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Kashmiri women speak
A group of Kashmiri women, including a
Kashmiri Pandit forced to migrate to Jammu, choose to go calling on the
conscience of the rest of India, starting with Mumbai
BY TEESTA SETALVAD
Eight women from the violence–hit state of Jammu and Kashmir visited Mumbai
in late December, bringing tales of deep rupture and brutal violence to its
people. “We hope that Mumbai will listen and try to understand what we undergo
everyday,” said Naseem Shifai, a Kashmiri poet who was part of the group. Over
the next four days, at three intense meetings held in different parts of the
city, Mumbaikars tried to do just that.
“Kashmir, once romanticised for it’s beauty, peace
and prosperity, is torn apart by the ruptures caused by brutal, everyday
violence; our children draw guns and blood and play bunker games,” said Samia, a
doctor at a public hospital in Srinagar.
Hospitals do not have sufficient blood, amputation
is a severe problem, and children suffer from blindness caused by explosives and
explosions. Yet the territorial dispute and the politics of the struggle there
drive the images of Kashmir in the rest of India. The people are rarely
remembered, their tragedies easily forgotten.
Kashmiri Women — A Time for Listening, was a
programme especially undertaken by the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation
and Sabrang to open communication between the hapless state and the rest of
India, beginning with Mumbai. Three separate meetings with different sections of
Mumbai’s citizens saw this vibrant group pour out their anguish and plight to an
audience that was shaken each time.
At least 30-40,000 widows and as many orphans are
crying out for a massive humanitarian drive to help heal the pain of alienation
and violence in the Valley. The meetings of the group, which included four
social activists, including Nighat Shafi Pandit of HELP, a foundation that runs
an orphanage; generated widespread response, especially from the group of
Marathi, Hindi and Urdu intellectuals and writers who hosted a meeting through
Akshara Publications– resulting in immediate links and offers of assistance.
More importantly, however, it has led to what may
result in more enduring links with writers, journalists and artistes making
plans to carry regular team visits to the state.
Among the team of eight
women from J&K, who were accompanied by Sushobha Barve of the CDR, was Professor
Indu Kilam, a Kashmiri Pandit who was forced to leave the valley in 1989, after
sections of the militant movement turned distinctly threatening to the Pandit
minority.
Living in refugee camps for years until she could
obtain a house in Jammu, she still feels utterly alienated in the place that
gave her refuge. “I have no address here; no one knows me or recognises me. My
parents died in Jammu, heartbroken at what we had left behind. We need to have
the strength to put our suffering behind us and forge a new beginning. We have
suffered for sure. But the Kashmiri Muslims who stayed there have suffered in a
way, much more. We need to make a new beginning.”
More meetings have followed the initiative between
different groups from the Valley, elsewhere in the state and the rest of India.
One of the thrusts of the campaign is the question: Will India assume moral
responsibility for the widows and orphans, survivors of brutal violence? As
important is the question whether different sections of the state are willing to
dialogue and reconcile their differences?
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