Kashmiri Pandits

Kashmiri Pandits
Kashmiri Pandits
Classification	Brahmin
Religions	Hinduism
Languages	Kashmiri
Populated states	Jammu and other parts of Northern India
Subdivisions	-

Original Kashmiri Pandit (Hindi: कश्मीरी पण्डित) refers to a person who belongs to a sect of Hindu Pandits who originate from the Kashmir region. They have a recorded history in Kashmir for thousands of years and have also been mentioned in the Mahabharata. Kashmiri Pandits can be generally be identified by their Aryan features like most people of India. Moreover, Kashmir is in reality Central Asia and the Crown of Aryavarta (Bharat).

During (some tyrant kings) the Islamic period of the Kashmir valley, hundreds of temples and centers of learning in Kashmir were destroyed.⁹ Islam came first to Kashmir via Sufis. As a result, Kashmiri Pandits gradually migrated to other parts of India to escape persecution, which resulted in Kashmir becoming predominantly Muslim. Lalidatiya (7th, 8th C A.D.) the Hindu king of Kashmir conquered Central Asia (including including large regions of the Indian subcontinent). The devastation wrought by the Turkish general from Turkmenistan (Zulji) Zulju during his conquest of many regions of Kashmir Valley, in 1320, during a period of choas in the Valley is sad. Was this a reaction to the earlier conquest of his (Zulji's) region by Lalitaditya? Sultan Sikander (1389-1413), the seventh Muslim ruler in Kashmir, is known for his oppression of non-Muslim populations in his drive to establish shariah-based rule, which caused many Kashmiri Pandits to leave the Kashmir valley⁴. Historians call him an idol-breaker (or iconoclast) and he is said to have killed several thousand Kashmiri Pandits and forced them to convert or flee⁵. Sultan Ali Shah and others followed suit.⁹ There have been few Muslim rulers who were tolerant towards the Pandits; however they were not able to ultimately alleviate the plight of the Pandits. This can be ascertained from the fact that the Pandits never rose to their pre-Islamic glory and that their population in the valley continued to decrease over time. British historians, such as Walter Lawrence, note that persecution of Kashmiri Hindus by zealous Muslim rulers resulted in as little as eleven original Kashmiri Hindu families remaining in Kashmir at one point. He also notes that most Kashmiri Hindus today are the descendents of immigrants to Kashmir, and are not the descendents of the ancient Kashmiri Pundit community described in the Mahabharata, though such ideas are considered blasphemous by most contemporary Kashmiri Hindus, who insist that their roots in Kashmir date back thousands of years. Walter Lawrence, however, in the 20th century explained that:

"Tradition affirms that the persecution of the Hindus was so keen that only eleven families of Hindus remained in the valley. Their descendants are known by the name of Malmas, as distinguished from the fugitives and the Hindus of the Deccan, who came to Kashmir later on and are known as the Banamas. Some historians, however, state the Malmas Hindus to be the descendants of Kashaf, the saviour of the valley, and that the Banamas Brahmans were foreigners, who came from other countries. The Hindus who now live in Kashmir are, with a few exceptions, of the [Banamas] Brahman caste, and though tradition points to the fact that the Levite Brahmans were a powerful and numerous body, exerting great influence over the country and its rulers, there is frequent mention of the fighting class, and it is obvious that a large majority of the old Hindus must have been agricultural Jats. The Tantrins, Rajputras, Damaras were often excellent fighters in ancient Kashmir, though the Brahmins when they took up arms were often excellent fighters.
Kashmiri Brahmins are a distinct caste and have been living in the Valley of Kashmir since time immorial. Politically motivated people such as Henny Sender have tried to change the history of Kashmir for political reasons. Most Kashmiri Muslims have descended from the Kashmiri Hindus and some also from Brahmins. "^[1]

With the advent of Sikh and Dogra rule after rule of the Afghans, the plight of Kashmiri Hindus drastically improved, with the result that Hindus were now favored in education and the civil service, while Kashmiri Muslims were barred from high ranks in the civil service, and were forbidden from slaughtering cows in Kashmir. Evidence of this favor towards Kashmiri Pandits is evident today in that they are disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of the Kashmiri civil service and tend to be the most higly educated members of Kashmiri society. M. Ashraf, a journalist for the Greater Kashmir, the English with the largest circulation within Indian administered Kashmir notes that:

"According to Francis Younghusband, “The Sikhs who succeeded Afghans were not so cruel, but were hard and rough masters”. Being far removed from Lahore, the capital of Sikh Empire, the governors were able to fleece the people with impunity. Having faced a lot of trouble from Muslims in Punjab, the Sikhs were very harsh and tough with Kashmiri Muslims so as to check emergence of any type of Muslim opposition in the valley. The life of a Kashmiri under Sikh rule was the cheapest commodity."

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More recently (1990), hundreds of thousands of Kashmiri Pandits had to flee the Kashmir valley because of being targeted by Kashmiri and foreign militants.⁶ As per the statement of US Congressman Joe Wilson, beginning in 1989, mosques in Kashmir declared jihad and blared warnings from loudspeakers to the Hindus that they were infidels and had to leave Kashmir. He further says that "From 1989-1990, Islamists began a terror campaign to drive Hindus from Kashmir"⁷. Some people have noted that some Kashmiri Muslims were tolerant of minorities, but since partition, most Kashmiri Muslims have adopted a more conservative approach to Islam, and since 1989, a more militant and fundamentalist approach. By the turn of the last century, only 6.4% of Kashmiris were Hindus¹⁰. The US Department of State reports that the Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent as of 2006.¹¹

Plight of Kashmiri Pandits Today

Thousands of displaced Kashmiri Pandits live in refugee camps even today. Their status has been described as "Refugees in their own country," and they remain the only internally displaced group within India to remain in refugee tents. Indian government statistics show that there were 55,476 registered Kashmiri Pandit families living in Jammu, 34,088 in Delhi, and 19,338 in other states receiving government support. Government-managed camps housed 5,778 families in Delhi and Jammu. The government provided monthly cash relief of $70 (Rs 3,000) and basic dry rations to the 14,869 families in Jammu. In Delhi, authorities provided $75 (Rs 3,200) to 4,100 families.⁸

Kashmiri Pandit Culture

Kashmiri Pandits have made significant contributions to Indian thought and science. Charaka, Aryabhatta, Kalidasa, Abhinavagupta, Kalhana have been stalwarts in the fields of medicine, astronomy, literature, philosophy and history respectively. The Sanskrit language owes it origins to Kashmir^{[citation needed]} and most of its great scholars and poets (i.e. Bilhana, Mahimbhatta, Ksemraja, Vasugupta, Anandvardhana, Ksemendra) were Kashmiris. Women pandits were normally called "Panditani."

Religion

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A Kashmiri panditani, photograph by Fred Bremner, circa ~1900

Kashmir's association with Hinduism is very old. The very name Kashmir is said to be derived from Kashyapa, one of the seven Saptarishis in Hindu mythology. Most Kashmiri Pandits are devout Shaivites, however many Kashmiri Pandit families who had migrated into other Indian territories have been ardent vaishnavites as well. Kashmir is home to some of the holiest shrines in Hinduism like Amarnath, Kheer bhawani, Shrine of Sharda, Shankaracharya Mandir, Hari Parbat, Zeethyar etc. A lot of these shrines were destroyed during and after the mass exodus of the pandits.^{[citation needed]}

Kashmiri Pandit family names

The most common family names among Kashmiri Pandits include: Channa, Handoo, Aga, Atal, Bandhu, Bhan, Bagati, Bahadur, Bhat/Bhatt(Butt), Budki(Burki), Chowdhary, Chakoo (Chaku), Dhar(Dar), Dass(Das), Dassi, Dulloo,Fotedar, Ganju(Ganjoo), Kaw, Gurtu, Hak, Haksar, Hangal, Hangoo, Hoon, Hukku, Jaju, Jalali, Jotshi, Kachru(Kachroo), Kak, Kar, Kappu, Katju, Kaul (Koul), Kaw, Kemmu, Khar/Kher, Karwani, Kasid, Khandhar/Khandhari, Khazanchi, Khosa, Kitchlu(Kitchlew), Kukiloo, Kunzru, Lakhi, Langoo, Malla, Mantoo, Mehrishi, Munshi, Muthoo, Misri, Muttoo, Nagu, Nath, Natu, Nehru, Ogra, Pandit, Pandita, Panjabi, Parimoo, Qasba, Raina, Rawal, Rayu, Razdan, Reu, Sadhu, Sahib, Sapru, Shah, Shivpuri, Shrunglu, Shunglu, Soral, Sukhia, Tufchi, Tangnu, Thusoo, Tankha, Tikku/Tikoo, Toshkhani/Toshakhani, Wakhlu, Walli, Wanchoo/Wanchu, Wantoo/Wantu, Warikoo, Wattal, Wattoo, Yaksh, Zalpuri, Zarabi, Zaroo and Zutshi. Some Kashmiri Pandits use last names which are actually titles conferred upon them by kings such as Bahadur.

Prominent Kashmiri Pandits

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Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru.

Grandson of Pt. Bhawani Prasad Razdan. Pt. Narain Dass Raina, Inventor, Kashmir Houseboat, father of [[Swami Lakshman Joo]] (Kashmir Shaivism), grandfather of Dr. Maharaj Krishan Raina (Indian Paper Manufacturing guru), also ancestor of Diwan Anand Kumar (Vice Chancellor of Undivided Punjab University) and Tapishwar Narain Raina (Chief of Indian Army staff and Diplomat), Sri Kamal Nath (Indian Commerce Minister)

S.N Channa was established and well known entrepreneur in early 90’s. His business was established in various parts of Kashmir.

Forced Migration from the Valley of Kashmir

Kashmiri Pandits have suffered crimes amounting to ethnic cleansing from the Kashmir Valley, coinciding with the onset of the Kashmiri separatist movement in 1990.⁶ Roughly 12000 were killed since insurgency began in Kashmir, and 300,000 have been displaced, though some sources claim that more than four to five thousand Kashmiri Pandits were killed and more than Five hundred thousand were made homeless in the initial violence. Indian sources claim that nearly 500,000 internally displaced families of Kashmiri Hindu live in the National capital region, though this number contradicts Kashmiri Hindu estimates that 300,000 people have been forced into exile. (Delhi)⁸ US Rep Frank Pallone had referred to the Kashmiri Pandit movement as ethnic cleansing during his speech to the House of Representatives.⁶.

While most Kashmiri Hindu intellectuals vehemently agree with it,Thanks to the Indian Army who gave their trucks to transport Kashmiri Hindus to refugee camps,The Muslims neighbors asked them to flee.Kashmiri Hindus and that many of their Muslim neighbors turned on them and forced them to flee in their own vehicles. Hindus probably were encouraged to flee by the millitants, and in other instances, they were forced out by their own Muslim neighbors.