ISLAMABAD – On Sept. 21, before making a speech to tens of thousands ofmembers of the Indian diaspora in Houston, Prime Minister Narendra Modi metseparately link with asmall assembly of Kashmiris. This group—the so-called Kashmiri Pandits—wasoriginally part of a Hindu minority in India’s Muslim-dominated KashmirValley, but in 1990, an estimated 350,000link of them were drivenout of their homes by Islamist extremists. The Houston meeting was markedwith applause, photo-ops, and a deep expression of gratitude to Modi forhis government’s recent decision to revoke the special statuslink of the northern Indianstate of Jammu and Kashmir.
As Modi met the group, he toldlinkthemin Hindi: “*Mein laga hua hun*,” which translates to “I am at it.” Modi wasreiterating the long-held promise of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) to facilitate the return of the Pandits. But the continuedlockdown and communication blackout imposed in the valley since Aug. 5 isfueling anger among the local Kashmiri Muslim population. The jingoisticcoverage of Kashmir on mainstream television debates in India and extremenarratives on social media are creating an impression that the revocationamounts to revenge exacted by New Delhi for the brutalization of thePandits. Put together, the current political circumstances are creating adeeper wedge between Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir. The result is that thereturn of the Pandits remains a distant dream—and the hope for peaceelusive in a region that has been a flash point between India and Pakistanfor more than seven decades.——————————
It’s important to remember the history of the Pandits. In 1990, about 700linkofthem, including women and children, were killed by Islamist extremists. Byvirtue of their religion, these Pandits were considered an impediment tothe idea of an independent Kashmir, which very quickly became a euphemismfor a merger with Muslim-majority Pakistan. Across Kashmir, hit lists ofPandits were issued by militant organizations like the Jammu KashmirLiberation Front. From warnings issued in newspapers and throughloudspeakerslinkinmosques, they were asked to leave Kashmir or face punishment. Doctors,engineers, professors, and writers were killed in their houses, offices, oron the streets.
A mass exodus ensued. Families fled for their lives: Their belongings wereleft behind in their houses, many of which were later torched orappropriated by the extremists. The Pandits sought shelter in refugee campsin the Hindu-dominated Jammu region after traveling 120 miles south of thevalley in buses and taxis over many days. Thousands diedlinkfromunsanitary conditions, heatstroke, snake bites, and poor health. Even threedecades later, the community continues to live in exile. Separated fromtheir land, they are scattered all over the world, struggling to keep alivetheir history and cultural identity.
Separated from their land, they are scattered all over the world,struggling to keep alive their history and cultural identity.
Even as most Pandits welcomedlinktheAug. 5 move to revoke India-administered Kashmir’s autonomy, there is noevidence to suggest that they would see the government’s actions asrevenge. Over the last three decades, bonds of personal friendship haveremained intact among Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits. There is hardly anyPandit marriage that does not have a Muslim singing troupe speciallybrought in from Kashmir for a performance. Many Pandits who visit thevalley as tourists or pilgrims continue to forge new relationships with thelocals.
When Muslims and Pandits meet, they sometimes rue the loss of Kashmir’snatural syncretism, but there is rarely a discussion about how thathappened and why the majority failed to save the minority. There iswidespread public denial in Kashmir about how the Pandits were forced intoexile, despite the fact that Muslim neighbors were found to be complicitlink in many Pandit murders.
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The ouster of the Pandits was first raised as a political issue by the BJPin 1990. Along with a movement to build a Hindu temple on top of a disputedmosque in Ayodhya, the issue of the Kashmiri Pandits helped the BJP winover Hindu voters in the country’s heartland. In 1992, Modi and a seniorBJP leader brought together 50,000 people to hold a unity march culminatingwith an unfurling of the Indian national flag in the main market square ofthe city of Srinagar in Kashmir. Though security considerations limited thecongregation to only 70 people, the flag was indeed unfurledlinkatthe city’s famous Lal Chowk, or “Red Square.” Implicit in the act was theBJP’s message that Kashmir was an integral part of India and would remainso despite the special status accorded to it by the Indian Constitution.
The promise of facilitating the return of the Kashmiri Pandits and therevocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir have remained part ofthe BJP manifesto in several of the past national elections. Since Modi’slandslide win in 2014, the Pandits have been toldlinkrepeatedlythat the government will identify land in the valley to create a townshipto assimilate them. No actionlinkhasbeen taken so far. The BJP has in fact done very little to restore dozensof Hindu temples that were destroyed or vandalized in the valley byIslamist extremists in the immediate aftermath of the Pandit exodus. (Thejunior Union home minister saidlinkrecentlythat the state will restore 50,000 temples in the valley. The number ishighly exaggeratedlinkandserves as evidence of the government’s lack of seriousness on this issue.)A 10th-century idollinkofthe goddess Durga stolen from one such temple in southern Kashmir had beensmuggled to the United States and later sold to a museum in Germany; it wasonly after protracted effort by Kashmiri Pandits that it was returned toIndia by German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015.
Even when the BJP was running the state government in coalition with aKashmiri political party between 2015 and 2018, government advertisinglink to promote Kashmir as atourist destination failed to highlight the region’s Hindu heritage. And inpublic speeches made by Modi and other senior BJP leaders after therevocation, there was no mention of Pandits. Modi may say that he is “atit,” but so far there has been no investigation into the killings and otherviolations faced by the Pandits. In the last few months, two formerterrorists, Yasin Malik and Farooq Ahmed Dar, have been arrestedlinkforfunding terrorism. Both men are believed to have killed several Pandits.Dar confessed link on nationaltelevision that he had killed 20 people, most of whom were Pandits, but hehas never been tried for those slayings. Barring one caselink,there has not been a single conviction in the killings of hundreds ofPandits.
As Kashmiri Pandits fled, Muslims in the valley became increasinglyradicalized under the influencelinkofa Wahhabi strain of Islam. The Pandit exodus also coincided with theshutting down of cinema halls, salons, and the bombing of a prominentcoffee house that was a meeting point for writers, poets, and artists. Asthe Indian government cracked down on militants, ordinary Kashmiris—most ofthem Muslims—faced the wrath of the security forces. Many innocent localswere tortured in notorious interrogation centers run by Indian forces.Young Kashmiri Muslims born after 1990 have witnessed regular securitycrackdowns and curfews. They have seen their elders getting humiliated atthe hands of the police and the army. They have little experience of apluralistic Kashmir with a healthy fusion of Hindu and Muslim culture. -Foreign Policy
