| |
 |
 |
 |
 |
- NAKED VIOLATION
The last two years
(Editor's note: currently five years as this
appeal is three years old) have witnessed a
perpetuation of human rights' violation against
this community which had to leave the valley
helter-skelter and got dispersed far and wide in
different parts of the country. Most of the
nearly three hundred thousand refugees came out
with clothes barely enough to cover their
bodies. They came out with the illusion of a
return to their homes and hearths in the near
future. Families got split and scattered in the
scramble for shelter and livelihood. Parents got
separated from children, spouses from their
partners, brothers from sisters. They are still
on the move from one place to another like
wandering nomads looking for help and succour.
As a result of this dispersal the social fabric
of the community is torn asunder, the economic
structure has collapsed, material possessions
have vanished and the political base has been
overturned. The old and infirm of the community
have met a premature end, dying for want of
health and family support. A large number of
youth suffered mental breakdown. Depression,
panic attacks, phobias, nightmares and insomnia
have seized all age groups. Unnatural deaths in
the form of sunstroke, snake and scorpion bites,
hydrophobia and accidents have taken a big toll.
The terror, a feeling of siege, a sense of
rootlessness and loss of identity, the trauma of
forced migration, exposure to an alien and
hostile environment, problem of acclimatization,
poor housing, insanitary conditions, lack of
basic amenities like drinking water, scarce
medicare, malnutrition and idleness compounded
by hurt and humiliation have orchestrated to
result in physical, mental and psychological
trauma of unimaginable magnitude. The community
has reached the end of the tether and its
reserves of patience and hopes have dried up.
The spectre of disease, death and extinction are
haunting the community. It seems unlikely that
the community will ever be able to organise
itself again into a cohesive social and
political entity which is vital for its survival
and resurgence. Far from regaining its pristine
glory, it is hard pressed to keep body, mind and
soul together.
It is indeed deplorable
that some human rights' organisations reporting
on the Kashmir situation have conveniently
ignored the gross human rights violations
against Kashmiri Pandits. Their silence on the
genocide of this community and the terrible
plight facing the community after the exodus, is
intriguing and exasperating and puts the
credibility of these organisations into shade.
The one-sided, partisan and extremely
prejudicial views of certain agencies that have
chosen to black-out the brutalities and
murderous killings of Kashmiri Pandit minority
in their reports, leads one to believe that such
organisations have fallen victims to the
dangerous ploy of the terrorists and become
tools in their propaganda machinery against this
community and against India.
It is a sad commentary
on the perceptions and sensitivities of the
civilized world that a community which has been
the original inhabitant of the valley of Kashmir
with a chequered history of more than five
thousand years, a rich cultural heritage and a
distinct ethno religious identity, the proponent
of and heir to a unique concept and creed of
Hindu thought - the philosophy of Kashmir
shaivism with its message of Universality of
man, peace, non-violence, amity and brotherhood
- is being deliberately and systematically
destroyed.
History is replete with
the records of religious persecutions and
barbarities perpetrated against this community
since the advent of Islam in the thirteenth
century in Kashmir. While the community
accommodated, mingled with and absorbed the
culture and traditions of all outsiders who came
to Kashmir, it was repeatedly rewarded with the
most inhuman and brutal treatment. From time to
time various cruel Muslim rulers driven by
religious zeal and communal frenzy demolished
Hindu institutions and shrines, burnt religious
scriptures and libraries of Hindus and unleashed
a reign of terror leading to the imposition of
heavy taxes, forcible conversions and general
massacre of those refusing to embrace Islam.
They inflicted bestialities like the chopping
off of the noses and tongues, beheading,
drowning in water after tying people back to
back etc. on the community. Those who escaped
forcible conversion, mutilation and death were
forced into exile reducing this community to a
minority in its own land.
| |
 |
 |
 |
 | |
|
| | |
|
Previous
Section
