The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Friday, July 13, 2001, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

KASHMIRI SIKHS — I
PoK Sikhs’ tale of perseverance
Amarjit Thind
Tribune News Service

Mohan Nagar (Raisingh Nagar), July 12
Their grit, perseverance and unshakeable faith in the will of the Almighty is what has kept the Kashmiri Sikh community, displaced from areas in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), going for the past 54 years.

Although their fall from heaven during the dark days of the Partition was swift, their gradual rise is a story of endless struggle with those in the corridors of power, then and now. What makes their story of struggle stand out is that they have been treated as second class citizens in their own country and despite being officially recognised as Kashmiris cannot settle down in Kashmir because of Article 370.

Elders of the now 1,000-strong families recall that their tragic story began after Partition became inevitable. Hundreds of displaced Kashmiri Sikh refugees from Poonch, Muzzafarabad and Mirpur districts, who were fortunate enough to escape the marauding Pakistani hordes, were set up in camps at Yol, Kangra and Chakrota (Himachal Pradesh), Nagrota (Jammu), Chunar (Uttar Pradesh) and Patiala in Punjab.

For five long years they stayed in these camps and were repeatedly assured by the authorities that they would be able to go to their homes once the matter of the three forcibly occupied districts — now known as PoK — was settled. They were informed that the issue was being pursued by the Indian Government with the then United Nations Organisation (UNO).

But this was not to be. As days and years passed, it became clear to the now distraught Sikhs that they would never be able return to their homeland. The UNO could do nothing and by 1952 the Central and the Jammu and Kashmir government were hard pressed to rehabilitate them.

The refugees were divided into groups of 500 families and were sent to Alwar and Sriganganagar (Rajasthan). They were told that they were being sent to a prosperous state and had nothing to fear. The hardy community was soon lost in preparing for a new beginning and many looked forward earnestly to their new home.

They were issued identity cards and tickets for Mohan Nagar, which consists of a small railway station in the middle of nowhere and boasts of nothing else even today.

The elders recall that they were stunned when they alighted from the train. A hot wind was blowing and the swirling sand from the huge sand dunes stung them painfully. Our dreams were dashed and the assurance from no less a person than the then Prime Minister, Jawahar Lal Nehru, of a prosperous beginning seemed like a cruel joke, said an elder.

“We were not used to the intense heat as we had come from cold enviorns. There was no habitation within miles and no source of drinking water. Some families could not bear to live here and bought tickets for Jammu on the same train back. The rest were fed up with their rootless existence and decided to make the most of a bad deal.”

“If Waheguru had ordained that we live here, who were we to challenge his will,” another village elder pointed out.

This is how they took their first steps on the long road to resettlement and coming to terms with their circumstances. They settled down in the newly created villages of Chaks 22 NP, 33 NP, 25 NP, 36 NP, 2 NP, 3 NP, 7 NP, 8 NP, 10 NP and 11 NP. The government gave six bighas of land, mostly sand dunes, to each family at the prevailing market prices.

Even after the advent of the canal network, more than half the land is still fallow till date.

Village elders recall that people from the surrounding areas came to see them ploughing the land with bullocks and carrying umbrellas since they could not stand the scorching sun ! Bets were also placed that they would not last the first six months and go back to Jammu.

Their plight could be gauged form the fact that the womenfolk had to walk several kilometre to board the local passenger train carrying containers every day to bring drinking water from Raisingh Nagar town, 20 km away.

The women and some times men also were at the mercy of ticket checkers who also asked for fare for the water containers. Many were booked for this and had to get bail from the Jodhpur High court and appear before the courts at Bikaner, more than 250 km away.

The apathy of the government can also be judged from another instance when they were asked to return the grant of Rs 35, 000 given to them for building houses with interest after some years. But the hardy Kashmiri Sikhs, who were just settling down and did not have that kind of money, somehow took this too in their stride and paid it back.

To be concluded