The Difference
Excerpted from emails of Pt B.K Dass,
Mohammad Aslam Khan from Jammu is surprised to know as to why despite sufferings of the Muslims in the Gujarat communal riots, they preferred not to migrate unlike Kashmiri Pundits with relatively a little sufferings.
Kashmiri Pundits are not Guajarati Muslims and Gujarati Hindus are not Kashmiri Muslims is the main reason why the two like riots with unlike results.
Most of the communal riots occur on Durga Pooja or Tazia the procession of Shia Muslims. Minor trifle over the height of the mast of the flag or music of the band played on Durga Pooja gives the reason for the cause.
On the contrary, my neighbour across the road, Peerzada Ali Shah a separatist, (served number of jail terms) son of Lassa Peer, Acting President of Political Conference at Zaindar Mohalla used to hold one end of the rope, tie it with the sill of his window to be used for the arch to welcome the Janam Ashtami procession from Sheetal Nath via Narparistan-Fateh kadal-Karfali Mohalla-Zaindar mohalla-Tanki pora-----and finally culminate back at Sheetal Nath. One of the contingents was the horse riders who incidentally used to be the Muslim tonga wallas.
Action was replayed on the Deshera procession that used to start from Dharm Sabha Lal Chowk and culminate at Iqbal Park. On both these days, the city wore a festive look. My Muslim friends were equally enthusiastic.
Last year Muzaffar Shah (Totea) son of Peerzadad Ali Shah came from the USA for the treatment of throat cancer of his father Pirzada Ali Shah. His father had an intermittent halt for one month for the chemo therapy. To avail the one month recess fruitfully, his father deputed his son to Jammu to visit all of us at different areas. By 1 AM he concluded his welfare and curtsey calls. Is it possible elsewhere in the world?
Atiqa ji my sister used to have verbal war with militants who hurled slang on me in 1990. Rafiq and his wife treat me as their father and two of their infant daughters as their grandfather. Right from April each family member gives me ring to avail summer months at their dwelling. The family has reserved a set of two rooms for my stay.
No music in the valley was repugnant enough to flash communal riots. On different days ‘bajan mandlis’ were held at different kashmiri Pundit households. I remember one such mandli was held in the house of dyeing master Sham lal Labroo. The house was in the close proximity of the Zaindar Sabun Astan. The two were separated by a four feet wide lane. Music played by the Mandli and the Nimaz offered by the Muslims had no repugnance for each other. Some Muslims after they offered Nimaz attended the mandli to enjoy its music and praise for god. This type of harmony is not found anywhere in the world and not to speak of Gujarat.
1957, at 18 +, me, on way to Lal Mandi Park was teased by some street urchins. They were all Muslim boys quite elder to me. I did not retaliate until we reached the park. Abruptly my hormones activated and in my own style, I took one of them by surprise and hit him hard with my head strike (Thoal). Taken aback, he fell down on to the ground. Before others would pounce at me, Ghulam Ahmmad from Tankipora (known as Amea Ledrie, because of his pale face) warned and set rule one-to-one. No two will attack him. Soon the street quarrel came to an end without any revenge in the near future. Amea Ledrie retired as peon attached to the late Dr. Puran Raina and I still give him lot of respect for his scruples.
Kashmiri Pundit is rare specie unlike Gujarati Muslims. Our life to us is more precious than any treasure in the world. My wife died in 2000 and since then I am a singleton. The situation is not the same for a Gujarati Muslim. Either can get married as many times as he or she likes. There is no child labour amongst Kashmiri Pundits. One of the causes of mass migration is that the education of our wards was at stake under abnormal conditions.
Had we been used to the 1990 treatment, we would have not been aghast and not migrated. We never expected Bita karatay killing his bosom friend Sunil Tikoo. I never expected my erstwhile friend Professor Ali Bhat to swear falsely by Prophet Mohammad (PBUHS) against me. I never expected Liaqat Ali Khan junior lecturer and committed to Allah Walay group to falsely swear by the Prophet that I was a Police officer in the garb of a teacher. I even today challenge them to prove their misgivings.
Labels: Kashmiriyat
posted by Nomad @ 1:16 AM
7 Comments
7 Comments:
God bless you, Sir. This all happened due to mistrust created by vested interests. We have all respect and regard for you. Do you think that a Kashmiri muslim is a communalist, no, we are part of you. Best regards.
I agree with you.
I am a Kashmiri Muslim.
Although these days our people speak for secularism, the matter of the fact is that Mosques were misused those days (a trend that has resurfaced these days)threatening "Mukhbirs" to leave or face death.
A Mukhbir was anyone who had even slightest of difference of opinion compared to the Azaadists and Pakistanists.
Who coined the slogan - Kashir Bani Pakistan, Bataw Rostuy Batnyaw saan?
It was us.
If we follow our Prophet SAW (The Nizame Mustafa that we talk about) these things would have never happened.
I agree India has done its mistakes in Kashmir, but we have become symbols of hate and intolerance.
May God help us become better people.
I acknowledge the pain and hardship your community has gone through and is very unfortunate. But i found your post here is also full of sarcastic in nature. you consider your community having higher degree of moral and better set of belief. one gets this assumption when you say gujrati muslim can remarry and u cannot as if Muslims have no affection with his family and as such can replace them like match boxes. Second you say you were giving high priority to education and as such could not have stayed here. but you fail to realise your community getting superior education was at the cost of majority community. how come you forget that your community was running Dogra govt in kashmir and as such attained benefits which muslim community could have only dreamnt of those days.it was becasue of this favour of DOGRA Maharaja that your rate of education was considerably quite higher than majority community. I request do not be derogatory to any oppressed class.
Dear Sir,
i took me longer to read the pain and agony expressed by you ,becoz tears in my eyes made lines invisible.
There r some questions which have arisen in my mind .i hope ,you will answer.
1.why no pundit joined moderate hurriat fractions like ,huriyat M or Y to fight for the freedom of secular kashmir?
2.How come sikhs and million bihari hindus still live in the valley despite the blames made by pundits that,KMs are "communal"?
3.When the toll of pundits was around 300 (as per pundit authors) ,can any1 tell me what was the toll of muslims at that time?
I read some books of pundits where they blamed muslim rulers for forced conversions.I wonder, what made earlier pundts to give up their faith and new pundits not to give up their lives for the sake of kashmiriyat?
Dear Sir,
i took me longer to read the pain and agony expressed by you ,becoz tears in my eyes made lines invisible.
There r some questions which have arisen in my mind .i hope ,you will answer.
1.why no pundit joined moderate hurriat fractions like ,huriyat M or Y to fight for the freedom of secular kashmir?
2.How come sikhs and million bihari hindus still live in the valley despite the blames made by pundits that,KMs are "communal"?
3.When the toll of pundits was around 300 (as per pundit authors) ,can any1 tell me what was the toll of muslims at that time?
I read some books of pundits where they blamed muslim rulers for forced conversions.I wonder, what made earlier pundts to give up their faith and new pundits not to give up their lives for the sake of kashmiriyat?
errors
***factions***
***death toll **
Thanks for your comments. It is always reassuring to know that there are sane and moderate voices.
This particular post is excerpted from an email I had received a few months ago and I reproduced verbatim. I have requested Pt Dass to view these comments. I am sure he will be happy to see the responses.
@Zahid: Your bit about derogatory comments, accepted, but this is not my authorship, I just posted here the mail of a 70 year old Pandit academician.
Since the advent of Islam in Kashmir, there have been cycles of violence against the Pandits. I do not say that, you can read any book including Arabic authors. The details are gorier there because those are the accounts of the victor and not the vanquished. Before 1947, before 1857 and much before Islam was born, Kashmir has been a seat of learning. Just that the learning was of the Philosophical variety. Only someone debating will use history selectively. I am no debator but am open to discussions, so my request is, please dont quote history selectively. In 1947 people fought against the Kabalis as Kashmiris and not as Hindus or Muslims. In 52 years, the only thing that changed in the valley was that Hindus were marginalised and Muslims got educated, incidentally most of the teachers were Pandits.
@Mister Kashmir:Thanks for your comments. Acceptance is the first step to reconciliation and better understanding. Though this is not my authorship, I will try answering your question to the best of my ability. It would be interesting to know your age, becasue I was 10yr old when my father had to leave the valley following assassination bids on him twice by Hizbul guys. Both the times he was saved by his Muslim friends who later advised him to leave till things cool down a bit.
RC Kak was the Prime Minister of Dogra King and he was the first proponent of Kashmiri Independence. Sheikh Abdullah had him thrown in the Jail.
1] Moderate Hurriyat did not exist in 1989 -1990. I guess Pandits started the Panun Kashmir movement for a secular Kashmir and Moderate Hurriyat did nothing but lip service.
2] The reason is the same as million of Asians going to work in horrible conditions in Middle East - Money. Kashmir is flush with money being pumped in from both sides. Incidentally, I have been to Saudi Arabia. Indians and Pakistanis- Hindus and Muslims are friends there, because both are treated as third class citizens by Arabs.
Sikhs are a wonderful community and they are a martial race. They are fighters. They say One Sikh can fight 1.25Lakh . They normally are the last ones out of any conflict zone. They were the last ones to come out of Afghanistan, much after the Hindus and Moderate Muslims who migrated to India.
Sikhs also happen to have a score to settle with Hindus for Operation Bluestar - 1984. So in a communal movement against they were natural allies against Hindus.
I dont think anybody makes that blame at an individual level of Muslims being communal. I have some wonderful KM friends. My father hardly has any Pandit friends. But at the community level no one will go against what the Qazi says.
3] 300 KP's killed since 1989 is the government figure. Do you believe the police figures of Muslims killed. And I find it sadistic to discuss body count.
Have you noticed, we call ourselves Pandits and not Hindus.
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