The recent politicisation and communalisation of Kashmiri Pandits visiting and offering puja at Kaunsar Nag on Nag Panchami represents a microcosm of the larger political stalemate in Kashmir - i.e. a failure of the State in addressing the complexity of the Kashmir issue. On the one hand the BJP sought to institutionalize a community religious event. On the other, the state government by initially sanctifying it and later withdrawing made a private ceremony a public event with political overtones. Every event relating to Kashmiri pandits tends to become an issue because of the larger problem which needs to be addressed squarely. Individual success stories and glories apart, Kashmiri pandits as a community are in an existential crisis. Indeed, their distinctive cultural and religious identity has been under threat since 1990. At one end, forced to exit their environs they are unable to come back any which way let alone in any meaningful manner. At the other end, living in the rest of the country, they are getting subsumed into the undifferentiated Hinduism fold. Not so much politically but culturally. This mainstreaming is not as much religious as it is cultural. There need not be anything devious about this process. The forces of “naturalization” in a society where religion has primacy over ethnicity is bound to make this happen. Over the years, the responses of the Central government, the state government or for that matter that of the “representative groups”, to this process far from being encouraging, have been dismal and disappointing. The renewed move of the Central Government to “settle” the Kashmiri pandits in a segregated manner is a case in point. First, the Government of India, unashamedly categorised Kashmiri pandits as migrants as if they ‘migrated elsewhere’ of their own will. And now, they must ‘choose’ to return home as a symbol of assertion of the national hindu right which is now in power. It is now being repackaged in aggressive avatar. And the symbolism has subsumed the substance of return. Earlier, their return was projected as a symbol of normalcy by positing it as a return to an idealised pluralist Kashmiri neighbourhood, culture and community that did not exist. Both these designs are flawed. Not just from the broader perspective of the state but also from the perspective of the Kashmiri pandits. For instance, will the Pandits feel safe to move back and live ordinary lives without the ghost of past violence demonizing the neighbour? It is politically daft to think of settling them in enclaves akin to ghettoising that can only reinforce their marginalisation rather than restore their homes and hearth and cultural heritage. It is not surprising that every public debate about the so called ‘rehabilitation’ of Kashmiri Pandits descends into an abysmal din of impassioned personal and political statements, accusations and counter accusations, mistrust and mutual hatred confronting us yet again with memories of loss, death, rape and violence. Each time it turns into measuring whose suffering and loss have been greater and who is the legitimate victim and the evil perpetrator. In order to turn our back on those one has lived with and loved as friends, neighbours and fictive family for generations, we must first embody them as evil. The truth remains that there are no easy and quick solutions to the return of the Kashmiri pandits since the moral and social fabric of the community that they were forced to flee has been destroyed by communalisation of politics and politicisation of religion. In order to take a step forward towards any notion of reconciliation, a process has to be initiated. The initiatives should not be to “get back” the Kashmiri pandits, on the back of money and muscle, even if it means returning them to a hostile environment. Instead the idea should first be to restore the composite diverse society of the valley into which they will be a natural and welcome fit. In numerical terms, the magnitude is rather small and manageable. A recent estimate puts the total number of Kashmiri pandits at around six lakh. At a conservative estimate of five people per family, it is just about 1.2 lakh families. Moving back is a family decision, not a political one. Assuming that 50 per cent of the total population may not even want to return to the valley; they being far too settled to come back. That brings it to about 50,000 families. This is hardly a large number that can be reabsorbed. As such, to settle them into houses or dwellings is not the real challenge; they need to be reintegrated and absorbed in the Kashmiri milieu. That is the real challenge. Reintegration has to be a process that must start within the state as well as the civil society. The Central and state governments owe an apology to the Kashmiri pandits for the silence on their plight and initiate a dialogue that is framed by a notion of trust and reconciliation. No move towards trust and reconciliation can be one sided – hence, there needs to be political will in starting a dialogue that is based on a legal framework of citizenship and constitutional rights of citizens irrespective of religion or ethnic group. This means starting from a scratch and not tolerating violence and communalisation of religion at any level or part of the state, including Jammu and Ladakh. All interested political parties, members of the civil society, especially the young men and women across religious divide, must commit themselves to working towards restoring mutual trust and rebuilding a community. This can be done by starting a dialogue focusing on future whilst recognising that gross injustices and civil rights abuses have been suffered by all sides, including Muslims, Pandits and Sikhs. It would help to set up a reconciliation steering group with a cross section of members of all communities, political parties and civic organisations rather than politically select handful of articulate outsiders from Delhi. Each interested political party and community organisation must nominate a representative who will be responsible for one neighbourhood / local community for restoring trust and mutual discussion on how to facilitate the reincorporation of Pandits into local communities. There is need to set up local community discussion groups where those who never left the valley and those who are currently living and working in the valley can share their experiences. Alongside this process, the political parties must build a consensus on giving the Kashmiri pandits an assured political empowerment. One way to do this would be to reserve an assembly constituency for them. The point is to give them political power and a legitimate space in the legislative and governance system It is a great irony that today Kashmiri pandits as a community don’t have a leader of stature; outside or in the valley. One misses the enlightened leadership of a D P Dhar or the committed leadership of a Pyare Lal Handoo. There are of course, BJP leaders who are Kashmiri pandits; or Congress leaders who are Kashmiri pandits. But this is not the same as having a Kashmir leader who affiliated to a political party! That vacuum needs to be filled. And in that lies the start of the solution. (The columnist is a member of the J&K Peoples Democratic Party. Was former Chairman J&K Bank. Views expressed are personal)
Posted on: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 01:12:57 +0000