Dr Madhulika Singh
On the ocassion of 98th birth anniversary of Shri Amarnath Vaishnavi ji , the nation recalls and honour his intense struggle and persistant sacrifices towards the National Movement .He was a courageous leader who dedicated his whole life for the cause of nation .His long but vibrant public life was spotless, transparent and inspiring.
He was born in August, 1925, in a Kashmiri Pandit family of Sri Sarvanand Vaishnavi and Smt Divyamali. Though belonging to Srinagar city in Kashmir, the family had moved to Jammu before his birth, owing to his father’s transferable job. The year of Amarnath’s birth coincided with the historical year of coronation of the last Dogra Maharaja Sri Hari Singh. He grew up witnessing an ambience suffused with various revolutionary reforms and movements all over the state, which produced an inevitable impact on his personality and subsequently shaped the further course of his life. As a teenager he worked for secretly passing the information between the nationalist leaders and freedom fighters.
Pandit Amarnath Vaishnavi received his early education from Sri Ranbir School, Jammu. Later, he moved back to Srinagar along with his family. After having completed his school education, he acquired a diploma in Fine Arts and Interior decoration from City and Guilds London while studying at Amar Singh College, Srinagar. He started his career as a school teacher- first in DAV, Rainawari and later, Arya High School, Pathankot. It was during this time that he got influenced by the Nationalist ideology of revolutionaries. He worked to organise transportation of the raw material and other logistical support for carrying out revolutionary operations in various parts of the country. He went underground for a considerable period of time during the freedom movement as he was sought in various cases of bomb making and providing logistic support to the Indian revolutionaries. Later, in 1942 he came in contact with the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangha and joined it in the year 1945, first as Swayam Sewak and later, he was elevated to the position of Sangha chalak of Kashmir and Ladakh.
In October 1947, when Pakistan backed tribal raiders attacked Kashmir, he actively worked in Srinagar to provide security to defend the common masses against the wrath of the Pakistani marauders. His team acted as the standby security guards of Maharaja Hari Singh and catered to the immediate needs of the refugees who were migrating to Srinagar city due to loot, arson, plunder and selective mass killings by the invaders in the peripheral areas of the valley. Pandit AmarNath along with his team kept a vigil on important entry points in Srinagar city. He also took an active part in the preparation of the runway of the makeshift Damodhar airport for the landing of the army aircrafts in Srinagar in 1947.
Pandit Amarnath Vaishnavi remained wedded to the nationalist ideology throughout his life. He actively participated in the anti permit agitation launched by the Jammu branch of Praja Parishad in 1949. This movement with its slogan “Ek Nishan, Ek Pradhan, Ek Vidhan” was aimed to put an end to the gross unfairness and anachronism caused by the then existing Permit System in J&K. It was this system that attracted the attention of Shyama Prashad Mukerjee who laid down his life to end this system in this region. Further, Vaishnavi ji’s active participation in this movement finally led to his arrest under the Preventive Detention Act on the accusation of being involved in the supply of arms to the Jammu agitators from Pathankot.
He played a vital role in creating social awareness among the masses of Jammu and Kashmir. For this, he made an effective use of his teaching profession for bringing social change by influencing the young minds. Being an art teacher, he was also responsible for cultural and other co-curricular activities. With an aim to imbibe a sense of nationalism and to make the younger generation aware of the sacrifices made by the freedom fighters during the nationalist struggle, Amarnath ji took the bold step of initiating the tradition of celebrating Independence Day with great fervor in the far flung areas of Kashmir. Further, he took the initiative to create a space for the minority community in Kashmir by reviving the age old practice of religious processions of Janamashtami, thus, removing the fear psychosis from the minds of the minorities that was imbued during the times of tribal raids of 1947.
Pandit Amarnath Vaishnavi was an unchallenged leader of Kashmiri Pandits who stood by them during the time of adversity. He became the President of All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) which remained at the forefront for the welfare of the community. He collaborated with the stalwarts of the community like Pt. Kashyap Bandhu, Pandit Shiv Narayan Fotedar and many others and worked for the betterment of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
He was a man with a farsighted vision. His untiring efforts persuaded the government to rehabilitate the terrorism hit people of J&K who had lost their homes and hearths during the mass exodus of 1990s. Furthermore, he convinced Shiv Sena leader Balasaheb Thackery to provide reservations to Kashmiri students in the educational institutions. Later, he along with his team put forward a similar proposal to the Central Government to extend the same arrangement of reservation for displaced Kashmiri Pandits throughout the country. He breathed his last in the year 2012.
( The author is a Senior Assistant Professor in the Department of History,University of Jammu & Principal Investigator of the Project “Unsung Heroes of Jammu and Kashmir funded by Ministry of Culture, Government of India, New Delhi)
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