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Kashmiri Pandits: A Tale of Betrayal & Bigotry
September 27, 2019 ~ Meraj Hasan
Kashmiri Pandits are Kashmiri Hindu Brahmins who are at the center of debate with regards to why their population in the Valley of Kashmir has decreased. The claim made by Hindu nationalists is that they were ethnically cleansed by Muslims and displaced. In this video let us find out what happened.
The name Pandit was given to these Hindus by the Mughal king Akbar [1] as he was pleased with their intelligence. The Pandits served as administrators since Mughal times and consequently in the British Raj of 20th century, the Jammu and Kashmir state government was dominated by them [2]. The state, run by the autocratic Hindu Dogra ruler Hari Singh, favored the Hindus over the Muslims, especially in the army and inflicted such high cruelty on them that it sometimes diffused to the Hindus of the region [3]. In order to preserve their privileged status, most Pandits supported the Maharaja. [4]
Kashmir Demographics
The two most populous regions of the princely state of Kashmir were the Valley of Kashmir and Jammu division. Muslims were a majority in whole of Kashmir in the 1901 and 1941 censuses. Hindus mostly lived in Jammu but the Pandits lived in the Valley where they had a steady 4% minority for a very long time. [5]
In 1950, after India became independent, the government enacted land reforms that requisitioned land from the landlords. This also applied to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, disputed between India and Pakistan. Majority of the landlords were Hindus and coupled with the unsettled nature of Kashmir’s accession to India and increasing political insecurity, a large number left the state of Jammu and Kashmir for India. The Pandit population decreased by 20% [6].
Fast forward to 1990 and most of the Pandits in the Valley had migrated that year to either Jammu or India. Their population, from a few hundred thousand, was reduced to a few thousand. What happened?
Partition of India
While leaving India in 1947, the British had decided to let Princely States choose to be Independent or accede to either India or Pakistan. The Muslim-majority in the Valley had little support for joining India, while Jammu and Ladakh had full support for India among the Hindu-majority (which was overall, still a minority). [7] But the whole state went to India, leading to the First Indo-Pakistan War of 1948. The region was divided into two halves, one taken by Pakistan, the other by India with the larger, eastern half of the Valley and entire Jammu both remaining with the latter. The matter is still disputed. The Indian government was immediately faced with political unrest in Kashmir and had an on-off relationship with Sheikh Abdullah, one of the top Kashmiri leaders. However, in 1975, Abdullah became Chief Minister of Kashmir under the 1975 accord with the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He agreed to measures to integrate the state into India. This was met with hostility among the people of Valley of Kashmir. [8]
Growing Anti-Pandit Sentiments
However something strange also happened. The overtly secular Abdullah government changed the names of some 2500 villages in Jammu and Kashmir to new Islamic names. [9][10] [11] He also started giving communal speeches in mosques and calling the Kashmiri Pandits “informers” of the Indian government. Abdullah fell out with Indira Gandhi’s Congress in 1977 [12], but his support from Delhi continued under the Janata government at the Centre [12][13] and later under Indira Gandhi’s Congress till 1981. The Governor of Kashmir, Laskhmi Kant Jha, with whom Abdullah was close, was given extensions till 1981. [14]
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As the Kashmiri Muslims protested for their self-determination, Abdullah died in 1982 and his son Farooq Abdullah was dismissed as Chief Minister in 1984 in what is described as a coup [15][16]. His replacement G.M. Shah, backed by Indira Gandhi, did not have popular backing and so turned to Islamists for leverage [16]. His communal speeches increased the protests by Muslims against the Centre, sometimes leading to violence against the Hindus. In 1986 he tried to build a Mosque inside a Hindu temple in Jammu which led to mass protests [17]. Similarly, Anantnag riots in 1986 [18]were led by secular parties, not Islamists, to gain political mileage by stirring religious sentiments [19]. Soon he found himself dismissed as well. The 1987 elections were perceived by Kashmiri separatists to be rigged. Indeed, apart from 1977 elections, historians up till that point deemed all elections in the state to be rigged [20]. Next year the insurgency started and the Pandits started to move out from the Valley to Jammu and by by 1990 life became very hard for those who remained in the Valley.
The Exodus of Pandits
In January 1990, a notice was put up in a newspaper in the Valley, declaring the Pandits to be the enemy and ordering them out. Violence against the Pandits by the militants followed and Jagmohan, who had been dismissed earlier and was seen as an able handler of civil disobedience, was brought back as Governor on 18th January 1990 [21]. On the night between 18th and 19th January, electricity was cut in Srinagar and messages were broadcast by mobs telling the Pandits to leave the Valley immediately [22]. This was followed by an upsurge of violence in the Valley including reprisal attacks against the Kashmiri Muslims [23]. There are claims made by some that the Governor Jagmohan facilitated the Pandits’ removal with the aid of government machinery [24]. Indeed, his re-appointment one day before 19th January and that the transport of Pandits was done in a very swift and organized manner, points to this. This is echoed by Kashmiri separatists who believe that the government facilitated their removal so as to justify heavy-handed tactics against the Muslims of the Valley. However, there are also those who oppose this claim. [24]
Claims of Genocide and Mass-migration
The population of the Pandits decreased to around two to three thousand people in 2016 [25]. Their population in 1990 is however disputed. Some say it was between 300,000 to 600,000 [26]. Others say it was 200,000 [27]. Former Rajya Sabha MP, Subramanian Swamy puts the figure of displaced at 500,000 [28]. However the figure most historians agree upon is around 140,000 in 1990 [29][30][31].
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Then comes the most widely circulated claim of religious cleansing of Pandits. Subramanian Swamy [32] and famous Indian actor Anupam Kher [33] have both claimed religious cleansing and genocide on their massively popular social media accounts. Many different figures can be found. The official government report says 219 were killed between 1989 and 2004 and none afterwards [34]. The Pandit organization KPSS said 399 were killed between 1990 and 2011 with 75% killed during the first year [35]. According to Motilal Bhat, the President of the Pandit Hindu Welfare Society, the government figure of 219 is correct [36]. Scholars generally believe the government figures to be more or less true [37].
Figures of 1341 killed of the Pandit organization Panun Kashmir as well as claims of mass-genocide and rapes have been rejected as exaggerated [37]. Historian Mridu Rai [38] and political scientist Alexander Evans [39] have categorically rejected the claims of genocide. Rai says that numbers of migrants are also exaggerated [40].
Former Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah says he asked the Pandits in 2016 to return but they refused [41]. Separatist Yasin Malik asked them to come home too stating, “We want our Kashmiri Pandit mothers, sisters and brothers to come back. It is their land. They have every right to live in it as we do. This is the time that Kashmiri Muslims must play a constructive role so that we can restore the culture for which we are famous all over the world.” [42]. The slain militant Burhan Wani too asked them to return in 2016 [43].
So why do Hindu Nationalists keep on promoting these exaggerated figures? One reason is to distract from the crimes of the Indian governments past and present. For instance no one talks about the Jammu massacre of Muslims in 1947, perpetrated by Hindu nationalists, extremist Sikhs and the Maharaja’s forces, that killed between 20,000 to 100,000 Muslims in a month [44] and changed them from a majority with 60.5% population to a minority with 30% population [45]. It is no surprise then that in the period of the insurgency the crimes of militants are stated to be incomparable to abuses by Indian state [46]. The scholar Seema Kazi stated that rape was used as a weapon by Indian security forces [47]. Rights groups say more than 100,000 civilians were killed in the insurgency [48]. Indian govt has put the figure at 50,000 [49].
The Flip Side
Scholars say that India has committed a genocide of Kashmiri Muslims. These include Mozammel Haque [50] and Om Prakash Dwivedi [51]. Compare a figure of 219 over 14 years to these massacres of Kashmiri Muslims that happened in one single day. The Gawkadal massacre on 21st January 1990 killed between 160-280 Muslim protesters [23]. On 21st May 1990, over 60 Muslims were killed when security forces opened straight fire on a funeral procession of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq [52].
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Some scholars have accused Indian govt of using Pandits as a tool for propaganda [53]. In February 1993, a report by an Indian magazine called shrine desecration claims by Hindu nationalists as false [39][53]. It should not be surprising that between 1975 and 1990, the Indian establishment, regardless of the party at the Center, supported Kashmiri leaders who became increasingly hostile towards the Pandits. Periodically, they were replaced by even more hostile ones, culminating in the insurgency of 1988 and the ultimate ouster of the Pandits in 1990, which may have been facilitated by the government too. In 1990, jagmohan was appointed by Prime Minister V. P. Singh at the insistence of the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). [54]
The claim of Hindu nationalists of ethnic cleansing of Pandits is hence patently false. Their claim that Kashimiri Pandits were forcibly converted to Islam hundreds of years back, making it the dominant religion, is also proven to be false. The region was cut off from other Hindu regions because the surrounding areas had accepted Islam. Gradually, by the 14th century, a significant number of Kashmiri Muslims accepted Islam too [55].
What is the future for the Pandits?
They, and other Kashmiris, and only them, must be allowed to return to their lands. In light of the recent scrapping of Article 370, it seems that the Indian government is continuing its old policy of escalating matters in Jammu and Kashmir and using the Pandits to justify its cruelty. Scholars, media and International human rights organizations should highlight this.
https://pakistanbibliophiles.home.blog/
September 27, 2019 ~ Meraj Hasan
Kashmiri Pandits are Kashmiri Hindu Brahmins who are at the center of debate with regards to why their population in the Valley of Kashmir has decreased. The claim made by Hindu nationalists is that they were ethnically cleansed by Muslims and displaced. In this video let us find out what happened.
The name Pandit was given to these Hindus by the Mughal king Akbar [1] as he was pleased with their intelligence. The Pandits served as administrators since Mughal times and consequently in the British Raj of 20th century, the Jammu and Kashmir state government was dominated by them [2]. The state, run by the autocratic Hindu Dogra ruler Hari Singh, favored the Hindus over the Muslims, especially in the army and inflicted such high cruelty on them that it sometimes diffused to the Hindus of the region [3]. In order to preserve their privileged status, most Pandits supported the Maharaja. [4]
Kashmir Demographics
The two most populous regions of the princely state of Kashmir were the Valley of Kashmir and Jammu division. Muslims were a majority in whole of Kashmir in the 1901 and 1941 censuses. Hindus mostly lived in Jammu but the Pandits lived in the Valley where they had a steady 4% minority for a very long time. [5]
In 1950, after India became independent, the government enacted land reforms that requisitioned land from the landlords. This also applied to the state of Jammu and Kashmir, disputed between India and Pakistan. Majority of the landlords were Hindus and coupled with the unsettled nature of Kashmir’s accession to India and increasing political insecurity, a large number left the state of Jammu and Kashmir for India. The Pandit population decreased by 20% [6].
Fast forward to 1990 and most of the Pandits in the Valley had migrated that year to either Jammu or India. Their population, from a few hundred thousand, was reduced to a few thousand. What happened?
Partition of India
While leaving India in 1947, the British had decided to let Princely States choose to be Independent or accede to either India or Pakistan. The Muslim-majority in the Valley had little support for joining India, while Jammu and Ladakh had full support for India among the Hindu-majority (which was overall, still a minority). [7] But the whole state went to India, leading to the First Indo-Pakistan War of 1948. The region was divided into two halves, one taken by Pakistan, the other by India with the larger, eastern half of the Valley and entire Jammu both remaining with the latter. The matter is still disputed. The Indian government was immediately faced with political unrest in Kashmir and had an on-off relationship with Sheikh Abdullah, one of the top Kashmiri leaders. However, in 1975, Abdullah became Chief Minister of Kashmir under the 1975 accord with the Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He agreed to measures to integrate the state into India. This was met with hostility among the people of Valley of Kashmir. [8]
Growing Anti-Pandit Sentiments
However something strange also happened. The overtly secular Abdullah government changed the names of some 2500 villages in Jammu and Kashmir to new Islamic names. [9][10] [11] He also started giving communal speeches in mosques and calling the Kashmiri Pandits “informers” of the Indian government. Abdullah fell out with Indira Gandhi’s Congress in 1977 [12], but his support from Delhi continued under the Janata government at the Centre [12][13] and later under Indira Gandhi’s Congress till 1981. The Governor of Kashmir, Laskhmi Kant Jha, with whom Abdullah was close, was given extensions till 1981. [14]
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As the Kashmiri Muslims protested for their self-determination, Abdullah died in 1982 and his son Farooq Abdullah was dismissed as Chief Minister in 1984 in what is described as a coup [15][16]. His replacement G.M. Shah, backed by Indira Gandhi, did not have popular backing and so turned to Islamists for leverage [16]. His communal speeches increased the protests by Muslims against the Centre, sometimes leading to violence against the Hindus. In 1986 he tried to build a Mosque inside a Hindu temple in Jammu which led to mass protests [17]. Similarly, Anantnag riots in 1986 [18]were led by secular parties, not Islamists, to gain political mileage by stirring religious sentiments [19]. Soon he found himself dismissed as well. The 1987 elections were perceived by Kashmiri separatists to be rigged. Indeed, apart from 1977 elections, historians up till that point deemed all elections in the state to be rigged [20]. Next year the insurgency started and the Pandits started to move out from the Valley to Jammu and by by 1990 life became very hard for those who remained in the Valley.
The Exodus of Pandits
In January 1990, a notice was put up in a newspaper in the Valley, declaring the Pandits to be the enemy and ordering them out. Violence against the Pandits by the militants followed and Jagmohan, who had been dismissed earlier and was seen as an able handler of civil disobedience, was brought back as Governor on 18th January 1990 [21]. On the night between 18th and 19th January, electricity was cut in Srinagar and messages were broadcast by mobs telling the Pandits to leave the Valley immediately [22]. This was followed by an upsurge of violence in the Valley including reprisal attacks against the Kashmiri Muslims [23]. There are claims made by some that the Governor Jagmohan facilitated the Pandits’ removal with the aid of government machinery [24]. Indeed, his re-appointment one day before 19th January and that the transport of Pandits was done in a very swift and organized manner, points to this. This is echoed by Kashmiri separatists who believe that the government facilitated their removal so as to justify heavy-handed tactics against the Muslims of the Valley. However, there are also those who oppose this claim. [24]
Claims of Genocide and Mass-migration
The population of the Pandits decreased to around two to three thousand people in 2016 [25]. Their population in 1990 is however disputed. Some say it was between 300,000 to 600,000 [26]. Others say it was 200,000 [27]. Former Rajya Sabha MP, Subramanian Swamy puts the figure of displaced at 500,000 [28]. However the figure most historians agree upon is around 140,000 in 1990 [29][30][31].
Report this ad
Then comes the most widely circulated claim of religious cleansing of Pandits. Subramanian Swamy [32] and famous Indian actor Anupam Kher [33] have both claimed religious cleansing and genocide on their massively popular social media accounts. Many different figures can be found. The official government report says 219 were killed between 1989 and 2004 and none afterwards [34]. The Pandit organization KPSS said 399 were killed between 1990 and 2011 with 75% killed during the first year [35]. According to Motilal Bhat, the President of the Pandit Hindu Welfare Society, the government figure of 219 is correct [36]. Scholars generally believe the government figures to be more or less true [37].
Figures of 1341 killed of the Pandit organization Panun Kashmir as well as claims of mass-genocide and rapes have been rejected as exaggerated [37]. Historian Mridu Rai [38] and political scientist Alexander Evans [39] have categorically rejected the claims of genocide. Rai says that numbers of migrants are also exaggerated [40].
Former Chief Minister, Farooq Abdullah says he asked the Pandits in 2016 to return but they refused [41]. Separatist Yasin Malik asked them to come home too stating, “We want our Kashmiri Pandit mothers, sisters and brothers to come back. It is their land. They have every right to live in it as we do. This is the time that Kashmiri Muslims must play a constructive role so that we can restore the culture for which we are famous all over the world.” [42]. The slain militant Burhan Wani too asked them to return in 2016 [43].
So why do Hindu Nationalists keep on promoting these exaggerated figures? One reason is to distract from the crimes of the Indian governments past and present. For instance no one talks about the Jammu massacre of Muslims in 1947, perpetrated by Hindu nationalists, extremist Sikhs and the Maharaja’s forces, that killed between 20,000 to 100,000 Muslims in a month [44] and changed them from a majority with 60.5% population to a minority with 30% population [45]. It is no surprise then that in the period of the insurgency the crimes of militants are stated to be incomparable to abuses by Indian state [46]. The scholar Seema Kazi stated that rape was used as a weapon by Indian security forces [47]. Rights groups say more than 100,000 civilians were killed in the insurgency [48]. Indian govt has put the figure at 50,000 [49].
The Flip Side
Scholars say that India has committed a genocide of Kashmiri Muslims. These include Mozammel Haque [50] and Om Prakash Dwivedi [51]. Compare a figure of 219 over 14 years to these massacres of Kashmiri Muslims that happened in one single day. The Gawkadal massacre on 21st January 1990 killed between 160-280 Muslim protesters [23]. On 21st May 1990, over 60 Muslims were killed when security forces opened straight fire on a funeral procession of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq [52].
Report this ad
Some scholars have accused Indian govt of using Pandits as a tool for propaganda [53]. In February 1993, a report by an Indian magazine called shrine desecration claims by Hindu nationalists as false [39][53]. It should not be surprising that between 1975 and 1990, the Indian establishment, regardless of the party at the Center, supported Kashmiri leaders who became increasingly hostile towards the Pandits. Periodically, they were replaced by even more hostile ones, culminating in the insurgency of 1988 and the ultimate ouster of the Pandits in 1990, which may have been facilitated by the government too. In 1990, jagmohan was appointed by Prime Minister V. P. Singh at the insistence of the Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). [54]
The claim of Hindu nationalists of ethnic cleansing of Pandits is hence patently false. Their claim that Kashimiri Pandits were forcibly converted to Islam hundreds of years back, making it the dominant religion, is also proven to be false. The region was cut off from other Hindu regions because the surrounding areas had accepted Islam. Gradually, by the 14th century, a significant number of Kashmiri Muslims accepted Islam too [55].
What is the future for the Pandits?
They, and other Kashmiris, and only them, must be allowed to return to their lands. In light of the recent scrapping of Article 370, it seems that the Indian government is continuing its old policy of escalating matters in Jammu and Kashmir and using the Pandits to justify its cruelty. Scholars, media and International human rights organizations should highlight this.
https://pakistanbibliophiles.home.blog/
