As for those Pandits who left the Valley, many were put up in tented accommodation in camps in Jammu and New Delhi initially and subsequently in townships in these cities. [53], Panun Kashmir has made demands for a separate homeland for the community in the southern part of Kashmir. The fleeing Pandits did not think they would never return to the Valley. A highly literate community, they were disproportionately represented in the Kashmir bureaucracy as well as in the teaching, legal, and medical professions, prompting resentment among other communities in the Valley, especially Muslims, who comprise over 95 percent of the population. 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. As the BJP continues to promise that Kashmiri Pandits will return, and #HumWapasJayenge trends on social media, Kashmiri Muslims also see the return of Pandits as essential, but reject the idea of their settlement in secured camps as a replication of Israel-like Jewish settlements in the West Bank. "These terrorists played a role in genocide.nation wants to know," he said. You are not allowed to edit this article at this level. On January 19, 1990, the Vally witnessed the most gruesome night in the history of the exodus of Kashmiri Many fell into disrepair. 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. immediately after Independence in 1947. Some emigrated to other countries entirely. At that time, Mr Chowdhury said, the then Congress president and Leader of Opposition Rajiv Gandhi had raised his voice against the exodus of people from Kashmir, and asked the then government to stop it "anyhow", warning that people of the country would not accept it. At the time of the carnage, People's Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mufti Sayeed was the chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, while an Atal Bihar Vajpayee-led BJP government was at the Centre. In this exclusive interview, he recalls the events as they truly unfolded and not how they have been over dramatised and presented in the film The Kashmir Files which, he fears, aims Twenty-four Hindus, including two children, were lined up outside their houses and shot dead by terrorists who belonged to the outfit, Lashkar-e-Taiba. On January 19, Kashmiri Pandits across the world observed Holocaust Day. It was on that day 30 years ago that the Pandit exodus from the Kashmir Valley began. However, the problems of Kashmiri Pandits have not [69], Kshemendra's detailed records from the eleventh century describe many items of which the precise nature is unknown. WebThe Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus, or Pandits, is their early-1990 migration, or flight, from the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley in Indian-administered Kashmir following rising violence in an insurgency.Of a total Pandit population of 120,000140,000 some 90,000100,000 left the valley or felt compelled to leave, and about 30 were killed. He asked Kashmiri Muslims to make Pandits feel more secure. Muslims argue that by arranging for buses to transport Pandits out of the Valley, Jagmohan facilitated their flight, paving the way for the Indian security forces to launch an all-out military offensive against Muslims. Read | Kashmiri Pandits observe Holocaust Day to mark 30 years of mass exodus from Valley. Most Popular. Socially and morally too the court and the country had sunk to the depths of degradations. However, Kashmiri political parties and separatist organisations as well as Pandit groups have come out in strong opposition to such Pandit-only settlements. Even our Muslim friends were caught up in the Islamist frenzy of that period, Dhar recalled. [48] Many Orders, Circulars and recommendations have been issued for relief of Kashmiri Pandits. For impactful stories you just cant miss, By subscribing you agree to our Privacy Policy. [54] Ikkjutt Jammu, a political party in Jammu and Kashmir, advocates for two Union Territories in Kashmir, one being Panun Kashmir for Kashmiri Hindus. What is the truth of the 1990s Kashmiri Pandit migration? According to P.K.Verma, "Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all the members of these communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school. [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. 1,168-crore package in 2008 by the UPA government. View, About 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. One of the deadliest attacks on Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley took place in 2003, more than a decade after the peak of the exodus. Several Hindu temples and houses were targeted in the city. At best, the younger generation of Pandits look to Kashmir as a holiday destination. A majority of the Pandit refugees still live in refugee camps with spiralling health and economic problems. Sanjay Tickoo, a Kashmiri Pandit was barely 20-years-old in 1989-90, when he witnessed what came to be known as the "Kashmiri Pandit Exodus". The hotly contested circumstances of their departure between January and March 1990, the numbers, and the issue of their return are an important side to the Kashmir story that has fed into the Hindu-Muslim polarisation in India over the years, in turn fuelling the Hindu-Muslim chasm in the Valley. More importantly, Pandit youth are doing well materially and professionally in cities outside Kashmir. [64] Wanvun singing is an integral part of Kashmiri Pandit religious ceremonies. Amid great power competition, life in the China-Russia borderlands reveals the paradoxes underpinning the Beijing-Moscow friendship. Speaking at the programme 'Global Kashmiri Pandit Conclave: What It Said, S Jaishankar's "Firm" Reply To UK Minister Who Raised BBC Tax Row: Sources, Tunisha Sharma Case: In-Camera Hearing Allowed On Sheezan Khan's Bail Plea, Protests Break Out Over Alleged Army Custodial Death In Jammu And Kashmir, 'Fear UP Cops Will Kill Me': Gangster-Politician Goes To Supreme Court, Cabinet Okays Signing Of Contract With L&T For 3 Cadet Training Ships, Traffic Hit In Delhi Ahead Of G20 Foreign Ministers Meet, Rahul Gandhi Talks About The "Art Of Listening" At Cambridge University, This website follows the DNPA Code of Ethics. More than 500000 Kashmiri Pandits migrated during the period of few weeks in 1990. The rigged election of 1987 after which Abdullah formed the government was a turning point at which militants took the upper hand. "[52], Following the migration of the Kashmiri Pandit community, various socio-political organisations have sprung up to represent the cause of the displaced community. At events in cities in India and abroad to mark their exodus, Pandits pledged to return home. [65] The Mata Kheerbhawani[66] temple shrine in Srinagar, considered one of the holiest Hindu shrines, saw the largest gathering of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley in 2012. PM Rajiv Gandhis tenure ended on 2nd December 1989. The blatant electoral engineering, which disillusioned many Kashmiri youth, became a watershed event in Kashmir's political landscape and catalysed further insurgency. Anantnag, the constituency of then Congress leader Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, bore the brunt of the violence. 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. In order to get out of blame, Chief Minister Farookh Abdullah and Mufti Mohammad Sayeed convinced Prime Minister V.P. 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. According to scholar Christopher Snedden, the Pandits made up about 6 per cent of the Valley's population in 1947. The deadly attack on security forces in Indian Kashmir has Kashmiris in the rest of India afraid for their safety. Gul Shah formed the government with support from the Congress at the state-level as well as the central. WebMaybe. But local politicians said the situation was far from normal, and A day after a Kashmiri Pandit's killing in Pulwama, the Bharatiya Janta Party on Monday held protests at several places in Kashmir. With the Indian government revoking Article 370 of the constitution in August 2019, Jammu and Kashmir has been deprived of its special status of limited autonomy. (Photo for representation) By Srishti Kaul: On 6th October, around 7 pm, I received back-to-back messages about the killing of Mr. Bindroo in Srinagar. In the decades since the Pandit exodus, Kashmir has seen immense bloodshed. What was the UN event representatives of Kailasa attended? Major media outlets have that the kidnapping was a fake one as the kidnapping took place just after 5 days Sayeed took the office. Many followers of the traditional religions who did not convert to Islam instead migrated to other parts of India. [33] The nature of the planned exodus has remain controversial, with the involvement of then Governor Jagmohan in organising a clandestine exodus been a subject of controversy. As many as 75,343 Kashmiri Pandits are estimated to have fled in January 1990, with about 70,000 more following till March, as per the Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti. In 1986, after the Rajiv Gandhi government opened the Babri Masjid locks to enable Hindus to offer prayers there, ripples were felt in Kashmir too. The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins)[7] are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Saraswat Brahmin community of India. The debate over the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits has been reignited after the release of 'Kashmir Files'. Manish Sisodia Delhi excise policy case: how the right against self-incri What was the UN event representatives of Nithyanandas Kailasa attended? Foreign affairs, defence and communications remained the preserve of the central government. 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