AUM
READ & RESOLVE TO
RESETTLE VICTIMS IN KASHMIR
By Brigadier Chitranjan Sawant,VSM
If there is a Heaven on Earth, it is here, it is here, it is
here, so said Firdaus, the Persian poet for the Iranian city of Isphahan. The
Moghul kings in India found the valley of Kashmir so bewitching and enchanting
that they had the said Persian couplet written in the Moghul gardens of
Srinagar.
The Kashmir valley was regarded
as heaven on earth with periodic disruptions during reign of cruel Afghan and
other foreign kings from time to time. The cruelty, both mental and physical,
was so devilish that many Kashmiri people, especially the Pandits- Shaiv
Brahmins - chose to migrate to safer parts of plains in India rather than
convert to Islam and continue living in their ancestral land with different
faith, names and an alien cultural milieu. The bloodshed, disrobing of their
women and dishonoring them was on such a massive scale that they deserted their
original home and hearth in droves and it was given the name – Exodus of
Aborigines. The last exodus happened in 1989-90 and continued for a couple of
years.
The rest of India read
about it in bits and pieces and forgot all about it until a patriot Kashmiri
Pandit, a victim of Islamic terror himself despite his being a regular Army
officer of the million strong Indian Army, was banished from the land of birth,
his habitat consigned to flames and his old parents were abandoned on the road
on a wintry evening in the snow laden cold valley. He is Colonel Tej K. Tik00,
Ph.D. who refused to suffer in silence. He made up his mind to share the trials
and tribulations of the unfortunate Kashmiri Pandits with the rest of the world
who cared to listen.
Most of the Kashmiri Pandits were
shell-shocked that their neighbours joined the foreign terrorists as they
professed the same faith, Islam, in terrorizing centuries-old Hindu friends.
The Muslim Kashmiris went to the extent of threatening their Hindu Pandit
neighbours to leave the valley for good but leave their youthful daughters
behind to be ravished by JIHADIS of ISLAM
and be converted to Islam. The KPs or Kashmiri Pundits were made of sterner stuff and chose their own
path of independence.
The Kashmiri Pundits
have survived in other parts of Bharat despite no major help coming to them
from the State of Jammu & Kashmir. The book titled “ Kashmir : Its
Aborigines and their Exodus” written painstakingly with an eye on historical
details by Colonel Tej K. Tikoo. He was commissioned in the First Battalion of
the Naga Regt on completion of training at the Indian Military Academy, Dehra
Dun. Colonel Tikoo knows professionally what insurgency is and indeed he knows
from the land of birth, Kashmir, what Islamic terrorism is.
Where do we go from
here? It would be wrong on the part of the Indian population to let the Kahmiri
Pandits suffer in isolation in a remote village in the valley or in a crowded
locality in Jammu without a proper roof over their heads. After all the
Kashmiri Pandits are citizens of India and it is incumbent on the Govt of India
that our unfortunate compatriots should get two square meals a day have a
shelter overhead and a little petty cash for a rainy day. It should be the aim
of the central govt of India and the State Govt of J&K to escort the
Kashmiri Pandits and their families back to the Kashmir valley and rehabilitate
them there with honour and dignity.
Men and women in the
rest of India who have a barbed tongue must ensure that they have just a word
of sympathy for our Kashmiri brethren and not dig old graves of history to say
that they deserved what they eventually received. Allow me to say that the
Kashmiri Pandits are our compatriots, our kith and kin and it is our sacred and
moral duty to provide succor the needy brethren and sisters.
I salute the Kashmiri Pandits for their perseverance, resilience and love
of the Hindu Dharma that they still profess despite adverse circumstances. May
ISHWAR give them courage to walk on the difficult path of life as it is and May
they live in happiness for ever .
Email: sawantg.chitranjan@gmail.com Mobile: 9811173590.
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