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===Ethnic cleansing and exodus from Kashmir (1985–1995)===
===Ethnic cleansing and exodus from Kashmir (1985–1995)===
According to figures from the [[CIA]] for 2007, at that time about 300,000 Pandits living in India were "[[Internally displaced person|internally displaced people]]" from Kashmir and Jammu.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html |title=CIA&nbsp;– The World Factbook |publisher=Cia.gov |date= |accessdate=21 May 2011}}</ref> The US government has reported on the terrorist threat to Pandits still living in the Kashmir region.<ref name=USDS>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78871.htm |title=India |year=2006 |publisher=Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State |date=6 March 2007 |accessdate=8 July 2011}}</ref>
The [[Kashmiri Pandits]], who had stably constituted approximately 4 to 5% of the population of the valley during Dogra rule (1846&ndash;1947), and 20% of whom had left the Kashmir valley by 1950,<ref>{{Harvnb|Zutshi|2003|p=318}} Quote: "Since a majority of the landlords were Hindu, the (land) reforms (of 1950) led to a mass exodus of Hindus from the state. ... The unsettled nature of Kashmir's accession to India, coupled with the threat of economic and social decline in the face of the land reforms, led to increasing insecurity among the Hindus in Jammu, and among Kashmiri Pandits, 20 per cent of whom had emigrated from the Valley by 1950."</ref> began to leave in much greater numbers in the 1990s. According to a number of authors, approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 left the valley during that decade.<ref>{{Harvnb|Bose|1997|p=71}}, {{Harvnb|Rai|2004|p=286}}, {{Harvnb|Metcalf|Metcalf|2006|p=274}} Quote: "The Hindu Pandits, a small but influential elite community who had secured a favourable position, first under the maharajas, and then under the successive Congress regimes, and proponents of a distinctive Kashmiri culture that linked them to India, felt under siege as the uprising gathered force. Of a population of some 140,000, perhaps 100,000 Pandits fled the state after 1990; their cause was quickly taken up by the Hindu right."</ref> Other authors have suggested a higher figure for the exodus, ranging from the entire population of over 150,000,<ref>{{Harvnb|Malik|2005|p=318}}</ref> to 190,000 of a total Pandit population of 200,000,<ref>{{Harvnb|Madan|2008|p=25}}</ref> to a number as high as 300,000.<ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html#Issues CIA Factbook: India&ndash;Transnational Issues]</ref> The US government has reported on the terrorist threat to Pandits still living in the Kashmir region.<ref name=USDS>{{cite web |url=http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78871.htm |title=India |year=2006 |publisher=Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State |date=6 March 2007 |accessdate=8 July 2011}}</ref>


The socio-political situation in Kashmir continues to be volatile, with the displaced Kashmiri Pandits beginning to lose their cultural identity. The US Department of State reports that, according to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, the Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2001.<ref>[http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78871.htm India - Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor], [[United States Department of State]], published on 6 March 2007, accessed on 6 February 2012</ref> In 2009 [[Oregon Legislative Assembly]] passed a resolution to recognise 14 September 2007, as Martyrs Day to acknowledge ethnic cleansing and campaigns of terror inflicted on non-Muslim minorities of [[Jammu and Kashmir]] by terrorists seeking to establish an [[Islamic state]].<ref>[http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/measpdf/sjr1.dir/sjr0023.intro.pdf Senate Joint Resolution 23, 75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY—2009 Regular Session]</ref>
The socio-political situation in Kashmir continues to be volatile, with the displaced Kashmiri Pandits beginning to lose their cultural identity. The US Department of State reports that, according to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, the Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2001.<ref>[http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78871.htm India - Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor], [[United States Department of State]], published on 6 March 2007, accessed on 6 February 2012</ref> In 2009 [[Oregon Legislative Assembly]] passed a resolution to recognise 14 September 2007, as Martyrs Day to acknowledge ethnic cleansing and campaigns of terror inflicted on non-Muslim minorities of [[Jammu and Kashmir]] by terrorists seeking to establish an [[Islamic state]].<ref>[http://www.leg.state.or.us/09reg/measpdf/sjr1.dir/sjr0023.intro.pdf Senate Joint Resolution 23, 75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY—2009 Regular Session]</ref>

Revision as of 07:38, 21 March 2012

Kashmiri Pandit
कॉशुर पण्डित, کٲشُر پنڈت
Regions with significant populations
India
* Jammu and Kashmir * National Capital Region
Languages
Kashmiri,
Hindustani
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Indo-Iranians, Dards, Saraswat Brahmins

The Kashmiri Pandits (Kashmiri: कॉशुर पण्डित, کٲشُر پنڈت, Hindi-Urdu: कश्मीरी पण्डित, کشمیری پنڈت) are a Hindu Brahmin community originating from Kashmir, a mountainous region in South Asia.

History

Background

Photograph of the Surya Temple, The most impressive and grandest ruins in Kashmir, at Marttand-Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India Report 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir.' (1869)

The Hindu caste system of the region was influenced by the influx of Buddhism from the time of Asoka, around the third century BCE, and a consequence of this was that the traditional lines of varna were blurred, with the exception of that for the Brahmins, who remained aloof from the changes.[1][2] Another notable feature of early Kashmiri society was the relative high regard in which women were held when compared to their position in other communities of the period.[3]

A historically contested region, Northern India was subject to attack from predatory Turkic and Arab regimes from the eighth century onwards, but they generally ignored the mountain-circled Kashmir Valley in favour of easier pickings elsewhere. It was not until the fourteenth century that Muslim rule was finally established in the Valley and when this happened it did not occur primarily as a consequence of invasion so much as because of internal problems resulting from the weak rule and corruption endemic in the Hindu Lohara dynasty.[4][5] Mohibbul Hasan describes this collapse as

The Dãmaras or feudal chiefs grew powerful, defied royal authority, and by their constant revolts plunged the country into confusion. Life and property were not safe, agriculture declined, and there were periods when trade came to a standstill. Socially and morally too the court and the country had sunk to the depths of degradations.[5]

The Brahmins had something to be particularly unhappy about during the reign of the last Lohara king, for Sūhadeva chose to include them in his system of onerous taxation, whereas previously they appear to have been exempted.[6]

Zulju, who was probably a Mongol from Turkistan,[7] wreaked devastation in 1320, when he commanded a force that conquered many regions of the Kashmir Valley. However, Zulju was probably not a Muslim.[7] The actions of Sultan Sikandar Butshikan (1389–1413), the seventh Muslim ruler in Kashmir were also significant to the area. The Sultan has been referred to as an iconoclast because of his destruction of many non-Muslim religious symbols and the manner in which he forced the population to convert or flee. Many followers of the traditional religions who did not convert to Islam instead migrated to other parts of India. The migrants included some Pandits, although it is possible that some of this community relocated for economic reasons as much as to escape the new rulers. Brahmins were at that time generally being offered grants of land in other areas by rulers seeking to utilise the traditionally high literacy and general education of the community, as well as the legitimacy conferred upon them by association, Moving away from areas where they were under threat of forced religious conversion, the Brahmins were in turn imposing their own religion on their new locales. The outcome of this shift both in population and in religion was that the Kashmir Valley became a predominantly Muslim region.[8][9]

Butshikan's heir, the devout Muslim Zain-ul-Abidin, was tolerant of Hindus to the extent of sanctioning a return to Hinduism of those who had been forcibly converted to the Muslim faith, as well as becoming involved in the restoration of temples and of Hindu rituals such as sati, which his father had banned. He respected the learning of the Pandits, to whom he gave land as well as encouraging those who had left to return. He operated a meritocracy and both Brahmins and Buddhists were among his closest advisors.[10]

Ethnic cleansing and exodus from Kashmir (1985–1995)

The Kashmiri Pandits, who had stably constituted approximately 4 to 5% of the population of the valley during Dogra rule (1846–1947), and 20% of whom had left the Kashmir valley by 1950,[11] began to leave in much greater numbers in the 1990s. According to a number of authors, approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 left the valley during that decade.[12] Other authors have suggested a higher figure for the exodus, ranging from the entire population of over 150,000,[13] to 190,000 of a total Pandit population of 200,000,[14] to a number as high as 300,000.[15] The US government has reported on the terrorist threat to Pandits still living in the Kashmir region.[16]

The socio-political situation in Kashmir continues to be volatile, with the displaced Kashmiri Pandits beginning to lose their cultural identity. The US Department of State reports that, according to the Indian National Human Rights Commission, the Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2001.[17] In 2009 Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to recognise 14 September 2007, as Martyrs Day to acknowledge ethnic cleansing and campaigns of terror inflicted on non-Muslim minorities of Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists seeking to establish an Islamic state.[18]

PRC and the JKMIP Acts

There are zones set up with offices for relief.[19] Many Orders, Circulars and recommendations have been issued for relief of Kashmiri Pandits.[20][21][22]

The Jammu And Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection And Restraint On Distress Sales) Act, 1997, provides that "Any person who is an unauthorised occupant or recipient of any usufruct of any immovable property of the migrant shall pay to the migrant such compensation for the period of unauthorised occupation and in such a manner as may be determined by the District Magistrate."[23]

Panun Kashmir

The community had hoped to return after the situation improved, but have not been able to do so for 20 years because normalcy has yet to return to the valley and they fear a risk to their lives.[24]

In February 2011 Kashmiri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti President Sanjay Tikkoo said that "We strongly believe that the State and central governments treat Kashmiri Pandits in the Valley as second class citizens."[25]

Culture

File:Panditani.jpg
A Kashmiri pandit lady, photograph by Fred Bremner, circa ~1900

Dress

Early records and archaeological evidence such as terracotta sculptures do not record the present-day dress, which comprises items such as the turban, taranga, and pheran. Instead, records indicate that attire was varied and included leather doublets, woollen cloaks, and clothes made from hemp, cotton, linen and different types of silk. Many items of clothing reflected the cold winter climate of the area.

Kshemendra's detailed records from the eleventh century describe many items of which the precise nature is unknown. It is clear that tunics known as kanchuka were worn long-sleeved by men and in both long- and half-sleeved versions by women. Caps were worn, as well as a type of turban referred to as a shirahshata, while footwear consisted of leather shoes and boots, worn with socks. Some items were elaborate, such as the peacock shoes – known as mayuropanah – worn by followers of fashion, and steel-soled shoes adorned with floral designs, lubricated internally with beeswax.[26]

There are many references to the wearing of jewellery by both sexes, but a significant omission from them is any record of the dejihor worn on the ear by women today as a symbol of their being married. Kaw has speculated that this item of jewellery may not have existed at the time. The texts also refer to both sexes using cosmetics, and to the women adopting elaborate hairstyles. Men, too, might adopt stylish arrangements and wear flowers in their hair, if they had the financial means to do so.[27]

Pilgrimage sites

Mount Harmukh

Harmukh is traditionally revered by Kashmiri Pandits and in 2009 there was an attempt by them to revive pilgrimages to the site.[28]

Festivals

See also: Kashmiri Pandit Festivals

The religious festivals of the Hindus of Kashmir have Vedic roots. The Kashmiri Pandits share most of their festivals with other Hindu communities.[citation needed]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Bamzai, Prithivi Nath Kaul (1994). Culture and political history of Kashmir, Volume 1. M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd. pp. 191–192. ISBN 9788185880310.
  2. ^ Kaw, M. K. (2004). Kashmir and it's people: studies in the evolution of Kashmiri society. Volume 4 of KECSS research series: Culture and heritage of Kashmir. APH Publishing. p. 90. ISBN 9788176485371.
  3. ^ *Kaw, M. K. (2004). Kashmir and it's people: studies in the evolution of Kashmiri society. APH Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 9788176485371. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  4. ^ Stein, Mark Aurel (1989) [1900]. Kalhana's Rajatarangini: a chronicle of the kings of Kasmir, Volume 1 (Reprinted ed.). Motilal Banarsidass. pp. 106–108. ISBN 9788120803695. Retrieved 18 July 2011.
  5. ^ a b Hasan, Mohibbul (2005) [1959]. Kashmir Under the Sultans (Reprinted ed.). Delhi: Aakar Books. pp. 29–32. ISBN 9788187879497. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  6. ^ Hasan, Mohibbul (2005) [1959]. Kashmir Under the Sultans (Reprinted ed.). Delhi: Aakar Books. p. 34. ISBN 9788187879497. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  7. ^ a b Hasan, Mohibbul (2005) [1959]. Kashmir Under the Sultans (Reprinted ed.). Delhi: Aakar Books. p. 35. ISBN 9788187879497. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  8. ^ Davidson, Ronald M. (2004) [2002]. Indian Esoteric Buddhism: A Social History of the Tantric Movement (Reprinted (for SE Asia sale only) ed.). New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 70–71. ISBN 9788120819917. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  9. ^ Hasan, Mohibbul (2005) [1959]. Kashmir Under the Sultans (Reprinted ed.). Delhi: Aakar Books. pp. 28–95. ISBN 9788187879497. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  10. ^ Hasan, Mohibbul (2005) [1959]. Kashmir Under the Sultans (Reprinted ed.). Delhi: Aakar Books. pp. 87, 91–93. ISBN 9788187879497. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
  11. ^ Zutshi 2003, p. 318 Quote: "Since a majority of the landlords were Hindu, the (land) reforms (of 1950) led to a mass exodus of Hindus from the state. ... The unsettled nature of Kashmir's accession to India, coupled with the threat of economic and social decline in the face of the land reforms, led to increasing insecurity among the Hindus in Jammu, and among Kashmiri Pandits, 20 per cent of whom had emigrated from the Valley by 1950."
  12. ^ Bose 1997, p. 71, Rai 2004, p. 286, Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 274 Quote: "The Hindu Pandits, a small but influential elite community who had secured a favourable position, first under the maharajas, and then under the successive Congress regimes, and proponents of a distinctive Kashmiri culture that linked them to India, felt under siege as the uprising gathered force. Of a population of some 140,000, perhaps 100,000 Pandits fled the state after 1990; their cause was quickly taken up by the Hindu right."
  13. ^ Malik 2005, p. 318
  14. ^ Madan 2008, p. 25
  15. ^ CIA Factbook: India–Transnational Issues
  16. ^ "India". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State. 6 March 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2011. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  17. ^ India - Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, United States Department of State, published on 6 March 2007, accessed on 6 February 2012
  18. ^ Senate Joint Resolution 23, 75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY—2009 Regular Session
  19. ^ Untitled Page
  20. ^ Untitled Page
  21. ^ "Recommendations of Koul Committee" (PDF). Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  22. ^ http://jkmigrantrelief.nic.in/pdf/recommendations_of_inter_ministerial_team.pdf
  23. ^ "The Jammu Jammu And Kashmir Gazette" (PDF). Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  24. ^ Masih, Archana (29 April 2011). "The tragedy of Kashmiri Pandits (Part IV)". Rediff.com. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
  25. ^ "Kashmiri Pandits celebrate Basant Panchami in Valley". Indian Express. 8 February 2011. Retrieved 21 May 2011.
  26. ^ Kaw, pp. 94–95.
  27. ^ Kaw, pp. 95–97.
  28. ^ "Gangbal yatra to commence after 100 yrs in Kashmir". Zeenews. 31 May 2009. Retrieved 8 July 2011.

Cited references

  • Bose, Sumantra (2005), Kashmir: roots of conflict, paths to peace, Harvard University Press. Pp. 307, ISBN 9780674018174
  • Madan, T. N. (2008), "Kashmir, Kashmiris, Kashmiriyat: An Introductory Essay", in Rao, Aparna (ed.), The Valley of Kashmir: The Making and Unmaking of a Composite Culture?, Delhi: Manohar. Pp. xviii, 758, pp. 1–36, ISBN 9788173047510
  • Malik, Iffat (2005), Kashmir: Ethnic Conflict, International Dispute, Karachi and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xxvi, 392, ISBN 0195796225
  • Metcalf, Barbara; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006), A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge Concise Histories), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xxxiii, 372, ISBN 0521682258.
  • Rai, Mridu (2004), Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir, Princeton University Press/Permanent Black. Pp. xii, 335., ISBN 8178242028
  • Zutshi, Chitralekha (2003), Language of belonging: Islam, regional identity, and the making of Kashmir, Oxford University Press/Permanent Black. Pp. 359, ISBN 9780195219395
  • Zutshi, Chitraleka (2008), "Shrines, Political Authority, and Religious Identities in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-century Kashmir", in Rao, Aparna (ed.), The Valley of Kashmir: The Making and Unmaking of a Composite Culture?, Delhi: Manohar. Pp. xviii, 758, pp. 235–258, ISBN 9788173047510
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