What About Kashmiri Pandits?

On October 22^nd, 2019, the US Congress House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia held a hearing on South Asia human rights. Kashmir was the focus of this hearing. Expert witnesses were called to testify.

Dr. Nitasha Kaul, Associate Professor at the Center for the Study of Democracy at the University of Westminster was a witness. Ms. Kaul is a Kashmiri Hindu (Pandit). In her opening remarks, Ms. Kaul said that she did not claim to speak for Kashmiri people, but of them. Because, she said, “They are my own regardless of their religious identities”. In her testimony, Ms. Kaul said “Kashmir is a long drawn international conflict that has taken a huge toll on developing countries of India and Pakistan, but the biggest victims have been the people of the contested territory of Jammu and Kashmir whose right to self-determination as well as basic human rights have been denied for an unacceptably long time.”

Continuing her testimony, she said that on August 5^th, the Indian Government revoked the state of Jammu and Kashmir’s constitutionally guaranteed autonomy. It also abolished the state’s statehood without any consultation with the people affected. 

She noted that Kashmir is a conflict “that has robbed millions of their basic human rights, and continues to this day to inflict untold suffering.”

At the end of the hearing, Ms. Kaul was confronted by certain Pandits present at the hearing who accused her of not speaking about the pain and suffering of Kashmiri Pandits. Ms. Kaul responded that she had indeed spoken about the plights of Kashmiri Pandits and referred to her written testimony.

We reproduce below sections of her written testimony.

What about Kashmiri Pandits?

“While the struggles for self-determination and self-representation in different parts of Indian and Pakistan administered Kashmir are long, one specific characteristic of Kashmir valley was the relative absence of Hindu-Muslim hate politics until the late eighties. Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus as well as Sikhs lived along with Kashmiri Muslims in villages and towns. During the beginning of armed uprising against Indian state, following on from the widely reported electoral riggings in 1987, the mass migration of Kashmiri Pandits occurred. With immense violence of state and non-state actors all around, the exodus of a religious minority took place. 

Indian state which has claimed sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir singularly failed to protect the minorities while suppressing the majority. Further, governments have converted the suffering emerging out of dislocation into a tool to be used for collective punishment of all Kashmiri Muslims. Rather than investigate the cases of killings of religious minorities or make real efforts to facilitate their return to their original homes, India has adopted the approach of divide and rule. As Amnesty International reported, “A Jammu and Kashmir Police report in 2008 stated that 209 Kashmiri Pandits had been killed in the state since 1989, but that charges had been filed in only 24 cases. Several cases in which Kashmiri Pandits were killed by suspected armed group members – such as the killing of 24 Kashmiri Pandits in 2003 in Nadimarg, Shopian – have not led to convictions.”. Supreme Court of India rejected re-opening of investigation of deaths on the grounds that “…more than 27 years have passed… No fruitful purpose would emerge, as evidence is unlikely to be available at this late juncture.” 

How does one make sense of this when looked at along side and not as competing with the overall number of Kashmiris (mostly, but not exclusively, Muslim) killed (figures range from 50,000-more than 70,000) including in documented cases of massacres such in in Gawkadal, Handwara, Chattisinghpora, Sopore, and Doda; forcibly disappeared (figures range from 6000-10,000); women rendered half- widows; many raped (including the mass rape in the villages of Kunan-Poshpora in 1991); many more tortured; children and young adults detained without trial. All Kashmiris have suffered immensely – Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, men, women, sexual minorities – and it is irresponsible on the part of the State to exploit and exacerbate the divides and encourage the discourses of competing victimhoods. Most cases of human rights abuses never lead to prosecution as violence and discrimination are systemic. In fact, there are well publicized cases where the perpetrators of human rights abuses have been awarded and publicly feted.

What we witness is a clear instance of failure by the state, compounded by an insistent refusal to face up to its ignominious action, something that would be necessary to provide justice and redress to all Kashmiris, by first of all acknowledging their humanity and their suffering. It is far easier to continue extracting political profit by propagating ‘what about Kashmiri Pundits?’ in response to every brutalization of other Kashmiris, especially Muslims. What different communities in Kashmir need is reconciliation, justice and moving ahead as equals. India has shown no interest in this. In fact, this unilateral move of Indian government widely perceived as utter debasement and humiliation of Kashmiri Muslims, risks making permanent and irreconcilable the divisions along identity lines. It puts an end to the possibility of moving on without grievance.”

In the medium term, the Subcommittee should:

• Urge India to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission to investigate killings of Kashmiri Pandits, Sikhs and Muslims.
• Send a delegation of political leaders and facilitate trips of fact-finding missions to India and Pakistan administered Kashmir to meet different sections of society.
• Demand India and Pakistan to fully cooperate with the United Nations Office of the high Commissioner for Human Rights and implement all recommendations made in its two recent reports on Indian administered Kashmir and Pakistan administered Kashmir
• Ensure the respect for freedom and the right to self-determination of all people of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Most importantly, the international community must create the space for a credible and sustained environment in which Kashmiris from the different regions can all arrive at a mutually acceptable resolution of the toxic status quo for all inhabitants of the region.

In the conclusion of her testimony, Ms. Kaul writes: 

            “To be clear, arbitrary arrests, shrinking of space for peaceful expression of views, and restrictions on freedom of assembly and other democratic rights have long been a feature of life in Kashmir. What is new is the acute and extreme nature of the restrictions, the contempt for all democratic norms, and putting an end to all possibility for dialogue with Kashmiris who seek justice, dignity, freedom, and self-determination. Given there is no longer any space for peaceful expression of dissent anywhere in Kashmir, what are the Kashmiris being pushed toward? While selling its actions in Kashmir as aimed for development, Indian state has flouted every single principle of democracy.

To quote a great fellow countryman of yours, Martin Luther King: ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere’. What happens, or is condoned, in Kashmir has both regional and global ramifications, and it is thus vital that we take sincere steps forward, right now, to act in good conscience, to act for the defense of the ideals of human rights, substantive democracy, and freedom.”

Witness Statement:

https://foreignaffairs.house.gov/2019/10/human-rights-in-south-asia-views-from-the-state-department-and-the-region

For more, see:

http://www.nitashakaul.com