An Exodus Of Kashmiri Pandits

29 years ago, on January 19, 1990, the Kashmiri Pandits faced a fate that changed their lives forever. That grotesque night forced the Kashmiri Pandits to convert from Hinduism to Islam or flee their ancestral land or die.

Who are Kashmiri Pandits?

The Kashmiri Pandits are a part of the larger community of the Saraswat Brahmin community. They belong to the Pancha Gauda Brahmana groups, who lived in the Kashmir valley. They were always a minority in the region. They constituted about 5% of the total population by 1981. Even though a

minority, they were over-represented in the bureaucracy and in the educational spheres.

Violence perpetuated on Kashmiri Pandits
Sultan Sikhandar Butshikan, was the seventh Muslim ruler of the valley, is most commonly referred to as an iconoclast because of the actions he had taken to destroy the non-Muslim monuments and religious symbols. He also forced the non-Muslims to either convert, flee or die for standing by their own religion. This ethnical cleansing made the region predominantly a Muslim region.

However, Butshikan's heir to the throne, Zain-ul-Abdin, was tolerant of Hindus. He offered sanctions to those who were forcibly converted to Islam, he also tried his best to restore the temples that were destroyed by his predecessor. He believed in merit and gave equal opportunities to everyone irrespective of their religious backgrounds. Hindus and Buddhists were among his closest advisors.

After Zain-ul-Abdin came Akbar in 1587 AD. In his reign, people rejoiced in religious freedom and enjoyed security in person and property. Akbar was very much pleased by the intelligence of the Kashmiri Brahmins and it was he, who gave them the name of Pandits.

The whole of Kashmiri society became completely Islamized by the 1980s. The extremists in Kashmir were supported by the United States of America and Saudi Arabia that was being sent to Pakistan under the control of General Zia, Former President of Pakistan. He funneled most of it to the extremists in Kashmir.

At the same time, there were training camps being set up in the Northern Punjab and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK), this was strengthening the hold of the Islamic extremist groups in Kashmir. The infiltration of the valley and the improving strength of the Islamic groups put the Kashmiri Pandits at grave threat.

Kashmiri Pandits were traditionally Nehruvian in the political sense and were rich in Kashmiri culture, there were viewed as ‘Kafirs' by the Islamic extremists in Kashmir, they were viewed as people who were Indian agents and as a threat to the Kashmiri governance.

"Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (either convert to Islam, leave the land, or die)"

Real life account of a Kashmiri Pandit:

"We weren't safe even in our homes. Many of the mosques became rallying points for local radicals and all kinds of political sloganeering from the loud-speakers were rife. The temple in our locality and a school right next to it were torched by a crowd in front of our eyes."

"I was called an ‘Indian dog' in my school bus and asked to ‘go away, leave Kashmir'"

"Many senior kids started harassing the teachers to declare Friday (in addition to Saturday & Sunday) as a school holiday. Muslim kids used to ask others not to clap when a non-Muslim got the school prize or stood first in class etc."

In the 1990s, the mosques in Kashmir along with the Islamic extremist groups started shouting slogans against the non-Muslims. The Islamic extremist groups mercilessly killed, looted and raped many Kashmiri Pandits. They released slogans that asked the men to convert along with his whole family or flee leaving the women in Kashmir or die a brutal death. The extremist groups employed the local goons and thugs who were familiar with petty crimes by showing them the greed of money and lavishness. Some well- educated men also joined hands with them, to accomplish a foolish idea of an Islamic State.

Approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 fled the war-torn Kashmir valley in the 1990s. The actual figure of the exodus is still a debate amongst the intellectuals. They have suggested a number ranging from the entire population of over 150,000 to 190,000 of a total Pandit population of 200,000 to a number as high as 800,000.

The fear of death still languishes the hearts of the Kashmiri Pandits who escaped from the mouth of death. Thousands of the Kashmiri Pandits still suffer in 8 x 8 refugee camps and many are spread across the globe from Jammu to Johannesburg. Even though 29 years have passed and the Kashmir government has passed many judgments and rulings favoring the Kashmiri Pandits, they have not been able to return to the valley to their ancestral homes.

The government during the 1990s did nothing to curb the attacks on the Kashmiri Pandits, the Kashmiri Muslims who were the neighbours and friends of the Kashmiri Pandits also did nothing to protect Kashmiri Pandits instead left a freeway for the militants to attack them. The Kashmiri Pandits were a minority and are still a minority, they could not have stood up for themselves without support from a majority group.

On the basis of caste, the world has seen much bloodshed but the world is yet to see brotherhood on a major scale. It is yet to see a man of one religion standing as a shield to protect another man without any religious, racial or historical biases.