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| Kashmiri Hindus have suffered for many years | | Demand For Homeland | | RUSTAM
JAMMU, May 17: The Kashmiri Hindu organizations like Panun Kashmir (PK) have been reiterating again and again since 1991 their demand that "four per cent of the area of Kashmir, north-east of the Jhelum, be earmarked for the establishment of a homeland for the over 3,00,000 internally-displaced Kashmiri Hindus" and that "this area be given the status of Union Territory". The upshot of the arguments advanced by the PK leaders in favour of their demand all along has been that the Kashmiri Hindus will under no condition make common cause with those who call for the state's separation from India or the restoration of the pre-1953 position and that the permanent solution to the problems being faced by them lies only in a separate dispensation within India and under the Indian Constitution.
There are cogent reasons for the Kashmiri Hindus to demand a political arrangement that ensures their safety and security, as also guarantees them their due in all walks of life. It would be only prudent to point out that it was not for the time in 1990 that the minority Hindus left their homes and hearths in the Valley following terrorist attacks. They had been facing such traumatic situations right from 1339, when a Persian adventurer, Shah Mir, usurped the throne of Kashmir and thereafter employed every conceivable method to induce the locals to give up their religion and culture.
As a matter of fact, it was with the subversion of the local rule/Hindu rule that there commended a phase of which conversion and migration were the two major trends. Those afraid of becoming homeless, landless and jobless represented the first trend. And, those with a spirit to suffer outside the landlocked Kashmir Valley for all that they held dear represented the other - the trend which dominated the Valley's socio-political scene till April 1990, when all but less than 20,000. Kashmiri Hindus quit the Valley and became refugees in their own motherland.
However, to say all this is not to deny the existence of a few safe periods between 1339 and 1990. To say so would be to undermine the benevolence of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin (1420-70), who was "a ruler like sandalwood balm that gives coolness after the end of the heat wave in the desert". It was during the time of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin that the Hindus who had vacated the Valley owing to the reign of terror let loose by Sultan Sikandar (Butshikan) returned to their homeland and led there a dignified life. During the time of Sultan Sikandar, it may be noted, all but just 11 Hindu families had migrated to safer places outside the Valley. However, Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin's period constitutes one of the three most safer periods for the Kashmiri Hindus. The other two being the 27-year Sikh rule (1819-1846) and 101-year Dogra rule (1846-1947).
When in October 1947 J&K acceded to the Indian Dominion, it was believed that the founders of the Indian State would take into serious consideration the Muslim Conference/National Conference politics of communalism and incorporate certain foolproof provisions in the Constitution to protect the Pandit minority. The Pandits had been raising the homeland demand since 1930 on the grounds that Sheikh Abdullah's MC/NC was working for a system which, if established, would jeopardize their legitimate socio-religious and politico-economic rights and interests.
But, unfortunately, the framers of the Constitution dismissed the minority community's fears as silly and armed Sheikh Abdullah and his NC with absolute political powers under Article 370. It was he and a few others who followed him who proved instrumental in finishing the task of clearing the Valley of all the Hindus left after 1819 owing to the foundation of the Sikh rule to be followed by the Dogra rule. Even a cursory look at the civil lists, sale deeds, appointment and transfer orders, representations for transfer from Kashmir and census reports would reveal it.
The most unfortunate aspect of the whole situation was the Union Government's failure to check the process of religious cleansing. In fact, it watched all that was being done systematically by the Kashmiri fundamentalists after 1947 to harm the minority community as a mute spectator and allowed the situation to deteriorate to the point where it became absolutely impossible for it to lead a peaceful and honourable life in Kashmir. The minority community was, in fact, caught between two fire of exclusiveness -- the fundamentalists' exclusiveness of "Nizam-e-Mustafa" and New Delhi's exclusiveness of the vote bank. For the Kashmiri fundamentalists the minority Hindus were too dangerous to be allowed to live in Kashmir; for New Delhi they were too insignificant a minority to be taken note of.
Things continue to remain the same even today with New Delhi not doing anything to clear the Valley of such elements who had ensured the exodus of the minority community. Their refusal to return to Kashmir and demand for the establishment of a separate homeland in the Valley need to be viewed in this context. |
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