Prof M L Raina
The Pandits of Kashmir lived in ancient times, for thousands of years in Kashmir, with a history of rich culture, profound learning, sound ethical mores and sociopolitical sagacity. They spent their days in a congenial environment of peace and serenity in the Valley.
This placid atmosphere lasted until the beginning of the medieval period when history changed its course for these Pandits for the worse.. Muslim invaders, with their eye on the beautiful valley started their onslaughts with a view to changing the existing demographic complexion here. Their attempts at Islamisation of the valley resulted in their persecution of and untold atrocities on the Kashmiri Hindus. Thus started the process of the initial ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Kashmir. Bouts of forced migration continued until the end of the Afghan rule in the early 19th century.
Those were dark ages. But what happened later in the 20th century of enlightenment and democracy. Covert persecution of the Pandits took place by slow and steady gagrees. The tallest of the tall leader at the halm, seemed to pick up the threads of persecution, though of a different tone, from the past ages. He conceived and practised a sinister and conspiratorial policy of Muslim precedence in the J&K State to exclude Kashmiri Pandits and other small communities from all the political, social, educational and economic spheres of public life. Secularism ad the avowed state policy served only as a veneer to hide the ugly visage of Muslim majoritarianism. This type of camouflage was used to keep New Delhi in good hunour and at the same time, throw dust in the eyes of the right thinking people here and elsewhere.
This deplorable policy of Muslim precedence continued to be adopted by the regimes that followed. Deprivation and harassment of the KP community went on unabated. Its members were ruthlessly subjected to economic squeeze, political marginalisation, and social isolation plus stark discrimination in other fields of activity.
Why did atrocities and harassment continue to be heaped on the bleagured Pandits who were forced to live under the shadows of Muslim majoritalianism? Had they committed any deadly sin to merit such an inhuman treatment? Or, was it simply a sin to live in Kashmir, their motherland, amidst the Muslims there?
To crown it all, armed militants and terrorists dealt a fatal blow to the very existence of Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley. They went on the rampage, taking recourse to killing, maiming and looting of the KP community members, plus burning their houses. They did not stop at that. They vandalised temples and religious places, encroached and usurped the lands attached to them. All this was done to effect ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Hindus. The rest is history who does actually Kashmir belong to, one may ask. By any sensibly objective and rational standards of judgement. The answer will be Kashmiri Pandits, the original inhabitants of Kashmir. Taking a charitable view, it may be observed that as a corollary Kashmir is the land of those Muslim also who are genetically connected with the Pandits. It can not, in any way, belong to the progeny of the invaders. With the reagressive mindset they have inherited, through the unchanged flow of genes from their cruel ancestors who were far far away from the concept of love and peace. They have poisoned the soil and soul of Kashmir by spreading communal hatred, and created conditions for thus far the latest oxodus engineered through diabolical designs. Islamisation of Kashmir, like their forefathers, was their be all and end all of life.
The aggrieved Pandits in exile have been struggling for the last twenty eight years to go back to their ancestral land and live there on their own terms and conditions, away from the harms way. But on expected lines, spanners are being thrown on their path to prevent them from their avowed target. It is at their behest that canards are being set afloat that the colonies for the settlement of Pandits, prior to their compact and lasting rehabilitation, as envisaged by the Central Govt, will throw in jeopardy the existing demographic pattern of the Valley. Not only that. They raise the ghost of a war like situation, similar to the consequences of colonies of Israel in Palestine. What a fantastic visualisation. They forget that in case of any ugly situation that erupts around the KP colonies, it will be the brain child of these people themselves. These votaries of Islamisation of the Kashmir valley are hallbent upon erasing all traces of what they term as Kafirs. This aim is no different from their ancestral Muslim forefathers.
The fact of the matter is that they are simply revisiting the methodology of their ancestors to cleanse the footprints of the Kashmiri Hindus and other non-Muslim minorities to pave a smooth path for an Islamic rule in Kashmir.
Kashmiri Pandits have not committed any sin. Contrarily, they were, and are still being sinned against, both by the successive Govts in the State and the anti-KP elements.
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