Their centers of   spiritual faith are attracting  Kashmiri  Pandits to the Valley in larger numbers. What started in a trickle a few years back has, pleasantly, turned into a downpour.    There are reasons for it. Obvious one being  improvement in  the security scenario. But then the welcome extended and the job of facilitation done by the majority community can’t be  ignored. Over the period of time the response of the majority community has grown from a  passive  welcome to open effusion of warmth.  This year, we are told authoritatively,   Khirbawani Shrines at Tullamula and Manzgam in Noorabad area  and various other religious places, spread over nook and corner of the Valley, drew thousands of Pandits  to pay obeisance. We have reason to believe that the warm reception extended by the members of majority community to visiting Pandits  is not a fluke. Our young boys and girls serving in near and far of places   in  the Valley have been enjoying such a warmth  for  long  time now. Probably, this is one of the reasons – undoubtedly a significant one -  which has allowed them to stay out, despite the attempts of so many, within the community and outside, to dissuade them to  take up employment in the Valley.  This fact  should be sufficient  for a common Pandit to dispel notion,  being unsuccessfully  hammered down  to him by  the disgruntled forces, that he is welcome to Kashmir only as a visiting  tourist  and not as  an original inhabitant.
The annual  pilgrimage to the religious places , no doubt, provides an opportunity  to return to the roots, have interaction with the members of majority community  and renew the bond of affinity. However,  frequency of such visits  needs to be increased.  Nonetheless,  one can’t discount the hurdles that are on the path of  smooth and durable return. We are told to return to the original  habitat  from where the displacement happened. Well most of the Pandits would like  it. But the logistics and the change in the   topography of the place deter them . Most of these places have changed beyond recognition ; some of their houses and house sites have suffered the vagaries of  nature and some of them have been encroached  up on. Though, it is heartening to note that Kashmir civil society  members  are on the job to have encroachments removed . To hasten the job  this group has elicited  a moral and material support from  the separatist, as well. But  in this case government has to do a lot. Apart from being a facilitator  it has to provide the displace person  with enough financial support for  honorable and secured living there. Most of the Pandits are loath  to live in exclusion of their friends in the Valley. So,a suitable place or places, in the mixed environs, must be identified. State government has a job at the hands.
For his peaceful and  permanent stay in the Valley it is important for  Pandits to see resolution of the Kashmir issue.No doubt they have a well stated position on the matter. Since so  much has gone wrong in Kashmir for so long some thing can be retrieved within that known position. Pandits  haven’t been happy either  in wilderness of displacement. Kashmir has lost phenomenally in terms of human blood and human values. If we Kashmiris cannot sing in joy together, al least, we should cry in pain together and try to wipe out tears of one another.  Moreover,  it will do a lot of good to  a  Pandit if he sees a clear distinction in Indian state and the Indian nation.While as he is free to  identify himself with the latter in all respects,  it is not his bounden duty to act as an apologist of the former when it does something terribly wrong and unexplainable.

(B L Saraf is Former Principal District & Sessions Judge)

Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Jun 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Mon, 4 Jun 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Tue, 5 Jun 2012 00:00:00 IST