Kashmir named after Maharishi Kashyapa, started as a land of great natural beauty and religious harmony from the mountains to the valleys, to the lakes.
There were no words to describe its beautiful landscape other than Paradise on earth. One can only experience the serenity and peace found in Kashmir's borders. Despite its beauty, Kashmir has been torn apart time and time again primarily by religious and political conflicts.
The History of Kashmir is tarnished with the oppression and cruelty towards the Kashmiri pandits under various rulers throughout. Fast forwarding to the present, Kashmir is known to be in a state of perpetual turmoil and frequent riots and protests plague the once peaceful land of Kashmir.
Syed Shah Hamadani is credited for the establishment of Islamic society in the valley. Attempts were made to enforce Islam with great strength. The first thing done by the Sufi Saint was to build his Khanquah after demolishing a small temple, as mentioned in the Baharistan-i-Shahi. Dr. Farooq Peer writes, “The Valley of Kashmir is indebted to the great saint for cleaning it from idol worship and blessing it with the gift of Islam.”(1) Kashmiri Hindus survived seven exodus throughout the History of Kashmir, here is a brief account of the same.
THE FIRST EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS
(1389-1413 Under Shah Mir,Timur-i-Lang, Sikander Butshikan)
This exodus lasted from 1389 to 1413 and it all started with Shah Mir, who did the groundwork and laid the foundation of Muslim rule in Kashmir. The Muslim historian Hasan describes this period as an orgy of cruelty, violence and terror let loose on the Brahmins.
Shah Mir was soon after followed by Timur-i-Lang. He along with his followers drove a huge wedge between the majority Hindus and the minority Muslims. In fact, Timur even persuaded the Sultan (at that time) to make it a law to persecute Kashmiri pandits.
Following, soon after him came Sultan Sikandar also known as Sikandar Butshikan. He followed in the footsteps of Timur-i-Lang and Sultan Shah Mir who had preceded him, forcing people to convert to Islam.
Hindu festivals, rituals, processions and music were banned. Even application of tilaks was not allowed. Jizya tax was levied and an institute called Sheikh-o-Islam was made to ensure that Islam is followed strictly.
Srivara, a historian of Kashmir, records, referring to the destruction of literature, “Sikander burnt all books the same way as fire burns hay”. Traditional arts that did not find any place in the Islamic scheme of things were ruined. Grand ancient mandirs and viharas, and murtis of the finest possible workmanship were destroyed. The riches were used to build mosques and khanqahs. The temple of Martand, which was of great significance to the Hindu civilization, was destroyed by digging deep into its foundations, removing the foundation stones, filling the gaping wounds with logs of wood and finally putting it to flames (2).
Prior to this, huge hammers were used for one full year only to break and vandalize its fine sculptures. Jonaraja, the Kashmiri historian (15th century) has also elaborated on the subject. Abul Fazl writes that the Sultan was a rigid follower of religion and a bigot, and he overthrew the temples and persecuted the people who were not of his faith (3). Firishta adds that all the temples were pulled down and idols of gold and silver were melted down (4).
Hindus were given a choice between converting, exile or getting killed. They fled to neighbouring regions of Kishtawar and Bhadrawah via Simthan pass and also to various provinces of India via Batote (known as Bata-wath, the path of the Bhattas or Kashmiri Hindus). Kashmiri Pandits numbering over one lakh were drowned in the lake and were burned at a spot in the vicinity of Rainawari in Srinagar. It is known as Bhatta Mazaar (the graveyard of Kashmiri Pandits) (5). Hindu women were raped and sold. Avoiding brutalities, many committed suicide by jumping into rivers or wells (6).
Drawing a graphic picture of the miseries and traumatic experiences of the exodus, Jonaraja writes, “Crowds of Hindus ran away in different directions through by-passes; their social life was totally disrupted, their life became miserable with hunger and fatigue; many died in scorching heat; many got emaciated due to under-nourishment; many lived on alms in villages enroute to the provinces in India; some disguised as Muslims roamed about the country searching their distressed families; their means of livelihood were snatched from them to prevent their education and break their morale; the Hindus lolled out their tongues like dogs searching dog’s morsel at every door”(6).
THE SECOND EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS (1506-1585, Under Chak Dynasty)
During the second exodus , the Chaks were in power in Kashmir. The Chaks were a group that had become a part of the Army when Shah Mir came into power in Kashmir. The Chaks gained power by crushing their political rivals by murder and conspiracy.
They were no less ruthless than the rulers who had come before them. Fattah Khan from 1506 to 1516 with Shams Chak and Malik Musa Raina (a convertee his real name was Som Chandra) who were his prime ministers demolished many Hindu places of worship and tried to remove all traces of infidelity and idol worship from Kashmir. This was also known as dark ages or the dark period in Kashmiri history because it was the ruthless era of the Chaks.
The Chaks were actually Shia Muslims, whereas, the rulers who had come before them were Sunnis. They like the others, forcibly converted many Brahmins to Islam. Ghazi Chak, the next prime minister was even more ruthless, he persecuted 900 Kashmiri pandits everyday.
In order to forcibly convert some of the Hindus he force-fed them beef. So that, they in order to live with themselves had to convert to Islam. Moreover, thousands of cows were slaughtered every week just because Muslims knew the Hindus worshipped cows.
As a result of all these punishments, of all the violence for being Hindus, there was a massive exodus where many pandits once again fled their own motherland to never return.
THE THIRD EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS (1585-1753, Under Mughals like Jahangir, Shahjahan, Aurangzeb)
The plight of Pandits in Kashmir continues even under Mughal Empire from 1585 to 1753. The Mughal period started with Akbar who is known for being humane. Emperor Akbar embraced the idea of letting religion coexist and allowed Kashmiri pandits to come back into Kashmir and worship their religion freely.
Not only that, he removed the Jazia or the poll tax that was imposed on Kashmiri pandits during the reign before him. Just when Kashmiri pandits started to feel back at home in their own homeland of Kashmir- came his son Jehangir Khan, he did not believe in the same religious tolerance that Akbar had believed in. Like him, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb were also interested in the torture and mass extermination of Kashmiri pandits.
Aurangzeb one of the most ruthless leaders, immediately acted upon converting all of India to Islam including Kashmiri pandits. He used violence and reinforced Jazia or the poll tax the Akbar had removed. The first step that Aurangzeb did was to exterminate all Hindu scholars because he believed that they would slow down the process of conversion.
Thousands of people from the communities were converted to Islam or moved to neighbouring regions to continue practicing Hinduism.
As is evident, the overall trend of all these exodus were that certain Muslim leaders came into power and as a result crushed the Kashmiri pandit's religion and culture by either forcefully converting them to Islam, killing them or leaving them with no option other than to flee their beloved home.
THE FOURTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS (During 1753 under the rule of the Afghans)
The fourth Exodus of Kashmiri pandits took place in 1753, which was under the rule of different Afghan governors.
Kashmiri pandits were savagely treated and tyrannized by many Afghan governors. Thus, 66 years of Afghan rule is characterized by an exemplary official brutality, coercion, economic exploitation, wastage of state resources, mis governance, corruption and atrocities in Kashmir. Afghan leaders continued mass extermination of Kashmiri pandits which led to once again exodus of Kashmiri pandits from their homes to nearby regions of Poonch and Kabul.
New methods to humiliate the Pandits were devised. Hindu granthas were confiscated and used to construct a bund along a tributary of Jhelum, now called Suth. When killing with sword got monotonous, the Hindus were put in pairs, tied in grass sacks and drowned in the Dal Lake. To make it worse, Mir Hazar, the Afghan governor, introduced the use of leather sacks instead of grass sacks. In those days, any Muslim was free to jump on the back of Hindus to take rides. This practice was called Khos. Tilaks, turbans, and wearing of shoes were banned for Pandits. To save their daughters from the lust of Afghans, many had to shave their heads or cut off their noses. Thousands were killed or converted.
Many Pandits were appointed as Kardars or agricultural tax collectors. If the crops failed and ample tax was not brought – these Kardars were tortured in any way as the governor pleased.
There was a concentration camp near Nishat Garden where Hindus were tortured. The fourth exodus came to an end when the Sikhs finally captured Kashmir ending the rule of the ruthless Afghan governors and bringing peace to the valley.
THE FIFTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS (1900s)
Due to Pandit Birbal Dhar's help, Maharaja Ranjit Singh was able to re-establish a Hindu government in the J&K state after the Sikhs took over Jammu and Kashmir. This was the period where all the religions were able to coexist in harmony.
But many of the other Muslim rulers in India started rising up and forming an organisation in Kashmir to subjugate the Hindu rule in the state of J&K. So the Muslims started creating conflicts and their dissatisfaction slowly led to problematic situations in J&K. Many Muslims started getting annoyed by seeing the comfortable lifestyle of Kashmiri pandits and they started having issues with the higher positions held by educated Kashmiri pandits in society and in government.
As a result, on July 13th 1931 now known as Black Day, Kashmiri Muslims repeated history against Kashmiri Hindus, they looted and murdered many people and ransacked property in Srinagar. They went berserk everywhere particularly in downtown Srinagar looting Kashmiri Pandits shops and houses and setting them on fire. It was in fact, the looters day and the real martyrs were the Kashmiri Pandits. Numerous Kashmiri Pandits were killed and many wounded. Legend has it that there was a communal orgy at Kanikoot, Tehsil Nagam, Distt, Badgam, a few KMs away from the city of Srinagar. About a dozen houses of the Kashmiri Pandits were ransacked, looted and then torched and several KPs were murdered for absolutely no fault on their part. Sheikh Abdhullah in his ever first address to the KPs at Sheetalnath in Srinagar, is on record having blamed it on the goons for the communal disharmony resulting in loot and murder of the Kashmiri Pandits.
A mob of furious Muslims gate crashed into the central Jail in Srinagar to extricate one Qadir, a bearer of a European, who was being tried there for sedition. The state police posted there fired on the rowdy mob killing ten agitators. The Muslims crowded and directed their vengeance and vindictiveness against the soft and easy targets, the KPs, who were taken unawares and who had a long history of meeting violence with non-violence as sufferance has been their badge since they came into contact with the Muslims in Kashmir. Those responsible for flouting law and order and creating mayhem and glory on a spree of loot and murder were praised and glorified as freedom fighters and exalted as martyrs for the cause of rights of Muslims. They went scot-free and the Maharaja's administration proved too weak and ineffective to afford protection to the terrorized Kashmiri Pandits. As a result of this, slowly, Dogra rulers did not support Kashmiri pandits and again Kashmiri pandits were unable to retain their safety in Kashmir.
They no longer had any rights, they were again forced into exodus and to take refuge at different nearby regions of Kashmir.
THE SIXTH EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS 1947
After independence was granted to India from the British, even though, the entirety of the nation was celebrating the victory of independence. Kashmiri pandits were unable to do so, because Pakistan launched an attack with the help of Muslim tribal groups on Kashmiri Hindus and pandits specifically.
During 1947-48, the Pakistani army and the Muslim tribesmen invaded Jammu and Kashmir. Thousands of Hindus and Sikhs were indiscriminately killed, raped, maimed and brutalised. According to various estimates, more than 50,000 Hindus and Sikhs lost their lives. The tales of brutalisation where victims were innocent Hindu and Sikh civilians are unparalleled in modern human history.
Dharam Mitter, a resident of Mirpur during 1947-48, self-published a memoir in 2004 titled My Jammu and Kashmir: The Forgotten History where he gave details of what happened on 25 November 1947. In a single day, 13,000 Hindus and Sikhs were killed while 5,000 girls and women were taken away by the Muslim invaders, tribals (also known as ‘Kabaylis’) and the Pakistani army. Some estimates put these numbers at more than 22,000.
On this fateful day when the Kabaylis and Pakistani army entered the city of Mirpur they immediately started killing men and raping the women and girls of Hindus and Sikhs who were trying to get out of the city together in a caravan.
Everyone kept on running wherever he found his way. Once again Kashmiri pandits had to leave their homes to seek refuge in Srinagar and nearby regions. Post-independence period in Jammu and Kashmir led to an unmistakably slow and steady exodus of the Kashmiri pandit community and this was primarily due to the fact that Kashmiri pandits simply had no rights, privileges or opportunities anymore.
THE SEVENTH EXODUS OF KASHMIR PANDITS IN 1990s
The exodus of Kashmiri Hindus is their en masse migration, or large-scale flight, from the Kashmir Valley in the wake of a largely political separatist uprising in the early months of 1990. Some 90,000–100,000 Pandits of a total population of 120,000–140,000 felt compelled to leave, and 30–80 individuals were killed. Many Kashmiri Pandits experienced fear and panic set off by the killings of some high-profile officials amongst their ranks, and the accompanying rumours and uncertainty might have been the latent causes of the exodus.
Political violence, especially the killings in the 1990s of a number of Pandit officials, may have shaken the community's sense of security. The Pandits killed in targeted assassinations by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) included some high-profile ones. Occasional anti Hindu calls were made from mosques on loudspeakers asking Pandits to leave the valley. News of threatening letters created fear, though in later interviews the letters were seen to have been sparingly received. There were disparities between the accounts of the two communities, the Muslims and the Pandits. Many Kashmiri Pandits believed they were forced out of the Valley either by Pakistan and the militants it supported or the Kashmiri Muslims as a group.
At the time of their exodus, very few Pandits expected their exile to last beyond a few months. Kashmiri Pandits initially moved to the Jammu Division, where they lived in refugee camps, sometimes in unkept and unclean surroundings. As the exile lasted longer, many displaced Pandits who were in the urban elite were able to find jobs in other parts of India, but those in the lower-middle-class, especially those from rural areas languished longer in refugee camps, with some living in poverty; this generated tensions with the host communities—whose social and religious practices, although Hindu, differed from those of the brahmin Pandits—and rendered assimilation more difficult. Many displaced Pandits in the camps succumbed to emotional depression and a sense of helplessness. Kashmiri Pandits in exile have also written autobiographical memoirs, novels, and poetry to record their experiences and to understand them. 19 January is observed by the Kashmiri Hindu communities as Exodus Day.
This Exodus of Kashmiri pandits was completely unimaginable and horrifying incident of the history because of the fact that at this time India was free from any Mughal, Afghan or any other rule.
J&K was now a part of free India still this kind of barbaric, horrendous incident took place with all Kashmiri pandits, when they were forced first to either convert or leave Kashmir otherwise to die as punishment for being Kashmiri Pandits.
This seventh Exodus of Kashmir never officially stopped and it’s on going. Advocate Tika Lal Taploo, Justice Neelkant Ganju and many others tried to take stand for Kashmiri pandits, suffered brutally and ultimately were gruesomely murdered.
The seventh exodus in Kashmir is still not officially over. Kashmir is till now in a state of political and religious turmoil.
References:
1. Farooq Peer (Secretary J&K Board of School Education), “Mir Syed Ali Hamadani (RA) The Inventor of Islam in Kashmir”, The Kashmir Horizon, 2018
2. Hasan, Tarikh-i-Kashmir, A 17thcentury Persian chronicle.
3. Ain-i-Akbari, Abul Fazlm Vol. II, p .387
4. Tarikhi-Firishta. Firishta, Vol. IV, pp. 464 65.
5. K.L.Bhan, “Paradise Lost – Seven Exoduses of Kashmiri Pandits,” Kashmiri News Network, First Edition, April 2003
6. Mohan Lal Koul, “Kashmir: Past and Present – Unravelling the Mystique”, Kashmir News Network, First Edition, August 2002
7. Jonaraja, Kings of Kashmir, Sts 662, 663, 664, 665, 666, 668, 669ab,669cd. Jonaraja was a Sanskrit poet and a court historian of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin, who supplemented Kalhana’s Rajatarangini to cover post-Kalhana era from 12-14 century.
8. https://pragyata.com/kashmir-an-overview-of-the-seven-exoduses-of-hindus/