More than thirty years have passed since the tragic exodus of the peace-loving Hindus of Kashmir, popularly known as Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to flee their homes in the Kashmir Valley. Terrorized by Islamist radicals, they faced an ultimatum that unless they converted to Islam, the choice was between leaving the Valley and death. Over a thousand had been massacred, and hit lists were circulated, identifying Hindus as 'mukhbirs' or spies, who were informing India against the Muslims' liberation movement in Kashmir. The sentence for mukhbirs under Islamic law is death. More than 350,000 fled to Jammu and other states in India, refugees in their own country.
The Kashmiri Pandits lament the lack of an effective international response to address their plight. What accounts for the international silence? The mandate of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is to help those who flee their country and are formally termed as refugees. But it also assists internally displaced persons-those who do not leave the country-if their government either fails to protect them or seeks UNHCR's assistance. The Indian government neither sought U.N.
assistance nor took pains to rehabilitate these displaced Pandits, but continued to call their displacement as the outcome of a "temporary disturbance in the Valley" and persisted in the position that the "families must go back". But that was not a choice for those who had left their ancestral homes, as the authorities in Kashmir could not or would not ensure their safety and security.
The Indian government failed to appreciate that the crisis was irreversible and that over the years, its transitional policies had failed to adequately meet the needs of the displaced Hindus, who found the policies ineffectual. The government categorized them as 'migrants', a label used to identify them for the purposes of distributing rations and benefits. But as the label suggests a voluntary departure from the Valley, the result is that those who perpetrated the forced evictions and committed rape, torture, and murders, still remain unaccountable.
The tragedy seems to have been forgotten. On January 19, 2020, as displaced Kashmiri Pandits across the world commemorated the thirtieth anniversary of 'holocaust day', their desperation was evident. They saw no evidence of any promising action by New Delhi to ensure their return to the Valley in dignity and honor. Even after the government of India's bold move in August 2019 to 'reintegrate' Kashmir as part of India by repealing Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian Constitution, they found nothing had yet changed. The Kashmiri Pandits' pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
The present-day Kashmir Valley, according to Nilmat Purana, the sixth century Sanskrit classic, was a large lake called Satisar surrounded by gigantic snow-peaked mountains. Geological findings confirm that the valley was once submerged underwater. There is a tradition that the lake was drained by an ascetic named Kashyap rishi (sage) by cutting a gap in the hills at Baramulla (Varaha-mula). Hence the reclaimed land was called Kashyap Mar. In the people's language over a while, Kashyap Mar became 'Kashmir', the present name of the valley.
The native Hindus of Kashmir Valley, popularly known as Kashmiri Pandits, are the indigenous people of the Valley. Their ancestors (Saraswat Brahmins) settled in the Valley over five thousand years ago after the original lake was drained and the land became habitable. The Valley inhabitants were principally Hindus until the 14th century, when Islamists entered Kashmir and began converting Hindus to Islam. Seven mass exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley have occurred in the past 600 years. In the mid-1980s, foreign Islamist radicals, with the acquiescence of the local Muslim majority, began a militarized crusade to Islamize the Valley Throughout the summer of 1989, armed radical Islamists intensified their jihad in the guise of Azadi (freedom) to Islamize the Valley. Explosive and inflammatory speeches directed against Pandits, broadcast from the loudspeakers installed on mosques' minarets, became frequent. Thousand audio cassettes, carrying similar propaganda, were played all over the Valley to instill fear into the already frightened minorities like the Kashmiri Pandit community.
There were open calls for the establishment of an Islamic order. Pakistani government-sponsored radical Islamist groups like Jamaat-e-Islami and its militant wing Hizbul Mujahideen, the women's outfit Dukhtaran-i-Millat, the Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, Allah Tigers, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, etc. proclaimed the objective of their struggle as Islamization of the Kashmir Valley and its merger with Pakistan. The Islamic extremists launched a malicious campaign against the Kashmiri Pandits through sermons in mosques, by publishing materials in the local Urdu newspapers derogatory to Pandits, and by denigrating their history, customs and traditions in order to spread hatred and disinformation about this ancient indigenous community amongst the ordinary Muslim masses in the Valley.
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