIMES and AFTAB in their 1989–90 editions carried long messages: “Unconcern With This or That Political Party,” and the Confessions—“I Am Not An Informer.” Chaotic panic was widespread. Fear and fright loomed large. Many Muslim youth from the age12 and above were missing from their homes. Where have they gone? What for have they gone? When would they return? Their parents did know the answer to all these questions. Now there were shouts on Loudspeakers from the Mosque Tops:

"1. KAFIRO KASHMIR CHOR DOU (Infidels—Leave Kashmir),

"2. INDIAN DOGS-GO BACK,

"3. HUM KYA CHAHTEY—AZADI (We Want Freedom),

"4. ASI GACHCHI PAKISTAN, BATAO ROAS TE BATANEV SAAN (We Want Pakistan—With Panditanis, Without Pandits).

"5. JIS KASHMIR KO KHOON SE SEENCHA HAI WOH KASHMIR HAMARA HAI. (The Kashmir we have irrigated with blood—that Kashmir belongs to us).

"6. KASHMIR MEI AGAR REHNA HAI, ALLAH-O-AKBAR KEHNA HAI (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-O-Akbar).

"7. YAHAN KYA CHALEGA, NIZAM-E-MUSTAFA (What do you want here? Rule of Shariah)."

German occupation of Prussia after they massacred all natives, during crusades when English and French went to Jerusalem, and Germans thought that was inconvenient and turned East instead, was no different.

These calls from loudspeakers of mosques were not about freedom, they were about genocide, ethnic cleansing, and yes, about treating women as inhuman property of males, to be abducted at will, kept or sold by the abductors.

................................................................................................

"The feminist writer Susan Brownmiller has documented that rape was systematically practiced by the English in the Scottish Highlands, the Germans invading Belgium in World War 1 and Eastern Europe in World War 2, the Japanese in China, the Pakistanis in Bangladesh, the Cossacks during the pogroms, the Turks persecuting the Americans, the Ku Klux Klan in the American South, and, to a lesser extent, Russian soldiers marching toward Berlin and American soldiers in Vietnam. ... "

That should be "Turks persecuting the Armenians", not "Turks persecuting the Americans".

"The Soldiers of the “Holy War” in Kashmir want Pakistan and that too with the Kashmiri Pandit women—this feeling could never emanate from a civilized society, it is the brain-child of a morally-blighted society. ... Their Mentor—Pakistan has a world record of atrocities on women.

"Susan Brownmiller, author of the landmark book Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, believes that the Rape of Nanking was probably the single worst instance of wartime rape inflicted on a civilian population with the sole exception of the treatment of Bengali women by Pakistani soldiers in 1971. (An estimated 200,000—400,000 women were raped in Bangladesh during a nine-month reign of terror following a failed rebellion)."

................................................................................................

"The Kashmiri Pandits did not leave their sweet homes of their own volition. Nobody in this world would delight in leaving his home and hearth and become a refugee in one’s own country, nor did they migrate at the behest of Mr. Jagmohan, the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, as most members of the majority community in Kashmir hold him responsible for the Mass Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990. The war of words, for and against the causes underlying the Mass Exodus as upheld by the members of two communities, is nothing short of the battle of head and heart. While they say that there was no logic behind the migration, may I remind them the words of French Mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal: “Heart has reasons of its own which the Head can never understand.”"

No, this is stretching. There's nothing incomprehensible about this exodus any more than that of Hindus and Sikhs in 1947 from their homeland across the new borders of a partitioned India. It was leaving or facing death without recourse to law, and in every such case."

Author recounts specific atrocities his family and clan were subjected to.

" ... We preferred to live in exile than to compromise our honour and respect and our unique identity, which has been holding the survival of Pandits since centuries of atrocities and migrations."

................................................................................................

"At the fall of 1989, the massacre of Kashmiri Pandits hit the Headlines. On hearing the news of the killing of Mr. Tika Lal Taploo, the B.J.P. leader and social worker in broad day light, we got the green signal, but we brushed it aside by the foolish feeling that the motive behind the killing was politics. But desperation was writ large on every face. The winds of a fatal storm were blowing violently. Innocent people caught in Cross-firing here and there, anywhere and anytime. Confusion was confounded. Innocent passengers ordered to alight from the buses, at the gun-point. People running helter-skelter for life; Humanity being hijacked, Barbarism strictly imposed; All cinema halls in the Valley ordered to be closed; No entertainment of any sort allowed; Dress-code for women to be observed in letter and spirit; All watches to be set to Pakistan Time; English Sign-boards of shops to be replaced by Urdu on Green background; Fridays to be observed as Off-days for Mass Prayers. Young boys and girls in processions demanding Azadi—the school buildings sacrificed at its altar. Every militant having his field day, free for all—the masked men and the Burqa-clad women publishing Edicts and ensuring their implementation – the morality dying its death. ... "

"I was in a fix what to do, as were all Kashmiri Pandits. November–December is the period of Annual Examinations in Kashmir. My son was appearing in the crucial 12th class examination and my daughter in the 10th. The examination centers of both were located in the heart of the city. One day my daughter was caught in the cross-fire after leaving the examination centre, but somehow she had managed to reach A.S. College, knowing that I would be there. She was in tears, when I reached there after hectic search for her at the centre of examination. Many parents like me were desperately looking out for their wards. At the other side my son had come on foot from home to Lal Chowk searching his sister and returned back in vain. My wife had gone to attend the Engagement Ceremony of my niece there the same day. Somehow all of us were back to home late in the evening safe and sound. This was our first ordeal."

................................................................................................

"On my way back home from the college, I used to meet my brother daily at Khandey’s shop near Naaz Cinema, Hazuribagh where he was doing accountant’s job to enquire about the welfare of his family. He would commute daily between his village and Srinagar. One fine morning, as I was talking to him, a Muslim boy in his teens, wearing a pheran appeared at his desk demanding telephone to make a call. My brother immediately handed over the telephone to him. He was telling someone that the job had been done. While he was busy talking on the phone, I heard a sound of some falling object near my feet as he was standing just beside me. It was an A.K.47-Rifle which had slipped down as both his hands were tucked to the phone. My brother also noticed it and by the wink of his eye directed me to leave for my home. The boy was none other than a militant talking to his commander about the job entrusted to him—the torching of a nearby wine shop, which I gathered from the talks of the pedestrians. I accelerated my two-wheeler to Chanapora."

" One day late in the night, in the middle of January 1990, our immediate neighbor – the Washerwoman shouted at the top of her voice, “Bhabhi—don’t take water, it is contaminated with poison.” My wife replied that we had already taken our dinner and were preparing to sleep. Soon we heard loud cries from other neighbors warning not to take water. After the outbreak of chaos, we five Kashmiri Pandit families of the Colony would meet daily late in the evenings, changing the venue from one home to another, to enlighten ourselves with the latest developments, and to chalk out our future programs. All of us were particularly worried on account of our young daughters. I had an additional worry of my teenage son, because of the writing on the wall—“Boys Aged Between 12–30 Urgently Wanted.” The Contamination in water was a well-planned Rumor which had spread like wild fire. Every body in the meeting urged me to send my son immediately to Jammu, and soon we would decide further action."

................................................................................................

"January 19, 2005

"Srinagar, January 4, 1990.

"“Aftab, a local Urdu paper in its issue of January 4, 1990, publishes a press release issued by Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, set up by Jamaat-e-Islami in 1989 to wage jihad for Jammu and Kashmir’s secession from India and accession to Pakistan, asking all Hindus to pack up and leave. Another local paper, Al Safa, repeats this expulsion paper.”"

"[There was naturally a great panic among the still left behind Pandits in the valley, and they joined the caravan of migrants fleeing their sweet homes and hearths. The message slowly trickled down to some villagers who could ill afford to leave immediately. For instance, my brothers in the village remained glued to their homes even up to June 1990. It is only when they were served with 48 hour warning to leave that they finally fled from the Islamic terror.]

................................................................................................

"“In the following days, there is near chaos in the Kashmir valley with Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah and his National Conference government abdicating all responsibilities of the State. Masked men run amok, waving Kalashnikovs to kill and shouting anti-India slogans. Reports of killing of Hindus, invariably Kashmiri Pandits, begin to trickle in; there are explosions; inflammatory speeches are made from the pulpits of the mosques, using public address systems meant for calling the faithful to prayers. A terrifying fear psychosis begins to take grip of the Kashmiri Pandits. Walls are plastered with posters and handbills, summarily ordering all Kashmiris to follow the Islamic dress code, prohibiting the sale and consumption of alcoholic drinks and imposing a ban on video parlors and cinemas. The masked men with Kalashnikovs force people to reset their clocks to Pakistan Standard Time. Shops, business establishments and homes of Kashmiri Pandits, the original inhabitants of the Kashmir valley with a recorded cultural and civilisational history dating back 5000 years, are marked out. Notices are pasted on doors of Pandit houses, peremptorily asking the occupants to leave Kashmir within 24 hours or face death and worse. Some are more lucid: “Be one with us, run, or die!”

"“Srinagar, January 19, 1990………………In the preceding months, 300 Hindu men and women, nearly all of them Kashmiri Pandits, had been slaughtered ever since the brutal murder of Pandit Tika Lal Taploo, noted lawyer and BJP national executive member, by the JKLF in Srinagar on September 14, 1989. Soon after that, Justice N.K. Ganju of the Srinagar High Court was shot dead. Pandit Sarwanand Premi, 80-year old poet, and his son were kidnapped their eyes gorged out, and hanged to death. A Kashmiri Pandit nurse working at the Soura Medical College Hospital in Srinagar was gang-raped and then beaten to death. Another woman was abducted, raped and sliced into bits and pieces at a saw mill………….And tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits across the valley take a painful decision: to flee their homeland to save their lives from rabid jihadis. Thus takes place a 20th century Exodus."

................................................................................................

" ... While my neck was at the mercy of the barber dancing his scissors to the tune and tone of the conversation going on at the benches, I could hear the tone of the talk pitching towards more and more serious heights. One gentleman addressing to another man four persons away from him loudly, “Hey – Rashid, please inform Shoukat at Delhi to return to Kashmir before 26th January 1990, otherwise he will be cut off from us as that date is the deadline for our achievement of Independence, later he would require a proper Passport and a valid Visa.” There was an upsurge of fright in me. My heart began racing and pounding—everything is planned to the last second with surgeon’s ruthlessness and precision, and what am I doing here, the D-Day was only ten days away."

" ... The bottomless pit became an abyss on that BLACK NIGHT of 19th January 1990 when we on our tiptoes to flee to safety, but WHERE?"

" ... 19th January 1990 was THE DAY OF HOLOCAUST: Early morning of 20th January 1990 I was greeted by Two Slogans written in Bold letters in white paint on the outer face of our main gate: KAFIRO KASHMIR CHOR DO, and INDIAN DOGS GO BACK. This was the case with all Kashmiri Pandit houses. Trembling and shivering with fear and fright, I and my neighbor Mr. Roshanlal Kachroo ventured to buy essential items at the nearby shops in the CURFEW RELAXATION TIME. What we heard was that: Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandit families had left their homes and hearths for Jammu or Delhi in the earliest available any mode of transport in the wee hours of the 19th January itself. They had got the inkling of the coming Black Night. What we saw at Gulshan Nagar near By-Pass Road was a gruesome and gory scene—a truck carrying two poor Kashmiri Pandit families from a far-flung village of Kupwara District had turned turtle—two aged women dead on the spot and others seriously injured, the wounded desperately searching for another truck, at long last re-loading the shattered and scattered shreds of life and material into a new truck at a very high price."

................................................................................................

" ... The news of the killing of a K.P. on the Sacred Eve of Maha-Shivratri was the final and finishing ultimatum to Kashmiri Pandits to leave Kashmir. Early in the morning of MahaShivratri I ventured to visit my ancestral home to enquire about the welfare of my brothers there. Dressed in the traditional Pheran, I boarded the bus for Lalchowk up to Exhibition Crossing from there I went on foot up to Batamaloo Bus Stop. Young boys and girls were taking processions all the way raising slogans of Azadi. The travel in the bus up to Pattan was a horrifying experience. I occupied the extreme right corner of the last, long seat. From the Attire and Etiquette of the passengers, it was crystal clear that I was the solitary Kashmiri Pandit soul in the full-to-capacity bus. As the bus speeded on, the tune and tone of gossips and whispers also picked up. I could quite candidly overhear two fellow passengers just in front of my seat talking: “This has come to understand that THEY want All Kashmiri Pandits to leave Kashmir, but ‘Where’ will these Poor and Innocent Fellows Go?” All along the route, I kept the Grave-Yard’s Silence, and maintained the necessary discretion not to disclose my identity. “THEY” referred to the MILITANTS: THE WARRIORS OF THE HOLY WAR.

"After alighting from the bus at Pattan Horticultural Nursery, there was an upsurge of fear in my heart—a premonition that this might be the last visit to my ancestral home. As I walked to my home on the half kilometer long road, thoughts turned over and over in a kaleidoscope of confounding images—The Fruit Plant Nursery, where we used to steal fruits in our childhood while going to school, and then sometimes being caught by the gardener……the Tall Poplars standing like Body Guards……The Green Willows…..The Beautiful Chinars providing soothing shade……The Rice Fields……The Apple Orchards……The Vegetable Plots…."

" ... From 11 A.M. to 12.30 P.M. we had to wait in the Q for frisking by the CRPF. There was a mad rush of people withdrawing money from the banks everywhere in the Valley in view of the growing panic and alarming uncertainty."

" ... a Muslim youth in his teens deliberately asked my son, “What is the time by your watch?” In all innocence and modesty, my son gave him the correct time. Ostentatiously showing off his wrist watch, he retorted, “BHATA! Correct your watch.” I whispered to my son to keep silent—They are the Masters in Licking the Indian Food to the Ticking of the Pakistan Time. We maintained the Golden Silence, if at all it was Golden.

................................................................................................

"Now my patience had evaporated. On 6th March 1990, I handed over the Jammu Address of my Niece to Nitin. He accompanied his fast friend, neighbor, and class-fellow Babloo and migrated to Jammu. This was his maiden trip outside the soothing environs of Kashmir, and that time we never knew that he was leaving his Mother Land for ever. We had given him the express promise that after one month or so, I will get him back home. His initial reluctance was justified because my Niece’s house at Jammu was already saturated with close kith and kin migrants, and then he was seriously preparing for the ensuing I.I.T. Entrance Examination. What cannot be cured must be endured, I had no other option. We could not dare or afford to send our daughter along with her brother that time, because I had promised my neighbor Mr.Roshanlal Kachroo that his three daughters were as dear to me as my own. He had pinned all hope in me, he was triply worried. It was agreed in letter and spirit that we will migrate together as and when Destiny directs us."

" ... When I entered the premises of the college, 6–7 Muslim Colleagues were on their way back. As I began to offer my salutations—all of them evaporated intentionally into thin air. That day I could see the Dividing Line—quite Prominent and Discrete. They had located me but dodged for reasons best known to them."

................................................................................................

" ... The travel on the National Highway up to Khanabal was peaceful. We even purchased apples at Awantipora. The driver changed the route from Khanabal for reasons best known to him. He was driving via rough and tough, sandy and rocky Dooru-Qazigund Road. While crossing a wide stream near Dooru, he all of a sudden advised the ladies to hide their faces and lie down on the seat, and spread a long woolen blanket over them, and also advised us from the small shutter to lie down, as he had seen three armed militants approaching towards the truck. All of us maintained the Grave-yard’s Calm and Prayed for safety. We ourselves could see them targeting at the wheels. The driver showed exemplary courage, negotiated the stream so fast and yet so steady, and soon with, the driver’s extraordinary Presence of mind and our Prayers, we were out of danger.

"At 6.30 P.M. we reached Qazigund, the main stop for the in-coming and the out-going traffic, humming with restaurants. To avoid any untoward event, the driver skipped this stop and rammed his foot on the accelerator, and stopped across the Jawahar Tunnel at Banihal at 7.30 for dinner. As we alighted from the truck, we could see a sea of Kashmiri Pandits, in a long line of trucks and taxis, some alighting, some re-boarding, others huddled in the restaurants, ... "

" ... We were surprised when he ushered us inside the splendid house. He was not the ordinary driver of the truck, but an owner of a fleet of three such National Permit holding trucks, and a fleet of four buses, and he had purchased mutton for us. He was a respectable Hindu Rajput of the Locality. Yes, there was a free lunch, and we had simply no words to thank him for that sumptuous lunch. We were overwhelmed by his philanthropy, magnanimity, and generosity. There is, of course, no dearth of good souls in this world. After lunch, the driver accelerated non-stop to the Railway Station Jammu, ... "

................................................................................................

" ... A large influx of migrants—running into lakhs—was accommodated by the Jammuites, who deserve all accolades – even their stables, cow-sheds, and garages had desperate takers waiting in queue."

" ... Ultimately, despite the resistant attitude of the State administration, the then Governor, Mr. Jagmohan issued orders for the release of Leave Salary in favor of the Migrant Government Employees. Yes, after Mass Exodus we owe our survival to Mr. Jagmohan. Hats off to him."

" ... The Pandits’ main cause of Mass exodus was to save the honor of their daughters."

" A migrant student could not avail of all the facilities in the institution of a Jammuite. The feeling of second class citizenship was writ large on every Migrant face. The Camp College was a boon for a Kashmiri Migrant student, but what he gained in Letter was lost in the Spirit. The normal academic day of six hours was reduced to 3–3.5 hours. The classes started at 2 P.M. and lasted till 5–5.30 P.M., after the Morning Regular Classes. However, with the hard work of the students, the dedication of the duty-bound Migrant teachers, and of course, the cooperation of the Morning Administration and menial staff, the camp colleges functioned smoothly.

" ... The plight of Camp Schools was dismal. Classes were conducted in open space under scorching sun or in tents, within the premises of the regular institutions. Rain or shine, no class rooms were provided to most of the camp schools, resulting in the attacks of many a student by the dangerous insects and even snakes. The science practical class was to cry for the Moon, a migrant student could not avail of the Laboratory of the regular school. The migrant teachers longed for chairs to sit in their vacant periods. ... "

................................................................................................

"The Kashmiri Pandits distributed themselves into three sections as a result of migration from the Valley: 1. a big majority stayed in Jammu/Udhampur. 2. a large section preferred the National Capital, Delhi., and 3. yet another section scattered to other places of the country. This distribution was primarily determined by personal conveniences, and individual preferences, in the absence of a commanding leadership of the community in the Valley at the time of migration. The follies of yesterday should not become the excuses of today—the day of crisis, when the community had the dire need of a true leadership—Now or Never. We have Dedicated Organizations like PANUN KASHMIR and ALL STATE KASHMIRI PANDIT CONFERENCE. ... The Overseas Association of Kashmiri Pandits deserves all accolades. The Association dispatched huge amounts of aid for distribution ... The plight of a large number of migrant families is miserable and deplorable. ... "

" ... Our neighbors were amazed to find us. The Tailor’s served lunch to us and helped in loading the paraphernalia. The infrastructure was intact, the belongings were scattered, the Sanitary Fittings were Missing, and the Door and Window Frames meant for the second storey were also Missing. Luckily, we could retrieve the important documents. At 3 P.M. we left Lalnagar Kashmir, and after night’s travel, we reached Jammu in the wee hours of the next morning, to the solace of the good news of our son’s topping the list of Engineering Entrance Examination Result. But this solace was outweighed by the agony of the sad news of the brutal massacre of a poor Kashmiri Pandit lady while retrieving her belongings from her home in Srinagar the previous night."

" ... we shifted to a two-room set to Domana, some 11 Kilometers from Jammu city on the Jammu-Poonch National Highway. The Landlord Mr. Mahesh Arora and his wife Kiran are exceptionally noble and God-fearing souls. They did not agree to any amount of rent, but on my insistence, they accepted Rupees 250 and donated the same every month to the Local Ashram. Once my wife had 7-days viral fever, Kiran would wash our clothes, iron them, and give me the packed lunch for my day-long duty at Udhampur Camp College. ... "

................................................................................................

"I recall the experience of a colleague of mine, who while desperately searching for a new set of rooms on rent, was rebuffed by a Very Senior migrant K.P. Landlady with the words “We Don’t Hire Out Rooms for Migrants.” The Senior Most Migrant Delhi-based Kashmiri Pandits, in their MATRIMONIALS would emphasize: “Migrants Need Not Apply.” Needless to recall, that migrations of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley have been going on for centuries. Jawaharlal Nehru’s ancestors were migrants from Kashmir. There is no democratic dynasty in the world to match that founded by Nehru, India’s first prime minister. For 39 of the 58 years since independence, one or other of his clan has been in charge. But the migrant of 1990’s is looked upon as a hapless, down-trodden, and unworthy citizen by the man in the street, officer in the office, driver and conductor in the bus, the vegetable hawker, the grocer, anywhere and everywhere. The appellation “Migrant” has become a Social Stigma. When a “senior migrant” looks down upon a “junior migrant” the Jammuite or any other citizen, finds all the time in this world to follow suit. The Jammuites have in fact, coined another derogatory term, “Kashmiri Loley” for the migrants, meaning thereby “Coward Kashmiri.” They would often pose the questions: “Why did you flee from the Valley?” Why didn’t you fight in defense then and there?” The gun-shots of the militants automatically silenced the questioners when their own kith and kin were massacred and beheaded in broad daylight.

"The migrations continued in 1991 onwards also after brutal massacres of Kashmiri Pandits. The Carnages of Wandahama and Sangrampora and Chatti Singpora tell their own gory tales. The entire K.P. populations of Wandahama and Sangrampora were slaughtered brutally at two different dark nights when the victims were in deep sleep. The Chatti Singpora witnessed the barbaric massacre of Kashmiri Sikhs of that village. Then there is an unrecorded number of individual brutal slaughters of Kashmiri Pandits.

"What Savagery can match the Sawing of a Kashmiri Pandit lady into pieces like a log of wood on a band-saw? ... What Tyranny can match the brutal killing of a K.P. youth and then dragging the corpse for three kilometers roped to a jeep?

................................................................................................

"With the passage of time, the migrants learnt to acclimatize themselves to the new environs of Jammu, Delhi, and other places of the country. The youth realized the stark facts of life, and struggled hard to make their career and shape their own destiny. In fact, they obtained the real freedom after migrating from the clutches of militancy. The government of Maharashtra went out of way to help Kashmiri Migrant students in seeking admissions to the state professional colleges. But this “Maharashtra Quota” for migrants was a mixed blessing for the community. The spirit of hard work was replaced by complacency and simple rote by a majority of migrant students, to clear 12th class examination, knowing his seat is assured in some engineering college of Maharashtra, ... An appreciable number of brilliant engineers are grazing in the green pastures abroad with a vast majority in the U.S.A. Only a handful of migrant students could make it to the prestigious institutions like Indian Institutes of Management, and hardly any to the Indian Institutes of Technology."

................................................................................................

" ... After 15 years of migration, the migrants are told to return to Kashmir, without any guarantee of safety and security in the quarters constructed at a few selected places for the returnees. The Migrants’ response to this call is mixed. ... "

................................................................................................

" ... But the fact of the matter is that every penny that a migrant spends goes to the pocket of a Jammuite. The lakhs of migrants have definitely given a tremendous fillip to the economy of Jammu."

" ... The spectacle of so many bright people from India upping sticks for the rich world raises questions of social justice, in part because they contribute both money and brainpower to their host country while they are studying and in part because so many of them end up staying permanently. Some people see the development as a kind of neo-colonialism of the mind. But there is no guarantee that all these bright people would have prospered if they had stayed at home. The combined net worth of Indian IIT graduates in America is reportedly $30 billion. But would all those brilliant Indians have become so rich if they had stayed in India? ... Few highly skilled Expatriates cut their links with their home countries completely. Most keep in touch, sending remittances, circulating ideas and connections, and even returning home as successful entrepreneurs. Many Kashmiri Pandit boys working abroad have not forgotten the miseries of the migration and are seized of the agonies of their brothers languishing in the sub-human Migrant Camps in Jammu. All accolades to an IIM Calcutta MBA, Mr. Nitin Bhat working in Singapore, who donated his 16 Standard Text Books of International Repute to Camp College, Science (now Evening College) Jammu for the benefit of the Migrant students there.

"The Indian Expatriates working in the foreign countries are the best ambassadors of India carrying with them the rich culture of their mother land and feeling proud of the Unity in Diversity central to the Indian Nationhood. The brightest students of the Kashmiri Pandit community are keeping pace with the globalization. The death of distance is transforming academia just as radically as it is transforming business. Commenting on the excellence that young Indians can achieve through education, Jamshedji Tata said that Indian students “can not only hold their own against the best rivals in Europe on the latter’s ground, but can beat them hollow.” The number of Kashmiri Pandit boys studying abroad is on the increase. ... "

................................................................................................

"During my stay in Singapore, I am pleased but puzzled to find “Singapore Kerala Association” and “Singapore Maharashtra Association,” formed respectively by the Keralites and Maharashtrians working there. ... It is very important for the large Indian diaspora across the world –estimated to be twenty million or more in number, to identify themselves primarily as Indians and then anything else."

" The traumatic memories of the perpetrators in the valley culminating in the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits have created a chronic torture and torment in the minds of everybody aged above 20. Everyone has lost his/her peace of mind. When they recapitulate how their kith and kin, friends and well-wishers, class-fellows and colleagues were killed and slaughtered by the warriors of the “Holy War,” they are simply shattered to the point of no return. When they narrate the events of strangulation, hanging, branding with hot irons, lynching, bleeding to death, gorging out of the vital organs, dismemberment, and drowning alive of the Kashmiri Pandits in the valley, those born in Jammu or elsewhere after migration and now 13–15 years old are shell-shocked beyond imagination. The new generation after exodus are themselves witness to the death of about 5000 Kashmiri Pandits in exile, at Jammu or Delhi or elsewhere. These deaths have, over the years, been caused by hostile climate, sun-strokes, heart attacks, gastro-enteritis, typhoid and snake-bites."

"This intermingling of culture has infused the Kashmiri Pandits to celebrate Holi, unfamiliar in Kashmir. This intermingling has motivated the Kashmiri Pandits to celebrate Diwali with greater enthusiasm. From the confines of the Valley, the odyssey has taken us to the mainstream of the vast and rich Indian culture. Let us build bridges that connect and shun the prejudices that disunite."

"The nostalgia of our Motherland—Kashmir, will remain. The sufferings will pinch us. The shadows of militancy will haunt us. The genocide of our kith and kin will torment us. The ethnic cleansing will torture us. The mass exodus will harrow us. ... "

................................................................................................

"The 27 years of the Proxy War inflicted by Pakistan on India has claimed tens of thousands of lives of innocent human beings. The terrorism has shattered the faith of a man on humanity. ... The immediate victims of this Low-Cost War have been the Kashmiri Pandits, who are reeling under the pangs of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and mass exodus. ... As if this was not enough, the Killer Earthquake of 8th October 2005 with its epicenter near Muzzafarabad has taken a toll of above 73,000 lives in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, left 3.3 million homeless there, other 75,000 injured, and above 2000 lives in Indian side of Kashmir with thousands left homeless. This dance of death can sweep away many more lives at the onslaught of merciless Himalayan winter."

" ... Robert Oppenheimer, the principal architect of the world’s first nuclear explosion, was moved to quote the two-millennia-old Bhagavad Gita as he watched the atmospheric explosion of the first atom bomb in a United states desert near the village of Oscuro on 16 July 1945; “the radiance of a thousand suns……burst into the sky.” He went on to quote further from the Bhagavad Gita: “I am become the death, the destroyer of worlds.”"

................................................................................................

"The tragedy of October 8th 2005, has left the Indian subcontinent particularly Pakistan at the mercy of the Himalayas. The continuing aftershocks point towards prudent afterthoughts. ... It is a world of chance, and not of fate. Everything is not pre-determined. What we are or what we do may alter everything. ... "

"History is a witness that Kashmiri Pandits, the sons of Avantivarma and Lalitaditya, and the progeny of the blessed Rishis struggled hard, and that in a peculiar way, against the brutal activity of the religiously fanatic administrators. It was neck or nothing with them in order to save their own religion. Hundreds were put to sword thousands were flung into the rivers and lakes or killed in their homes. With indomitable courage, both physical and moral, they faced death at the hands of the “Deputies of God” and their so-called Servants sent to rule over them. Is it not then the tenacity, the adaptability, and elasticity of the Kashmiri that has helped him to survive atrocities and has it not again been foolishly termed cowardice? ... "

"The Kashmiri Pandit is famous for hospitality. Pay a visit to him and he will treat you to the point of worship. It is not uncommon that he will offer food prepared for himself to a guest who chances to come unexpectedly in his house. He will himself remain hungry until fresh food is prepared for him. He is astonished to find himself leaving a non-Kashmiri’s house without being offered even a glass of water. If a guest comes to his house and he has got no cash at hand wherewith to buy tea to be served to him, he will secretly go and pawn one of his personal effects and bring the tea. ... "

" ... “The writings of the famous Chinese travelers Hieun Tsiang and On-Kong show that Kashmir was a seat of learning from the earliest period. They visited Kashmir and engaged themselves in studying Sanskrit here in 631 and 759 A.D. respectively.”

"Hieun Tsiang writes: “The people of Kashmir love learning and are well-cultured. Since centuries, learning has been held in great respect in Kashmir.”

"Alberuni in 1021 writes: “Kashmir is the High School of Hindu sciences.” “People came from far and near countries in search of Sanskrit learning here and many amongst them, charmed by the congenial climate and natural beauty of the Happy Valley, settled here. Kashmir, behind its mountain ramparts, cut off from its neighbors—inaccessible, local, a natural republic—enjoyed immunity from foreign aggression and, therefore, people from other countries swarmed here."

Surprisingly, author misspells Sanskrit words seriously!

"1. Kashmiran yasya mah tatra odanam bakshyamah "

That should be "bhakshyaamah".

................................................................................................

"“In the time of Ashoka (middle of 3rd century B.C.), Budhism spread in Kashmir, but the Brahmins continued to retain a separate life and remained unaffected, observing rigid fidelity to their ancient usages and the holy tenets of yore. Rajatarangini 1, 102–107, mentions that even Ashoka was, in order to win the goodwill of the Brahmins, a fervent worshipper at the ancient Siva shrines. Buddhism disappeared from Kashmir by 638 A.D.—it came and prevailed for 9 centuries and amalgamated other aboriginal tribes, but caused no change to the Sanata Dharma. The Sanatanist would seem to echo the famous lines of Tennyson: For men may come and men may go But I go on for ever.

"Sir Francis Younghusband has written in his book on Kashmir:

"“In spite of the splendid Moghals, brute Pathans, Bullying Sikhs, and rude Dogras, the Kashmiris ever remained the same.”"

"The long and exceptionally peaceful rule of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (1420–70 A.D.), who was noted for religious toleration, Brahmins from the Deccan and other parts of India came here. The newcomers assumed the appellation of Bhanamasi in contradistinction of Malmasi which appellation the indigenous inhabitants had assumed. These have reference to the astrological calendar observed by the two races, Malmasis meaning those belonging to lunar and Bhanamasis to the solar months.”

" ... After Zain-ul-Abidin, the gloom again supervened. His Golden Rule of 50 years was followed by hurricanes of persecution of Kashmiri Brahmins.

................................................................................................

"History is a witness that under the commands of Aurangzeb, Iftikhar Khan was using torture towards the Pandits in Kashmir, and was forcibly converting them to Islam. He also used to seize pretty Panditani girls and make them over as gifts to the Musalmans for their harems. Some pious men among the Pandits met and decided to go to AmarNath and invoke mercy of Siva there for deliverance from the tyrannies of this bigot. At the Amar nath Cave one of the pandits saw Siva in a dream who told him to go to Teg Bahadur, the ninth Sikh Guru in the Punjab and ask for his help to save the Hindu religion. He spoke to his companions about this revelation. Then they returned, and about 500 Pandits collected and proceeded to Amritsar where Guru Teg Bahadur was living. They told him about the terrible atrocities committed on them by Aurangzeb’s governor, Iftikhar Khan, in Kashmir. The guru was deeply touched on hearing the details, and was in a sorry and pensive mood. At that time his son, Guru Govind Singh, who was then a child of nine years of age and was playing outside, came to him. He saw a crowd of pandits sitting there in distress and his father mute as a fish. He asked his father what he was contemplating.

"Guru Teg Bahadur, pointing towards the Pandits, told his son mournfully that these Hindus were being forced to renounce their religion and that, he thought, they could be protected if some holy man offered himself to be sacrificed for them. Guru Gobind Singh, with folded hands, said to him: “Father, who else is a holier man, fit for being sacrificed than yourself for saving the Hindu religion? It is, you know, the foremost duty of a Kshatriya to give his head for rescuing the cow and the Brahmin.” Guru Teg Bahadur told him: “I have absolutely no hesitation in giving my head but I am grieving that, as you are a child of nine years only, who would take your care after me.” Guru Gobind Singh replied, earnestly: “Almighty God would take my care.” Guru Teg Bahadur was pleased to hear this courageous answer from his worthy son and then advised the crowd of the Pandits to go to Aurangzeb."

................................................................................................

" ... Guru Gobind Singh grieved at the ferocity of Aurangzeb in killing his innocent father, took a solemn vow to avenge his death by taking to arms and embarking on a crusade to free the country from the Muslims. What Guru Govind Singh did is well known to the student of Indian History.

"“The Pathan rule, which commenced from 1753 A.D., was the darkest age….. Twenty nine governors were deputed by the Durani Emperors, and during the time of most of them, wholesale terrorism prevailed."

" ... It was March 16, 1846 when Amritsar Treaty was signed by the British and the Dogra king Gulab Singh. The British who had acquired Kashmir Valley by dismembering the Sikh rule in Kashmir handed over the territory to Dogra King ... Sheikh Abdullah was a young post-graduate in Chemistry from Aligarh Muslim University, who could find no better job than that of a school teacher. ... He signed the accession with India after the Pakistani Tribal invasion in 1947, the re-run of which led to the Mass Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990’s."

................................................................................................

"Pakistan has been feeding Kashmiris with horrific stories about India and the alleged “atrocities” committed by this country in Kashmir. Not only the Pakistani media, especially the Urdu press, but also the school textbooks too have contributed handsomely to injecting anti-India poison into successive generations of Pakistanis. Jihad (Holy War) remains the credo of the Pakistan army.

"The Pakistani success in spreading poison among the Kashmiris is clear from the fact that many, if not most, of the pro-Pakistani elements in Kashmir lead a life of comfort and luxury unrelated to their humble origins. Pakistan has been sending money to the Kashmir separatists almost openly.

"The Hindus of Jammu region are off and on attacked and slaughtered in the dead of night, in the broad daylight, and under the nose of the Security Forces. The hilly areas are the choicest soft targets, resulting in the migrations of the Hindu population to other safer parts of the Jammu province. The aim of the Pakistan-sponsored militancy is quite clear: to de-Hinduise the whole of Jammu and Kashmir state. The Suicide bombers are the mass murderers ‘running amok.’ Steven Pinker writes in his book, How the Mind Works: “Amok is a Malay word used for the homicidal sprees occasionally undertaken by lonely Indo-Chinese men who have suffered a loss of love, loss of money, or a loss of face. The syndrome has been described in a culture even more remote from the West: the stone-age foragers of Papua New Guinea. The amok man is patently out of his mind, an automaton oblivious to his surroundings and unreachable by appeals or threats.”"

................................................................................................

"The proxy war is on, the rapes are on, the killings are on, the infiltration of militants from across the border is on, the hartals are on, and the negotiations are on for the last 27 years. The second roundtable conference was held on 25th May, 2006 at Srinagar, with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the chair. The Huriyat people did not attend. The P.D.P. of Mufti Sayeed raised the demand of Self-rule and demilitarization, the National Conference that of autonomy. Panun Kashmir convenor, Dr. Agnishekhar condemned and rejected the proposals of self-rule and demilitarization of PDP and termed it as a step to boost the Mushraf Doctrine. Agnishekhar asserted that situation in the valley will never be conducive particularly for Kashmiri Pandit community and therefore, carving of a separate area for the rehabilitation of KP’s with full constitutional guarantees is the only solution for their settlement and return to the valley. He asked for comprehensive economic package for the displaced community till some solution is arrived at and demanded a special recruitment drive for the KP community. Chairman of Panun Kashmir, Dr. Ajay Chrangoo warned the conference against the mechanizations of the separatists to secure the exclusion of the State from the secular political organization of India and reconstitute it in a Muslim political organization based upon the Muslim majority character of its population."

................................................................................................

"The K.P’s are the poor and innocent victims of well-planned ethnic cleansing. Chest-thumping local militants made the matters worse. The irony of fate is that those who claimed in televised interviews before the whole world that they intentionally eliminated the members of the minority community, are being set free from the jails and received in the society as VIP’s and as Freedom Fighters."

" ... Had they opted for Mass Conversion, there would have been no Mass Exodus. But they chose the path of preserving their community and faith. They never wanted to invent artificial ancestors for themselves, because it would distort history. ... They preferred to live in sub-human conditions in Camps than to compromise their honor. They shunned their homes and hearths to safeguard their loving daughters. They refused to participate in the ‘freedom struggle’ of their Muslim brethren in the Valley, in order to keep up their Spirit of Indian Nationhood. But India and the whole world remained silent at their plight. ... "

"There have been attempts to change the names of villages, towns and cities, as per their choice. The old Sanskrit names are being replaced gradually. The old historical symbols are being gradually and systematically erased. The height of this is that the government of the day are mute spectators to all this distortion of history. In the last 22 years, the religious places of Kashmiri Pandits have either been encroached upon or wherever possible obliterated."

................................................................................................

"The time was ticking away and we were hoping against hope that things would improve, but then occured the Sangrampora Massacre in March 1997, when seven Kashmiri Pandits were massacred in this village of the central district of Budgam. Again after a brief lull, we had another Tsunami in the shape of Wandhama Massacre, when in the night of January, 25, 1998, twenty three Kashmiri Pandits were massacred in this village in the Ganderbal area of Srinagar district. There was a change of guard, and we again hoped things would improve. But again hope against hope. After a slightly longer lull came another Tsunami in the shape of Nadimarg Massacre on March 23–24, 2003, when twenty four Kashmiri Pandits were massacred in this sleepy village in the South Kashmir district of Pulwama."

" ... The migrant children and youth are suffering from malnutrition. A good majority of the school and college going migrant boys and girls belonging to Camps often faint in their class rooms, as a result of under-feeding and malnutrition. They simply can not afford balanced diet for their normal growth. This has the repercussions on their formative years and their studies suffer, resulting in large drop-outs and wastage of precious talent."

" ... We are highly indebted to Jammuites who showered all respect and love to the K.P’s after their mass exodus from the valley in 1989–90. The local population offered their rooms to accommodate lakhs of the migrants. They emptied their garages, vacated their stables and cow-sheds and what not to adjust the exiled population. There are a few glaring examples of locals who did not charge any rent from the wounded needy souls. ... "

"The next day we visited Kheer Bhawani temple at Tulmulla. The journey from Srinagar to Tulmulla was one hour trip through Boulevard, Hazratbal, and then densely populated areas of Ganderbal. ... The highway on both sides of the road, which presented green paddy fields 22 years ago, were now replaced by palatial buildings with green Pakistani roof tops. When we enquired from the driver the reason for the largescale use or misuse of agricultural land for huge constructions, he though being a Kashmiri Muslim, frankly and quickly replied: “The militancy in Kashmir made many people overnight rich.”"

"We offered Puja at the KheerBhawani temple with great devotion. There was peace of mind, though momentarily and nostalgia haunted us to our past. The clock turned back 22 years with all those sentiments when we would visit the temple especially on every Zaesht Ashtami. We had the traditional Kahwa and Luchi (special bread of Tulmulla) in the beautiful Chinar laden premises of the temple. From Tulmulla we proceeded to Manasbal Lake and returned back to the hotel late in the evening."

" As I am writing this story just today the 10th of May, 2017, an army officer, a Kashmiri Muslim, Ommer Fayaz was kidnapped and killed by militants at Shopian in south Kashmir, where he had gone unarmed on leave to attend the marriage ceremony of his niece. Twenty seven years have passed since the Mass Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, who have been living in exile in their own country and their odyssey seems to be never-ending."

................................................................................................

"After going through all the now classrooms, we descended the stairs and I conducted my entourage to the backyard of my house, nay the Public School of Nazir Peer. This is where I actually felt the deep wound now bleeding profusely: Yes, the Shiv-Ling, in the lap of the historical Chinar Tree, was not there. The monumental Chinar itself was attempted to make hollow at the base by burning, but the magnificent Tree stood the test of time. They did not leave any stone unturned to obliterate and abolish any trace of our religious symbol. The tears had by now dried up and silence overwhelmed. Whom to complain and who will listen?"

" ... Any other body, when we look at him deep down, emerges as a good moral being, but then who is responsible for all this loot, plunder and mayhem meted out to Kashmri Pandit Community, which was deeply woven in the common fabric of Kashmiri Culture?"

"Prof. Ismail and Prof. Majid received us near the head Post Office Baramulla. We were, to our surprise, first taken to famous Devibal Temple. This was my first ever visit to this temple. The main gate of the temple was closed. After knocking for some time a CRPF constable opened the gate. He asked if we were Kashmiri Pandits. Replying in affirmative, he ushered us inside the Temple. We paid obeisance at the temple. The CRPF people, guarding the temple, then greeted us with Kheer as Prashad. When we were relishing the Kheer, one of the constables told us to look across the river Jhelum. On the other side of the bank, we did see huge buildings in dilapidated condition, some without window frames, some without doors, others having drooping roofs. It was a shocking spectacle of loot, plunder, and devastation, and the constable informed us that all these houses belonged to the Kashmiri Pandits."

"The next day after having our lunch at the hotel itself we had a round through the city of Srinagar. The narrow lanes and by-lanes of the congested streets of the city presented a ghastly spectacle. Wherever, we had the idea of Hindu habitats, the broken windows, the hanging doors, the drooping roof tops and the hollow walls of the Kashmiri Pandit houses greeted us with their painful sighs of the last 22 years, throwing open their wounded bosoms, yelling and crying in silence. Our hearts went to them at a distance which seemed unconquerable. We were alone listening to their wails. Between one and none, there lies an Infinity. Fatehkadal, Habakadal, Karan Nagar, and then Safakadal, presented the same spectacle. The new buildings, shopping malls, and new market lines pointed towards the sudden flow of money all these years."

" ... Our neighbour, the old Muslim Lady and her daughter accompanied us to our home, where she introduced us, the original owners, to the present owner, again a lady. We went through all the rooms, but were denied permission to enter the drawing room, for reasons best known to her. Nostalgia haunted us like a wild beast. The tears dared not to well up on the face. The silence was sufficient to bring forth the agony of being thrown away from our sweet home and hearth by the hands of Destiny. Hurt by the blows of time, we returned to the hotel."

................................................................................................

REVIEW

................................................................................................

PREFACE

................................................................................................

"The story begins with an account of 2000 years of the wandering of Jews, which in many ways resembles the six centuries old pathetic story of the Kashmiri Pandits.

................................................................................................

................................................

December 27, 2022 - December 27, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

"The atrocities perpetrated on the Kashmiri Pandits, reminds one of the odyssey of Jews."

................................................................................................

................................................

December 27, 2022 - December 27, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

December 27, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

"The landlords among the Kashmiri Pandits were in course of time stripped off their holdings by the biased policy of Land to the Tillers.

................................................................................................

"The period of time from the Liberation of Bangladesh in 1971 to around 1986 in J & K State, may be classified as either, Peaceful Aftermath or Lull Before, Storm. This period saw a ‘sense of security’ inhabiting the minds of the Kashmiri Pandits, well-known for their ego of National Pride and rightly so. Simultaneously, the Muslim mind was latently brewing up the road-map for their Final Assault. ... I burnt my boats in the ancestral property by disposing off my share at throw-away price, to have my own house at Lal Nagar Chanpora, Srinagar. I had to sell some of my wife’s gold ornaments, to withdraw all Provident Fund money, and even to borrow from my close friends and relatives, to construct a house, which was destined to be my home for only two and a half years. It has been rightly said that fools build houses and wise men live in them."

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

"The Kashmiri Pandits have all along been deceived by Politicians, cheated by Leaders, robbed by Acquaintances, hurt by Friends, betrayed by Neighbors, assaulted by Fanatics, Eliminated by Perpetrators, and slaughtered by Militants. The only weapon with the Pandits was their sense of National Pride, desiring to be good Citizens, in a tension-free, peaceful and secure environment. Their hopes were always dashed to the ground by the men at the helm of affairs. When Jawaharlal Nehru, accompanied by Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, visited the Valley in 1940, he expressed his unequivocal support for the National Conference of Sheikh Abdullah, as the sole national organization in the state. More significantly, Nehru asked Kashmiri Pandits to abandon thoughts of minority questions and advocated joint electorates for the two communities, labeling separate electorates as the work of communalists. Two prominent Kashmiri Pandit leaders, Kashyap Bandhu and Jia Lal Kilam, resigned from the National Conference in the wake of Nehru’s visit. Without entering into the political intricacies of the time, an ordinary Kashmiri Pandit feels betrayed by Nehru – the one-time Migrant of their own community."

" ... Despite its ostensible finality, 1947 was not the end, but rather the beginning of Kashmir’s travails."

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

" ... When my parents got the inkling of the Raiders March, they left sweet home and hearth for a nearby village ... "

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

" ... Many a time, the enthusiastic K.P. youth returned dejected from the Polling Booth, when they were told that their votes had been already cast. ... "

" ... The under-current of social separateness of Kashmiri Pandits from Muslims was always conspicuous in the educational institutions of the state."

................................................................................................

"I am still lucky that I have not drawn any loan from any bank or the Government Housing Department, otherwise I would be haunted by one more ghost, as Robert Frost put it:

"“A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.”

................................................................................................

"One could feel the stuffy atmosphere on the roads, in the streets, in the buses, in the offices, in the educational institutions, anywhere and everywhere. The Duck-back rubber shoes generally used in Kashmir in winter were in exceptionally high demand, so much so that a person already wearing it was taken to a footwear shop and offered a fresh leather shoe in exchange. When I enquired from a Kashmiri Pandit friend of mine, he simply retorted, “in which world are you living?” The rubber shoes were required by Kashmiri youth to cross the snow-covered peaks to reach P.O.K. and then infiltrate back after receiving militant training there. Things had come to such a pass and I was really in a deep slumber. Life was becoming choking and suffocating day by day. Traffic got disrupted for hours together, the reason—Cross-firing. The carpenters had been working for nearly one full month of April 1989 now, making the door and window frames for my 2nd storey, when one fine morning, I made the full and final payment of their wages, asked them not to come for work from the next day, and stopped the work midway. I called it postponement that time, but the destiny had something else in store for us.

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

"1. KAFIRO KASHMIR CHOR DOU (Infidels—Leave Kashmir),

"2. INDIAN DOGS-GO BACK,

"3. HUM KYA CHAHTEY—AZADI (We Want Freedom),

"4. ASI GACHCHI PAKISTAN, BATAO ROAS TE BATANEV SAAN (We Want Pakistan—With Panditanis, Without Pandits).

"5. JIS KASHMIR KO KHOON SE SEENCHA HAI WOH KASHMIR HAMARA HAI. (The Kashmir we have irrigated with blood—that Kashmir belongs to us).

"6. KASHMIR MEI AGAR REHNA HAI, ALLAH-O-AKBAR KEHNA HAI (If you want to stay in Kashmir, you have to say Allah-O-Akbar).

"7. YAHAN KYA CHALEGA, NIZAM-E-MUSTAFA (What do you want here? Rule of Shariah)."

................................................................................................

That should be "Turks persecuting the Armenians", not "Turks persecuting the Americans".

................................................................................................

"The Kashmiri Pandits did not leave their sweet homes of their own volition. Nobody in this world would delight in leaving his home and hearth and become a refugee in one’s own country, nor did they migrate at the behest of Mr. Jagmohan, the then Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, as most members of the majority community in Kashmir hold him responsible for the Mass Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990. The war of words, for and against the causes underlying the Mass Exodus as upheld by the members of two communities, is nothing short of the battle of head and heart. While they say that there was no logic behind the migration, may I remind them the words of French Mathematician, physicist and philosopher Blaise Pascal: “Heart has reasons of its own which the Head can never understand.”"

Author recounts specific atrocities his family and clan were subjected to.

" ... We preferred to live in exile than to compromise our honour and respect and our unique identity, which has been holding the survival of Pandits since centuries of atrocities and migrations."

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

"January 19, 2005

"Srinagar, January 4, 1990.

................................................................................................

" ... The bottomless pit became an abyss on that BLACK NIGHT of 19th January 1990 when we on our tiptoes to flee to safety, but WHERE?"

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

10.

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

11.

................................................................................................

" ... The Pandits’ main cause of Mass exodus was to save the honor of their daughters."

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

12.

................................................................................................

" ... But the fact of the matter is that every penny that a migrant spends goes to the pocket of a Jammuite. The lakhs of migrants have definitely given a tremendous fillip to the economy of Jammu."

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

13.

................................................................................................

"Hieun Tsiang writes: “The people of Kashmir love learning and are well-cultured. Since centuries, learning has been held in great respect in Kashmir.”

Surprisingly, author misspells Sanskrit words seriously!

"1. Kashmiran yasya mah tatra odanam bakshyamah "

That should be "bhakshyaamah".

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

14.

................................................................................................

"Sir Francis Younghusband has written in his book on Kashmir:

"“In spite of the splendid Moghals, brute Pathans, Bullying Sikhs, and rude Dogras, the Kashmiris ever remained the same.”"

" ... After Zain-ul-Abidin, the gloom again supervened. His Golden Rule of 50 years was followed by hurricanes of persecution of Kashmiri Brahmins.

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

15.

................................................................................................

................................................

December 28, 2022 - December 28, 2022.

................................................

................................................................................................

The Odyssey Of Kashmiri Pandits :

Destination-Homeland-Panun Kashmir

by Dr. M.L.BHAT

................................................

December 03, 2022 - December , 2022.

Purchased December 03, 2022.

ASIN:- B07BVWT8XJ

................................................

................................................................................................

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5140774412

................................................................................................

Reviews - Books I Read - DRJG

Wednesday, December 28, 2022

The Odyssey Of Kashmiri Pandits : Destination-Homeland-Panun Kashmir, by Dr. M.L.BHAT.

Light Explodes Across Heavens

Blog Archive

Serene, Reflecting

Contributors

Followers

My Shelfari Bookshelf