Problem of our survival 

Prof S L Pandit

The tragedy that has overtaken our small but distinct ethnic and social community during the past five years, soon after the normal civil administration was disrupted in the Valley of Kashmir by unrelenting and imported militancy, is obviously almost unprecedented in the long and tortuous history of Kashmir. It is true that other groups-like long- established residents of Punjabi origin, Sikhs and quite a sizeable number of secular-minded Muslims have also had to leave the Valley following the utter breakdown of the normal rule of law. But all these other migrant groups can easily merge with the larger entities in the wide dimensions of the Union. The case of Kashmiri Brahmins, usually called Kashmiri Pandits, is somewhat different, and their distinct racial and ethnic identity is now at stake for various reasons.

Before we proceed further, it may help to understand first what those basic factors are that contribute towards the firm identity of a comparatively small community. These are mainly a common mother tongue, distinct religious practices and rituals adopted from birth to death, popular styles of dress, distinct forms of cuisine and a specified homeland. When we glance over the chequered history of this community, both in Kashmir and in the urban centres of North India, where they had migrated in batches during the past three centuries, we find that this small traditionally intellectual community had been able, down to our own times, to maintain a fairly rigid social identity even after the migrants had ceased to stick to their ancestral mother tongue of Kashmiri. All in all, they had held together mainly because of their ancestral homeland of Kashmir Valley which till early 1990 constituted the main regional homeland of the vast majority of this community. These earlier migrants held together by rigidly following the social and religious rites they had inherited from the land of their ancestors. In spite of lack of easy communications in the past, they were not averse to entering into marriage relationships with their fellow Kashmiris in the Valley. On the other hand, this mainly urban-based group, constituting not more than twenty thousand souls about the thirties of the present century, usually refused to enter into marriage relationships with even the upper caste Brahmins of the Indian plains. Now that our main regional identity is being steadily wiped out for us, the question that looms ahead for most of us is whether, following the large-scale dispersal and deprivation of their assets and means of livelihood, our people can still stick together as a viable distinct social group.

In this context the most difficult problem that confronts us is how to rehabilitate those thousands upon thousands of our people who have been forced out of the Valley, deprived of their normal means of livelihood, and living in subhuman conditions in hastily improvised shelters in and around Udhampur, Jammu, Delhi and other centres. In the course of our recently liberated country, it is a matter of national shame beyond measure that they have been reduced to the status of largely neglected refugees in their own country, in spite of being the most loyal, the most peaceful and the most secular-minded citizens of India, that is Bharat. This callousness on the part of the present rulers India is without precedent in the annals of any civilised or democratic state the world.

When we look around the world today, we find that, apart from ourselves, there are several other small ethnic and religious groups at the receiving end of hostile, violent forces and that neither their own governments nor the leading members of the world community in control of the United Nations Organization can come to their rescue.

So the question that stares us in the face is whether we could, through our self-organised efforts, bring some relief to these several lakhs of migrant refugees. The first requisite is that we should firmly organise our relief activities under an apex body which may command the allegiance of all regional organisations and seek fruitful cooperation from our fairly well-organised and pragmatic overseas associations. Next to the problem of practical relief to the destitute camp-dwellers, there is the urgent necessity of providing sustained educational facilities for their young children. Then there is an equally urgent need to help and guide our qualified young boys and girls to seek and find suitable means of fruitful occupation. Luckily, even in the present circumstances, quite a sizable number of our people are engaged in prestigious occupations in India and in several advanced foreign lands. I concede that what I am suggesting now is being done at various levels and through varied groups in India and abroad. What I want to emphasise is that let all such activities be coordinated and organised by a single India-based leadership to which all of us can turn for guidance and initiatives. I expect I may not be misunderstood if, among other suggestions made above, I put it to the comparatively affluent sections of our biradari that they should now refrain from expending their surplus funds over constructing too many new places of worship lest their maintenance be neglected later or on arranging scandalously lavish festivities on weddings and other such occasions.

In this context, let us consider how many comparatively small persecuted or neglected groups now or in the course of history have successfully organised their efforts to lead their people from dispersal to survival. The most outstanding instance of such an achievement in India is provided by the small Parsi community which migrated to India as refugees from Iran several centuries back. They have not merely survived as a distinct ethnic and religious entity but prospered without seeking any special aid from any government authority. Turning to the present times, let us also understand how the so-called Qadianis, once staunch supporters of the movement for Pakistan and now ruthlessly persecuted in that Islamic "paradise", are refusing to let themselves be wiped out as an intelligent and vibrant social entity. Again, let us consider the widely dispersed community of Hindus from Sindh. Most of them are doing well both in government and business establishments. They have no doubt lost their regional identity but, unlike ourselves, they still cling to their erstwhile regional language of Sindhi.

Finally, when we succeed as a community in standing on our own feet, I am sure we may in due course succeed in securing for ourselves a peaceful and honourable homeland in Kashmir with perfect amity and goodwill prevailing between us and our Kashmiri Muslim brethren.

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Courtesy:- Prof. S.L. Pandit and April-May 1995 Koshur Samachar