WHO ARE WE?

Refugees, in our own land. Yes. That is true. We are, Kashmiri Pandits, the original inhabitants of the Valley of Kashmir, and have a rich culture and peaceful traditions that we have managed to maintain over five thousand years of recorded history. But today, after years and years of religious persecution, we have been forced to live as Refugees in our country. 

In the words of Governor Jagmohan, we are "Frightened Pigeons and Forsaken Community". In his book "My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir", Governor Jagmohan talks about our history and says: "It is a community whose history generates envy at their achievements as well as sorrow at their plight. In one way, its members have played a dominant role in ruling India after August 1947. In another way, it has been hounded by a deep sense of insecurity in the Valley. Its long history has been one of triumphs and tragedies - steady and silent triumphs and tumultuous and terrible tragedies. Like Kashmir's weather, its bright, sunny, cool and crisp days have been punctuated by those of floods and famines and of grey and depressing clouds."

Governor Jagmohan further says: "Whatever be the vicissitudes of their history and whatever unkind quirks their fate might have brought to them in the past, these all pale into insignificance when we reflect on what is happening to them at present.

When viewed in all its dimensions, the current phase of Kashmiri Pandits' misfortune is the most calamitous. The grim tragedy is compounded by the equally grim irony that one of the most intelligent, subtle, versatile, and proud community of the country is being virtually reduced to extinction in free India. It is suffering not under the fanatic zeal of mediaeval Sultans like Sikandar or under the tyrannical regime of the Afghan Governors, but under the supposedly secular rule of Rajiv Gandhi, V.P. Singh and the like whose unabashed search for personal and political power is symbolised by the callous and calculated disregard of the Kashmiri migrants' current miserable plight and the terrible future that stares them in the face. And to fill their cup of sorrow, there are bodies like the 'Committee for Initiative on Kashmir' which are over-anxious and over-active to rub salt into their wounds.

In a soft, superficial, permissive and, in many ways, cruel India which has the tragic distinction of creating over one lakh refugees from its own flesh and blood and then casting them aside like masterless cattle to fend for themselves on the busy and heartless avenues of soulless cities, the chances for Kashmiri Pandits to survive as a distinct community are next to nothing. Split, scattered, and deserted practically by all, though for different reasons, they stand today all alone, looking hopelessly at a leaking, rudderless boat at their feet and an extremely rough and tumultuous sea to face before they can reach a safe shore across to plant their feet firmly on an assured future. "