Palestinians of India

By G.S. Bhargava

‘Palestinians’ has collec tively become a byword for persons hounded out of their homes and surviving as refugees in their own country. From the time of the implementation of the Balfour Declaration in 1948 and establishment of Israel as a Jewish homeland on what was earlier Palestine, the Palestinians have had varied images. Sometimes they were marked down as terrorists who staged daring hijacking of Western and Israeli civilian aircraft or killed and maimed Israelis whenever an opportunity arose. The skyjacking of a Libyan aircraft that ended in the spectacular Entebbe rescue operation and the massacre of Israeli sportspersons at the Munich Olympiad stand out in that connection. Despite their desperate efforts, the Palestinians have remained victims of eviction from homes and denial of repatriation. Deprivation has become their middle name.

Backed by the resources and organisation of international Jewry, there had been organised immigration into what was Palestine of Jews from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe- as also the victims of the 1930s Nazi persecution dispersed in different countries. Sizeable numbers of them were smuggled in violation of the administration. In the process, the Palestinians were uprooted and driven out, offsetting any satisfaction that the Jews had found a home.

It was in 1989-90 when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the Union Home MInister and his nominee Jagmohan was the Governor of Jammu and Kashmir that the Pandits from the Valley were hounded out of their homes. First targeted for attacks and killings, men, women and children had to flee what had been their home for centuries. It was said the essence of Kashmiriyat or the Kashmiri way of life was that Muslims and Hindus would live in harmony. It was Sufi-based eclectic Islam distinct from what obtained in the rest of India and Pakistan. In pursuance of the repudiation of Kashmiriyat there were heinous crimes attributed to the Hizbul Mujahideen. They included the assassination of Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammed Farooq (1992), the burning down of the Muslim shrine of Charar-e-Sharif (1995) and the slaughter of 23 Kashmiri Pandits, including nine women and four children (1998). The security forces, particularly the much-maligned Border Security Force (BSF), were conveniently blamed for them. The cruellest irony was Maulvi Farooq, the present Mirwaiz, supping with the assassins of his father. He had been the President of the ‘secular’ All-Parties Hurriyat Conference, which included the Jamaat-i-Islami also.

The former Mirwaiz and his uncle Mirwaiz Yusuf were bitter enemies of Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, Mirwaiz Yusuf was the leader of the Muslim Conference pitted against the National Conference. He had fled to Pakistan after the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India. Presumably the atrocities against the Pandits were meant to test the depth of Maulvi Farooq’s commitment to Pakistan; to see how far he would go in repudiating Kashmiriyat. Equally probable was the claim that they were the work of Pakistani and other mercenaries to widen the wedge between the Kashmir Liberation Front, agitating for autonomy, and the pro-Pakistan insurgents. Soon after, there were clashes between locals and foreigners within the Hizbul which led to the formation of Al-Badr.

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In this context, it is necessary to distinguish between Pandits, who had collaborated with the Dogra rulers against the National Conference, and the present-day “the nowhere people”- the apt expression for ‘internally displaced persons’ in a recent publication edited by Siby Tharakhan and published in Bangalore.

The Pandits of the Dogra period had a vested interest in keeping intact the  autocratic rule of the Maharaja because they had the lion’s share of benefits from the regime. Ramchandra Kak, the last Pandit Dewan of the Maharaja- replaced by Gopalaswami Ayyangar as the Dogra dynasty came to an end- personified that attitude. Nikhil Chakravartty, in a series of articles published in Mainstream in September 1967, had given a graphic account of religion-based discrimination practised by the Dogra ruler. Plum posts in the administration and a disproportionate share of educational opportunities went to the Pandits at the cost of the majority Muslims. Among the nuggets in Nikhil-da’s writings is that Makhanlal Fotedar was one of the leaders of a black flag demonstration staged against Nehru’s visit to the State in 1946.

Incidentally, Fotedar was Indira Gandhi’s pointsman in her dealings with Jammu and Kashmir and played a key role in the dismissal of the Farooq Government by her in 1984. He was also close to Rajiv Gandhi, even if an errand man. BK Nehru vividly describes in his memoirs Fotedar’s role in souring the Centre’s relations with Jammu and Kashmir. Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as the chief of the State Congress Committee was a collaborator in the anti-Farooq manoeuvre.

There is no agreement on the number of Pandits housed in refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi. The Pandits put it at as high as over 300,000 while the Kashmir government would say they were about 200,000. Whatever their number, they represent the suffering humanity whose plight was no fault of theirs. When Saifuddin Soz was a minister in the United Front government I asked when the Pandits would be able to go back to their homes. He was then in the National Conference. He promised that they would be rehabilitated in the Valley and compensated. It did not happen under the Farooq government.

During a visit to north Kashmir in 1995, I saw the properties abandoned by the Pandits taken over by Muslims. It was the same story in Kupwara, Baramulla and also Srinagar city. The new owners were not willing to vacate the houses. Nor was the situation conducive to the Pandits living in peace and security if they returned. The terrorists had dealt a deathblow to Kashmiriyat.

The Pandits boycotted to a man the recent Assembly elections. Fewer votes were cast in the special polling booths set up for them in Udhampur, Jammu and Delhi. Analysts ignored the development even while they dilated on the poor turnout in parts of the Valley on account of the Hurriyat’s poll-boycott call. The pandits’ protest was not under the fear of gun or on the basis of a formal boycott campaign. It was spontaneous and universal.

The common minimum programme of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the Congress, to be formed has promised to ensure the return of the Pandits to their homes. It is also to establish a Minorities Commission for them- laudable moves. But one keeps one’s fingers crossed until there is action on the ground.

- Source: Mainstream