Jammu, January 19
This day in 1990, Kashmiri Pandits started packing for “exile”. Between January 19, 1990, and April 1990, over 3.5 lakh Hindus fled the valley. Some came to Jammu in trucks loaded with housewares and others fled with whatever they could carry in bags.
Mr Jagmohan, who had been appointed Governor of the state during the turbulent period, landed in Srinagar on this day in 1990. His arrival was greeted with provocative slogans from mosques throughout the valley. It seemed preparations had been made well in advance.
Terror-stricken Hindus, who were yet to come out of the shock of seeing some people belonging to their community having been gunned down, got the signal. They read the meaning behind the provocative slogans and death threats received on phone or through letters delivered at their places at night.
When caravan after caravan of Hindus fled Kashmir, they had thought it would not be forever. “We thought we may have to stay in Jammu or elsewhere in the plains for a couple of months,” Mr O.N. Trisal, President of the All-Kashmiri Pandit Solidarity Conference, said.
Separatists on the other hand had thought that “freedom will come to us within a week or a month.” Neither their dream of “liberation” came true nor were the Pandits able to return.
Whether the Kashmiri Hindus’
decision to migrate was the right step is debatable. But there is no doubt about the trauma they have faced during these 13 years. Those who had been living in three-storeyed houses now had to stay in tents at camps or rented houses.
Economic distress, stress diabetes, partial lunacy, hypertension, heart ailments and other physical discomfort gripped a majority of the displaced people. Doctors are of the view that diabetes, fast mental retardation and degeneration afflicted a majority of the migrants. Diabetes in this case has been linked to stress.
Between 1990 and 1993, there were more than 100 deaths because of snakebite and sunstroke. After 1994, when a majority of Pandits lost hope of going back to their place of birth, they started resorting to distress sale of houses, lands and shops. Despite the Distress Sales Prevention Act, buyers from the valley developed contacts with the migrants not only in Jammu but also in other states and purchased their assets.
According to Dr Ajay Chrungoo of Panun Kashmir, more than 60 per cent migrants have sold their property for a song because the government failed to enforce the Act which was adopted in 1997. He and his colleague, Dr Agnishekhar, continue to seek a separate homeland for the Kashmiri Hindus within the valley, however, their demand has been rejected by the state and the Central governments.
Mr Hira Lal Chatha of the All-State Kashmiri Pandit Conference is worried about the future of the migrants and those Hindus who had decided to stay back. He said during the past 12 years, several Hindu families had adopted Islam in the rural areas.
Mr Amar Nath Vaishnavi, President of the All-State Kashmiri Pandit Conference, says Lord Rama knew he had to spend 14 years in exile but “we do not know how long we have to be in exile,” adding that this uncertainty is the result of lack of any definite government policy on the return of the migrants.
“We want to go back but not to be hounded out of our houses again,” says Mr Trisal.
Mr H.N. Jattu, President of the All-India Kashmiri Pandit Conference, says, “We will return to Kashmir only when we find the Chief Minister, his ministerial colleagues and other political leaders moving about without security cover.”
They have, however, failed to remain united even in adversity. Many organisations have mushroomed in camps are engaged in severe tussle. It is hard to find any leader or a group of leaders who can claim to be the true representatives of the migrants.
The dowry system has assumed
new dimensions and even those living in camps are not prepared to accept a bride with a meagre dowry. Wedding feasts have to be an elaborate affair, a mix of Kashmiri delicacies and Punjabi dishes. To a simple “gandun”, (engagement), they have added the ring ceremony. The ceremony is incomplete without the exchange of diamond rings and electronic gadgets.
Many leaders have not been able to utilise the financial aid they had received from various quarters, even abroad. As a result, even after 12 years, the Pandits have not been able to set up a technical institute or professional colleges and provide relief to widows and
destitutes.
Over 60 per cent of the migrants have fanned to various states. “Our moorings are lost. Our identity is on the verge of extinction and we may become as rare as a “hangul” (stag) in Kashmir,” laments Dr Chrungoo.
The APHC chairman, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, says, “Peace will be restored in Kashmir between 2002 and 2003 and the Pandits will be back with me.”
