More than three decades after their exodus, the return of Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) remains a mirage for a host of reasons including the weaponization of the KP misery by the rightwing to further its communal agenda.
A somber-looking septuagenarian Muslim neighbour looking mindlessly into nothingness surrounding him, with a pair of pink sandals resting next to him. These sandals are all that was found next to the body of Rajni Bala when she was murdered near Govt. High School, Gopalpara in South Kashmir’s Kulgam district. Bala hailed from Jammu’s Samba district and was posted as a teacher in Kulgam.
Over the last five to six weeks, gunmen executed more than five individuals across the length and breadth of Kashmir which included Revenue official Rahul Bhat, artist Ambreen Bhat, Police official Saifullah Qadri and EDB manager Vijay Kumar.
These recent killings of selected individuals have caused a sense of fear among individuals from the minority community working in the Valley. The sheer audacity and strategic execution of these targets has indicated sleeper cells, possibly run by Pakistani handlers. This is what former R&AW (Research and Analysis wing) Chief and New Delhi’s premier pointsman on Kashmir during Vajpayee regime, AS Dulat, made of the grisly events.
In an interview to Karan Thapar for The Wire, Dulat said that the planning and the precise execution of these murders not only has a Pakistani connection but could also be supported by a deeply entrenched network of OGWs (overground workers). He further implies that a largely silent rage over the dilution of the special status provided to the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir could also be a cause for this growing sentiment of antipathy towards the minorities in Kashmir.
Demographic change: genuine threat or a bogeyman?
The removal of article 370 has fanned the apprehension of a systematic demographic change in Kashmir.
The calls to resist attempts at demographic alteration have arisen intermittently in Kashmir in the last three decades. These concerns are further accentuated by loud demands from mainland India in favour of the settlement of non-Muslims from various parts of India in Kashmir via different policies, assuming it would scotch the anti-India sentiment in Kashmir or at least render the secessionist lobby a minority. Such extreme demands have also come from senior politicians like Subramaniam Swamy, who suggested in a conference hosted by Panun Kashmir – a rightwing Pandit organisation that claims to espouse the cause of KP’s – that retired soldiers, and police personnel can be settled in Kashmir as a policy to challenge the secessionist supremacy. Needless to say, such comments have alarmed Kashmiri Muslims. More than a decade ago, I spoke with a staunch Hurriyat supporter who told me that there will be many policies leading to settlements of non-Muslims in Kashmir. His apprehensions were echoed by noted political scientist and bitter critic of the Hindu right Pratap Bhanu Mehta when he wrote: “Political violence in India is intimately tied to a demographic imagination […] In Kashmir, the fear of altering demography after the abrogation of Article 370 has been palpably real”
It is imperative to note that the presence of the Union gov’t of India’s personnel in Kashmir is temporary in nature and doesn’t alter the results of elections in any form. However, several instances of malfunctioning in elections have rendered their outcomes meaningless in the eyes of the Kashmiris who believe that the chief ministers in J&K aren’t elected in Srinagar but rather selected in New Delhi.
Former JKLF Chief Yasin Malik who has recently been convicted in a money laundering case and Late SAS Geelani termed the appointment of Kashmiri Pandit employees in Kashmir via Prime Minister’s relief package as a precursor to demographic alteration in Kashmir. It led to a gradual building of a sense of fear and resentment among Kashmiri Muslims. PM package employees who had already accepted their jobs, that came with certain caveats, with a lot of trepidation. One of the conditions being that the beneficiaries can’t seek transfer once they’re posted in Kashmir. In the wake of recent killings of Pandits and a couple of Hindus from Jammu who were posted in Kashmir, these caveats have become the biggest hurdle in instilling a sense of security amongst the Pandit employees who have been asking to be transferred to safer areas in Jammu and other districts. Although the presence of a couple of thousand Hindu employees may pose very little or no immediate threat to the Muslim majority in Kashmir, blatant calls of Muslim genocide and other forms of violence coming from Hindutva echo-chambers doesn’t help in assuaging such fears.
Under such circumstances, statements of Yasin Malik and Late Geelani only add fuel to the fire. Add to that Pakistan vehemently bringing up the issue on multiple forums and the demography fears only grow stronger.
Did the separatist leadership have a role in maintaining peace and security?
On August 5, 2019 Immediately after placing the Presidential Order 2019 before the Rajya Sabha, Home Minister Amit Shah moved a resolution recommending that the president issue an order under Article 370(3) rendering all clauses of Article 370 inoperative. It further led to the dissolution of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir out of which two Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and UT of Ladakh were carved. Some of my friends who worked for the mainstream parties in the state felt their party leadership was undermined. They were expecting a deluge of protest against the resolution. None of that happened. Home Minster Amit Shah, in one stroke, rendered a host of pro-India Leaders redundant in Kashmir. What was feared for a while by political analysts came out to be true. Kashmiris had little faith in the claims made by the likes of NC and PDP about the intent of the rule of Indian democracy in the Valley.
In a way the removal of article 370 was a vindication of the stand that Hurriyat and other separatist groups maintained, For decades they have espoused that there is no real democracy on the ground in Kashmir. Yasin Malik, former chief of JKLF and a self-proclaimed Gandhian has for long remained a known face of the separatist movement in Kashmir. Almost all previous gov’ts from Narsimha Rao to Manmohan Singh have flirted with the idea of bringing Malik and other separatist leaders to the so-called mainstream politics in Kashmir. However, Malik, Geelani et al maintained that the resolution of the conflict in J&K can’t be found within the confines of the Indian constitution.
While most of the militants who picked up arms during the fag end of the 80’s or during the beginning of 90’s were eliminated; Yasin Malik not only survived but became a larger than life Kashmiri figure around the well with his newly acquired Gandhian credentials doing his image a world of good and giving him a huge platform in the national and international media. Malik was even a member of a panel that met the former Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. The photographs of Yasin shaking hands with Dr. Singh keep haunting the Congress party till today with its nemesis, the BJP, making most of such images.
In May this year, NIA court handed Malik a lifer for receiving funds to spark unrest in the valley. In its charge sheet, the NIA claimed that Malik received money through a Pakistani diplomat posted in New Delhi.
While Malikhas always maintained a public stance of welcoming Kashmiri Pandits back to the valley, he bitterly opposed the govt. of India’s idea to settle them in guarded settler colonies.
Yasin Malik and other separatists were considered valuable allies to control and also sometimes divert the sentiment on the streets of Srinagar by the Indian state. However, during Modi’s second term as prime minister powered by a thumping win in the 2019 polls, Yasin and other separatist leaders were rendered useless on that count. In fact, making a total departure from New Delhi’s earlier policies on Kashmir, the Centre went hammer and tongs after the separatist through investigative and law enforcement agencies.
Most of the Kashmiris I talked to while writing this essay referred to the absence of this force as a major reason for the recent upheaval in the Vale.
Why is the PM’s employment package suffocating Pandits?
During the reign of UPA govt. in 2008, PM Manmohan Singh announced an employment package for educated and yet unemployed Pandit youth. It led to the appointment of several thousand Kashmiri Pandits who were bound to serve in various districts of the Kashmir valley. This number has now risen to 4500. This employment package was a part of the relief and rehabilitation program launched by the govt. of India to resettle Kashmiri Pandits back in the Valley who had left during the eruption of militancy in Kashmir.
This employment package has however become a cause of massive unrest in the wake of the recent targeted killing of Hindu minorities in the Kashmir valley. According to the binding rules of this employment package, employees can only be posted in their home districts and are ineligible for transfers to any other place. In the wake of resigning from these jobs, Pandit employees become ineligible for any other gov’t jobs in Jammu and Kashmir. Due to such precondition, late Rahul Bhat was posted in Tehsil office of the village Chadoora in Budgam district. It was during the office hours when he was gunned down inside his office. Later, speaking to media personnel, his wife claimed that Rahul was feeling insecure in this remote location and had repeatedly asked the local administration to transfer him to safer district headquarters.
The brutal killing of Rahul caused the PM package employees to resign en mass and according to various news reports around 350 Pandit employees submitted their resignations to LG Manoj Sinha. The nature of the murder of Rahul Bhat had indicated the involvement of local Kashmiri employees in his office. A concern shared by Dulat in his interview with Thapar.
Kashmir Files
On 11th March 2022, The Kashmir files, a Hindi film was released across cinema halls in India. It is a fictional account based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in 1990. The critical reception of the film was mixed, with the cinematography and acting thought to be compelling, but the storyline attracting criticism for attempting to recast established history and propagating Islamophobia. Supporters have praised the film for showing what they say is an overlooked aspect of Kashmir’s history.
This film received unprecedented support from the Modi govt. with a special mention by the prime minister himself. However; the former chief minister of the state Farooq Abdullah had very critical view of the film and the intent of its makers. He called the film an attempt to malign the Kashmiri Muslims and create a divide in the country due to several scenes depicting gory details of the murder of Pandits in Kashmir. He made a special mention of the scene in which a Pandit is killed and rice soaked in his blood is fed to his surviving wife. He referred to it as an outright lie and said it is not possible that a Muslim would do this to his Pandit brother in Kashmir. Farooq’s utterances notwithstanding, it was widely reported that B.K Ganjoo a former employee of the BSNL was killed in the same fashion, and his unfortunate wife was made to undergo this inhuman act. This story was, however, refuted by his surviving brother, SK Ganjoo.
Irrespective of its merit, it is widely being felt that Kashmir Files is being weaponized by the right-wing in India to propagate their prejudice and hatred towards minorities. The deeply dividing discourse around the film and the capitalizing on the trauma of Pandits to score political goals has become a worrying reality. People chanting anti-Muslim slogans inside and outside theatres and calling for revenge after watching the movie went viral on social media.
Although to claim that the murder of Rahul Bhat and later Rajni Bala was triggered by the aroused sentiment due to the film is downright wrong and preposterous. Individuals from the minorities were being targeted and killed in a planned manner for more than two years before the film was released. The murder of M.L Bindroo and later of Sikh school Principal Supinder Kour were incidents that happened before the release of the movie.
In both the cases a little-known militant group took responsibility, accusing both the victims of promoting Indian agenda in Kashmir and propagating anti-Islamic activities. It would be intellectual dishonesty to disregard the void that is being created between the two prominent communities in Kashmir. Especially with the nature of the recent killings, the involvement of ordinary Kashmiris in executing these target killings has created a blinding fear amongst the minuscule minority in Kashmir reminding them of the troubled times of 90 and 91. This gash that has opened now will take a herculean effort to be sewed again.
Hindutva and its Impact
For decades now, the KP issue has become a favourite horse to be flogged in India for the right wing. The ascent of militant right in India has coincided with coming to power for the nationalist, right wing politics in major countries like Turkey, Britain, Brazil etc.
However, in case of Indian politics, the curious case of KPs and reminder of their suffering became an excellent electoral plank to garner majoritarian sentiments. I have witnessed numerous occasions when in the coastal areas of Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan the non-Muslim community has been reminded of what happened to Pandits.
It is no secret that, for years, J&K has remained a lab for Hindutva and nationalist politics where experiments are conducted to be used across rest of the country. Unfortunately, the brunt of its adverse effect has been borne by Pandits in the Valley as well where they had to face resistance and reprisal. Pandits have in the past been chided sometimes as ‘Jan Sanghis’, an allusion to the parent organisation of BJP, the Jan Sangh. They have been known to be loyal voters of BJP and, therefore, instant targets for the separatist lobby. As the direct control of BJP rule gets stronger in the valley; Pandit organizations like Panun Kashmir have urged the Indian state to carry out the necessary purge in the valley to make it more Indian. It is a fallacious claim that Kashmiri Pandits are en masse a BJP vote bank or out and out Hindutava supporters. One of the reasons, perhaps, why the KP’s continue to suffer is that they are a miniscule minority and have a negligible bearing on the electoral politics. That they have been so central to the majoritarian politics underscores the genius and focus of the Hindu right to use them as an electoral weapon not only to make electoral gains but also to keep live their divisive politics of keeping aloof and otherising the Muslims or any other idea that challenges their idea of India which is Akhand Bharat or the Greater India which, in the imagination of the Hindutva followers, is expansion of India beyond its borders, going as far off as Afghanistan, borne of myths and alternate history that the Sangh Parivar peddles with total disregard for historical data or the thumb rules that the historians are supposed to go by.
Like many other ethnic groups, Kashmiri Pandits too belong to a scattered political spectrum rather than a monolith. It is in place to mention that during the Sheikh Abdullah agitation, and even afterwards, most of the communist leaders in Kashmir were Pandits. Even some of them like late Raghunath Vaishnavi and Sampat Prakash wrote liberally about their sympathies for this protracted struggle for a separate state in Kashmir.
As the valley inches towards an eerie peace and the Pandit employees are being moved to high-security offices while their families remain virtually locked inside govt. enclosures like in Haal, Pulwama, their safety remains precariously edged on a precipice. It is now to be seen if the gov’t, powers that be and the Kashmiri society, in general, will stand up and help each other to move out of these murky waters.
