Kashmir-A Forgotten Cause
I simply avoid writing on the topic for my views on totally different as the rest of you. I might sound cynical to an extent, let it be so since I firmly believe in what I think and what I feel about the land where I was born and raised. Kashmir is history for me, land where I was born and raised initially; I am no longer attached to it. I don’t consider it more than a past chapter of my life. I will always be nostalgic about it as I have lot many memories which I will cherish till eternity and may be share with my children but I am no longer interested in reclaiming the Kashmir which we left behind in the early 90s. I just want to take things as they come and let me make it clear that it doesn’t mean that others must not do anything about it. I know that all Kashmiris will disagree to what I think and write and hence they will do whatever possible and let me wish them all the success and hope they achieve what they strive for.
Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is not a recent phenomenon and if my memory doesn’t fail me there is a written account of Kashmiri Hindus migrating from Kashmir as early as in year 1320, when a Turk general wrought havoc on non-Muslims. Since then we as a community have moved out of the valley many a times to return back when the things were to return to normal.
Let me put it across very bluntly that we are not emotionally attached and bonded to the land where we were born and raised, the land where our forefathers lived and died. The recent militancy in the valley was not an armed uprising against Hindus; it was an uprising against the Indian Law and Order. It was really unfortunate that many innocent Hindus were targeted and exterminated. And when such events started occurring across the state, the rest packed their bags and left lock, stock and barrel while some of us were unfortunate in this too. We sought an easy way out, we could have chosen to stay and die. Let’s face and realize the fact that Hindus are not and can't be Jews. I can safely and surely assume that out of all Kashmiri men & women there is no David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir. We are made up of different genotype. True but my point of contention is that perseverance and the basic human instinct to live and survive isn’t a genetic trait, it is a fundamental human character which everybody is born with. It is now we realize that the Kashmir valley to us is like the Forbidden Land of Jerusalem is to Jews. How opportunistic as community can we get?
Various apolitical organizations claim to represent the cause of Pandits. Do we really need a political organization when each Kashmiri Pandit as an individual is a party in himself/herself? We might not possess anything but one thing is for sure that we possess a political opinion. What are we fighting for? Are the aims of so called organizations in sync with the ground reality and the modern times? For me reclaiming the valley for Kashmiri Pandits is a secondary issue, there are issues which are far more important and far more mandatory. Even if we reclaim the land by some means, who is going to be there; with whom will our affiliations lie? Will we pledge our allegiance to India whose apathetic attitude bothers us everyday. We are not patriots; we are pseudo-patriots, all of us. There are very few of us who possess that fire in the belly and that zeal in the heart to live and die for our motherland India.
What are the primary issues that I mentioned above? This writing will be incomplete if I don’t write above them. For me the primary concerns is being strong and powerful, not on individual basis but on collective basis. We have spent an exorbitant amount on building ashrams and temples, which doesn’t make any sense to me. How a community can spend money on building temples and ashrams when the people of the same community are living in deplorable condition? It is such a shame. We don’t own and run schools, charitable hospitals, colleges, age-old homes; we have not encouraged entrepreneurship. How many of us are in Civil Services or decision making or in the who’s who in the financial sector or Planning Commission. I won’t be surprised that one fine day we find some other community coming along and driving us out from the places where we are currently residing. We are a small cog in a big wheel (India) whereas the need of the hour is to be a big cog in a big wheel. I believe in one thing that if we are strong as a community, we can turn any land into the valley and then lay claim to the original valley. I rest my case.
To be contd.
Jai Hind
posted by Mohit Kaul @ 12:51 am
2 comments
2 Comments:
Mohit
I can understand your sentiments but have to disagree with the fatalism of your post. The mistake many pandits make is to assume that a return to kashmir entails a return to a muslim run kashmir like pre-1990. The lesson we should have clearly learned from the 1990 ethnic cleansing should have been the fact that when we return to kashmir, it will be a separate Hindu kashmir, separate, autonomous and independent of the sunni kashmir. I know the Panun Kashmir movement has many flaws and has often failed the community, but it has the right goal in mind and deserves support. Our job is to create allies and friends who understand the necessity of carving out a separate Hindu kashmir from the valley -- which is both a moral necessity and a strategic requirements within the larger context.
As you rightly point out, kashmiri hindus have been subjected to extraordinary persecution by muslims, which remarkably many pandits themselves have blithely forgotten. But letting go of kashmir would be a betrayal of our ancestors who stood up to that same persecution for almost a millenium and never caved in. And it would also amount to giving muslims the very victory they always wanted - a kashmir without pandits.
Also, i might sound cynical, if not plain anti-national, but one of the grave mistakes pandits have made is to sell themselves out to india. India is essentially a circus run by caste and tribal groups who have no consciousness of a hindu identity and who hate brahmins far more than they worry about muslim fascism. The brahmin hatred is rooted not in any real historical injustices but simply an inferiority complex. Pandits being brahmins, will always be reviled for the same reason by 'india'. It is important that pandits see themselves as kashmiri hindus first and indians second, at least strategically if not idealistically. By selling out to the cause of 'india', we have allowed ourselves to be taken for granted. (and i say that as someone who himself once held such india-above-all-else sentiments, only to learn the reality the hard way.)
Regarding your point about being a big cog in a big wheel.. agree completely. But how? And what happens when we do get there? Aren't the nehru-gandhis kashmiri pandits too? But of course, they only remember that when its convenient. And it was rajiv who was more responsible for the 1990 calamity more than any other single individual. And what of the 'kashmiri mafia' that ran india during indira's rule. Haksar, Kao, Dhar.. They helped india win its first true military victory, but only conceded more ground in kashmir. The big cog in a big wheel is usually weighed down by too much friction.
Hi Gbz,
I am not in agreement with most of the things that you have written in your comment:-
1) I detest the idea of division of a country, region, state etc. on the basis of religion. It is a short cut to fanaticism and the ultimate doom. So I really don't agree to the division of Kashmir and which doesn't really go down well with the philosophy of Panun Kashmir and party.
2)Kashmiri Pandits may have been tormented by the rulers of Kashmir in the past; but that has nothing to do with a particular religion. If I may extend the my logic to present day circumstances, the terrorism in India and elsewhere around the globe also has nothing to do with a religion in particular. Maoists aren't Muslims and so weren't the Khalistanis in Punjab.
3) India is run by the people elected by you and me. We elect the wrong people and when things go out of hand we blame them. What a splendid thing to do?
4) The problem lies with the very fact that Kashmiri Hindus never had a strong sense of Indian nationalism. We have been very opportunistic in our approach when it comes to patriotism and our allegiance to India.
5) Big cog in a big wheel is something we have to try to strive for. It can't happen in a day; that is why I have always admired Jews. I say this for their sense of nationalism. They will go to any extent to defend their country, brethren and themselves. We have to strive for something extra, we can't be satisfied by an engineering/MBBS degree. We have to encourage people to join administration, be part of wealth creation, have a great infrastructure (like schools, colleges, hospitals etc. It is only then you and I will be heard.
Jai Hind
Post a Comment
<< Home