The Kashmiri Pundits Proved It Despite The Odds Of Mass Exodus.

Kashmiri Pandits In States In support Of ‘Kashmir Exodus-Day’.

Author Ravi Tiku.

Kashmiri-pundits’ mass exodus in 1990: –

The Exodus of Hindus from Kashmir, also known as the Exodus of Pandits from Kashmir, refers to the series of anti-Hindu pogroms and attacks that took place shortly after the start of the Muslim-dominated insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989. Which eventually forced Kashmiri Hindu Pandits out of the Kashmir Valley. The highest phase of the exodus was in the early 1990s, when Hindus from Kashmir, because of being targeted by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front and other pro-Pakistan Islamist insurgents, fled the Kashmir Valley to seek refuge elsewhere. place of India. In 2016, only 2,000-3,000 Kashmiri Hindus remained in the Kashmir Valley compared to approximately 300,000-600,000 in 1990. Consequently, January 19, 1990, is widely known to Kashmiri Hindus as the “Day of Exodus“. In memory of the Hindus of Kashmir who were assassinated or expelled from Kashmir. According to the Indian government, more than 62,000 families in India are registered as refugees from Kashmir, including some Sikhs and Muslims. Most of the exiled Kashmiri families were resettled in Jammu or the national capital region surrounding Delhi, as well as other neighboring Indian states.

Likewise, a lot has been written about the post-exodus scenes developing over the last three decades. I am not going into those details of various atrocities that our community faced after they had to forcefully leave their birthplace for the uncertainties to be faced later. For that, a lot of literary discussions have already taken place and even the various organizations have fought for getting the rightful justice for our suffered community.

Story of the new generation after the exodus. They are 30 years of age as of now: –

What I want to highlight here is the generation that has come up in these three decades after the exodus. Those who were the kids in 1990 are today the successful young and promising people of our community. Yes, they did not know that much about what their parents had to face at the time of the exodus. But they were a part nevertheless of the same fearful people who had to run away from their birthplace. They were consequently reared and brought up in the new atmosphere outside the valley.

It is those young men and women of our community who have grown out of those uncertain times and most of them have proved to the world one major point. That is their placements at the reasonably high and the most sort after positions-career-wise. They are either heading the professional segment/start-ups in which they are working or are even well settled otherwise if they had gone in the business segment -which never used to be our community’s forte earlier. Our community in Kashmir was such that we never had any solid business background and most of our ancestors were in the serving class, of course, educated, and intelligent people that way. It was a normal routine that right from the birth of a child in our community, it was put into the mind of the growing child that he had to go in for the necessary education and excel in that. Since we didn’t have any business background or even any industries being run by our people, the only path to be followed was to be a professional one of being a doctor or an engineer, or even following higher studies and pursue the teaching profession. I have observed so many of my near relations opting for higher engineering courses in developed countries like the US and European continent. Also, there are quite a few who have gone in for higher management studies and got settled that way again not only in Indian metros but also in the other advanced countries holding the higher posts of responsibilities.

Youth of Kashmiri pundits are very well settled outside: –

Till the time they were in Kashmir valley with their parents in their motherland-they undoubtedly were having a limited excess to the outer world. The moment they had to come out of that place, they were exposed to the new avenues and looking to their brighter and intelligent side as far as their IQ and creative abilities were concerned. They have shown far too bigger progress even in the other lines related to Arts, Industries, and Bureaucratic sections as well.

Today a Kashmiri Hindu is proving to be a successful Art Director and Actor. Also clearing the UPSC and going in for the higher administrative posts anywhere in India. My friend did his MD in Medicine and later went to clear the Administrative services. We have the top-notch Judiciary men in the Apex Court of India as the full-fledged judges of the Supreme Court. If we see the high-ranking boards of Indian Defence services-we would be very proud to see the names of the Kashmiri Pundits there, who had held the top-notch posts of Army, Navy, and Airforce as well. I know for sure so many of my relations heading the posts as the HODs of various specialties in the prestigious institutes like AIIMS, Apollo-Chennai, Max Super Speciality Centre-branches, and many such people likewise settled in the advanced and developed countries as well.

Abrogation of article-370: –

Although the abrogation of article 370 has been a very big masterstroke from the Prime Minister of India still the rapid changes which one would expect to happen thereafter, are yet to be observed. The Central government has been repeatedly requesting the migrated Kashmiri Hindus to come back to the valley and rehabilitate themselves under the full protection to be provided by the central government but still, the confidence in the community has not come fully and the move by the government may fall flat yet again.

Roshan an exception for being happy to be back: –

Three decades after the birth of the separatist insurgency in Indian Kashmir, and the consequent persecution and exodus of the Hindu minority, the merchant Roshan still does not believe the welcome he received from Muslim shopkeepers when he returned this week to reopen his shop. According to data from the regional government, the vast majority of “Kashmiri pundits” fled the valley at the outbreak of violence in 1989 and settled in neighboring Jammu – where there are around 40,000 families today – and in New Delhi – 20,000 -, while that only about 800 decided to stay. Roshan Lal Maw, 79, is one of the Hindus who chose the Indian capital, where he escaped in 1990 with his wife, two sons, and a girl. Last Wednesday, 29 years after that episode, he returned to the old part of the capital Srinagar to reopen his small grocery store. In the only Indian region with a Muslim majority, disputed with Pakistan and where there are strong separatist and anti-India feelings, an emotional Roshan explained that the other shopkeepers were not expected to crown him with the traditional turban or hang garlands on his neck to welcome him. He recounts that on October 13, 1990, he was shot three times in the stomach, allegedly by insurgents, but insists that he wants to leave the “horrors of the past” behind and focus on this “new beginning” in his homeland. The old man recognizes that the “great” business and the important real estate that he harvested in New Delhi did not serve as a bridge to connect with the capital’s population. “A breeze from my homeland is worth more than all the comforts of life in Delhi.

All these years I missed my homeland, but now I am happy because I am back,” he declared in a shop that still smells like paint. And many others in Srinagar share his happiness. Ghulam Muhammad, a spice seller in an adjacent market, describes him in statements as a “noble soul” and an “honest businessman”, so they never stopped negotiating with him even when he lived in the Indian capital. The idea to rebuild the grocery store came from Roshan’s son, Sandeep Maw, who heads an organization dedicated to “bridging the gap between communities,” in his words. “I am working for the return of the ‘Kashmiri pundits’ to their land. I am hopeful that one day not too far away everything will be fine in Kashmir,” he said, adding that the reconstruction of trade began last year. On the recommendation of the Kashmiri government, the Indian Interior Ministry recently cited “ethnic cleansing” of “Kashmiri pundits” as the main reason for outlawing separatist groups active in the troubled region. However, some Muslims argue that the exodus of the “pandits” was orchestrated by the local and central authorities and not due to the persecution of those seeking Kashmir independence or accession to Pakistan. “The murder of many ‘pandits’ cannot be denied, but there are many reports that reveal that the ‘pandits’ were escorted out of the valley by the Administration to launch an attack against local Muslims,” the professor at the Central University of Kashmir Rashid Maqbool. Whatever the cause of the exodus, the truth is that for the moment at least, stories like Roshan’s can be told on the fingers of one hand. Kashmir, one of the most militarized territories in the world, has been the subject of litigation between Pakistan and India since the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, which has fought two wars and numerous minor war conflicts over this territory. India has repeatedly accused Pakistan of supporting “cross-border terrorism“, and of allowing and sponsoring the operation on its territory of terrorist groups that aim to attack Indian targets and fuel separatist protests among the Kashmiri population.

Why should they return?

So why the present Kashmiri Pundit very well settled outside the valley in a good atmosphere with a very high & fat job, should even think of going back to the valley. It is not at all due to the fear of the people of Kashmir anymore. No fear psychosis would work at all nowadays. Therefore, a resilient, educated, well-connected community, the Pundit refugees have got education and jobs and are now spread across India and the world. Would a Kashmiri Pundit refugee’s son or daughter working in a corporate job return to the family home in the old city of Srinagar? Why would someone leave a corporate job in Mumbai unless they could find an equivalent job in Srinagar? The simple answer to this is- no such facilities are still made up there in the valley and further development of the Kashmir Valley has been suffering very badly at the hands of the terrorists’ activities. There is a lot of destruction even after the exodus in 1990 and no tangible change is seen there in the atmosphere.

Cruel and inhuman as the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits was, being a refugee is a complicated matter. Aged-Kashmiri Pandit refugees may be able to physically relocate to their old homes, but they can’t go back in time. If Kashmiri Pandit refugees are unable to return to live in Kashmir due to fear, how is it that 808 Kashmiri Pandit families (or around 3-4,000 people) still live in the Valley in 292 different locations? That’s the count done by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti. If fear is the reason, how is it that thousands of Kashmiri Pandits visit the Valley, on holidays and personal trips, or for pilgrimages such as the ‘Tulmul’-festival held in the valley annually?

The example of Roshan is just not sufficient to prove that there would be the return of Kashmiri Pundits to Kashmir. Now, look at the opposite example of Prof. Sharma-where he sold off his property in Kashmir only to settle out of his motherland.

Prof. Sharma-yet another example contrary to Roshan: –

Prof. Sharma is a retired English lecturer from Kashmir, now living in a flat in Jammu with his wife. He moved to Jammu after the exodus in 1991. Over several meetings in Jammu and Delhi, I asked him why he never thought of returning and living in his home in Srinagar. He explained that his friends were now all in Jammu. It’s the same reason why he doesn’t live with his son in Delhi, working in an IT multinational company. When Prof. Sharma went back to Srinagar after many years, he felt like an outsider, because he didn’t know anyone anymore. People migrated and died, and so on. The young look at a Pandit speaking in Kashmiri was just like an oddity from a mythical past. But the most important reason he couldn’t imagine going back to living in Srinagar was comfort. The old house, the old way of living, the old kind of toilets, the dirty old lanes. He was comfortable living in a more modern house in Jammu. He eventually sold the Srinagar house-something many Pandits did.

Now if we analyse the various reasons for the Kashmiri pundits why they would not go back to the valley despite various ‘lolly-pops’ being announced by the government authorities-it is not there the utmost urge to go back into the same old fearful and uncertain atmosphere, but it is their very good placement into various promising and career assuring setups in India and around the world. It is their comfort level and aspirational level for their future and their future generations-which, they foresee at the new places of their having got settled.

Proposal of Israel-model would be a failure: –

Now that we have debunked the myth of security fears preventing Pandits from returning to the Valley, let us look at the famous- ‘Israel model’ that drew applause from the audience. This model implies creating a special enclave for Pandits. So, there could be a Hindu Kashmir and a Muslim Kashmir, physically demarcated. Which by no means is going to work out for us as well as for our country-India?

This community is a brave and progressive one: –

So, when we speak of the “return” of Pundits, it is not a physical relocation of the young Pundits, we need to think of it. Because that is a gone solution. Let the authorities think of something else to give real compensation to the community for the terrific time seen and atrocities faced by our community during pre-1989 and even post 1990-exodus.

The real fact is that this Community of India is not an ordinary one to play with. They have braved the various obstacles in the last three decades and reared and brought up their progeny so strong that need not even think of all the atrocities which they faced in the past but only keep themselves focused on the pursuit of achieving excellence through their offsprings.

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