Thirty years ago on January 19, 1990 Kashmiri Hindus were given eviction notice by the Muslim community & the Islamic terrorists. It was the day when the threat to convert, die or run away was openly announced through loudspeakers from all mosques in Kashmir Valley. 

The open targeting of Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus by militants began in 1989. January 19th, reminds us of how Hindus were killed in most cold blooded fashion, which led to the ethnic cleansing, genocide and the mass exodus of the Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir. 

Over half a million innocent people had to abandon their homes and belongings as they headed to safer areas outside of Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus were made homeless overnight and since then have become refugees in their own country. 

It appears the marking of this day has started only this year in a public way. What did you choose to mark this day?

The marking of this day did not start this year but started 29 years ago when Kashmiri Hindus started to mark this day to commemorate January 19 as Exodus Day

I am not a stranger to what has happened to my community. I have lived half my life in Kashmir. Have you ever felt intense fear, when your heart beats so hard that you feel it wants to jump out from behind your ribs. I have, when on the night of January 19, 1990, thousands of people came out on the streets screaming and yelling and trying to break open my door. They were yelling and screaming that they wanted to kill me and my family. That’s the kind of fear I faced, I felt like a frightened pigeon. 

My story is intimately connected with the trauma that my own family has faced. What happened in 1990 was no ordinary thing; it was the persecution of an ethnic minority on the basis of its religion. Women were raped, men were killed, and homes were burnt. 

I am one of nearly 400,000 Kashmiri Hindus who were expelled from the Kashmir valley by a combination of violence and explicit threats by Islamic terrorists.

 

Give the dog a bad name and kill it that is how Kashmir was sanitized. Posters were posted outside mosques and Hindu houses labeling Hindus as “Mukhbirs” meaning informers and agents of India thus branding us traitors. The State police and the Kashmir government machinery worked with and for the separatists and terrorists, we had no choice but to leave Kashmir in the dark of night.

We were forced out. It was not our choice. We are a community who meant no harm to anyone and yet we are at the crossroads where our culture and heritage would perish. We did not throw stones, did not burn busses, did not pick a gun. Our fault: we are Hindus and loyal patriotic citizens of India, and for that, here we are on the verge of extinction.

Over half a million innocent people had to abandon their homes and belongings as they headed to safer areas outside of Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus were made homeless overnight and since then have become refugees in their own country. We have struggled hard to survive. Education has been the savior of our community, now we are thinly spread within India and all over the world. In our struggle to survive and to maintain our culture & heritage, Kashmiri Hindus have been reminding the generation born after our exodus of their roots and constantly tell them about what happened to us in Kashmir. We depend on our next generation to carry on our struggle with the same passion as we do. And fortunately our children are interested in staying connected to their roots.

I have two boys. While raising them in the USA, I have had this innate desire to take them to Kashmir and show them our motherland. I took my older son to Kashmir in 2010. He was mesmerized by its beauty. He asked me “Why” why did we have to leave Kashmir. Then in 2016, I took my younger son to Kashmir and he asked me “When” when can we return to live here.  I could not answer them as I didn’t know how to. I hope that day will come soon.

Articles 370 and 35A were a temporary provision within the constitution of India. Their scraping means India now has one constitution and one flag. It means total integration of the State of Jammu & Kashmir with the rest of India. The scraping of these temporary articles of Indian constitution has the same meaning for Kashmiri Hindus as it has for any patriotic citizen of India. This opens up the opportunity of any citizen of India to go and settle in J&K State. And we are happy about it.

Kashmir has more than ten thousand years old history. We have an almanac that lists current year as 5094 from its beginning. We are the progeny of those who ruled from Kandahar to Tibet. Kashmir’s Muslim History is only 680 years old. During these years, from an absolute majority, Hindus became a minuscule minority.  All Muslims in Kashmir are converts and we lived in a composite culture. Kashmiri Hindus are a tolerant community and we constantly adapted and devised ways to survive and maintain our identity. 

In our struggle to survive and maintain culture & heritage, Kashmiri Hindus have been, moving from pillar to post, demanding their fundamental rights. We need your support, please join us in our struggle of survival and settlement.

My hope and that of my community is to live with honor & dignity in our homeland without any fear of getting robbed, raped or killed, have freedom of speech, liberty and justice. freely practice our religion, and be able to manage our affairs ourselves.

What would you like people to know about the Kashmir issue at this time? 

Not too long ago the name ‘Kashmir’ brought memories of Snow Capped Mountain Peaks, Fresh Water Lakes, Shikara rides, and Chinar Trees, – a paradise and a retreat for all. Now, this ‘Paradise’ about which poet Amir Khusrau said, “Agar Firdaus bar ru-e zamin ast, Hami asto-hami asto-hami asto” (Meaning if there is paradise on earth, it is this, it is this, it is this).

Currently, this paradise has been turned into a hot bed for terrorist activities in India. The problem in Kashmir is nothing but a struggle between two conflicting value systems. India is a secular and democratic republic whereas Pakistan is an Islamic republic. The Mullahs advocate that Muslims cannot and must not be allowed to co-exist with other religions. They push majority Kashmiri Muslims to adopt Shariya Law and want them to be part of Pakistan. 

 

I hope saner senses prevail and peace returns to this beautiful land. I am a Kashmiri Hindu uprooted from my home and though I have been living in the USA for last 25 years, believe me I still want to return to Kashmir. I hope that day comes soon.