ETHNIC CLEANSING OF KASHMIRI HINDUS

 

BACKGROUNDER:

             The history of Kashmir begins with the history of the Vedic civilization of India. The people of Kashmir are a part of the proto-Vedic people of India, who have inhabited Kashmir from the most ancient times, going back to the latter stone- age culture of the Indian people who lived in the whole of the north of India. The Hindus of Kashmir are the descendents of the ancient people whose remains were found at Burzahom in Kashmir, as well as Harappa, and the people who inhabited Mohenjo-Daro in the Sind Valley.  The human skeletons found at Burzahom in Kashmir point to a common ancestry of the people of northern India, who in the ancient times lived along the banks of the river Saraswati. Archeological excavations at Burzahom, Kanispur and Gufkral in Kashmir, has thrown up evidence of close contact between Kashmir and Harappan culture. The excavations carried on by the Archeological Survey of India in Jammu have found evidence of Harappan settlements on the banks of the river Chenab at Manda near Akhnoor bringing the Vedic civilization close to, the geographical boundaries, of Kashmir. There is hardly any doubt left of the Vedic nature of the Harappan civilization now. There is enough ground to believe that the people of Kashmir formed a part of Saraswati civilization, because, it is hardly possible that the people who lived in Kashmir could not have established contact with the Saraswat culture, which spread over whole of the northern India.   

Hindus of Kashmir are known as Saraswat Brahmins and trace their ancestry to the Saraswat Brahmins living along the course of the legendry river Saraswati, which formed the cradle of Vedic civilization of India. Evidence is also available of the close contact between the people of the Saraswati civilization and people of Kashmir. Nilmat era of the Hindu history of Kashmir followed the disappearance of the river Saraswati. The word Saraswat is derived from the Rig Vedic Saraswati River. The Saraswat Brahmins are Hindu Brahmins, who have spread from Kashmir in North India to Konkan in West India to Kanara (coastal region of Karnataka) and Kerala in South India. The offsprings of Rishis and Sages the small community of the Saraswat Brahmins of Kashmir have been like their ancestors and still are by and large, sober, and peace loving.         

Nilmat Purana narrates; “sixty five rituals and festivals, were celebrated with great devotion, faith, pomp and show. Some of the rituals and festivals find mention in other Puranas also. Some of these are celebrated even today in Kashmir, like Kaw Punim and Yaksha Mavas (Kechi Mavas).” It is generally thought that the Nilmat Purana talks of rituals and festivals of Nagas only, and these being adopted by Aryan Saraswat Brahmins of Kashmir, which is not so. Many of the rituals, festivals and days are common with those followed by Aryans in Bharatvarsha or emanating from Vedas.              

            In fact, the Nilmat Purana is a Vaishnavite text. The Mahatmayas, of which a large number were written in Kashmir, provide a wide range of the fact and data about the evolution of the Sanskrit religious culture of Kashmir, its basic Vedic foundations, and its philosophic, mythological and the ritual content which assumed from the Upanishads, the Brahmanas, the Puranas and the Dharma Shastras. The Mahatamayas are testimony of basic unity that permeates the religious culture of the Hindus of Kashmir and the Sanskrit culture of the Hindu India. There is evidence that the Hindus in Kashmir were aware of the Nakshetra Calendar, which was without any doubt a Harappan creation. Incidentally, the traditional calendar of the Kashmiri Pandits Saptrishi Samvat is 5098, corresponding to 2022 AD.  The Saptarshi Era of the Kashmiri Hindu calendar has started on Navreh, New Year Day of Kashmiri Hindus, and some 5098 years ago. According to the legend, the celebrated Sapta Rishis assembled on the Sharika Parvat (Hari Parbat), the abode of the Goddess Sharika, at the auspicious moment when the first ray of the sun fell on the Chakreshvara on this day and paid tribute to Devi. Astrologers made this moment as the basis of their calculations of the nava varsha pratipada, marking the beginning of the Saptarshi Era. Before their exodus Kashmiri Pandits would flock to Hari Parbat in thousands to celebrate Navreh.

Kashmiri Hindus have a rich cultural heritage. Nilmat Purana, the Mahatmayas, social and cultural data about the history of Kashmir made available in the Rajatarangni of Kalhana and Jonraja, the Agmas and the scriptural literature of the Hindus of Kashmir, represent a philosophy which is essentially Sanskrit in content. The Hindus of Kashmir follow the adaptation of the Graha Sutras made by Laugakshi Rishi, who has laid down the Sanskars, the procedures of worship and the precept and practice of the performance of rituals for the Hindus of Kashmir. Our ancestral lineage, Gotras, relates directly to the Sapta Rishi. A Gotra is a lineage or clan assigned to a Hindu at birth. With the passage of time more Gotras were added. There is lot of other Sanskrit literature on religion, history, philosophy and love-lore, as much as 35 percent of whole Sanskrit literature came from Kashmir only.

             Kashmir possessed numerous religious endowments and shrines. Many Hindu monarchs built numerous elegant temples, some of these still exist. Lalitaditya Muktapida was the greatest Hindu emperor Kashmir has ever produced. He built a number of new towns with temples of great archaeological importance. “There was not a township, no village, no river, no island where this king did not lay down a sacred foundation.” writes Kalhana in Rajatarangni. Emperor Ashoka brought Buddhism to the valley. Three centuries later, Emperor Kanishka convened the Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir, which led to the founding of its Mahayana sect. Buddhist missionaries from Kashmir carried it to Central Asia and China. Vaishnavism, Buddhism and Shaivism flourished side by side in Kashmir. The worship of the Mother, in the form of Bhavani, which underlines the Shakhta, the basic ground-work of the Hindu worship, is definitely the most ancient form of worship in Kashmir.

ETHNIC CLEANSING:

Kashmir, a Hindu kingdom, which had touched the pinnacles of glory under the Karkotas and later the Utpalas, extending its territories, north and east as well as west, and which had become a major military power in the north of India, passed under the Muslim rule early in fourteenth century, when a Tibetan fugitive, Rinchen seized the throne of the kingdom. Rinchen was supported in his struggle for power by Shah Mir, a Muslim adventurer and soldier of fortune, who had taken service in the kingdom of Kashmir, and had risen to power and position, with the patronage of the Hindu kings.

Rinchen, a Buddist, after he had seized the throne, embraced Islam, evidently, under the influence of Shah Mir, whose support he needed to consolidate his hold on the Hindu kingdom. Rinchen took the decision to embrace Islam for his own political interests, to keep Mir Shah, who had assumed formidable power in the Hindu kingdom, on his own side. Rinchen’s death after a short spell of his rule over Kashmir plunged Kashmir into turmoil. Taking advantage of the continued unrest in the kingdom which the feudal landlords spread, Shah Mir seized the throne and laid down the foundations of the Sah Miri dynasty. In 1339, Shah Mir became the first Muslim ruler of Kashmir. For the next five centuries, Muslim monarchs ruled Kashmir.

The ruthlessness with which the Muslim rulers of Kashmir dealt with the Hindus and their religious culture, is portrayed vividly by the account left behind by the Muslim chroniclers of the times in the Persian language. Writing without any reserve upon them, their narratives were frank and forthright, vividly describing the extermination of the infidels, and the destruction of their temples. Hundreds of thousands of Hindus were killed, thousands of them left Kashmir and went into exile and the rest were converted to Islam.

Baharistan-i-Shahi, a Persian work, is a chronicle of medieval Kashmir, written in 1614 AD, and recently translated into English, by Padamshri Dr. Kashi Nath Pandita, a noted Persian scholar and an expert in Central Asian Studies, reveals the truth. Baharistan-i-Shahi narrates; “At this time only a handful of people in Kashmir have embraced Islam and further  narrates one of the events of how the chief Wazir Malik Qazi Chak of the ruling king, ordered the mass massacre of Hindus at the instance of the Saiyads. The massacre was scheduled for the day of the approaching ‘Ashura.’ Thus in the year 1518, during the Ashura about seven to eight hundred infidels were put to death. Those killed were the leading personalities of the community of infidels at that time, men of substance and government functionaries. Thus the entire community of infidels in Kashmir was converted to Islam at the point of the sword.” In a footnote appended to his translation of Baharistan-e-Shahi, Pandit Kashi Nath Pandita writes; “It is recorded in Tohafatul-Ahbab, another Persian work, is the biography of Shamsud-Din Muhammad Iraki, a Shia Muslim missionary who visited Kashmir, during 16th century, that on the instance of Shamsud- Din Iraqi, Musa Raina issued orders that every day 1,500 to 2, 000 infidels be brought to the doorsteps of Mir Shamsud-Din by his followers. They would remove their sacred thread, administer Kalima to them, circumcise them and made them eat beef.” What was done to those who refused conversion is not mentioned.

    Tohafatul-Ahbab is full of the detailed description of the demolition of the Hindu temples in Kashmir. Hardly any temple was spared from destruction. The description of the Hindu shrine Shiva-Vijayeshwara, situated in the present day Vijabror in south Kashmir, is recounted here, to show, the continuity in the process of the demolition of the Hindu temples over centuries. Tohaftul-Ahbab relates the grandeur of the temple which it describes; “had no parallel in its beauty and artistic splendor,” with its top “capped with rising pinnacles.” Sikandar, the Iconoclast, got the pinnacles removed and carried to the city, where they were placed, “on the four well known structures of the city.” Tohafatul-Ahbab notes; “one was put atop the Jamia Masjid, second atop the tomb of Amir Sayyd Ali Hamdani, the third on the top of the cupola of Sikandar’s tomb and the fourth atop the palace of Sultan Sikandar in Hairan Bazaar.” Tohafatul-Ahbab notes further; “Shams-ud-Din Iraki came to that place in person and saw the demolition of the temple. The foundations of the temple of the infidels were demolished and the stones were brought to the city, where these were used to build the boundary wall of the Hamdaniyyeh lodge. A splendid mosque was raised in the place of temple.”

          The author of Tohafatul-Ahbab writes; “Shams-ud-Din Iraqi began his enterprise (of destroying temples) with the temple at Kohi-Maran, (Hari-Parbat).” Hari-Parbat is the most sacred of places of the Hindus in Kashmir, at the top of which was a mighty temple, where Hindus worshipped. The temple was demolished. Tohafatul-Ahbab records; “A temple of the infidels existed at the place. Its foundation was dismantled and the idol house was set on fire, till it was fully consumed in flames. About the demolition of the Hindu temples the author of Tohafatul-Ahbab, a local Muslim who calls himself Mohammad Ali Kashmiri, notes; “Hazarat Amir Shamsd-u-Din took great pains in breaking idols and smashing statues. He succeeded in his mission, Islamic faith and the laws of religion were strengthened (in Kashmir). The number of idol houses (temples) of the infidels in this land was so large that one could not give a full account of them. My pen is helpless in counting each of these.          I, therefore, pull up the reigns of my pen at this point and leave the count and account of demolition of temples by Iraki at this point although one is unable to make the count.”

Amir Shams-ud-Din Iraqi carried his campaign of conversion to every village and every Hindu home. The author of Tohafatul-Ahbab narrates; “when Iraki accomplished mission of converting people and training and guiding them in the new faith, he addressed the task of converting and guiding womenfolk. Pious and honest and trustworthy Dervishes and Sufis were selected and the task assigned to them. They were sent to all villages, localities and towns. Infact, they reached each and every house. When they came to a homestead, they would get hold of the cow belonging to the house keeper, kill it and sit down to eat beef in the company of the womenfolk and family members. Along with this they administered the recitation of Kilma to the womenfolk of the household and taught them the basics of Islam. Distinguished and sincere dervishes would enter the house of the aristocrats and the elite, in order to administer Kalima to them and make them eat beef.”

Since the arrival of Islam in Kashmir, practically, there was unabated migration of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley, their birthplace. However, the following seven mass exoduses of minority community from Kashmir have been recorded by eminent community scholars and historians:

 

The First Exodus-- Sultan Sikandar (1389-1413):

Shah Mir became the founder of the Muslim rule in Kashmir. Islam became the court religion. Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani (AD 1314-AD 1385) wrote in Zakhirat’ul Maluk; “Mir Sayyid Ali Hamadani (Shah Hamadan) entered Kashmir with 700 sayyids; and his son, Mir Muhammad Hamadani, with 300 more. They endured in the

 Valley under royal protection and disseminated the message of Islam”. With his repressive measures backed by state administration, he achieved the conversion of 37,000 Kashmiri Hindus to Islam during the latter two of his three visits. The persecution was so severe that Hindus either left the Valley or converted to Islam until only eleven Hindu families were left behind. This marks the first exodus of the Kashmiri Hindus from their native land. They fled to the neighbouring regions of Kishtwar and Bhadarwah via Smithan pass and to various provinces of India via Batote. (Bhatta wath)

  Sultan Sikandar, the Butshikan, ascended to the throne in 1389AD. He was a religious fanatic and offered privileged positions to the new converts. He appointed Saif-ud-Din, originally a Brahman called Saha Bhat, as Chief Minister. He banned all ceremonies and celebrations and imposed Jazya (punitive tax) upon Hindus and stopped them from using tilak on their foreheads. Sikandar Butshikan imposed Jizya (poll-tax) equal to 4 tolas of silver on the Hindus.

 Hassan (Kashmiri Muslim historian) writes in History of Kashmir; “This country possessed from the times of Hindu kings many temples which were like the wonders of the world. Their artistry was so fine and delicate that one found himself bewildered at their sight. Sikandar, destroyed them all and leveled them with the earth and with their material built many mosques and Khanakas (Muslim shrines).” Hassan further adds, “Sikandar meted out greatest oppression to the Hindus. It was notified in the Valley that if a Hindu does not become a Muslim, he must leave the country or be killed. As a result some of the Hindus fled away, some accepted Islam and many Brahmans consented to be killed and gave their lives. It is said that Sikandar collected, by these methods, six maunds of sacred thread form Hindu converts and burnt them.”       

              

                 Paradise Lost a book written by Prof. K.L.Bhan notes; “In the wake of this damned decree of Sikandar, seven mounds of the sacred thread of the murdered Brahmans were burnt by Sikandar and all of their sacred books were thrown into the Dal Lake. The KPs numbering over one lakh were drowned in the Lake and were burned at a spot in the vicinity of Rainawari in Srinagar City known as Bhatta Mazar (The grave yard of the Bhattas, the KPs) beyond present day Jogilanker. According to the living memory of the KPs only eleven KP families stayed back in Kashmir, the rest, rather than abandoning the religion of their father's, chose to migrate leaving behind their beloved homes hearths, lands and everything, only to protect their religion and faith.”

              Jonaraja, a 12^thcentury historian, compares this holocaust of Hindus to “locusts descending on and destroying a paddy field.” He further says, “that crowds of Hindus fled their homes in different directions to escape the carnage. Hungry and thirsty in the scorching heat of the plains, many died with their tongues lolled out like dogs. Thus occurred the first exodus of the Hindus from Kashmir.”

            W.R. Lawrence notes in his book The Valley of Kashmir; “the Saraswat Brahmans of Kashmir were given three choices-death, conversion or exile. Many fled, many were converted and many were killed, and it is said that this monarch (Sikandar) burnt seven maunds of sacred threads of the murdered Brahmans”.

          As for the statements of Hassan and Lawrence, six maunds of sacred threads of converts and seven maunds of murdered Pandits were burnt. The number of people, to whom these thirteen maunds of sacred threads belonged, might have been tremendously colossal.

 

The Second Exodus--Sultan Ali Shah (1413-1430):

Ali Shah, the persecutor (AD 1413-1420), son of Sikandar, the Butshikan, followed his father’s footsteps during his short rule of six years. He retained Suha Bhatta as Chief Minister to continue his earlier crimes and atrocities against Hindus. The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits remained unabated for the second time as well.

According to Jonaraja the plight of Hindus in Kashmir in the reign of Ali Shah was no better; “Saha Bhat passed the limit by levying Jazya, on the twice-born (i.e. Hindus). This evil-minded man forbade ceremonies and processions on the new moon. He became envious that the Brahmans (Hindus) who had become fearless would keep up their caste by going over to foreign countries. He, therefore, ordered posting of squads on the roads, not to allow passage to anyone without a passport. Then as the fisherman torments fish, so this low born man tormented the twice-born in this country. The legendary Brahmans burnt themselves in the flaming fire through fear of conversion. Some Brahmans killed themselves by taking poison, some by the rope and others by drowning themselves. The country was contaminated by hatred and the king’s favorites could not prevent one in a thousand from committing suicide …. A multitude of celebrated Brahmans, who prided in their caste, fled from the country through bye-roads as the main roads were closed. Even as men depart from this world, so did the Aryan Saraswat Brahmans (aborigines) of Kashmir flee to foreign countries. The difficult countries through which they passed, the scanty food, painful illness and the torments of hell during life time removed from the minds of the Kashmiri Pandits (Hindus) the fears of hell. Oppressed by various calamities such as encounter with the enemy, fear of snakes, fierce heat and scanty food; many Brahmans perished on the way and thus obtained salvation.” This was the second miserable mass exodus of the Kashmiri Hindus. Jonaraja calls it a violent, cruel, brutal and horrible punishment, for the abandoned and vulnerable Saraswat Brahmans of Kashmir.

Dr. M.L. Kapoor observes that it took Islam almost six centuries to secure a strong foothold in Kashmir. Subsequently with a jet speed it galloped through and within next one hundred years over shadowed Hinduism and claimed a majority. Quoting Jonaraja Dr. Kapoor writes; “As the wine destroys the trees and locusts the

paddy crops, so did the Yavanas destroy the usage of Kashmiris and the Kingdom of Kashmir was polluted by evil practices of malechhas.”

 

The Third Exodus-- Qazi Chak (1506-1585):

The Chaks belonged to the Shia sect of the Muslims, like all other earlier Muslim rulers they also adopted their policy of conversion by coercion, loot, plunder arson and butchering of Kashmiri Hindus. There was no let up in religious crusade against them either to force them to get converted or face liquidation.

           Paradise Lost a book written by Prof. K.L.Bhan notes; “During the Chak period the Kashmiri Pandits were persecuted, snubbed, humiliated, held low and trampled mercilessly. They had to pay tax even for performing their religious rites and obligations, rituals and customs. To preserve the distinctive traits of their sect and creed the Kashmiri Pandits were bound to pay 40 precious stones to the ruler. The Chak era goes down as black saga in the history of the Kashmiri Pandits. The Chak rulers were cruel and heartless and peerless in devising ever-new methods of inflicting pain and misery to the Kashmiri Pandits. Those KPs who somehow escaped getting converted to Islam fled their native places to seek refuge and sustenance at safer places in the neighbourhood of Kashmir Valley. It was a massive exodus in that innumerable Kashmiri Pandits left their homes and hearths and marched out of Kashmir. Thus the genocide of Kashmir Pandits was designed, engineered and pursued to transmute the basic character of the heritage of Kashmir, change its social religious and cultural identity beyond recognition and reduce this ancient land of Hindu Sages and Saints to the Muslims ghetto as was conceived by the Sayyid theologians.”                                                                                         

                 Dr Satish Ganjoo in his book Wailing Kashmir adds; “Kashmiri Pandits suffered ferociously under the instructions of Shams-ud-Din Iraqi and Musa Raina. About 24,000 of them were forcibly converted to Shia sect of Islam. Iraqi had even issued orders that everyday about 1500 to 2000 Brahmans be brought to his doorsteps, remove their sacred threads, administer Kalima to them, circumcise them and make them eat beef. These decrees were ferociously and brutally carried out. The Hindu religious scriptures from 7th century AD onwards and about 18 magnificent temples were destroyed, property confiscated and ladies abused. Thousands of Brahmans killed themselves to evade this horrific barbarism and thousands migrated to other places, resulting in their third tragic mass exodus from the Saffron Valley of Kashmir. Those who stayed behind were not only forced to pay jazya, but their noses and ears were chopped off. To escape the tremendous pain and agony, they cried. I am not a Hindu.”

 

 The Fourth Exodus under the Mughals (1585-1753):

The Mughals ruled India for more than two hundred years. Earlier Muslim dynasties had very short span of life. The Khalji dynasty ruled for 30 years (1290- 1321), the Tughlaq dynasty for 94 years (1321-1414), Sayyads for 37 years (1414- 1451) and the Lodis ruled for 75 years. The Mughal emperor Aurangzeb wanted to convert India, the land of ‘infidels’ into an Islamic country. He considered conversion to Islam as a part of his imperial policy. He demolished temples and humiliated Hindus. He tried to make the Mughal state a Muslim state. In November 1665, Aurangzeb issued orders that Holi not be celebrated and in the same year Diwali was also banned. In 1668 Aurangzeb banned the holding of Hindu festivals in pilgrimage centers. In 1668 he banned music and dismissed musicians. Taxes were imposed on Hindus in almost every field. Pilgrim tax was imposed in 1679. Jizya was re-imposed in the same year. It was an attempt to humiliate the Hindu elite.

     Aurangzeb after ascending the throne in Delhi in 1658 to convert whole of India to Islam, he implemented a well calculated plan according to which he started with liquidating Hindu scholars in India in general and the Kashmiri Pandits in particular. Since Kashmir has from times immemorial remained a prominent center for learning, according to him elimination of Hindu scholars was a pre-requisite for the spread of Islam. Iftkar Khan (1617-75) the Mughal governor of Kashmir during the reign of Aurangzeb, brutally tyrannized Hindus. He was using force ruthlessly to convert Pandits to Islam. Faced with an ultimatum, many of them began to flee Kashmir. Those who stayed back and refused to accept Islam were put to sword.

Some Kashmiri Pandits met under the leadership of Pandit Kripa Ram of Mattan and decided to go to the Swami Amarnath cave temple and invoke the mercy of Lord Shiva. At the holy cave temple, one of them saw Lord Shiva in a dream who told him to go to Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru of Sikhs, and ask for help to save the Hindu religion. He spoke to his companions about the revelation and they all decided to appeal the Guru. On May 25,1675, when 500 Brahmins from the valley led by Pandit Kripa Ram (a sanskrit teacher in Gobind Rai) came to Anandpur to narrate their story of repression and woes to Guru Tegh Bahadur. The Guru was moved by their entreaties and told them that their problem could be solved only if some soul of truthfulness and integrity offers himself for sacrifice. His son, Gobind Singh, who was at that time just nine years old, said; “Who else can be more truthful and sublime than you! You alone can protect the Hindu religion. You alone are that graceful and sublime.” Guru Tegh Bahadur was delighted to hear the brave words of his son. He told the Kashmiri Pandits to go and tell the emperor that if he could be able to convert the Guru to Islam, they would gladly follow him. Guru Teg Bahadur went to Delhi to address the grievances of the Pandits with the Moghul ruler. He was asked to embrace Islam, but when he refused, Aurangzeb executed him. Guru Tegh Bahadur’s martyrdom is an event of greatest importance in the evolution of the Indian ethos, especially the history of Kashmiri Pandits. In his supreme sacrifice can be perceived the triumph of the eternal glory of the Indian spiritual tradition!

             Despite the supreme sacrifice for the preservation of Hindu religion and Kashmiri ethos, the state terrorism remained unabated. The desecration of temples and the killings of KPs continued and the process of exodus also continued. Thousands who could manage to withstand the tremendous pressure bade good bye to their homes and hearths and sought refuge in neighboring regions to keep alive themselves and their faith that was so dear to them.  

 

The Fifth Exodus-- Afghan Rule (1753-1819):

Kashmir remained under Afghan rule for 66 years. Like Mughal rulers Afghans also ruled Kashmir through their governors. In all 28 Pathan governors and deputy governors ruled over Kashmir. The Afghans in their essential traits were tribals, ferocious, cruel and inhuman.

The Afghan rule in Kashmir (1753- 1819 AD) was basically a reign of utmost brutal tyranny. The barbarous Afghans employed every wild, inhuman, primitive, ferocious, cruel and brutal means to suppress the Kashmiri Hindus. A pitcher filled with ordure was placed on the head of a Hindu and stones were pelt on it, till it broke and the unfortunate Hindu become wet with filth. Their brutality and atrocity crossed the extreme limits when Hindus were tied up in grass sacks, two and two, and drowned in the Dal Lake.

Tyndale Bisco records; “It is said that during the Afghan rule in Kashmir (1752- 1819) the Afghans were in the habit of riding into the Kashmiri houses on their horse- back, stabling their horses in the lower portion and occupying the rest for themselves. The Kashmiris were unable to check these outrages by force. They devised therefore the plan of having so low doors that not only the intruder had to dismount, but also to bow his head on entry. As the Afghans were haughty and no one of them was willing to make obeisance to a local person, they were forced to remain outside.”

Hindu parents destroyed the beauty of their daughters by shaving their heads or cutting their noses and ears to save them from degradation. Any Muslim could jump on the back of a Hindu for a ride to where ever. Mir Hazar, an Afghan governor, used leather bags instead of grass sacks for the drowning of Hindus. Turbans and shoes were forbidden for them. The Hindus were also forced to grow beards and tilak was forbidden. The Afghan period was the darkest period in the history of Kashmiri Hindus. Afghans are now remembered only for their barbarity, brutality, tyranny and cruelty. The Afghan behavior was summarised in a Persian couplet which read as "Sar buridan pesh in sangin dilan qul chidan ast" (These stone hearted people thought no more of cutting of heads than of plucking a flower).

Walter Lawrence writes; “The Pandits, who formerly wore moustaches, were forced to grow beards, turbans and shoes were forbidden and the tika or fore-head mark was interdicted.” He further records, “The Jazia or poll-tax on Hindus was revived and many Brahmans fled the country, were killed or were converted to Islam.”

         Mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits took place in this era. The victimized Hindus were forced to flee the country or were killed or converted to Islam. There was horrible mass exodus of the Hindus of Kashmir, the fifth one, to faraway places such as Delhi, Allahabad. Many perished covering the long distances on foot.

 

The Sixth Exodus—(1931-1949)

             In 1819, Maharaja Ranjit Singh annexed Kashmir which ended the Afghan rule. This was first time in 500 years that a non-Islamic government was ruling Kashmir. Sikhs ruled Kashmir till 1846. Maharaja Ranjit Singh's government was a mixture of Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims. Within four months of Sikh rule census was conducted in Kashmir. The population stood at 6 Lakhs and out of that only 28,000 were Kashmiri Pandits!

According to Fergusson; “The condition of Kashmir under the Sikhs was no doubt an improvement on that under the Afghans. The Hindus to whom the Sikhs are in many ways very near benefited most and the disabilities under which they had been unable to practice the rites of their religion were removed. It was now the turn of the Muslims to suffer. Mosques were closed, the call to prayer was forbidden and capital punishment was awarded for the killing of a cow.”

                  After taking over from Sikhs, the Dogras ruled the State from 1846 to 1947. 13th of July 1931 will go down as a black day in the history of Kashmiri Hindus in modern times. Paradise Lost a book written by Prof. K.L.Bhan notes; “The 13th of July 1931 will go down as a black day in the history of KPs in modern times. On the incitement and directive of the Muslim Reading Room party the Muslim hoodlums made the unfortunate KPs direct target of their wrath, frenzy and madness. The Goondas and the anti-KP Muslims had a hay day. They went berserk everywhere particularly in downtown Srinagar looting KP shops and houses and setting them on fire. The booty they lard their hands on in Zaina Kadal and Maharaj Gunj was distributed. It was in fact, the looters day and the real martyrs were the KPs. Numerous KPs were killed and many wounded.”

G.S.Raghvan writes about loot and plunder of Hindus on13th July, 1931, “From Bohrikadal to Ali-Kadal - a long stretch - the Hindu shops were raided. Other localities such as Safakadal and Nawakadal too formed the centers of loot. Bazar streets were littered with property, books of accounts was burnt; the Hindu shop- keepers were molested. The Hindu merchants lost lakhs worth of goods.” He further writes, “The most extra-ordinary portion of the story was that, almost simultaneously with the happenings at Srinagar, there was an uprising at a place named Vicharnag, some 5 to 6 miles away. It has been stated that untold atrocities were committed there; men owning lakhs were reduced to indigence and women were subjected to the worst possible cruelties and the most indecent assaults. A military force was dispatched to the place, but by the time the havoc had been completed. Some lost their lives and many suffered physical injuries. Stray assaults continued till long after.” He continues, “It is true that the unspeakable atrocities of July were visited on the Hindus, robbing women of honour, subjecting children to assaults and reducing the wealthy to penury.”         

             Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits in the Northern, Northwestern and N-eastern Kashmir had to flee their homes and hearths and seek refuge in Srinagar. A good number of them left the state for good, thus setting the stage for the sixth exodus.

 

The Seventh Exodus Ethnic Cleansing of Hindus of Kashmir (1989-1990)

On August 15, 1947, India awoke into freedom from the yoke of British imperialism. Pakistan Army regulars and tribal raiders invaded Kashmir Valley on October 22 in 1947, two months after the Partition of India.

In the territories of the State, which were overrun by the invading hordes, more than thirty-eight thousand Hindus and Sikhs were massacred. Thousands of women were abducted; hundreds of them committed suicide to escape capture. All Hindu and Sikh temples and shrines were burned down or destroyed to erase the last vestiges of the Hindu and Sikh culture and religion in the occupied territories. The whole Hindu and Sikh population of the territories occupied by the invading army, which escaped the holocaust, took refuge in Jammu. The Buddhists in Baltistan who escaped the onslaught of the invading army took refuge in Ladakh. The assertion that Jammu and Kashmir presented a heaven of peace and brotherhood while the rest of India smoldered in communal violence is a myth.

             A survey conducted by Snedden and published in 2012 mentions that “there are no estimates of Hindus or Sikhs left today in the region and the entire population is assumed to have either been expelled or killed”. The report, widely quoted by research scholars, conforms that they were not able to find a single Hindu or Sikh in the entire region of Pakistan occupied J&K. It is estimated that around 122,500 Hindus and Sikhs went missing during and after 1947 invasion of Pakistan. The Hindu population in Bhimber tehsil was 35 per cent. None have survived the 1947 Pakistan sponsored Hindu-Sikh genocide. But the worst atrocity was committed in Mirpur where 25,000 Hindus and Sikhs were rounded up, mutilated, shot and beheaded and women raped by ‘Allah O’ Akbar’ chanting Pakistan army and religious fanatic members of Lashkar. What was thought to be a march to safety soon turned into a death march as the Pakistan army and members of the mercenary Lashkar killed over 10,000 Hindu and Sikh along the way. They abducted a further 5,000 of our women most of who were the sold in the bazars of Rawalpindi, Jhelum and Peshawar. To this day November 25 is observed as Mirpur (Massacre) Day by the family members of those who were lucky to reach Jammu.

 (Mirza is a Human Rights activist from Mirpur. He currently lives in exile in UK)

            Another Human Rights activist Manu Khajuria adds; “In 1947 the entire Pakistan Occupied Jammu (Mirpur, Kotli, and Bhimber to Muzzafarabad belt) was annihilated of its Hindus & Sikhs. Women jumping into Kishen Ganga River after throwing their children first. Thousands were killed, women abducted, raped & sold by Pakistanis.”

           Prof. K. L. Bhan writes in his book Paradise Lost; “The religious zealots of Kashmir acted as guides to these hordes of savages from NWFP who behaved even worse than their Afghan ancestors. Besides indulging in wholesale loot and arson they killed numerous Kashmiri Pandits at Batapora, Gushi and Tikkar in the present Kupwara district and at various places in the district of Baramulla, Badgam and outskirts of Srinagar. The local Muslim zealots joined hand with the wild tribals in forcibly converting many Kashmiri Pandits to Islam on pain of torture and instant death. And numberless were the Hindu places of worship and Dharamshalas that were reduced to ashes. Tens of thousands of KPs in the Northern, Northwestern and Northeastern Kashmir had to flee their homes and hearths and seek refuge in Srinagar. A good number of them left the state for good, thus setting the stage for the sixth exodus. There are innumerable prominent KP personalities who felt compelled by hostile political and economic circumstances to bid unwilling good bye to their dear native places.”

“Although there are detailed accounts given by survivors of carnages in Muzaffarabad, Rajouri, Poonch, Mirpur and Kotli in Jammu region, very few written accounts on the Pandits have been published. Dr Ramesh Tamiri has worked on the oral history of tribal invasion with special focus on Hindu minorities in the Valley. Accounts of the Pandits in Muzaraffarbad, Mirpur, Kotli and Gilgit- Baltistan were collected, giving an insight into the era when J&K saw large-scale organised killings. Family members of those killed or kidnapped have been tracked by the author. As per his research, over 200 villages in north and central Kashmir where Pandits lived came under Pakistani occupation before their liberation by the Indian Army. More than 140 killings of the Pandits took place in the execution style. There were over 10 massacres, hundreds of houses burnt, thousands of houses looted and hundreds of cases of forced conversions, rape and mass migration.” (The Tribune October 27, 2017)

The mass massacre of Hindus and the Sikhs in the territories of the State occupied by Pakistan in 1947, the uncertainly which followed the exclusion of the State from the Indian constitutional organization, the dismissal of the first Interim Government, the virulent secessionist struggle led by the Plebiscite Front that followed, and the induction of thousands of armed infiltrators into Kashmir to lead a Muslim rebellion against India, were events which went unheeded.

After the Truce Agreement, negotiated by the United Nations and the consequent cease-fire in the fighting in the State in January 1949, the Hindus, Sikhs and the Buddhists continued to fight against the war of subversion, Pakistan waged from the occupied territories of so called ‘Azad Kashmir’ to foment Muslim distrust in the State. In 1953, the Kashmiri-speaking Muslims who had supported the accession of the State to India in 1947 repudiated their commitment to the unity of India on the ground that India had denied them the right to reorganize Jammu and Kashmir into another Muslim nation in between India and Pakistan. The Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists arraigned themselves with the forces which opposed to the Muslimisation of the State and fell into a head on collision with a new Muslim separatists movement led

by the All Jammu and Kashmir Plebiscite Front, which was founded in 1955, to ensure the implementation of the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir, envisaging a plebiscite to determine the future affiliations of the State. The Hindus, Sikhs and the Buddhist formed the main resistance to the Muslim struggle for self-determination, the Plebiscite Front spearheaded till 1975, when the Indira-Abdullah Accord was concluded and the Plebiscite Front dissolved.

The Muslimisation of the various political and economic processes had begun in the State, soon after Sheikh Abdullah came to power, and the minorities in Kashmir were at the receiving end. Under the pretext of economic reforms, the Big Landed Estates Abolition Act, 1950, was drawn up that year. It placed a ceiling on land ownership at 186 kanals. The rest of the land of a landlord was redistributed among share-croppers and landless labourers, without any compensation to the landlord. Most of the landlords worst affected were Kashmiri Pandits. The state authorities worked assiduously and strictly towards restricting admissions to higher educational courses and institutions to Kashmiri Pandits. Simultaneously, their opportunities to enter state government employment were slashed. Not only had such drastic actions taken, the State government changed the names of 684 villages, which had Hindu names by a government order No. REV/S/340 of 1981 dated 13-10-1981.

 

RIOTS IN KASHMIR DURING 1986

               Anti-Hindu riots in north Kashmir began in the township of Anantnag in 1986. The riots engulfed the whole of the south Kashmir and spread to the district of Baramulla in north-west of Kashmir. Mobs at tacked the Hindus, burnt their homes and then destroyed their temples and places of worship. The minority community was badly shaken and had no faith in the administration which, has in many cases acted in collusion with fundamentalists and anti-national forces. It is apparent that without the connivance of like-minded elements in the State administration, these forces could not have wrought the destruction they did.          

The ethnic cleansing of the Hindus of Kashmir in 1990 is one of the few episodes, which occurred after the Second World War, and in which a whole community of people was subjected to genocide and driven out of its natural habitat. Terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir is a process of political violence which has specified political commitments aimed to separate Jammu and Kashmir State from India and secure its annexation to Pakistan. In fact, it is a low cost proxy war declared by Pakistan against India to grab Kashmir. The terrorist violence with which the Muslim Jehad in Kashmir commenced in 1989 was aimed to achieve a number of military objectives which the terrorist regimes and the Jehadi war groups considered to be essential for the liberation of Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian occupation. The ethnic extermination of the Hindus was one of the primary objectives, the Jehad aimed to achieve. The Hindus formed the frontline of the resistance against the separatist movements in the State, which the Muslim separatist forces carried on for decades with the support of Pakistan. The Hindus have always supported accession of the state to India. They have, undeniably, formed the most powerful support base for India in Kashmir. They were always in the forefront of the struggle against secessionism, communalism, and the various movements for annexation of the state to Pakistan.

            A lot of crap is being peddled out about Kashmiri Pandits having a dominant position in Kashmir whereas facts speak a different story. The basic fact is that the Muslims are ruling elite in Kashmir. They dominate its entire economic organization and enjoy communal precedence in all social forums. Islam is virtually the official religion of the state. Whereas the Muslims constitute a little more than half the population of the State, they possess three-fourths share in legislative bodies, administrative organizations and all the local Government Institutions. In the Kashmir province, the Hindus have no elected representation in the State Legislature, nor do they have any elected representation in the local bodies. They constitute less than five per cent of the administrative services of the State and have less than one percent share in the higher cadres of the state administration. Muslims monopolize 94 per cent of the State services in Kashmir. The Hindus of Kashmir province have absolutely no share in the decision making clusters of the state Government, which have always been constituted by the Muslims of the Kashmir Province. More than 90 per cent of the admissions to professional, technical and other educational Institutions are reserved for Muslims in one form or the other purely on communal basis. The Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities share a bare 8 per cent of the educational facilities that the State provides.

              There has been a continuous disinformation campaign about terrorist violence in Kashmir that the Muslims were subjected to economic deprivations which resulted in wide spread poverty among them. Kashmiri youth felt disgruntled and sick. According to their leadership, this was basis of their gun culture. If this were the whole truth, why did not the youth other than the Muslims in Kashmir and the other two divisions namely Jammu and Ladakh take to guns like their counterpart in the valley. A close analysis of the facts would bear out that the valley enjoyed a more hectic economic development than did the other two divisions of Jammu and Ladakh. That is why different commissions, like Sikri Commission in 1979 and Gajender commission in 1967 had to be appointed to look into the lopsided development in Jammu and Ladakh regions. Actually, the Jammu and Kashmir is a prosperous state which in terms of per capita income is placed third among the Indian states. Again, according to National Sample Survey, Kashmir has the lowest poverty ratio as compared to any state in India. Only 3.5 percent of Kashmir’s population was below poverty line in 1999-2000. The national average was as high as 26.1 percent. Maharashtra is the second richest state in India, but its poverty ratio is 25 percent where as Orissa has highest poverty ratio at 47.2 percent! On an average Central Per Capita Assistance to a

Kashmiri is 8 times more than any other fellow citizen in the country!

The terrorist violence raging in Jammu and Kashmir is another ‘Direct Action’ that Pakistan and Muslim secessionists inside the state have launched to force a second partition on India. The campaign of terror spread in Jammu and

Kashmir follows the same pattern which the ‘Direct Action’ followed in 1946; genocide of Hindus, their ethnic cleansing by forced exodus from the Muslim majority provinces of India and the destruction of their religious identity.  The Jihad which Pakistan launched in Kashmir in 1990, to liberate Jammu and Kashmir from the Indian hold, mounted its first attack on the Hindus in Kashmir. The terrorist assault on the Hindus in Kashmir commenced in the fall of 1989, and by the summer of 1990, more than seven hundreds of them had been assassinated in cold blood. Among those killed were people from all section of the Hindu Society; teachers, lawyers, political activists, media men, intellectuals, and men of small means. The massacre of the Hindus was accompanied by a widespread campaign of intimidation and threat to drive out the Hindus from the Kashmir province, burn their temples and religious shrines and homes and loot their property.

Shri Jagmohan in his book ‘Shaping India's New Destiny’ states; ‘On July 13, 1989, Tikka Lal Taploo, an advocate and vice president of BJP, was shot dead near his house. Judge N.K. Ganjoo, who had sentenced Maqbool Butt, was killed on November 4, 1989, in broad day light at the busy Hari Singh Street. Pran Nath Butt, a noted journalist was done to death on December 29, 1989. The murder of these three prominent leaders of the Kashmiri Pandit community was in line with the terrorist policy of killing one and frightening one thousand. The objective was to secure exodus of the Pandits from the Valley. No one was arrested and tried for these crimes.’

On January 4, 1990, a local newspaper had published a press release issued by Hizbul Mujahideen. The group had urged young people to wage jihad for secession from India and accession to Pakistan. The release had also ordered Hindus to leave the valley. A campaign to incite the Muslim population was carried out. Inflammatory speeches were made from loudspeakers of mosques. Posters were stuck on the houses and shops of Kashmiri Pandits ordering them to either embrace Islam or leave the valley. They were threatened with their lives. Reports of Kashmiri Pandits being killed had started to come out. Posters were also pasted outside Mosques and at selected busy places labeling Kashmiri Pandits as agents of India and branding them as traitors. The ‘Alsafa’ was in the vanguard publishing these gory threats. This paper virtually became the mouth piece of the terrorists and played a capital role in fanning its flames and carrying them to remote corners of the Valley. Kashmiri Muslims were clear in their slogan ‘Asi gache Pakistan, Batav ros Batnev san’ (we want Pakistan, inclusive of Kashmiri women and exclusive of Kashmiri Pandits). ‘Kashmir main rehna hai, Allah-ho- Akbar kahna hoga’ ‘Musalmano jago, Kafiro bhago’, ‘Islam hamara maqsad ha Kuran hamara dastur hai, jehad hamara rasta hai’, Kashmir banega Pakistan ‘Aftab’ and ‘Azaan’ joined in the choice songs in praise of the mujahids.

There was a mushroom growth of militant and terrorist outfits. JKLF had been there in the vanguard for the establishment of Nizame Mustafa. Other groups were AI-Jehad, Dukhtarane Milat, Muslim Janbaz force, Ikhwan-ul-Muslamen, Allah Tigers, Hizbul Mujahiden and more.

           The forced displacement of Kashmiri Pandits and their targeted killings were organised with a clear objective of ensuring that Kashmir valley is cleansed of its minorities. As such, about 85,000 Kashmiri Pandit families were forced out from their ancient indigenous habitat in Indian-administered Kashmir by terrorists and religious extremists. According to late Ghulam Mohammad Sofi, former editor of daily Srinagar Times “nearly 32,000 Kashmiri Pandits’ houses have been burnt since 1991”

The rumblings of the storm which engulfed Kashmiri Pandits were heard long before it swept the valley. The ultimate and devastating blow came on January 19, 1990, late in the night, when hell was let loose. The total breakdown of the law and order machinery spread a deep sense of insecurity, which was so severe that the most of the Pandits fled the valley and migrated to Jammu and Delhi in the dark hours of the night, with their shirts on!

In Jammu, where the refugees poured in thousands, the State Government failed to rise to the occasion and provide temporary shelter and relief to the hundreds of thousands of the Hindus sprawling on the streets in the temple city of Jammu. Were it not for the yeoman service of the voluntary Hindu organisations, which immediately swung into action to organise relief for the refugees, hunger and disease would have taken a heavy toll of the unfortunate people, who had suddenly been thrown into the wilderness. No help came from any quarter. Silence of death fell on the liberals, the protagonists of secularism, the radicals and the rest. Gita Bhawan, a temple complex situated in the heart of the Jammu city, adjacent to the Shiva Temple, was converted into a reception-cum-transit camp, where the Hindu refugees arriving from Kashmir, disembarked. The various Hindu organisations of Jammu, which had organised relief for the Hindu refugees arriving in thousands from the Kashmir valley, established a broad-based relief committee constituted of several prominent Hindu leaders of Jammu and Kashmir. The organisation was named the Sahayata Samiti. Pandit Amar Nath Vaishnavi, a prominent Hindu leader and social activist, was appointed the Vice-President of the Samiti. Vaishnavi was actually put in control of the function of the Samiti. In Delhi, the other main place, where the refugees arrived in large numbers, the work

of relief and rehabilitation was taken up by the Kashmiri Samiti Delhi, headed by Pandit Chaman Lal Gadoo, social worker. In Delhi, the main place of refuge, the Kashmiri Samiti, Delhi, took up the work of relief and rehabilitation. A transit camp was set up at Kashmir Bhawan itself for the displaced persons who were later shifted to 14 other camps in Delhi. In Jammu, thirty-two refugee camps were established to accommodate the refugees. Refugee camps were also established at Nagrota, Riasi, Udhampur and Kathua.

As a major militant assault on the Hindus was delivered in January 1990, the Hindu temples and shrines, religious places and Hindu religious institutions, came under heavy attack of the militants. Almost all over the Kashmir province, temples were desecrated, subjected to bomb attacks and at many places, set on fire. In suburban villages and remote regions of the province, Hindus having fled away, there was no one left to report the damage done to the temples or complain about it. The State Government exhibited no interest in the protection and safety of the Hindu temples. At many places in Srinagar as well as the other townships of the Kashmir, Hindus who went to lodge complaints about the desecration or demolition of temples, misappropriation of their land, arson and incendiary attacks on their homes, were turned back from the police-stations and District and Tehsil offices, without being able to get their complaints registered.

The issue of the demolition and damage to the Hindu temples was raised in the Indian Parliament. On 12 March 1993, the Minister of State of Home in the Government of India stated in the Parliament that thirty eight Hindu temples had been demolished and damaged in Kashmir during the period from 1989, to 1991. He stated that during the year 1989, thirteen temples were demolished and damaged, during the year 1990, nine temples were demolished and damaged and during the 1991, sixteen temples were demolished and damaged.

In the aftermath of the demolition of Babri structure, erupted into widespread attack on the Hindu temples and places of worship. As many as 97 temples were burnt or damaged in the incidents of terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir from 1992 till July this year (1995) and 1747 civilians lost their lives in the last 19 months, the Lok Sabha was informed on August, 9, 1995. On the same day the minister of state in the prime minister’s office Mr. Bhuvanesh Chaturvedi said in a written reply, “31 temples were damaged only this year (1995) and added that security arrangements have been made in vulnerable areas including regular patrolling by security forces for the protection against attacks by militants.”

Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide of Kashmiri Hindus is violation of not only Human Rights but also its Constitutional Rights. In a report on Kashmir by Amnesty International released in December 1993, it said, “Armed opposition

groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been responsible for numerous and grave Human Rights abuses, including hostage taking, assassination of politicians and their families, deliberate killing of civilians including journalists, torture and rape….It urged all such groups to release all hostages and respect Human Rights and humanitarian standards.”

The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in ruling on the June 11, 1999 stated that, “the commission is constrained to observe that acts akin to genocide have occurred with respect to Kashmiri Pandits.’ UN Secretary General at the 60th session on Human Rights in Geneva on 7th April, 2004 observed, “When civilians are deliberately targeted because they belong to a particular community, we are in the presence of potential, if not actual genocide.” No enquiry commission has been constituted by State or Central Government so far to bring culprits to book who are responsible for genocide and ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus, nor the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has acted so far.

        The Hindus have loved their land with greater spiritual and social commitments than the Muslims, because they are not imposters and they have been living in the valley, generation after generation, over thousands of years. They possess a greater sense of belonging, being the original inhabitants and owners of the rich ancestral heritage and have their roots in the geography of the land. They are not conquerors; they have risen from their soil!