Naked Violation
The last few years have
witnessed a perpetuation of human rights' violation against this community
which had to leave the valley helter-skelter and got dispersed far and wide
in different parts of the country. Most of the nearly three hundred thousand
refugees came out with clothes barely enough to cover their bodies. They
came out with the illusion of a return to their homes and hearths in the
near future. Families got split and scattered in the scramble for shelter
and livelihood. Parents got separated from children, spouses from their
partners, brothers from sisters. They are still on the move from one place
to another like wandering nomads looking for help and succour. As a result
of this dispersal the social fabric of the community is torn asunder, the
economic structure has collapsed, material possessions have vanished and the
political base has been overturned. The old and infirm of the community have
met a premature end, dying for want of health and family support. A large
number of youth suffered mental breakdown. Depression, panic attacks,
phobias, nightmares and insomnia have seized all age groups. Unnatural
deaths in the form of sunstroke, snake and scorpion bites, hydrophobia and
accidents have taken a big toll. The terror, a feeling of siege, a sense of
rootlessness and loss of identity, the trauma of forced migration, exposure
to an alien and hostile environment, problem of acclimatization, poor
housing, insanitary conditions, lack of basic amenities like drinking water,
scarce medicare, malnutrition and idleness compounded by hurt and
humiliation have orchestrated to result in physical, mental and
psychological trauma of unimaginable magnitude. The community has reached
the end of the tether and its reserves of patience and hopes have dried up.
The spectre of disease, death and extinction are haunting the community. It
seems unlikely that the community will ever be able to organise itself again
into a cohesive social and political entity which is vital for its survival
and resurgence. Far from regaining its pristine glory, it is hard pressed to
keep body, mind and soul together.
It is indeed deplorable that some human rights'
organisations reporting on the Kashmir situation have conveniently ignored the
gross human rights violations against Kashmiri Pandits. Their silence on the
genocide of this community and the terrible plight facing the community after
the exodus, is intriguing and exasperating and puts the credibility of these
organisations into shade. The one-sided, partisan and extremely prejudicial
views of certain agencies that have chosen to black-out the brutalities and
murderous killings of Kashmiri Pandit minority in their reports, leads one to
believe that such organisations have fallen victims to the dangerous ploy of
the terrorists and become tools in their propaganda machinery against this
community and against India.
It is a sad commentary on the perceptions and
sensitivities of the civilized world that a community which has been the
original inhabitant of the valley of Kashmir with a chequered history of more
than five thousand years, a rich cultural heritage and a distinct ethno
religious identity, the proponent of and heir to a unique concept and creed of
Hindu thought - the philosophy of Kashmir shaivism with its message of
Universality of man, peace, non-violence, amity and brotherhood - is being
deliberately and systematically destroyed.
History is replete with the records of religious
persecutions and barbarities perpetrated against this community since the
advent of Islam in the thirteenth century in Kashmir. While the community
accommodated, mingled with and absorbed the culture and traditions of all
outsiders who came to Kashmir, it was repeatedly rewarded with the most
inhuman and brutal treatment. From time to time various cruel Muslim rulers
driven by religious zeal and communal frenzy demolished Hindu institutions and
shrines, burnt religious scriptures and libraries of Hindus and unleashed a
reign of terror leading to the imposition of heavy taxes, forcible conversions
and general massacre of those refusing to embrace Islam. They inflicted
bestialities like the chopping off of the noses and tongues, beheading,
drowning in water after tying people back to back etc. on the community. Those
who escaped forcible conversion, mutilation and death were forced into exile
reducing this community to a minority in its own land.
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