Unrecognised minorities
The plight of Jammu & Kashmir’s Pandit community has been repeatedly
overlooked
BY GIRIDHARI LAL PANDIT
Some months ago, the European Union (EU), led by Germany,
which currently holds the EU presidency, organised a seminar on
"Minorities in India and the European Union" with participants being
invited from India and Europe. This was an event of some significance
where experts came together for the first time to address the burning
issues of how to recognise a minority and how to deal with minorities.
The opening and inaugural sessions were addressed by,
among others, Bernd Muetzelburg, German ambassador to India, Francisco da
Camara Gomes, ambassador, head of the European Commission delegation to
India, AR Antulay, union minister, Ministry of Minority Affairs and Hamid
Ansari, chairman, National Commission for Minorities. During the day,
three parallel working groups deliberated on 1) Integration policies:
theory and practice in India and Europe; 2) Religious diversity in secular
frameworks in India and Europe; and 3) Ethnic, linguistic, social,
cultural and territorial identities in Europe and India, respectively. At
the concluding session all of them came together. Presentations on
fundamental issues based on a group discussion and consensus among group
members were heard from each group.
In the final analysis, everybody appeared to agree that
there is a need for conceptual innovation to replace the terminology of
"minority" and "majority". In other words, there is a need for framework
innovation in order to deal with the complex issues of minority dynamics
such as minority identity; forms of exclusion as a mark of minority
identity; defining citizenship, state and religion; human rights within
diverse perspectives; inclusive models of participation within cultural
diversities; proportionate representation of minorities; accountability
and the mechanisms of the state; ethnic, linguistic and religious
minorities; national minorities and changing boundaries in Europe; failure
of state mechanisms in India; future strategies for inclusion, affirmative
action and monitoring of policy implementation; international monitoring
mechanisms and so on.
In search of a paradigm
No doubt, we have to go a step beyond by recognising that
there is a need worldwide for rethinking minorities, be they national
minorities like Tibetans in India or the 69 per cent German-speaking
population in South Tyrol (northern Italy) or ethnic, religious,
linguistic and tribal minorities in India or minorities caused by
conversions under life-threatening state-sponsored terrorist or
fundamentalist violence as in Kashmir.
This becomes very clear if we consider the minority
community of Kashmiri Pandits who became a minority through forced
conversions in their own homeland, Kashmir. The process just took several
centuries, from the 14th century onwards.
Further developments around 1947-1948, when India won her
independence from the British Empire and Pakistan came into existence,
brought about their exclusion from participation in political
decision-making mechanisms over the past 60 years. More recently, in
1989-1990, this was followed by a man-made catastrophe resulting in their
being uprooted en masse from the valley of Kashmir, which has been
their home since ancient times, ecologically, historically and culturally.
This final act in the tragedy of this community has made
them refugees in their own country. Their case shows how violently and
massively state mechanisms fail, when they do fail, in protecting the life
and dignity of helpless citizens and civil society, once left at the mercy
of terrorists and fundamentalists. What made the Pandits’ situation
especially precarious was the fact that the plan to eliminate them en
masse within their own homeland was not only sponsored but hatched by
Pakistan and its intelligence agencies. Under this plan, Pakistan could
claim some success in her deal with the terrorists since innocent Pandits
were brutally killed while others received warnings to leave the valley or
face death. The miracle is that most of them have survived, by leaving the
valley under cover of darkness one by one, although every preparation had
been made to wipe them out in 1989-1990 and earlier, in 1986. Several
questions arise in this context of ethnic cleansing.
Why and how did state mechanisms fail at all levels in
Kashmir and in New Delhi in 1989-1990 and thereafter? Why did they do
nothing as the Kashmir tragedy of 1989-1990 unfolded? It is hard to
believe that there were no state mechanisms in place or that the state is
not accountable to its civil society, to its citizens. But so long as no
inquiry is conducted by the state into the tragic and violent events of
1989-1990 and its own failure in Kashmir, the whole world would have no
choice but to believe this even though it is well known that India has the
necessary institutions in place, including its National Commission for
Minorities (NCM).
With Kashmir as our example, how are we to address the
whole issue of rethinking minority dynamics? Is there already a paradigm
in place, say in Europe and elsewhere in the world, that lays down the
rules of the game on how to treat minorities if they are already well
recognised? Are there clear rules about how to recognise a minority before
we think of how to deal with this? If so, is there an urgent need for a
paradigm shift? Most experts feel that both India and Europe have
paradigms in place for recognising and integrating minorities. In India
there is the NCM, under the union Ministry of Minority Affairs. Yet there
are in existence minorities not recognised by the Government of India, nor
by the NCM. Just think of the Kashmiri Pandits who have been robbed of
everything, including their dignity. Similar problems cannot be ruled out
in the European context.
To pose the problem in a nutshell: Assuming that there are
some mechanisms in place, such as the NCM in New Delhi, that are meant to
take care of minorities’ interests and their well-being, it must be
admitted that there is no paradigm or comprehensive framework in place to
recognise hitherto unrecognised minorities. In the South Asian context,
the real issue is not how to bring about a paradigm shift since there is
no paradigm in place yet. The problem is how to evolve a paradigm for the
first time, to clear the fog surrounding minority realities and minority
dynamics worldwide. Thus a paradigm is needed:
Ø to
recognise minorities as these crop up from time to time under a diversity
of circumstances;
Ø to understand the complexities of each single minority;
Ø to put in place appropriate mechanisms for sustained
negotiations with minority problems;
Ø to put in place mechanisms for evolving policies and
decisions in which minorities have a meaningful role to play;
Ø to put in place mechanisms for delivering justice
without delays;
Ø to put in place mechanisms for dealing with state
failure/retreat of the state where implementation is concerned, making its
mechanisms accountable to its citizens, to civil society;
Ø to put in place mechanisms at the
national (and possibly the international) level for monitoring all that is
being implemented.
Kashmiri Pandit minority
Rights of recognition: During 1989-1990, members of the
Kashmiri Pandit minority were individually and collectively robbed of
their dignity and fundamental human rights thanks to a well-planned
strategy by Pakistan-trained terrorists who have been operating in the
Kashmir valley for the last two decades. The mechanisms of the state, both
at the centre and in the valley, watched the implementation of the
terrorist plan without doing anything to safeguard the dignity and the
fundamental rights of the Kashmiri Pandit minority.
There are a number of fundamental issues relating to the
Kashmiri Pandit minority that call for most urgent attention – issues that
are far more pressing than the "peace process" with Pakistan which has
been the main actor in engineering, inciting and openly supporting
terrorism in the valley of Kashmir since 1947. According to India’s
defence minister AK Antony, "The threat of terrorism is still very much
there. Infiltration from across the Line of Control may have slightly
stabilised but terrorists are now trying new routes. Infiltrators and
terrorists are getting support from across Pakistan. It is a fact" (The
Times of India, March 26, 2007).
This is no more than ritual dynamics. The minister’s
ambivalent statement came in response to demands for troop reduction made
by Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, chief of the People’s Democratic Party in
Kashmir valley. Similar ritual dynamics are visible in regular news items
carried in national newspapers, which indicate progress on issues within
the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan and the likelihood of
their signing new agreements on Siachen. India’s stand on terrorist
violence in Jammu & Kashmir will remain ambivalent until we openly
question Pakistan’s dirty role in the "Kashmir issue", a role it has been
playing ever since it came into existence in 1947.
India’s stand will continue to suffer from this
ambivalence also because of our inability to question the foundations of
the American-Pakistan strategic partnership. One of the most tested
pillars of this partnership is the "dirty role" Pakistan is required to
play for the USA in a changing world.
It is hardly surprising then that there has been no word
from the Government of India on the plight of the Kashmiri Pandit
minority. Have they not lived in the valley as a minority, not only for
the past 60 years of Indian democracy but throughout the past several
centuries? Today the whole world knows the answer. It becomes imperative
to articulate the complexities of their plight because they are now living
as unrecognised refugees in their own country. As a first step, we would
like to bring into the public domain the following demands.
First, the Government of India should, without further
delay and failure, institute an inquiry by a retired Supreme Court judge
into the "hows" and "whys" of the failure of state mechanisms, both at the
centre and the state level, in 1989-1990 and thereafter, which greatly
helped Pakistan and Pakistan-trained terrorists to implement their plan to
kill innocent Kashmiri Pandits selectively in Srinagar and across villages
in Kashmir valley and force the rest of them to leave Kashmir valley for
good under cover of darkness.
By the middle of 1990 the valley was emptied of all of
them. The successful implementation of their plan took several months. The
demand for an inquiry in this context is not new. It has been repeatedly
raised over the past 17 years by individuals, families and groups affected
by this man-made catastrophe.
Secondly, there is already in place a Ministry of
Minority Affairs under the Government of India as well as a National
Commission for Minorities. But the endangered Kashmiri Pandit minority,
surviving for the past 17 years as an unrecognised refugee community in
India, is yet to be recognised as a minority by the NCM. We the members of
the Kashmiri Pandit minority would like to know whether such recognition
will ever be granted.
Thirdly, members of the Kashmiri Pandit minority would
like to know how long we have to wait before our dignity and full
participation in life and culture in the Kashmir valley, including
political life, are fully restored. How long do we have to remain refugees
in our own country? We should, at least, be granted a place in the valley
with our houses, which have seen plunder and destruction during these 17
years, rebuilt, and with security of life and livelihood as guaranteed
under the Indian Constitution. We need to know when this will become
possible, as we cannot be subjected to such inhuman treatment and forced
exile for life. When can we see our fundamental rights fully restored?
Fourthly, all cultural and religious places of worship
of the Kashmiri Pandit minority should be restored to their pre-1989-1990
glory wherever these have been subjected to desecration and destruction,
and provided with security cover against fundamentalist onslaughts.
Fifthly, all members of the Kashmiri Pandit minority
should be, wherever they are, compensated for the atrocities inflicted
upon them during the past 17 years of life in exile. This should also
cover those who have not been recognised among the affected
families/population simply because no mechanism has been set in place for
them. These persons have been breadwinners for their families who lived in
the Kashmir valley until 1989-1990 and who were forced to take jobs
outside Jammu & Kashmir from the 1950s-1990 due to lack of opportunities
in their ancestral homeland. By simply ignoring their interests, how long
will the families of the Kashmiri Pandit minority remain divided families
even in exile?
Sixthly, pending the findings of a properly
constituted inquiry committee, the Government of India should bring before
the parliament a white paper on the total number of members of the
Kashmiri Pandit minority who have been forced to leave the valley from the
1950s-1989 and since 1989-1990. Accordingly, their proportional
representation in parliament and in the Jammu & Kashmir state assembly
should be legislated without delay.
(Giridhari Lal Pandit is a professor of philosophy at the
University of Delhi.)
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