DATE=1/28/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=KASHMIR PANDITS
NUMBER=5-45330
BYLINE=JIM TEEPLE
DATELINE=NEW DELHI
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: For ten years, the Kashmir Valley in northern
India has been wracked by violence. At least 20
thousand people have died since militant separatists
began their violent campaign, ten years ago. Although
the population of Kashmir is overwhelmingly Muslim,
Hindus have lived in the Kashmir Valley since recorded
history began. And, until ten years ago, both Muslims
and Hindus coexisted peacefully in one of the most
beautiful places on earth. V-O-A's Jim Teeple reports
that -- for Kashmir's Hindu population -- the past ten
years have been a bitter period of loss and exile.
TEXT:
// ACTUALITY OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
DEMONSTRATING..EST. AND FADE UNDER TEXT //
TEXT: They call themselves Pandits, or wise men, and
they are a proud people. They are also a people
without a homeland. Recently in New Delhi, hundreds
demonstrated, calling on India's government to give
them one.
Descendents of Hindu Brahmin priests, Kashmir's
Pandits lived in the Kashmir Valley for thousands of
years. Among them was Jawaharlal Nehru, the father of
modern India. Now however, Kashmir's Pandits are
sometimes referred to as the lost the tribe of India.
Most no longer live in the Kashmir Valley and it is
unlikely they will return anytime soon.
Ten years ago, more than 300 thousand Pandits --
nearly ten percent of Kashmir's population -- fled
their beautiful valley. They say they fled out of
fear. Thousands of young Muslims in Kashmir had
begun their separatist struggle to create an
independent state or join with Pakistan. Kashmir's
Pandits felt threatened. Charma Kaul's family left
its ancestral home in Srinigar -- the ancient capital
of Kashmir -- never to return. She says her family
now is scattered all over India.
// KAUL ACTUALITY //
We got scattered. Somebody is in one state. Somebody
is in another state. My parents are in a camp in
Jammu and in this way we got scattered.
// END ACTUALITY //
Charma Kaul and other Kashmiri Pandits recently
gathered in New Delhi to call on the Indian Government
to create a separate state for Pandits in India's
state of Jammu and Kashmir. Of the estimated 350
thousand Pandit refugees, about 250 thousand live near
the city, Jammu, about 300 kilometers south of
Srinigar. Many live in squalid conditions in
refugee camps. Most Pandits say they fled their
homes because they were afraid of their Muslim
neighbors who they say had begun to threaten them, as
the separatist militancy took hold in the Kashmir
valley
Ravi Nair is the director of the South Asia Human
Rights Documentation Center in New Delhi and an expert
on Kashmir. He says the Pandits did feel threatened
but Indian government officials in the valley did
nothing to ease their fears.
// NAIR ACTUALITY //
The initial exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley
was in part a measure motivated by fears. Some of
these fears were genuine because there was at that
stage some harassment, intimidation and killings of
Kashmiri Pandits by the Islamic shade of opinion
amongst the Kashmiri armed opposition groups. However
there was also a paranoia which was fanned by the
then-governor of Kashmir, Mr. Jag Mohan, and this
paranoia fed into what were legitimate fears but also
built it into a much bigger issue than it was which
led to the mass exodus in the first place.
// END ACTUALITY //
Ravi Nair of the South Asia Human Rights Documentation
Center says, because the Pandits have suffered
greatly, India's government has taken steps to help
them by continuing to pay the salaries of Pandits who
worked for the government. The government also is
continuing to give many Pandits cash and food
allowances, ten years after they fled their homes.
He says Pandits are even allowed to vote in Kashmir
elections on an absentee basis -- something he says no
other internally-displaced people in India are given
the chance to do.
Mr. Nair says he doubts whether the Pandits will ever
be able to return to their ancestral homes and lands
unless an overall political settlement is reached in
Kashmir -- something he says which does not look
promising in the near future.
// REST OPTIONAL //
Mohan Khrishen -- a Pandit who now lives in New Delhi
-- says he fled Kashmir because of what he says were
threats from Islamic militants. He says he is angry
he had to leave his home, but he is also sad because
many of the centuries-old traditions of Kashmiri
Pandit culture are quickly disappearing.
// KHRISHEN ACTUALITY //
We have been uprooted. We are scattered. We are
scattered, so we are losing our identity as Kashmiri
Pandits. We are absolutely lost in the whole huge
mass of population. (of India)
// END ACTUALITY //
Many Pandits, like Mohan Khrishen, say they are tired
of waiting to return home and now they want India's
government to create a separate state for Pandits. So
far, India's government has been non-committal, saying
only it continues to support the rights of Kashmiri
Pandits to return to their homes to the Kashmir Valley
when it is safe to do so. (Signed)
NEB / JT / WD
28-Jan-2000 08:08 AM EDT (28-Jan-2000 1308 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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