Point of view of a Kashmiri.
Kashmiri Muslims say that they were not asked and informed before revoking Section 370 and 35A, and state that "The people of Kashmir are the ones to decide whether they want to be a part of India or not".
We, The Kashmiri Pandits are also "The people of Kashmir".
We choose to be a part of India.
There is a historical reason behind why Kashmir which was once a holy land turned into a deadly warzone.
Listen to our story!
We were traumatized by invaders, terrorists and separatists. Our women were raped. We had a horrific choice between either being converted or being killed.
In the year 1990, we experienced a mass genocide, but it was not the first time we had to face it. There have been seven exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits throughout history about which many people are still unaware.
THE FIRST KASHMIRI PANDIT EXODUS
It all started in the 14th century.
Shah Mir, the first Muslim invader, who started to rule Kashmir in 1339 AD converted many Kashmiri Pandits to Islam through violent means. He destroyed our temples and ruined our heritage and culture.
Shah Mir was soon followed by Taimur - The Lame, he drove a huge wedge between majority hindus and minority muslims. Infact, he made a law to persecute Kashmiri Pandits.
Following him, came Sultan Sikandar. He forced many Kashmiri Pandits to convert to Islam, desecrating many hindu temples and murdering the ones who opposed. In order to preserve the precious hindu culture and traditions, many Kashmiri Pandits had to fled their homes.
As a result of the first Kashmiri Pandit Exodus, only 11 Kashmiri Pandit families stayed in Kashmir.
THE SECOND KASHMIRI PANDIT EXODUS
The second Kashmiri Pandit Exodus lasted from 1506 AD to 1585 AD.
During the second exodus, the "Chaks" came into power. "Chaks" were a group which had become a part of the army of Shah Mir. Chaks crushed their political rivals by murders and conspiracies. They were no less ruthless than the rulers who had come before them.
Fattah Khan from 1506 AD to 1516 AD with Shah Mir's chaks demolished many hindu places of worship and tried to remove all traces of infidelity and idol worship from Kashmir. This was also known as the "Dark Ages" or "Dark Period" in the history of Kashmir because it was the ruthless era of the "Chaks".
The chaks were actually Shia muslims, whereas the ones who ruled before them were Sunni muslims. They like the others forcibly converted many Brahmin families to Islam.
Some Kashmiri Pandits sent a plea to the chaks, but they ruthlessly threw them in jail. They persecuted 950 Kashmiri Pandits every day. In order to convert the remaining hindus, they forced them to consume beef. Moreover, thousands of cows were slaughtered every week because the rulers knew that hindus worship the cows.
As a result of this, of all the violence and of all the punishments for being hindus, there was a massive exodus where many Kashmiri Pandits once again fled to never return.
THE THIRD KASHMIRI PANDIT EXODUS
Now came the third exodus under the Mughal Empire from 1585 AD to 1753 AD.
It all started with Akbar The Great, who was known for being a very humane and liberal emperor. Akbar embraced the idea of letting different religions coexist and allowed Kashmiri Pandits to come back into Kashmir and worship their religion freely.
Just when the Kashmiri Pandits started to feel back at home in their own homeland of Kashmir, came his son Jahangir Khan, who did not believe in the same religious tolerance that Akbar had believed in. With Jahangir, Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb were also interested in the torture and mass extermination of Kashmiri Pandits.
Aurangzeb, one of the most rutheless leaders immediately acted upon converting all of India to islam including Kashmiri Pandits. The first step that Aurangzeb did was to exterminate all hindu scholars because he believed they will slow down to process of conversion. Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were converted to Islam or moved to neighboring to continue practicing hinduism.
As you can see the overall trend of all the exoduses were that certain muslim leaders came into power and as a result crushed the Kashmiri Pandit's culture by either forcefully converting them to Islam, killing them or leaving them with no option other than to flee their beloved homes.
This trend continues in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh exoduses.
THE FOURTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
Now comes the fourth exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.
In 1753, which was under the rule of the Afghan governors. The leaders continued the mass extermination of Kashmiri Pandits which led the Kashmiri Pandits to once again flee the safety of their homes to Kabul.
Kashmiri Pandits were physically tortured in the most rutheless fashion and had to suffer much emotional and spiritual anguish.
The fourth exodus came to an end when the Sikhs finally captured Kashmir, ending the rule of the ruthless Afghan governors and bringing a little bit more peace.
THE FIFTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
Now came the fifth exodus of Kashmiri Pandits which took place in the early 1900's. Due to Pandit Birbal Dhar, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was able to re-establish a hindu government in the Jammu and Kashmir State after the Sikhs took over. This was a period were all religions were able to coexist in harmony.
Many muslim rulers in India started rising up and forming an organization, which was later known as the Muslims Leading Room.
They were annoyed that educated Kashmiri Pandits lived comfortable lives and held high positions in the government. As a result, on July 13, 1931, later known as Black Day was a grave day for all Kashmiri Pandits.
Kashmiri Muslims looted and murdered many people and properties in Srinagar. As a result, after this the Dogra rulers came into power, and Kashmiri Pandits no longer had any rights.
After Independence was granted to India from the British, even though the entirety of the nation was celebrating the victory of independence, Kashmiri Pandits were unable to do so because Pakistan launched an attack on Kashmir.
Once again, thousands of Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their homes to seek refuge in Srinagar.
The post-independence period in Jammu and Kashmir led to an unmistakably slow and steady exodus of the Kashmiri Pandit Community, and this was primarily due to the fact that Kashmiri Pandits simply had no rights, privileges or opportunities anymore in Kashmir.
As horrifying as the event of the fifth exodus were, they pale in comparison to the events of sixth and seventh exoduses.
THE SIXTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
During the sixth exodus, the ruling of Gul Shah was one of the worst as there were the most amount of curfew days ever. Gul Shah was eventually nicknamed "Gul Curfew" because of this.
A number of Kashmiri Pandits protested resulting in lots of violence the destruction of temples by muslims, because of this, the Kashmiri Pandits understood two things: Kashmir has only become a land for Kashmiri Muslims was no longer safe for the Kashmiri Pandits and that too, the peaceful insights that Mahatma Gandhi showed India were unfortunately very short-lived in Kashmir.
THE SEVENTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
Now for the seventh and final exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, which is ongoing and has never actually officially ended. More than 350,000 Kashmiri Pandits fled in 1990, leaving behind everything they had, believing in a culture that was more than 5000 years old.
Brainwashing and instigating the Kashmiri Muslim Youth, Pakistan laid a trap of making Kashmir independent and thus resulting in lots of violence.
Advocate Tika Lal Taploo, followed by Justice Neelkant Ganjoo and many others tried to take a stand for the Kashmiri Pandits. Unfortunately, many Kashmiri Pandits suffered brutal torture where red-hot knives were touched to their eyes, their tongues were pulled out and cut in half with scissors, youths were kidnapped, tortured, shot with multiple bullets and then were thrown into the Jhelum River. One lady was ripped apart into two with a saw, threatening letters were pasted on doors or temples to either "Cheylyu, Geylyu ya Reylyu", which means run, die or accept Islam.
There was a saying at this time that "Kashmir main agar rehna hain, Allah Ho Akbar kehna hain".
The seventh exodus in Kashmir is still not officially over with Kashmir still in a state of political and religious turmoil.
The struggle continues for the thousands of Kashmiri Pandits all over the world.
But still, we don't support mass killings nor we are taking your homes. We just want our homes back.
We believe in the idea of coexisting.
Hence, We The People Of Kashmir choose to be a part of India.
The motive behind this post is not to create indifferences or spread communal hatred, but to enlighten and educate people about our history and the ground reality of the subject.
