What will you do for the community

Hadn't it been for British researchers-George Buhler and MA Stein, who put together the lost Rajatarangini and gave it fresh lease of life-Kashmiris, and Pandits in particular, would have known their past in unbelievable folk tales only Kashmiri society has undergone the unusual tribulations and transformations which are most unlikely heard of the other ancient centres of civilization and, therefore, no surprises its history from the Rajatarangini days is a treatise of repeated mutations in its cultural moorings.

Being on the fabled silk route may have been a major reason for foreign interventions, invasions and influences, but the intrinsic fault lines, infightings, jealousy and hunger for power within own land and people (with the exception of people like King Lalitaditya) were equally responsible for the unkind corruption of thought and thinking in Kashmiri society in various forms. That cultural trait has travelled with valley communities and unfortunately become part of their ethos Kashmiris readily give charge of their life and affairs to outsiders, who then manipulate the situations to their likening, culture and ideology. We have seen this manifestation most strikingly in the ongoing insurgency period in recent years quite evidently How radicalization emancipating from a different land snatched away the so called freedom movement from sub-nationalists and from supporters and sympathisers the foreign hands turned into sponsors and eventually central players and are now telling Kashmir Muslims that you were not devout and puritans until now. In the way it is heaping miseries, death and destruction on the indigenous people in a vicious cycle. 

Kashmiri Pandits, whose share of tumultuous historic churning is far more than of other communities, in the last three decades or so, are cut off from their roots, scattered and behaving more like immigrants after years of 'refugeedom' following their exodus from the Kashmir valley in 1990. This geographic and cultural unsettling, coupled with the theory of survival of the fittest, has set in an adaptability process relative to time which is of course natural and also required to move in life.

However, owing to the cultural traits, as said above, most have started moving to isolated lives and forgetting in the process the fact that how tall or big you may grow, roots are important, the deeper and widespread these roots are, the better it is to withstand storms and for enjoying sunshine There are two broad aspects to displacement of KPS, which need to be always kept in mind One, it is not a natural displacement by way of moving. out for greener pastures or because some natural disaster has effected it. Rather, it is a political displacement which people better understand as ethnic cleansing Two, there can't be two homes just like there can't be two biological mothers. And home is always the best place

Now, the question on most people's mind is yes, we do harbour deepest love and instinctive walk towards our roots and home, but how on earth can we help or contribute to reverse our plight, preserve our identity and fight for our political nights? We are too small, too busy for this?

Without drawing any comparisons, some of the answers to these questions lie in the past history of KPS itself Kashmir, in the past, had a rich tradition of scholarly pursuits, which resulted in academic and spiritual excellence besides providing story tellers great ammunition to weave narratives of indigenous pride and pass it on to subsequent generations In modem lexicon, we call it liberal arts. And yes, KPs of past pursued liberal arts, which helped them survive in a way and attract the best of the world Because of these traditions, men of great stature and leaming like Adi Shankara, father of Acharaya Abhinav Gupta Swami Vivekananda and many more were drawn to Kashmir even in an era of no connectivity.

The next thing that came naturally to KPS was placement in administrations probably because of the culture of investing in liberal arts and skill proficiency And, because of this culture, KPs were the first to embrace western. education in the late 19 century in Srinagar. even as majority community viewed it with suspicion and denounced it for many years before latching over it later.

This is not to reason that these were and continue to be the success mantras as in the contemporary times in every period, there are several factors that decide the outcome But reason, quest, exploration, appreciation and literacy knowledge were part of the inherent culture Of late, with all the more focus on STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths), liberal arts have been effectively replaced from KP homes post exodus of 1990 by engineering and other job-fetching technical education fields And, this has started impacting thinking process in its own way.

One very forceful and convincing thought proposition post 1990 exodus has been an exclusive territory where all the traumatic and nightmarish past will not again haunt the community again and henceforth, the community will, for good, live in peace and good times, perhaps, Well, that sounds more utopian than a practical solution. But then, whatever possibilities are near to this thought or otherwise need an orchestration to create and marshal a discourse for which you need a lot of internal resources including intellectual and volunteer capitals, besides funding. Without a cultural backing, you can't create that human resource

KPS, in true sense of political definition, are dying iota by lota and that is all the way more

painful as if you're living a lifelong disease like diabetes. And, yet we haven't found a drug for it. KPs haven't discovered or manufactured a pill to keep this disease away from affecting organ after organ. There lies the failure of an intervention, an architecture and design which would have sustained hope and the forward journey.

From the past, we remember great men and women whom we cite very proudly as part of our riches, soft power and heritage but at the same time conveniently forget to ponder over the structures that would have produced them In the recent history of pre 1990s, a number of saints, through their ashrams, networking and followers; did a great service by being the lighthouses of faith, religiosity and brotherhood Those were structures of immense value and provided shield in those difficult circumstances, where the bait and fear of conversation was only inches away 24X7.

Almost 30 years down the line outside the valley, a number of truly valiant KPs have, in their best capacities, made efforts to shift focus on preservation of identity, ethnic uniqueness and spent their time in networking with people from other communities for supporting the community cause Likewise, on the political front also, similar efforts have been consistent But, then, these efforts have perhaps fallen, short Either these campaigns haven't been strong enough or there is a fault in the design of effort itself. The latter is likely more true because intention has always been passionately strong and there are people from both insides and outside who have been supportive and involved Design fault hypothesis is further validated by the fact that why despite a sympathetic government from the word go, over a time governments have become deal to community's screams and tears?

KPs, as a community, need more advocacy than anything else and yet the absence of data. qualitative research and evidence-based campaigns, make it toothless advocacy without any takers literally KPS, as a community, have failed to create those structures and institutions This is a design fault. As individuals KPs are great scientific, logical and imaginative workers everywhere but somehow the same principles aren't seen being applied to them as a collective because we haven't created structures.

KP activists have all along suffered qualitative bias Post 1990s, when it had begun in right earnest, people who saw self-serving opportunities in it, sabotaged it and reduced it to a rugby game among them. As a result, many genuine people, who couldn't bear this chaos, have either withdrawn from it or have moved to pursuing other avenues. And among the whole lot, which together isn't now perhaps the size of a mini battalion hasn't suitable role models to look up to and have effectively reduced to a pastime with WhatsApp slanging match warriors among themselves. In the absence of a vision, training, platform and whole hearted community support. the struggle of KPS is falling apart. So, there is an urgent need to bring the structures back to life at the earliest.

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Courtesy:-  Avtar Nehru  and Koshur Samachar 2018, December