Weaponizing Kashmiri’s Pain
The US Congressional subcommittee hearing on Asia, convened on October 22nd 2019 by congressman Brad Sherman, focused on the human rights situation in Kashmir. One of the expert witnesses, Indian-journalist Arti Tikoo Singh, editor of India’s largest English daily, The Times of India, testified that the human rights issues within the Kashmir Valley were actually the fault of Islamic terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. Ms. Singh said “The number of Kashmiris who have been killed in Kashmir is immense and they have been victimized by the Pakistani terror state.”Ms. Singh was taken to task for her testimony by US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who said “The press is at its worst when it is a mouthpiece for a government”
After the hearing, in a comment to a reporter, Ms. Singh accused the congressional panel and many of the other witnesses as biased. She said, and we quote: “The Congressional hearing was prejudiced against over 700 Kashmiri pundits who were killed in Kashmir in 1990. The congressional hearing was prejudiced against 300,000 Kashmiri pundits who were ethnically cleansed from Kashmir in 1990. The Congressional hearing was prejudiced against 15,000 Kashmiri Muslims who have been killed by Pakistan.”
We did some fact checking:
A survey in 2008 and 2009 by Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti, reported that 399 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by insurgents from 1992 to 2011. Khalid Bashir Ahmad (Kashmir; Sage Publications 2017) citing census and other government reports writes that during militancy, about 124,453 Pandits migrated out of Kashmir. As per government sources, during the militancy 13,226 civilians were killed by militants. The number of Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) killed was %0.5, Muslims 95.0%. It is obvious that the killing of civilians by militants was based not on religious hatred but rather on allegations of being informants of the government. Of course, any extra judicial killing is unacceptable. We cannot diminish what has happened to Pandits. It was completely wrong. However, as noted by Karan Thapar, Indian journalist’s article in the Hindustan Times on September 15th 2019 “we cannot be selective about the past in Jammu and Kashmir”. During the insurgency, as noted above an estimated 13,226 people were killed by militants. During the same period the estimate of people killed by government forces in Kashmir range from 45,000 (government) to 75,000 (civil society).
Sadly, Ms. Singh touting the government of India’s line stokes the Kashmiri Pandits suffering by pitting Muslims and Pundits against each other and also takes advantage of a global anti-terrorist atmosphere by juxtaposing the turmoil in Kashmir with Islamic terrorism and blaming Pakistan. Commenting on this situation, Nishita Trisal, in a Washington Post article, (August 22,2019) rightly suggests that the arguments over the calculation of the suffering of Hindus and Muslims is being weaponized by the Indian state.
Ms. Trisal notes the events of 1989 and those that followed “have radically altered Kashmiri Pandit’s self-understanding and their relationship to Kashmiri Muslims. They have created a trauma that refuses to be buried”. Ms. Trisal notes that “This sense of loss is being capitalized upon by the Hindu Nationalist state in India.”
The present divisive discourse advanced among the Hindus and Muslims in Kashmir is a reaction rooted in the political and economic advancement of the majority population in Kashmir. After the end of Dogra rule, political influence and economic power exercised by the minority weakened and the majority gained a foothold in administration and business. Otherwise in Kashmir throughout its history, including the present, the suffering of the majority community has been far greater than that of the minority. The death of hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits must be viewed in the context of thousands of Kashmiri Muslims killed during the militancy and the continued suffering of the majority.
At present there are less than 500 militants in Kashmir, as per government estimates. There are 500,000 plus military men currently deployed in Kashmir. How can such deployment – one armed soldier for every 10 civilians – and the siege of the entire Kashmir Valley, now for one hundred days and counting, be justified; just to contain 500 militants?
As correctly noted by Ms Trisal it is time “Now more than ever young Kashmiris need to chart a path forward for the reconciliation, solidarity and allyship with one another. This can begin by actively seeking one another’s truth and stories, resisting the manipulation of suffering, reading deeply and widely into Kashmir’s complex history, calling out bigotry and hatred in our families and denouncing Indian atrocities in Kashmir”
It is time for Kashmiris to stop letting others weaponize their pain. It is time for Kashmiris on both side of the religious – read political and economic – divide to heed Ms Trisal’s advice. Chart a path forward: reconcile and join together in solidarity. A beginning step for reconciliation could be an citizens inquiry commission on the Pandit migration of 1989.
Rafique A Khan
November 15 st 2019
For comments: rafiquekhan@me.com
Thanks for responding Arti tickoo singh’s comment elaborately with the figures reported by the authors of same community. It is also important here to mention that the Government of India report of 23 March 2010, notifies that only ‘219 Kashmiri Pandits had been killed by the militants since 1989″. And factually that includes the deaths as collateral damage, force & intelligence service personals deaths as well as Nadimarg killings of 24, (Never Inquired by GoI). And as per the 1981 census calculations, their total population in Kashmir in 1990 was less than 1,40,000.
Ms. Trisal is right in saying that “ Kashmiri Pandit’s self-understanding has altered radically’ and it is why Majority of them are celebrating every moment of our pain, agony, and cries. For the last 30 years, every time someone got killed, raped, or detained – they rejoiced these heinous crimes against us, and their hearts filled with joy watching us suffer.And according to their terms, to think that ‘if Kashmir is not good for them, let others have hell there is merely criminal.
It is better if they distance from the fake and fallacious narrative of Government of India and think rationally and humane. And assiduously the path ascribed by you is the one that holds good: “Now more than ever young Kashmiris need to chart a path forward for the reconciliation, solidarity and allyship with one another”.