Kashmiri Pandits' journey - where did they go?

 Where did the Kashmiri Pandits go?

The Kashmiri Pandits, are a community that is native to the Kashmir valley. Although the Pandits were a minority in the region they were a rather privileged people.

 

 
 The matter of what happened to the Kashmiri Pandits is a highly controversial topic as things can get blown out of proportion and often only one side of the story gets told. As Kashmir is a region of conflict between India and Pakistan, it doesn’t have a lot of accurate survey data making it extremely difficult for us to access information about the incidents and tell an unbiased story that captures the whole picture. This entry only follows the Kashmiri Pandits and their journey.
 The Hindus were in power in Kashmir between the years of 1846-1947, under the Dogra rule. Towards the end of 1947, the Pathans came to power.  Over the course of time due to several reasons, the Kashmiri Pandit community moved out almost entirely. 

 
Maharaja Gulab Singh of the Dogra Dynasty
The first migration of the Kashmiri Pandits took place under the rule of the Pathans after certain land reforms that took place in the 1950s. Many Pandits were owners of large pieces of land and estates, but under the terms of the “Big Landed Estates Abolition Act” of 1950, the limit of land ownership was 22 acres, and the rest of the land was to be redistributed and given to labourers and others who worked on the land without providing any type of compensation to the original landowners. After this was implemented, several Pandits left Kashmir. This first movement out of Kashmir was not under violent circumstances, and the harmony between the Hindu and Muslim communities in Kashmir was still intact. 

Lots of things changed in Kashmir for the Pandits under the influence of islam, not only the land reforms, but also things like the type of clothing that the Kashmiri Pandit community wore (https://kashmiri-pandits.blogspot.com/2022/11/traditional-clothing.html), and the type of music that was performed by them (https://kashmiri-pandits.blogspot.com/2022/11/culture.html
 

By 1981, the pandits were only about 5% of the total population of Kashmir. In the late 1980s, the Kashmiri pandits began to be viewed as “agents of the state”, who were colluding against the Kashmiri Muslim community, simply because they were Hindus.  Between September 1989 and March 1990 quite a few Kashmiri Pandits were killed in a targeted attack by the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) which was a separatist group. The violence included sexual abuse, rape, torture.The matter of how many Pandits were killed is still highly debated. According to the director of the 2022 film titled “Kashmir Files”, around 4000 Kashmiri Pandits were killed, while the Ministry of Home Affairs says that around 219 Pandits were killed. There is a vast discrepancy between the two sources. Whether it was 4000, or 219 Pandits that were killed, the event itself instilled fear in the Pandit community and they no longer felt safe in Kashmir. In response to the unrest and violence, 100,000 Pandits out of the 140,000 left Kashmir in 1990. 

The situation of both Tibet and Kashmir seem rather similar to me. Kashmir was originally an independent kingdom which was made a part of India, while Tibet is an individual country that became occupied by China. Both The Kashmiri Pandits and the Tibetan people left their homes under similar circumstances as their migration was initiated by violence against these communities and they left as they no longer felt safe(https://aaravthakore22ug.wixsite.com/my-site/post/the-tibetan-conflict-and-its-geo-political-implications).
 

The mass migration happened for a number of reasons, along with the fear caused by the killing that took place. There were three types of people within the Pandit community each of whose migrations were motivated by different reasons. The first being   people who may have done something that targeted a Muslim in the past in a bad way, so they were afraid that the people who they had hurt may come back seeking revenge so they fled. The second being the rich Pandits who didn’t want to lose their wealth to the militants and so they decided leaving would be a better option. And lastly the poorer Pandits who had almost nothing to their name and had nothing to lose and so they saw migrating as an opportunity to find a better life elsewhere, as well as the fact that they could take advantage of the relief efforts being made by the government for the migrant Pandits, like subsidies and better job and education opportunities.
These 100,000 Pandits moved to various different places. Many of them relocated from the Kashmir Valley to the Jammu region of the state, while some others moved to Delhi and some other parts of the country. Some Pandits fled to different countries altogether. 

Many pandits stayed on in Kashmir despite the events that had taken place, even today there is a small population of around 6514 Kashmiri Pandits still living there.
 Kashmir till date remains a conflicted area, and lots of violence has taken place here over the years, involving both the Muslims and the Hindus alike.  Kashmir has been in a custody battle between India and Pakistan for many decades, causing lots of unrest between the different religious communities of Kashmir. The violence exits not only between the residents of Kashmir, but with the army as well, as there have been instances where the army has opened fire on Kashmiri civilians killing many.
The migration of the Pandits didn’t end in the 1990s, people continued to move out of Kashmir in much smaller groups over the years. Some Pandits who stayed back during the exodus regret their decision and still wish to leave Kashmir. There are also people who feel out of place in the places that they moved to, and wish to go back home to Kashmir. The issue of migration is multi-layered as one is not just shifting one’s home, but their entire life too.
 

By Dyuti

Sources: 

⦁    https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CAQQw7AJahcKEwjooqbF3Jb7AhUAAAAAHQAAAAAQAw&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.outlookindia.com%2Fart-entertainment%2Fexodus-of-kashmiri-pandits-claims-versus-reality-news-190344&psig=AOvVaw1r8qFIBYiqXG6TwBm12UrB&ust=1667726779934291
⦁    https://www.iasgyan.in/daily-current-affairs/kashmiri-pandits-12
⦁    https://www.firstpost.com/india/kashmiri-pandits-who-stayed-on-despite-mass-exodus-of-90s-feel-neglected-in-their-homeland-10390861.html
⦁    “Survival is Now Our Politics”, International journal of Hindu Studies, volume 12, no.1 2008, from JSTOR
⦁    https://www.hinduamerican.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/kashmir-map_0.jpg
⦁    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/39/KashmirPundit1895BritishLibrary.jpg
⦁    https://jammuvirasat.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/gulab-singh-jammu-kashmir.jpg
⦁    https://images.hindustantimes.com/rf/image_size_640x362/HT/p1/2015/01/19/Incoming/Pictures/1308509_Wallpaper2.jpg