Ashok Bhan-
Ashok Bhan is a senior advocate, Supreme Court of India, and a geo-political analyst. The views expressed are his own.
If there is a consensus across all national and regional political parties in India, that is for the safe return of 700,000 exiled Pandits to the Kashmir valley, their homeland. So why the government at the Centre and the administration headed by the lieutenant governor in Srinagar do not act to facilitate the return, rehabilitation and empowerment of these natives is a big question.
It is time to reverse the exile of the Kashmiri Pandits and restore their rights to life, liberty and spiritual heritage. They urge the prime minister to act with large-heartedness and pride to respect the national consensus. If not now, then when? That is what KPs are asking today.
It reflects badly on the current regime that Kashmir is still without the Pandits. Realities are at times harsh and strange. The Pandits, the aborigines of Kashmir, are in exile in this modern age of reason and enlightenment. Their forced exodus in 1990, designed to effect ethnic cleansing, will go down in history as a continuation of the persecution and genocide they faced for hundreds of years and that peaked during the despotic rule of certain Muslim tyrants.
An acute sense of fear gripped the Kashmiri Pandits from September 1989 onward after prominent members of the community began to be killed. The local government abdicated its constitutional duties and left the citizenry at the mercy of the terrorists who killed scores of Muslims and Pandits. Gun-wielding terrorists had free rein. Killing one and scaring a thousand was their strategy.
In 1989-90, an orchestrated campaign was unleashed through loudspeakers of mosques around the valley: “O kafiron, Kashmir chhod do (Hey infidels, leave Kashmir).” The Pandits started feeling the way they had felt when hounded by the Afghans in the second half of the 18th century. The killers roamed unchallenged, creating dread in the city. The native exodus was engineered under a concerted plan scripted and executed by local terrorists that created death, destruction and disorder all around.
The terrorists maimed, killed, lynched and looted a large number of Kashmiri Pandits. The terror-stricken Pandits ran for their lives, leaving home and hearth. They sought refuge in Jammu, Delhi, and elsewhere. The cleansing was complete. Now the Valley has a very small number of Pandits.
How will present and future generations realize that Kashmir has been the keystone of our heritage through millennia, finding mention even in our oldest scriptures? The Pandits have a rich heritage with roots in the soil of the Valley for more than 5,000 years which can neither be destroyed nor obliterated.
Kashmir was considered the abode of Saraswati, the highest seat of learning in India, and referred to as Sharda Peeth. So much so that students, on graduating from Kashi, would take four symbolic steps toward Kashmir, denoting their aspiration for higher learning. Almost the entire body of Sanskrit literature has its origins in Kashmir.
Rajatarangini, an authoritative tome on the royal lineage of Kashmir, written by Kalhana in the 12th century, outlines the greatness of King Lalitaditya, possibly the most powerful Indian emperor, whose empire in the 8th century extended from the Caspian Sea in the north to the Cauvery basin in the south, and included Assam in the east. How many Indians have even heard his name? How many know that Srinagar was established by Ashoka the Great?
Mahayana Buddhism was spread across mid-Asia, China and Japan by Kashmiri monks. Patanjali gifted his yoga sutra to humanity here. Sarangadeva is considered the father of both Hindustani and Carnatic music. Acharya Abhinav Gupta wrote 46 literary classics, including the renowned Abhinav Bharti. His principles of ras are taught in 80 universities around the world.
This history pales into insignificance when we look at the present plight of the Pandits. The reality in today’s India and new age of enlightenment is that the Kashmiri Pandit community has been in exile for the last 32 years.
The colossal crisis through which the community or, for that matter, Kashmiri society is passing is, in reality, a crisis in the country’s great values — the perversion in the practice of its constitutional jurisprudence and socio-political and moral norms.
Native Kashmiris have entered the 32nd year of exile. They are longing to return home. Bidding farewell to the soil they have sprung from has been an experience too traumatic to be put in words. They always say, “We love our homeland and every inch of its bounteous soil has nourished us all.” The everyday resolve of these hapless Kashmiris is to strive, struggle and stop not till the exile is reversed on their terms.
Successive central and state governments have done precious little for the return and rehabilitation of this community which contributed in a big way to India’s freedom struggle and to national reconstruction after Independence. Human memory is short and so, unfortunately, is the memory of our leaders, especially of the current dispensation.
From 1989-90, KP groups across the globe have been striving to reverse their exile and restore the connection with their roots. But there seems to be no one at the political level, not even the prime minister, prepared to stick their neck out and commit to a time-bound plan to restore their homeland, dignity and honor.
After the inoperability of Article 370 and bifurcation of J&K state into two Union territories, hopes that the government would pay attention to the plight and future of the Pandits have been belied. The government has not consulted their representatives nor is there any return plan in the public domain despite claims of considerable improvement in the ground situation.
Meanwhile, the plight of the Pandits is being forgotten. Everybody sheds crocodile tears over their suffering, but there is nothing by way of action.
The syndrome of rootlessness and despondency is fast gripping the Pandits. However, hope is never totally lost. History is replete with instances where the Pandits have returned to their homeland after having been forced out by tyrants.
Various social groups and civil society activists are working to ensure that the promises made by the nation to restore the honor and dignity of the Pandits are not forgotten. These groups are interacting with leaders of the government, the opposition and international public opinion to ensure that this dimension of the Kashmir scenario is not forgotten. The socio-religious leadership of the majority community and groups that for some reason have chosen not to be part of the mainstream are also helpful factors for the return of the natives.
The return of Pandits to their homeland is achievable. There is a national consensus and the people of Kashmir are craving for the return. The government of India and the LG administration have to plan a common, comprehensive return module and enforce it in a time-bound framework.
New Delhi has a constitutional and political responsibility to demonstrate its will. It has to create infrastructure and housing colonies, provide adequate jobs to educated youth, and secure religious places, cultural centers and endowments. The greater obligation is to create a conducive economic and socio-political environment for reversing the exile and facilitating the safe and dignified return of the Pandits to their roots, their homeland.
The Narendra Modi government needs to create such a time-bound action plan and demonstrate statesmanship. As the late former Prime Minister Inder K Gujral once said: “If the nation’s coffers have to be emptied for the dignified return and rehabilitation of this illustrious community in the valley, it would be a lesser price for their contribution towards the modern Indian state.”
The writer is a senior advocate at the Supreme Court of India.
