central government during kashmiri pandit exodus

Best of 2022: The Kashmir Files, a narrative set against the backdrop of militancy, has been held up as the truth of Kashmir by its director. Sun worship is believed to have been brought into Kashmir by Kushan kings from Iran. WebMaybe. Indian forces are specially ordered to keep high surveillance on Kashmir and Kashmiris. New Delhi has distanced itself from a controversial and unequal deal between Adani Power and the Bangladesh Power Development Board. [23], D.L. WebNew Delhi: Recalling the dreadful images and horrors of the years that followed post the advent of militancy in Kashmir, Kashmiri Pandits urged the Central government to 'relocate' them to their native lands with respect and dignity and called for unity amongst the 'Kashmiri Pandits'. Happy Editing! Get briefed on the story of the week, and developing stories to watch across the Asia-Pacific. Another cause was communal hatred that was being fuelled by the authorities of Pakistan, hate speeches were being made to incite the people of Kashmir and to encourage them to PTI Vivek Agnihotris The Kashmir Files, a movie that delves into the 1990 exodus of lakhs of Journalist-lawyer Prem Nath Bhat was shot dead near his house in Anantnag shortly after. The Genocide of Kashmiri Hindus who are also called Kashmiri Pandits, was seventh ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits by radical Islamists in Kashmir Valley. The first day of the governor's rule, 19 January 1990, saw the darkest night in the history of the Kashmiri Pandit Exodus. The year 1984 also saw another crucial event that contributed significantly to the rise of separatist insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir: the hanging Maqbool Bhat, JKLF co-founder and a pioneer of the secessionist movement. A lot has changed since then but the more things change the more they remain the same. These organisations are involved in rehabilitation of the community in the valley through peace negotiations, mobilisation of human rights groups and job creation for the Pandits. It was replaced by Urdu in 1889 during the Dogra rule. The 1989 capitulation to the JKLF in the kidnapping of Mufti Sayeeds daughter set the stage for the next decade. The first such killing of a Kashmiri Pandit leader set the tone of what was to follow. View, About On May 12, a gunman walked into a government office in central Kashmirs Chadoora town. Because the truth is worth it.). Ripples of the move were seen in Kashmir as well. [61] Scholar Alexander Evans estimates by 1990, there would have been 160,000170,000 Pandits in the Kashmir Valley. Advertisement. Successive governments in New Delhi and Srinagar have attempted to draw displaced Pandits back to the Valley. Kashmiri Pandits maintain that they were driven out of the Valley by the Muslims. [55], According to the 1941 census, there were 78,800 Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir Valley. Surinder Kaul, Co-founder of GKPD, said that Kashmiri Pandits' genocide is continuing even today and every death is bringing the community closer to extinction. Historical India is an opensource community based project dedicated to the history of Greater India. What happened in January 1990 is bitterly contested. Defense, China As the Kashmiri Pandits are enduring an uncertain and troubled time, let us take a look at their history and other important details. PM Rajiv Gandhis tenure ended on 2nd December 1989. VP Singh government was in power during genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed became Home Minister with BJP's help: Pawar The then [41], In 2010, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir noted that 808 Pandit families, comprising 3,445 people, were still living in the Valley and that financial and other incentives put in place to encourage others to return there had been unsuccessful. The security situation along the India-Pakistan border remains of great concern. Approximately 2,17,000 Pandits still live in abysmal conditions in Jammu with families of five to six people often huddled into a small room. 22 Mar 2022. "[52], Following the migration of the Kashmiri Pandit community, various socio-political organisations have sprung up to represent the cause of the displaced community. The day marks the beginning of the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits on a mass scale that ultimately culminated in the complete exodus of the aboriginal indigenous people that represented a civilisation that was more than 5,000 years old. Sheth, the former director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in India (CSDS), lists Indian communities that constituted the middle class and were traditionally "Urban and professional" (following professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.) [70] They also wear the mekhal, which is a type of girdle. Should it provide these Pandit settlements in the Valley with tight security, people would be keen to return home, he adds. Jihad, Islamisation, secession from India, merger with Pakistan, Hinduphobia, imposition of Sharia law, Murder, arson, rape, assassinations, kidnappings, riots, Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or die). A large number of Hindu houses were attacked, shops looted, and temples vandalised in Vanpoh, Anantnag, and Sopore, among others. However, respect for the Pandits (many of whom were teachers) and a shared Kashmiri identity that held Pandits and Muslims together prevented differences from erupting into conflict. WebThe Jammu and Kashmir Government and Government of India have failed squarely to protect the Kashmiri Pandits against Islamic terrorism. Yet their return looks as difficult as it ever did. It appears to have archaic features that suggest it is the oldest form of Kashmiri folk singing. An estimated 100,000 Kashmiri Pandits have reportedly fled the Valley. [64] Wanvun singing is an integral part of Kashmiri Pandit religious ceremonies. But as the situation in Kashmir spiralled into a full-blown militancy, return began to look remote if not impossible. Short answer: Because of carelessness, lack of courage/desire and vote-bank politics of State and Central government. Long Answer: To know the reas An eye-witness report by two investigative journalists on the ground in Prato, Italy. Several migrant organisations like Panun Kashmir, Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), Kashmir Pandit Sabha (KPS), Youth All India Kashmiri Samaj (YAIKS), Save Sharda Committee (SSC) and All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference (ASKPC) held programmes on the day of 19 January to observe Holocaust Day and to pay tributes to the victims and to reaffirm commitment to the cause of the Kashmiri Pandits. He also demanded that a probe be conducted to ascertain on whose orders a total of 70 terrorists were released in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989. The killings of innocent natives and ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits must be seen in the context of the deeper intent to secure the secession of Jammu and Kashmir. 4000+ stories. In Jammus Jagti migrant camp, where at least 20,000 migrant Kashmiri Pandits live, the residents have been protesting for the past 146 days. It is an undeniable fact that the same sentiments that led to the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus are very much alive and thriving today. They dream of returning to their old wooden homes surrounded by chinar trees and ringed by snow-capped mountains. On August 5, 2019, when the government did away with special status to J&K, among the loudest to cheer were Kashmiri Pandits, who saw it as a long pending revenge for what had happened to them three decades ago. Those Pandits in service who felt threatened were free to leave their stations; they would continue to be paid salary. India is a peaceful country to the extent that its dear neighbor Pakistan works on the premise that whatever madness they do india will politely as What is the truth of the 1990s Kashmiri Pandit migration? They wanted sharia rule in Kashmir, Dhar said, adding that the Pandits had no choice but to leave their homes. WebSrinagar: The latest killing of a Kashmiri Pandit in Pulwama district has revived the climate of insecurity and fear in the Valley, and allegations that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has failed to protect the minority Hindu community. WebThe Kashmiri Pandits are divided into three subcastes: Guru/Bchabat (priests), Jotish (astrologers), and Krkun (who were historically mainly employed by the government). By then, the Pandits had begun to be targeted. What is the truth of the 1990s Kashmiri Pandit migration? Hence, the exodus of Kashmiri Pandit started The killings of innocent natives and ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Pandits must be seen in the context of the deeper intent to secure the secession of Jammu and Kashmir. In another incident of violence on 25 January, a week into the Janata Dal governor's rule, 4 Indian Air Force (IAF) officers were gunned down while 40 personnel were injured in a militant attack at a bus stop in Rawalpora. Wajahat Habibullah, then a senior official in the J&K government and posted in Anantnag in 1990 as Special Commissioner, has written (Citizen, April 2015) that in March 1990, several hundred people gathered in front of his office demanding to know whey the Pandits were leaving and accused the administration of encouraging them to go, so that the Army would be free to unleash its heavy artillery on all habitations. Gen. Li Shangfu, with deep ties to Chinas military space enterprises, is widely expected to become Chinas next minister of defense. Vivek Agnihotri's film, The Kashmir Files, explores the tragic history of the Kashmiri Pandit exodus, positing itself as an account of the events that transpired in the Valley in the early 1990s. According to some estimates, notably by the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), of 75,343 Kashmiri Pandit families in January 1990, more than 70,000 fled between 1990 and 1992. Jammu and Kashmir Governor Jagmohan Malhotra, dictated by the Centre, orchestrated the replacement of Abdullah with his brother-in-law Ghulam Shah, who had rebelled against his family and pioneered another faction of the National Conference. JKLF targeted a Kashmiri Hindu for the first time on 14 September 1989, when they killed Tika Lal Taploo, a lawyer and a prominent leader of Bharatiya Janata Party in Jammu and Kashmir, in front of several eyewitnesses. Speeches were made extolling Pakistan and the supremacy of Islam, and against Hinduism. Dr. Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in Bangalore, India. The revelation that a Chinese surveillance balloon entered the country's airspace earlier this month has been met with a curiously muted government response. [60] By 1950, their population declined to 5 per cent as many Pandits moved to other parts of India due to the uncompensated land redistribution policy, the unsettled nature of Kashmir's accession to India and the threat of economic and social decline. Subscribe To Our Daily Newsletter And Get News Delivered Straight To Your Inbox. [28], They began to leave in much greater numbers in the 1990s during the eruption of militancy, following persecution and threats by radical Islamists and militants. They have not done so because the situation in the Valley remains unstable and they fear a risk to their lives. Speaking at the programme 'Global Kashmiri Pandit Conclave: Asia, Pacific WebSrinagar: The latest killing of a Kashmiri Pandit in Pulwama district has revived the climate of insecurity and fear in the Valley, and allegations that the Jammu and Kashmir administration has failed to protect the minority Hindu community. What was the UN event representatives of Kailasa attended? "Kashmiri Pandits responsible for duress against Muslims should leave the Valley within two days," read a headline of a local Urdu newspaper, Al-Safa, on 14 April 1990. [34] Many of the refugee Kashmiri Pandits have been living in abject conditions in refugee camps of Jammu. Life and property were not safe, agriculture declined, and there were periods when trade came to a standstill. BJP leader Subramanian Swamy on Saturday said it was not the then chief minister Farooq Abdullah, but the then prime minister VP Singh and his home minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, that were responsible for the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley. Instead, the notorious governor said that if the Pandits decided to leave, refugee camps had been set up for them and the departing civil servants would be continued to be paid their salaries. Kashmiri Pandit Exodus 2022: I dont see myself going back to Valley again A number of Pandits working in Kashmir under the prime minister employment scheme have left the Valley after some of them were selectively targeted and killed by terrorists Samriddhi Sakunia June 19, 2022 07:04:54 IST Kashmiri Pandits are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. As per the estimates, 650 Pandits were killed during this time. The published threat, however, came nearly three months after one of the darkest nights in Jammu and Kashmir 19 January 1990 observed as the Exodus Day by the Kashmiri Hindu community. Newly appointed, he had arrived in Srinagar on January 19. Unfortunately, no such appeal came, only an announcement that to ensure the security of Pandits, refugee camps were being set up in every district of the Valley, and Pandits who felt threatened could move to these camps rather than leave the Valley. He was one of the first persons to help them after which Punjab also followed suit. Pandits were given a choice: convert to Islam, leave the Valley, or perish. [69], Kshemendra's detailed records from the eleventh century describe many items of which the precise nature is unknown. The communal violence of April 2022 was more the norm than the exception in the city of Khambhat. Jammu and Kashmir being the only Muslim majority state in whole of India, the protection of minorities and their living peacefully, in their homeland, is crucial for India to remain as a Secular Democratic State. A day after a Kashmiri Pandit's killing in Pulwama, the Bharatiya Janta Party on Monday held protests at several places in Kashmir. The Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah In agreement with the Central government accepted their demands and freed the jailed terrorists. Enjoying this article? Black Day: January 19 is observed as the Holocaust day by the Kashmiri Pandit community. With tensions peaking, hundreds of Pandit families began their journey out of the Valley. Thirty years after they fled their homes in the Valley, an older generation of Kashmiri Pandits continue to yearn for the lives they led before the exodus. [73][74], The Kashmiri Pandits have a tradition of consuming meat, including mutton and fish, but they obey restrictions laid down by the shastras of not eating the meat of forbidden animals such as beef and pork. Report, Trans-Pacific Some 800 families have remained in the Valley through these three decades. Several moved to other cities in India and abroad, where they have done well professionally. 30 years after they were forced to flee, the return of Hindu Pandits to the Kashmir Valley remains a distant dream. He operated a meritocracy and both Brahmins and Buddhists were among his closest advisors. Waves of panic hit the community, especially after a local newspaper published an anonymous message, allegedly from the Hizb-ul Mujahideen, asking Pandits to leave. Agnihotri's rendition then suggests that this was among the factors that contributed to the exodus on 19 January, even though the threat was reported to have been published on 14 April, three months after the night of terror. Us, Write The Kashmiri Pandit community decided to leave. Islamist militants began targeting Kashmiri Hindus - upper-caste Pandits - who were a minority group, in the 1990s. [38][39][40], In 2009 the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to recognise 14 September 2007, as Martyrs Day to acknowledge ethnic cleansing and campaigns of terror inflicted on non-Muslim minorities of Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists seeking to establish an Islamic state. The two events the flight of the Pandits and the Gawkadal massacre took place within 48 hours, but for years, neither community could accept the pain of the other, and in some ways, still cannot, as each continues to talk past the other. The mass exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits began. That night, the politically-disturbed Valley reverberated with war cries, communal calls, and threats to Pandits. The Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) stepped up its activities, and the hanging of the militant leader Maqbool Bhat in 1984 added to the sense of foreboding. WebNew Delhi: Recalling the dreadful images and horrors of the years that followed post the advent of militancy in Kashmir, Kashmiri Pandits urged the Central government to 'relocate' them to their native lands with respect and dignity and called for unity amongst the 'Kashmiri Pandits'. Their return looks as difficult as it ever did Adani Power and the Bangladesh Power Development Board a! 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