KASHMIRI PANDIT'S ROOTS OF AGONY AND GENESIS

 KASHMIRI PANDIT'S ROOTS OF AGONY AND GENESIS

There are several chapters of agonizing facts in the annals of Kashmir history. The film 'The 

Kashmir Files' has focussed on one of the darkest chapters of the agony of Kashmiri Pandits. The film 

depicts the newest chapter written by radicalized Muslims under the schemes of the pan-Islamic 

movement, rejecting the idea of India. The zealots wrote the chapter with Islamic toxicity. 1990 is the 

most significant departure of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir in the 21st Century, not expected to 

happen in 1947 India. 

As I am not at the thesis, the write-up is the curtailed chapters of our agony and its roots. 

The departure of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir Valley had its genesis seven hundred years 

back, and the level of agony was enormous the community never wanted to go through. And roots of 

torture come through the Fourteenth Century. 

The first exodus of the community happened in 1389-1413 CE; the ruler was Sultan Sikandar 

Shah, known as Sikander Butshikan. The second departure took place from 1505 to 1514 in the reign of 

Fateh Shah II. The third one was after the dismissal of the Shah Mir dynasty, and the Kashmir valley 

went under the control of the Mughals. Durranis of Afghanistan were the next to agonize Kashmiri 

Hindus when they took the rule of Kashmir in 1752. Leaving Kashmir was under the duress of Islamic 

terror. The act of using force, coercion, threats, or psychological pressure, among other things, was 

rampant. 

Until 1819 Kashmir was under Afghan rule. From 1819 to 1947, Sikhs and Dogras ruled 

Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits were not accessible to the earlier rulers' tyranny during the period.

The fifth exodus took place due to the events of 1931 when Maharaja Hari Singh ruled Kashmir. 

It was a day when the politics of Kashmir changed the course of the history of Jammu & Kashmir for 

Kashmiri Pandits under Dogra's rule. In the scheme of things, Abdul Qadir, as a cook, was brought into 

Srinagar by the British intelligence for the local British resident. Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, 

politically active, was also roped in. Qadir was facing sedition charges for his fiery remarks against 

Maharaja. On July 13 1931, Kashmiri Muslims got provoked by a British officer's cook Qadir. Abdul 

Qadir delivered an impassioned speech, quoted from the Quran to incite the Muslims against the 

Maharaja, spewed communal venom, and aroused collective passion against Maharajah, the Hindu 

ruler. Maharajah got him arrested. When the trial had to start on Jail premises, a mob stormed the jail. 

When gates were closed, the unruly mob outside and prisoners inside the prison gate crashed to get 

Abdul Qadir free. 

The gathered group defied the District Magistrate's order and declared the crowd an "unlawful 

assembly" and ordered its dispersal. The public disregarded the order and found that the mob could 

neither be pacified nor dispersed. Police shot Twenty-four unruly Kashmiri Muslims at the prison gate. 

Agitated, the crowd dispersed to various parts of the city, creating havoc by arson, loot, murders, and 

burning properties of non-Muslims. This black day continued for days and spread to far-flung areas of 

Rajouri, Kotli and Mirpur, damaging properties of Hindus and Sikhs and burning Temples and 

Gurdwaras. 1931 was the year that Changed Kashmir forever. 1931 was the year when religious 

assertion grew in the Valley. Religion and politics together raised the forces of secessionism.

Kashmiri Pandits approached the Maharaja to express their anguish at the happenings and 

concerns about their security in the Valley. On October 24 1931, a memorandum was submitted to the 

monarchy highlighting their worries. Amongst the demands, one of the demands was to open a Military 

department for Kashmiri Pandits. Maharaja was also asked for proper arrangements to protect their 

properties and properties of worship. The signatories to the memorandum were Pt Jia Lal Kilam, Pt 

Janardhan Teng, Pt Prem Nath Bazaz, Pt Kashyap Bandhu and Pt Damodhar Bhat.

To address the grievances of Kashmiris, Maharaja Hari Singh constituted the Committee named 

Rights Enquiry Committee. 

KPs who presented their plight before the Rights Enquiry Committee provided the Committee 

with statistics on their economic positions and unemployment. A list of thousand persons who were 

graduates, law graduates, and postgraduates was supplied to the Commission. Over a hundred 

unemployed KPs had left the Valley to seek employment in faraway places like England and Italy. The 

delegation informed the Commission that the administration preferred Muslim matriculates over a 

graduate and postgraduate Kashmiri Pandit on several occasions.

The sixth exodus took place in 1947 when Kashmir acceded to India. Kashmiri Pandits felt 

insecure about the rhetoric of Sheikh Mohmad Abdullah. Soon after taking over as Prime Minister of 

Jammu & Kashmir, his agrarian reforms, agricultural land, and jagirs of Kashmiri Pandits were given 

to landless Muslims under the tenancy Act "Land to Tillers", thus depriving the community of the very 

source of their livelihood. Kashmiri Pandits became landless and unemployed.

Sheikh Mohmad Abdullah addressing the J&K Constituent Assembly on November 5 1951, 

"our great task before this Assembly will be to devise a constitution for the country's governance. 

Constitution-making is a difficult and detailed matter. I shall refer to some of the broad aspects of the 

constitution which should be the product of the labours of this Assembly." He further said, "The 

constitution of India has provided for a federal union and in the distribution of sovereign power has 

treated us differently from other constituent units. Adding to his statement, he said, "we have complete 

freedom to frame our constitution in the manner we like." Expressing his intentions, he said, "I would 

advise that while safeguarding our autonomy to the fullest extent so as to enable us to have the liberty to 

build our country." 

He reiterated the resolution of 1944 passed in a session of the National Conference at Srinagar. 

The key to the solution was, "We the people of Jammu, Kashmir, and the Frontier regions, including 

Poonch and Chenani Illaqas- commonly known as Jammu and Kashmir States- in order to perfect our 

union in the fullest equality and self-determination, to raise ourselves and our children forever from the 

abyss of oppressing ruled by freedom, science, and honest toil, in worthy participation of the historic 

resurgence of the peoples of the east and the working masses of the world, and in the determination to 

make this our country a dazzling gem on the snowy bosom of Asia do purpose and propound the 

constitution of our state.”

It is fitting to the subject to say that during congress's rule of the State, a bill was introduced in the 

state legislature and passed. The bill was to reduce seats in academic educational Institutions for the 

minorities of the Valley, including Hindus of Kashmir, fixed at 22 per cent, further reduced the ceiling 

to 6 per cent for all the minorities of the Valley. 

These ventures of the government brought results in the 1980s and onwards. In due course of 

time, the entire fabric of Kashmir received a jolt and uprooted the very concept of co-existence. During the years and later idea of Islamisation became the watchword for the fundamentalist.

In free India, what started in 1947 peaked in 1990. In terms of fundamental human values,

Kashmir was on the verge of collapse during the midnight of 19th and 20th January 1990. The

onslaught of Muslim fundamentalism has reduced the Valley to a sanctuary for the worst type of

terrorism in recent history. The main target of the terrorists has been the Kashmiri Pandits or Hindus.

Some glaring examples establish that terror, with a good dose of anti-Kashmiri Hindu

propaganda, with the sole objective of making Kashmir Hindus flee from the Valley to carry out their

notorious designs.

We cannot ignore the ostrich-like attitude of the Indian State and the mishandling of the situation

in Kashmir. And politically misconceived secularism cannot be overlooked for the anguish of

Kashmiri Hindus/Pandits. We can gauge it from the following outlined incidents. During 1988 large-

scale violence took place under one or another pretext, such as the hanging of Maqbool Bhat, the

publication of Satanic verses, etc. Firing and hartals were unrestrained. On April 8, 1988, the Imam of

Delhi questioned the accession of J&K State with the union of India at Anantnag on Friday prayers.

From May 8 onwards, frequent bomb blasts took place. Between June 9 and July 15, 1988, large-scale

disturbances occurred under the pretext of a hike in electricity tariffs, which hardly affected seven per

cent of the total population.

The riots of Anantnag, a district of Kashmir Valley, cannot be overlooked. Aseries of attacks took

place in the Anantnag district, targeting Kashmiri Hindus. The Riots of 1986, commonly referred to as

the Anantnag Riots, are strenuous to dismiss. Many left the Anantnag district to take refuge in other

parts of the country.

The Government of India miserably failed to protect the life and honour of its citizens in

Kashmir. Thus, one must see that the ongoing armed insurgency in the Valley is not of economic

repression, unemployment, or rigging of elections. It is purely communal and criminal and complex in

the execution where the terrorists have crossed all forms of human values.

Kashmiri Pandits/ Hindus are people of anonymity. Through centuries, the people becoming

displaced see no hope in living as a community in their motherland. Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus'

displacement from the Valley in 1990 is a result of bad governance, insensitive bureaucracy, and vested

interest politicians.

The community is in permanent exile, Perhaps sons and daughters of lesser gods. Ageneration is

in the past now. The second is at the doors of departing this universe. Now, the responsibility of the third

generation is to step in and take up the baton to stagger back to the line of scrimmage. If they fail,

history will repeat. They have to find a solution out of the box to return. A cluster of flats in different

districts of Kashmir is no solution to guarantee to boot out again.

It implies that the aborigines of Kashmir have been deprived of their peace, security, liberty, job

opportunities, education, culture, and above all, their homes for centuries.

In independent India, Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus were discriminated against not for their

fundamental rights but also for discharging their fundamental duties. But their plight has remained on

records only with policymakers tilting the same in a mirror. It has wrecked the very logic of Indian

democracy, which stands for equalities of all the communities.

Producing a film, writing books, and speaking in seminars is to laminate the realities with tones 

of nostalgia. They only cash Kashmiri Pandit's plight for their political or economic motives. These 

hapless Kashmiri Pandits are still waiting for a day when their plight is sincerely heard and miseries 

minimised if not ended. This civilized community is on the brink of extinction.

People in the governance of the Indian State

Published in Anual issue of Vitasta of 2023-24, published by Kashmiri Pandit Sabha Kolkata 

 have to be sensitive in performing their rightful 

duties to put an end to terrorism at its grass-root level; else they are continuously violating the Articles 

of the Geneva Convention on Human Rights.

The paradox of the community is gullible falling prey to an imbecile.