Kashmiri Pandits have suffered for many years. To move forward concrete steps must be taken by the government
Rahul Pandit
My daughters were enjoying meditative serenity in the gardens of the Hazratbal mosque at Srinagar with birds in the azure skies above and the green waters of the Dal Lake caressing it below. They had finished offering prayers at the shrine on their first trip to the valley in 2016. “What happened was wrong. I pray every day for Pandits to return” Sh. Ghulam Hassan Banday, the pious and fatherly Custodian of the Holy Relic of Prophet Muhammad, was speaking to my in-laws, tears welling up in his eyes. I felt his sincerity, I was home.
This reverie was broken with the memories of the pogrom and the forced exodus of 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in the 90s. Author of 24 books, freedom fighter and poet Pandit Sarwanand Koul Premi and his son Pandit Virendra Koul were abducted from their house in village Soaf Shali, Anantnag. Their bodies were found hanging from a tree a day later.
This mayhem continued for over a decade to accelerate the pace of ethnic cleansing. Panun Kashmir, an organization of displaced Kashmiris, has published a list of 1,341 murdered Kashmiri Pandits. Widely read newspapers Aftab and Alsafa carried advertisements asking Hindus to leave or risk being eliminated.
The Indian state's pusillanimity left the Kashmiri Pandits to fend for themselves. While mass hysteria engulfed the valley, many families were also saved and clandestinely helped escape by their Muslim neighbours. The government of India records 64,951 displaced Kashmiri families. In 1995, the National Human Rights Commission headed by the former Chief Justice of India M.N. Venkatachaliah held the systemic ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits akin to genocide.
Steeped in Shaivism that exhorts compassion and forgiveness, Pandits did not let the venom of hatred grow deep inside or plot violent retribution. They resolved instead to a code of morality and pursuit of education. That is why the entire community over the past two generations, including all its women, are 100% literate. Those who forget history are condemned to repeat it. So, what should be done now to move forward and obviate a recurrence?
Acceptance and apology: Acceptance is half the walk to closure. It is important to prevent the assassination of India's memory by denying or minimizing this savagery of slaughter.
The Parliament must record an apology for India's failure in preventing the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. This will help douse the embers that burn the hearts of mothers who lost their children to this pogrom.
Punish the guilty: The Supreme Court of India in 2019 rejected a PIL for the prosecution of the accused on the ground that the time gap will make it difficult to collect evidence. Most Kashmiris say that if the SC after 36 years in 2020 can decide on conviction for the 1984 anti-Sikh riots it should do so too for this genocide in the 90s.
A Judicial Commission under a retired Chief Justice of the Supreme Court should be immediately constituted, akin to the Justice G.T. Nanavati Commission, formed in 2000 to probe the 1984 riots. Those found guilty should be given exemplary punishment as per the law. 215 FIRs that have not been acted upon by the state should be clubbed and given to the NIA for a comprehensive probe.Teach the nation: As civilised human beings, we must understand how such inhumane ideas spread like wildfire in the state instigating the organised rape, murder and plunder of a native community? Historians need to research and peel off the layers of distortion created to serve narrow political interests. They need to study and credit the Gonand, Karkota and Lohara dynasties that ruled the valley for over 1,000 years.
Reparation & resettlement: The return of the exiled Pandits with pride, is a matter of enforcing India's Constitution in Kashmir, both nationally and in the global arena. The government must pay reparation for the families forced to flee their homes.
Resettlement cannot just be an exercise in restoring the physical status quo pre-1990 but an enabling approach for political empowerment. A State Minority Commission, led by a retired Supreme Court Justice must be constituted. Its ambit should include compiling a comprehensive list of the usurped lands, orchards and properties of the Kashmiri Pandits, and laying down the process to restore the same. Economic revitalization: These initiatives will succeed only if backed by an economic agenda that creates jobs for the valley's youth and prosperity for all its citizens. Four key sectors to drive this agenda could be
1) Sustainable Tourism
2) Holistic Healthcare
3) Geographical Indication
4) Education.
India has the opportunity to make Kashmir the sustainable Tourism Capital of the World – flanked by the Zabarwan mountains and caressed by its gardens, lakes, rivers, valleys and wildlife with opportunities for golf, skiing, paragliding, river rafting, trekking, mountain climbing, camping and rural tourism.
An empowered Kashmir Economic Resurgence Council led by the Niti Aayog Chairperson should supervise a roadmap for accelerated implementation of this agenda.The acceptance of a shared culture and admittance of the integrity of the other's experience will initiate the process of healing helping wash the dirty blood stains of the genocide off India's fabric. Lord Rama was exiled for 14 years, and Kashmiri Pandits have now been in exile for over 30 years. It is time for India to get them home.
(The views expressed in the writeup are writer's own)
