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| “My Kashmir in peace and turbulence: Story of a Native in Exile” | | Dr. K.B. Razdan | | B.L Kaul | 2/26/2018 10:04:40 PM |
| In the "Preface" the author declares writing this book constitutes "an attempt to recapitulate my eventful life" He further states; "the idea of writing from my memory occurred to me after reading Dr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam's Wings of Fire a few years ago". Kaul recapitulates the good neighbourly and friendly relation between Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims and his growing up with the knowledge of Islam as a "non-violent and tolerant faith", "in such times when azan from a mosque, aarti from temple and kirtan from a gurudwara came at the same time." Nostalgically going down the corridors of time and memory Kaul mentions the river Jhelum, flowing down the eight bridges of Srinagar City, as "Vitasta," the "River of Life," which has shaped, moulded and nurtured the socioculture phyche of Kashmiris for centuries. Notable chapters of the book which symbolically constitute the diagnostic matrix of the author's inner self are: "Zaindar Mohalla", "Sheikh Abdullah's Naya Kashmir", " Unforgettable College Days", "G.M Sadiq Era (1964-1971) "Return to the valley" " The Seventh Exodus", " Wrath of Vitasta," "Unification of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh," and the last chapter: "Kashmir Conflicts: The Way forward". Cumulatively all these chapters constitute the fulcrum of Kaul's narrative prowess tinged with autobiographical moments, recording the intensity of his inner experience on its own terms. Mention may here be made of the chapter " The seventh Exodus" which historically, with a perfect blend of historicity talks about the "chequered history of… persecution of the aboriginal natives, namely Kashmiri Pandits". Kaul's rendering of historicity in the context becomes revelatory when he says: "From the fourteenth to the end of the twentieth century, the Kashmiri Pandits had to migrate from the valley to places outside seven times. The phenomenon that had started in the fourteenth to fifteenth century continued with gaps and the last (seventh) forced mass exodus took place in 1990; paradoxically what is also termed as migration took place under the very nose of central government that professed to be secular". Without labeling it as the diaspora that has been as intermittent feature for the Pandits of the valley, Kaul, in the important chapter gives a concentrate spectroscopic account of the history of the Kashmir from the 14th to 20th century, especially the gruesome astrocities perpetrated by Sikander Butshikhan, the iconoclastic animal human who ruled Kashmir for twenty four years from 1389 A.D to 1413 A.D, and "decimated the community to this extent that " only eleven families of the pandits survived". Says Kaul. " it was the period during which the Pandits in the valley were put alive into gunny bags and thrown into the Dal lake at a place which to this day is called " Bata Mazar, "meaning graveyard of the Pandits". The author gives a brief graphic account of the various rulers and dynasties: " the sultanate rule" which lasted for 217 years " was the most troublesome for the Pandit Community." This chapter 13: "The seventh exodus", reveals the historical knowledge of the author as he talks about the Muslim rule in Kashmir followed by the sikh rule, and finally, the rule of the Dogras, from 1846 to 1947. This was a most peaceful and comfortable period for the miniscule Pandit minority.
Kaul also mentions the night of 19 January 1990, and says that proved to be the last nail in the coffin as the author puts it: " during that night chosen intentionally by Islamic radicals to force the Pandits to run for their lives witnessed macabre happenings the like of which had never been witnessed before even in the darkest hours of Kashmir's history." The three choices presented to the Pandits by the terrorizing radical Islamists were: "Ralive, Chaliye ya Galive", thereby meaning "Convert to Islam, leave the place or perish" [195]. As rightly put: "Tens of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims poured into the streets shouting death to India and death to Kafirs ……. "The slogans, broadcast from the loud speakers of every mosque numbering 1100, exhorted the hysterical mobs to embark on Jihad. As the author rightly puts in a realistic and no-nonsense manner: " …. Gone was the façade of Kashmiri Muslims, " as being " secular, tolerant, cultured, peaceful" and the author quotes Colonel Tej K. Tickoo (Retd.) from his book: "Kashmir: its Aborigines and their Exodus" [ Lancer Publishers 2012]: Vicious Jihadi sermons and blood curdling shouts and threatening slogans like "Zalimo O Kafiro, Kashmir Hamara Chod do" ….. Kashmir Main Agar Rahna hai Allah-ho-Akbar Kahna hai….. Kashmir Banawon Pakistan, Batav Variae Batneiw Saan (we will turn Kashmir into Pakistan with K.P. women, but withour K.P Men " [196]. Kaul's narrative in this one of the concluding chapters, becomes downright realistic and blends historicity with narrative fidelity: "Press release of Hizb-ul-Mujahideen published in the morning edition of the Urdu daily Aftab of 1 April 1990 proclairmed " Kashmiri Pandits responsible for duress against Muslims should leave the valley within two days" [197]. After the Biblical "Exodus" in the old Testament, "when. Moses lead his followers to the "sacred Mount", this was going to be another gruesome exodus in the backdrop of animalistic and demonic killings of Kashmiri Pandits and the Sikhs. The Windhama village massacre of January 1998 when 23 people "men women and children …. were taken out of their homes at night and killed in cold boold. In the name of Jihad even a two year old child was not spared , the author's narrative of more massacres: in July 1992, 121 Biharis and in March 2000, 26 innocent and God fearing Sikhs after offering prayers at a gurudwara in Chithisinghpora village were brutally gunned down". The historical rendering of these inhuman massacres, becomes the arresting flux of Kaul's narrative, when he goes on to say. "Same year in the month of August 32 Hindus including 29 Amarnath pilgrims were gunned down at Pahalgam. Again 24 Hindus were killed at Nandimarg village in March 2002. "Terrorists did not as Kaul says, " restrict their killing sprees to the valley alone, they killed 17 Hindus on 13-14 August 1993 at Kishtwar. The Mass killings in May 1996 and January 1998 resulted in 16 and 17 deaths at Sambar and Prankot villages in Doda district". In the aftermath of the demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya, "Numerous temples were burnt down, damaged and destroyed between 7 to 9 December 1992. Even the ancient ruins of temples protected as monuments by Archeological Survey of India were not spared. Many Hindu educational institutions were also burnt down. In summer of 1995, 7 tourists from Gujrat were abducted from Dal Lake and killed in cold blood. "This writer feels tempted to quote from the well known Canadian born American writer and critic, Northrop Frye, who while talking about " demonic Imagery", says. "demonic Imagery presents the hell man creates on earth…. the world of the nightmare and the scapegoat, of bondage and pain and confusion….. Instruments of torture and monuments of folly … " Prof Kaul, in the chapter " The seventh Exodus," precisely dissects the nightmarish panorama of aimless and mindless killings of miniscule minorities in Kashmir in the early 1990 and even later. Unable to get Kashmir in three wars of 1947, 1965 and 1971, Pakistan engineered armed insurgency as a guerrilla and proxy war to take revenge of the bifurcation of Pakistan by the creation of Bangladesh in December 1971. Kaul concludes this revelatory chapter by saying that the " Pakistani generals have time and again said that they have not forgotten the humiliation of their defeat in 1971 and will go on inflicting a thousand wounds to bleed India. The proxy Wars in Kashmir initiated by them is a result of this mindset that has forced Kashmiri Pandits to become refugees in their own land" [199].
"The author concludes his observations with emphasizing upon the fact that "the Kashmiris, no doubt are angry and yhere is a trust deficit. The centre has to win back their trusts, hearts and minds. For achieving this agenda of alliance between P.D.P. and B.J.P. must be implemented in right earnest. The common man has to be reached out in all possible ways….. we may also remember that P.M.Vajpayee was very popular among the people of Kashmir because he had touched the cords of their hearts. His approach needs to be repeated to earn good will of the people in Kashmir." [274]. Quoting from the "Daily Excelsior" of 29 November, 2016, the author reproduces the words of Lt. Gen. Ata Hasnain (Retd.) : "General Bajwa comes at a time when equations and axes are also changing. First the Chinese are now increasingly at the China Pakistan Economic Corridor with a more serious intent. They would not want Gilgit- Baltistan in greater tension, neither Balochistan." Finally, the "Epilogue" furnishes a climactic account of the Pakistan sponsored tribal invasion of Kashmir in October 1947, and the subsequent dithering indecision of Maharaja Hari Singh whether to accede to India or Pakistan, finally signing of the instrument of Accession by the Maharaja and the rescue act of the Indian Army in driving back the beastly plundering, looting and raping tribesmen from the very door step of the city of Srinagar.
In conclusive assessment of Prof Kaul's book this writer can say that as an author Kaul retraces his steps in the corridors of time and with an infallible nostalgic verve recapitulates from memory his early days spent in Zaindar Mohalla of Srinagar. As his Mind and memory combine in a spectroscopic blend, the author in chapter after chapter, with a commendable and arresting narrative recapitulates the events and experiences as a college student, a teacher in Higher Education Department, a researcher combined with remimscences of domesticity and family life. From a perspective in totality the author undertakes a well and carefully charted journey into the autobiographical-cum-diasporic imperatives of the self. He concludes the book by talking about Indo-Pak hostilities, terror attack on Indian Army and security force installations and camps and earlier the mass exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in early 1990 after the targeted killing of Pandits combined with a maelstrom of threat perception. The book can be assessed as a syntagm of an existential narrative orchestrated with autobiographical, diasporic, and a personal perspective on recent events in the conundrum of Indo-Pak relations. On the whole the book makes a good reading and keeps you glued to it till the last page. |
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