Kashmir: Its Aborigines and their Exodus
Two
very powerful books on Kashmiri Pandit (KPs) have hit the book stores
recently – each complete with detailed historical, emotional and social
accounts of the uprooting of a minority community without much succor by
the state. South Asian Idea is analysing both the books to explain what
they bring to the table. Thus far all accounts of reporting on this
issue have been by journalists and authors from afar. These two books,
Kashmir:Its Aborigines and their Exodus by Colonel Tej K Tikoo and Our
Moon has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita, both written by Kashmiri Pandits
of great scholarly credentials and both having left their homes to the
violence in the aftermath of the seventh exodus of KPs from the valley
post 1989 mayhem, are by far the most well researched and authentic
accounts on the subject. Both these would provide the reference points
for any further research and direction to scholars, policy makers and
students of Kashmir. Both the books make a strong emotional appeal about
the “genocide” leading to the exodus and the apparent lack of interest
by successive governments in finding a solution due to poor vote bank
politics. This post endeavours to review Col Tikoo’s “Aborigines” while
we shall take on “Our Moon” in a subsequent post as the two cannot be
given a short shift.
The book spends over 180 pages in
tracing the History of Kashmir, its transition to Islam including the
Mugal, Afghan, Sikh and Dogra rules. His historical narrative
establishes the KPs history to be over 5000 years old almost
contemporaneous to the vedic civilization of India. Originally, they
were and continue to be called “Bhattas” which means doctor, scholar or
intellectual. Pandit of course traditionally means a learned
person. Tikoo classifies the KPs as Shiva devotees with the Kashmiri
Shavism deeply influenced by tantric thought as the central concept of
their religious tradition. He reinforces this with accounts of
Lalleshwari (Lal Ded, 1335-1376CE) who inspired Kashmiri Shaivism.
His other chapters on the land and its
people and on the aspect of ‘Kashmiriyat’ are exhaustive and
illuminating. There is no better explanation and account of this term
Kashmiriyat than in the pages of this book -the common and shared
identity of the two main communities of the valley - the Pandits and the
Muslims. His Painstaking research must have taken him through numerous
libraries, heaps of material, accounts from scholars and his experience
of serving as on army officer in Kashmir.
The detailed research and account of
genesis and how the situation kept getting complicated since 1931, post
1947 and the implementation of Article 370, which in the author’s view
set the stage for alienation of the KPs, is exhaustive and praiseworthy.
His narration of Pakistan’s fatal attraction to Kashmir resulting in
three wars with India is incisive and well researched. As per him,
vested interests in Kashmir, be these politicians, bureaucracy,
business, judiciary etc, have misused Article 370 for their nefarious
purposes. This law, he argues, is a ploy to prevent assimilation of
Kashmiris into the National mainstream by starving Kashmir of the
opportunity to cross fertilise with rest of India.
Col Tikoo has demolished many myths and
exposed many lies with facts and figures. He has also mercilessly
exposed the ‘Janus-faced’ secularism in Kashmir. He has painstakingly
explained how successive governments, continued to squeeze the rights of
KPs till 1989. This made the subsequent ethnic cleaning perpetrated by
Pakistan an easy task.
He has deft fully presented the
emotional side of the ‘genocide’ and the exodus through personal
accounts, interviews and well documented stories of individuals who
were, as historically given only three choices – either convert to
Islam, or to flee or to die. He has presented enough evidence to
articulate his views on the “ethnic cleaning” carried out by the
Islamists from Pakistan where the local muslims also participated with
varying degree of vigor in search of Azaadi.
His personal account of the mob attack
on his home during the January 1990 genocidal wave is a bone chilling
reminder of what the KPs went through on their way to exercise one or
other of the three choices. The narration enables a peek into the
enormity of the traumas and the intensity of pain that
a minuscule minority was subjected to in its own country with the state
and the Central government literally watching as mute spectators.
In the last chapter, Col Tikoo examines
same critical issues which confront the KPs today. His examination of
contentious issues such as whether violence against KPs was a genocide,
their status as internally displaced people, on the issue of minority
status being granted to them and ultimately the possibility of return of
KPs to Kashmir are issues that face a secular India. Finding answers to
these questions is not easy but not impossible either.
The author has rendered a yeoman service
to his community- nay, the civil society, by bringing out the apathy
and indifference of a modern democratic society and govt to the plight
of its citizens simply because of their non-vocal suffering and marginal
impact as a vote bank. The sheer magnitude of the tragedy of our times
has found support from UN as well as USA, but little has been done at
national level to mitigate the hardships of the community.
The book is a collector’s item and a
must have for any student yearning to understand the dynamics at play in
our inept handling of the vexed Kashmir issue. Putting the book down
becomes increasingly difficult as the history unfolds itself at a rapid
pace in an impartial and clear manner. The personal experiences
recounted by people give an insight into the chilling reality of the
security situation of Kashmir valley for the reader.
The author could have, perhaps made an
endeavour to bring out the constraints and limitations under which the
political leadership maneuvered in addressing the Kashmir issue from
both sides but he more than makes up for it in analysing its
implications on ground for the common man. Similarly, the
recommendations to address the problem could have been more elaborate
drawing on the experience of some European countries.
This book would serve as one of the best
researched account of the travails of Kashmiri Pandits and their
struggle to find a home in Kashmir. Historically, it would serve as one
of the most authentic accounts which poses one basic question to secular
India-can it provide justice to Kashmiri Pandits?
(Comment): The
genocide against Pandits of Kashmir, which has happened under our own
eyes, is a very sad commentary against not only our political class as a
whole but also those who pride themselves as Human Rights
Organisations.
The Central Government in particular failed miserably to check it.
Sadly the Pandits themselves seem to have not done much firstly at the time the ethnic cleansing started in 1990 and subsequently. They just accepted their fate!!
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