Men, Matters & Memories
M L Kotru
There is always a first time for most things in life. This is my first in the six decades of my life as an active journalist, as a city reporter, a war correspondent, a diplomatic correspondent and assorted other assignments for my papers in India and elsewhere. This will also be a first, most relevant to this column. In its 21st year of publication I have for a change decided to let readers of this column to do the talking instead of my weekly hectoring.
And I am sure the readers will love to get new insights into a subject which has been beaten to death by most with access to a typewriter or to the nearest microphone or TV station. I am, of course, talking about the vexed issue of the return home of the nearly 3 lakh Kashmiri Pandit migrants forced out of the State 1990 onwards for reasons well beyond their control. I have had my say on the subject – not a popular one I am afraid.
So I feel privileged to share with you this week a different set of views expressed( in their own words) by two young professionals, both with high academic credentials and both highly regarded professionally , one a civil servant on the rise and the other a bright young financial journalist. Both love their KP pedigree, both secretly long to spend time in the place that had once been home to them and their parents …. I hand you over to the twosome, assuring you that their views have in no way been tampered with. Editing has been marginal. They, for reasons professional didn’t want their names to be used.
Here goes the economic journalist : “It has been 26 years and the longing to return has become less intense in the time. If I were to look at it rationally, what am I going back to? I don’t have a physical home, no community, at least not in the way I knew it when I was growing up there, and no job. While we learned to start anew after migration, the valley followed a reverse journey….. an entire generation or two has grown up without knowing what a Kashmiri Pandit is. And in terms of infrastructure, education and economic growth, it’s stagnating like the Dal Lake.
Suddenly, there is renewed interest in the entity called KP, who was largely ignored by the media, which was busy giving platform to people like Yaseen Malik and his ilk. Ironically, the world failed to differentiate between the two kinds of sufferings: KPs were a victim of insurgency and Kashmiri Muslims of counterinsurgency. The government is talking about wanting to resettle KPs, but on its own terms. The hardliners have their own agenda, as do the politicians.
The perception of the Kashmiri Muslims I know is “why would a Kashmiri Pandit return? They have jobs, security. They just want a summer home in Kashmir”. Maybe that is partly right. But the problem is who is anybody to decide how/when/why I should return. It’s my home and nobody, least of all the Hurriyat, should dictate the terms to me. I live in a democratic country and I should have the freedom to come and go as and when I desire, and without fear.
The rights I have in Delhi or in any other part of the country cannot be reversed in the valley. But do I want to go back and live in a ghetto-kind of environment? Obviously not, because that defeats the very idea of what Kashmir was, the one in which my generation grew up, where a Kashmiri Muslim and a Hindu knew their differences but at the same time were culturally similar (unlike any other community in the rest of the country), co-existing in harmony. By setting up an enclave, will we be solving the problem or escalating it by making the hardliners more rabid and the Kashmiri Hindu more vulnerable to attack?
If things have to change it has to come from moderate Kashmiri Muslims. The one who never spoke out of fear when Hindus were being hounded out; the one who sees that Kashmir is headed nowhere. There has to be a dialogue between the two communities.
On the positive side, there has been some change over the years. In the last few years, I have seen friends and family make the trek home, as tourists….. many of them dejected at how the “landscape” has changed and deteriorated. At the same time, there are also Kashmiri Hindus, mostly older people, who still have their houses and live there for six months every summer. During the floods last year, they were saved, rescued mostly by the local Kashmiri youth and not the army or the State Government. Those Kashmiri Pandits who can afford it, even if it’s a minority, are buying land, others have build new houses. It would seem there are people making their way back, without band, baja, baraat, and government help.
Says the civil servant : The first proposal, for making separate colonies for KPs on the outskirts of Srinagar, was surprisingly met with resistance from the unlikeliest of quarters-hardliners in the valley. As a KP one was puzzled as to what was their locus standi in the matter. How would it affect them if KPs lived in a separate colony? In fact they should welcome it, as the only section of society they have nothing in common with, would be out of their hair.Of course this had to lead to a discussion on ghettoization among the mainstream parties, and rightly so. The problem is that the Chief Minister has to take all and sundry along, and likewise, the Centre.
As a professional living and working in Delhi, would I like to go back and see my family resettled in the valley? Tough question to answer. My relatives fled the valley by 1990.They first lived in Jammu for a while, and then moved to Delhi. Their children graduated and moved abroad in search of greener pastures. Why on earth would they like to be unsettled and move to Kashmir now? If it’s a yearning for what was once theirs, they can always visit. I really don’t think there is any point having a hang up about “visiting Kashmir like a tourist”. Many KPs think this is a gaali, an abuse. I don’t agree.
Economics dictates our life choices. Unless there are some excellent job opportunities for young KPs, it is highly unlikely that they will chuck everything and go back. Some of those who grew up in the valley and are free of family responsibilities may like to go back with the romantic notion of “dying in my watan.”More power to them.I am glad that there are some intrepid young Kashmiri Muslim entrepreneurs who are trying to make a living in Kashmir, from cold storage units (for preserving apples) to furniture making to trading in carpets and other handicrafts. We should indeed be grateful to such young people who are preserving what every Kashmiri held dear, and what is now in danger of dying. KPs were the learned, the teachers and the government employees. Education sector has never really flourished in Kashmir, there may be an odd DPS but much more needs to be done. There are therefore not many areas where KPs can contribute and make a living.
I first visited the valley after 25 years, in 2012. It was an emotional trip and I broke down on seeing the Ganpatyar temple swathed in blue canvas and barbed wire. Kheer Bhavani was a contrast. Well maintained and served by Muslims-from the cabbies to the shops selling foodstuffs and water outside the shrine. When I visited again this year (2015), I felt even safer. We roamed around downtown .It was as if everything was normal. Of course wherever one went, one met youngsters who were clueless about KPs. In such a scenario, if KPs try to force their way back as a group, they will stand out. It is best that the State first stands up on its own feet. All three parts of the State (Jammu, Ladakh and the valley) are interconnected and development of all three parts should be taken up holistically. Once there is all round development, it will only be a matter of time before some KPs may move. Of their own free will. Instead of making a song and dance about resettling KPs, both Central and State Government would do well to normalize the situation first, in terms of economic growth.
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