Chaman Lal Gadoo

Untold Story-Chapter-II

Chaman Lal Gadoo  Ex-President Kashmir Samiti Delhi

The plight of the community becomes an issue of national concern. If Kashmiri Pandits represent the values of the Indian nation, then the state bears a responsibility to protect their lives and properties in the Valley, to provide support for them in exile, and to facilitate their return home. The state's failure to fulfil this responsibility constitutes an act of heartless neglect, deliberate indifference and even "inexplicable and ignoble conspiracy "This moral failure is a betrayal of the nation and its people (International Journal of Hindu Studies by Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Ohio University, Athens)

Kashmiri Pandits main obstruction in Islamization

Kashmiri Pandits are represented as a small and innocuous community whose very presence in Kashmir Valley obstructs the movement of fundamentalist Islam This representation suggests that the militants have directed their violence against the Kashmiri Pandits because they represent the secular values of the Indian nation. "Pakistani rulers realize that as long as Kashmir Hindus, even though miniscule in size, stay in Kashmir, their dream of Islamization of Kashmir will remain unrealized," one article states. "A Kashmir without Hindus, whatever their numbers, would be a theocracy ripe for the fundamentalists to establish their command post for further forays into the very heart of India '' (O Trisal 1991). The conflict in Kashmir thus emerges as the inevitable culmination of the clash between Hindus and Muslims, India and Pakistan, and secularism and fundamentalism in South Asia, with Kashmiri Hindus as its victims (International Journal of Hindu Studies by Haley Duschinski, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Ohio University, Athens)

Kashmir, a Hindu Kingdom, which had touched the pinnacles of glory under the Karkotas and later the Utpalas, extending its territories, north and east as well morning he came out of his house. The rays of the sun as west, and which had become a major military power in the north of India, passed under the Muslim rule early in the fourteenth century, when a Tibetan fugitive, Rinchen seized the throne of the kingdom Rinchen was supported in his struggle for power by Shah Mir, a Muslim adventurer and soldier of fortune, who had taken service in the kingdom of Kashmir and had risen to power and position, with the patronage of the Hindu kings.

Baharistan-i-Shahi, a Persian work written in 1614 AD, and recently translated into English, by Dr Kashi Nath Pandita, a noted Persian scholar and an expert in Central Asian Studies, reveals the truth. Baharistan--Shahi narrates "At this time only a handful of people in Kashmir have embraced Islam. Most of the people were infidels or dissemblers. But when Rinchen thought of embracing a religion, and associating himself with a community, he made enquiries about the principles and laws of their religion from the savants among the infidels and the learned men of the times. They beseeched him to join their fold The Muslims also put before him, the principles and teachings of the Islamic faith and invited him to embrace their religion But owing to serious differences among the two religious groups, and the disagreement prevailing among the two religious groups he was not able to reach any decision. Each community considered its religion the true one and each group induced him to embrace its religion. He was in a fix because of the serious differences and glaring contradictions in the views of their communities. Their heated discussions and discourses led him to no satisfactory conclusions. However, blessed as he was with a dispensation for justice, for God helps those who help themselves, he found the right path. He firmly decided that he would embrace the religion of the first man, he would meet in the street after coming out of his house the next morning Kashmir, a Hindu kingdom, which had touched the He also decided to join the community to which the man pinnacles of glory under the Karkotas and later the belonged "Baharistan-i-Shahi notes further, "Next of divine guidance, bringing every object from darkness to light, liberated him from darkness of ignorance and disbelief for all of a sudden, in the neighbourhood of his mansion he saw a darvish offering namaz (the Muslim way of praying) with full devotion. He went towards him when the Darvish had finished his prayer Rinchen held him by the hand and brought him to his house Then he called on an interpreter who knew his languages After having asked the Darvish his name and his religion, he was told by the Darvish his name was Bulbul Qalandar and his religion was Islam, and that he was a member of the sect of Shah Nematullah Wall of the Shia sect There upon Rinchen embraced Islam and became the first Shia Muslim ruler of Kashmir assuming the name of Sultan Shams-U-Din.

The story of what happened to the Hindus and Hindu religious culture in Kashmir, during the rule of the Shah Miri Sultans and the Chaks, Mughals and the Afghans, who followed them, have not been told. The British historians and their Europeans contemporaries, who awakened the Hindus of Kashmir to their Sanskrit past and retrieved whatever was left of their Sanskrit heritage from the centuries of oppression and religious persecution, which they were subjected to during the Muslim rule. They carried archaeological studies to identify their temples, which lay in ruins strewn around all over the ancient kingdom. They located whatever of the Sanskrit books and records had escaped destruction is not mentioned. and recorded their oral traditions, which the Hindus who had survived the holocaust had passed on from generation to generation, including the valuable Vakhs of the Hindu poetess Lallashori, who lived through the early phase of Muslim rule in Kashmir. But they avoided any inquiry and investigation into the destruction and devastation, the Muslim rule brought to the Hindus in the Hindu kingdom of Kashmir

Hundreds of thousands of Hindus were killed thousands of them left Kashmir and went into exile and the rest were converted to Islam Another Persian chronicle, Tohafatul-Ahbab, which was also translated by Dr. Kashi Nath Pandita records; "In accordance with the guidance instructions of Amir-e-Kabir, this religious abiding ruler became the instrument of strengthening the religion of Muhammad and the community of Mustafa He brought prosperity and embellishment to the faith of the Prophet. He razed to ground all the idols houses in his country. The idols of the infidels and the customs of the (Kafirs) community of infidels, and of vices; aberrations and oppressions of the heretics (Zandig) were abolished. He ordered the infidels and the polytheists to leave the country. For breaking and destroying the idol houses, temples and idols, he is known by the title of Sultan Sikandar, the iconoclast.

The persecution of the Hindus continued unabated during the successors of Sikandar A hundred years later, the chronicler of Baharistan-Shahi wrote of his contemporary times, how another Muslim missionary Mir Shamas-ud-Din Iraq, a Shia divine of western Iran, who had come to Kashmir, to spread the faith of Islam carried out the task of conversion of the Hindus with the help of the chief Wazir Malik Musa Raina, of the ruling Sultan.

In footnote appended to his translation of Baharistan-e-Shahi Kashi Nath Pandita writes: "It is recorded in Tohafatul-Ahbab, that on the instance of Shamsud-Din Iraqi Musa Raina issued orders that every day 1,500 to 2, 000 infidels be brought to the doorsteps of Mir Shamsud-Din by his followers: They would remove their sacred thread (Zunnar), administer Kalima to them circumcise them and made them eat beef" What was done to those who refused conversion is not mentioned.

Panun Kashmir reports

Right from 1947, the Islamic forces in the Valley have been mustering support from within and outside this country for creation of NIZAM-E-MUSTAFA in the Valley of Kashmir The Kashmiri Pandit who was the only remnant of Indianness in the Valley, therefore, was the only resistance in the way of Islamic Jihad. That is why his being hounded out from the land of his ancestors became imperative in the design of the secessionists.

To see the problem in its entirety one needs to look into the figures of the Govt. of Jammu & Kashmir which tell a tale of their own. The total area of the state including the area under POK, area under the illegal occupation of China in Ladakh and area illegally handed over to China by Pakistan, is 2,22,236 Sq Kms. The area under the illegal occupation of Pakistan & China adds up to 1,20,849 Sq Kms. The net area left over works at 1,01,387 Sq Kms Population wise Kashmir division is left with a slight edge over the other two divisions of Jammu & Ladakh in fact the population of Kashmir division works at 31,34,904 while the population of Jammu division is 27,18,113 & that of Leh & Kargil put together is 1.34.721 The population of Kashmir division comes to 52.35% of the total population of the state The percentage of Jammu division & that of Ladakh division work at 45 39 and 2.24 respectively. It is a misnomer to say that Kashmiri Pandit has been hounded out from his native land today only, in fact, ever since Independence and even centuries before that he has been suffering persecution at the hands of the majority community and their fundamentalist leadership.

Importance of homeland.

A call for the homeland is a reinforcement to the Indian claim to Kashmir which has been the crown of India ever since the Vedic times and the cradle of civilization of which the Kashmiri Pandits are true heirs destroyed defenders and inheritors. A call for a homeland is a cry for survival among the loyal Indian citizens from Kashmir The Pandits have become a refugee in their own country where they got a shabby treatment worse than what India has given to the refugees from Tibet, Burma, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan (Koul AJ, 2005: 52)

Conference of Kashmiri Pandit

of the AIKS including representatives of its affiliated units at the Kashmir Bhawan in order to evaluate the situation facing the community and develop a consensus on the future course of action Chaman Lal Gadoo President of Kashmiri Samiti Delhi, said: "There is an urgent need he said "more than ever it was, for the community to evolve a plan of action for the future rehabilitation and return of our people to our motherland"

He continued by outlining the Kashmiri Hindu community's right to their motherland: I want to make one thing very clear: The Kashmiri Pandits will not renounce the right to their motherland Kashmir belongs to us. Kashmir is our history, Kashmir is our home, Kashmir is our tradition. Our temples are in Kashmir and our entire past is associated with its soil. We will not allow to be dispossessed and our culture to be destroyed.

 (The article is reproduction from the book Untold Story which the writer is writing on the internet)

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Courtesy: - Chaman Lal Gadoo and March 2019, Koshur Samachar