I express my gratitude to the organizers of this symposium for having invited me here to bring before you the suffering and genocide faced by my community, which was consigned to the servitude of a Muslim State even before it was freed from the slavery of the British rule.

My community lost its freedom when the rest of India awoke to its freedom in 1947. There is enough harm that has been done not only to the state of Jammu & Kashmir but to the whole nation by providing dishonest intellectual and even political cover to conceal the real character and content of the Muslim separatist and secessionist movement in Jammu & Kashmir.

Muslim communalism and separatism, which has ravaged the valley relentlessly for the last forty years, imparted the Muslim secessionist movement with ideological content and tactical direction by camouflaging it under the banners of sub-national autonomy, regional identity and even secularism. Perceptional aberrations have always characterized the official as well as the non-official responses to the upheavals, which have rocked the J&K state over these years.

The Muslim jehad in Kashmir is a struggle ideologically committed to pan-Islamic fundamentalism and not just cross-border terrorism. It is a civilisational war being waged against Indian culture to force Muslim power to expand eastwards into the Himalayan lands. Once Jammu & Kashmir, the center-spur of the Himalayan region is de-Hinduised, there will be no obstacle in the way of Muslim power spreading across the upper Punjab and into Himachal Pradesh. Pakistan, and its ideological protégé the Taliban have created an Islamic theocratic State in Afghanistan through the instrument of militarized pan-Islamic fundamentalism; they are not content to rest their efforts with Afghanistan and are now engaged in violently subverting both Islamic and non-Islamic-States with the same malignant intention. For Pakistan and its allies, the Himalayas are an impediment to their entry into Central Asia.

But the Indian political and intellectual class for fear of being labeled anti-secular, does not want to recognize this. They do not realize that J&K is an important part of the national identity of India, which is Sanskrit in origin and content. Committed to the unity of the foundations of our heritage, the Hindus in Kashmir have always formed the frontline of the resistance against Muslim jehad.

The Hindus of Kashmir are an ancient people. The contours of their identity are determined by their hoary and ancient heritage, the cultural contents of which go deep back into proto-vedic times. Their language too has its origin in the proto-vedic period. They have lived in Kashmir from times immemorial, which reaches back to the "Burzahom civilization" between 3500 to 4500 BC. It is Kashmir, which became the epicenter of the Sanskrit civilization of India and to the Kashmiri Hindus goes the credit of evolving the tenets of Saivite monism - which represented both a theological doctrine aimed at establishing the unified field of universal existence and the philosophical concept of logical positivism.

Enunciating through the religious philosophy of Saivite monism, the ultimate truth of eternal consciousness manifesting itself as Creation, was the greatest contribution of the Hindus of Kashmir to the Sanskrit civilization of India. The Hindus of Kashmir are not a part of the so-called composite culture. Islamic Sufism did not represent the cultural and spiritual ethos of Kashmir. It represented the liberal theology of Islam, which incidentally does not accept the concept of composite culture. Sufism did not grow in Kashmir. It was never an abode of the so-called ‘rishis’ of sufi order as is claimed. Lalleshwari represented the last resistance to the persecution and ethnic extermination, which the Hindus were subject to.

Before the advent of Islam in the 14th century AD, there were more than 15,000 Hindu shrines. In 1380 AD Syed Ali Hamdani - the so called great Sufi saint took refuge in Kashmir and converted a Durga temple in Srinagar into his headquarters for the spread of Islam - the shrine was called Khanaqah - e -mohallah. When sultan Qutubudin died, the occasion was used to grab the Ramaswamy temple, the premier Hindu shrine, which now exists as a Muslim ziyarat. Later Zain-ul-Abidin destroyed most of the temples including the splendid ones at Avantipura and Parihaspura. Hindu literature was drowned in the Dal Lake with jehadi zeal. Sanskrit was replaced with Persian and the persecution of Kashmiri Hindus for not co-operating with them took place mercilessly at the time of the reign of Sikandar, the third ruler after the muslim invasion of J&K, and only 11 families remained. Even today the persecution of Kashmiri Hindus continues and has been continuing ever since independence.

During the accession, a Muslim group led by Mohideen Karra went on to father the first pro-Pakistan movement in Kashmir. Seasoned communists like Peer Giyasuddin, Abdul Ahmed Bhatt, and Ghulam Rasool Renzu backed Mohideen Karra. They campaigned for the Muslim majority Kashmir becoming a part of Pakistan. Even Sheikh Abdullah did not do anything then to counter the ongoing sectarian campaign.

The voice of the minority community was drowned in the cacophony of Islamic revivalism and fundamentalism. The only Hindu constituencies of Habbakadal and Ranawari were delimited by Sheikh Abdullah and redefined to the total disadvantage of the Hindus - rendering them ineffective even from electing their representatives to the state legislature. In most cases Hindus had to resort to knocking the doors of the judiciary for redress. But unfortunately the state judiciary failed to protect and uphold the rights of the Hindus of Kashmir. They were repeatedly forced to move the Supreme Court of India for justice. The case of Triloki Nath Tikku and others Vs. The State may serve as a case in point where the Supreme Court gave a verdict in favour of restoring the promotions of over a hundred Hindu school teachers who had been superceded in gross violation of their rights. Even though the Supreme Court was clear in its judgement that the promotions of these Hindu teachers must be implemented, the state government chose not to heed the Supreme Court directive. The Hindu community was always faced with bottlenecks in opportunities and in jobs in the state where openings especially for Muslim candidates were made irrespective of who deserved it.

In fact Hindus never had more than 9 per cent representation in the jobs. Yet self-styled human rights agencies in the country and the politicians joined the chorus of disinformation and cited disproportionate opportunities for Hindus as being the prime cause for the disenchantment of Kashmiri Muslim youth. It may be interesting for you all to know that Saudi Arabian emissaries visited Kashmir to work out an understanding between Sheikh Abdullah and the Jamait - e Islami and the Saudi king's sister spent two years in Kashmir from 1980 - 1982 in the Rajbagh area of Srinagar. The Jamait-e-Islami was prevailed upon by the emissaries not to challenge the supremacy of Sheikh Abdullah and in turn the National Conference was asked not to create any hindrance in the Jamait's campaign for Islamization and secessionism. Several cases during this period were withdrawn against Al-Fateh and a bureaucratic structure with communal overtones was patronized.

During the last days of Sheikh Abdullah two important orders: - order no REV/S/340 of 1981 dated 24/10/1981 and order Number13 the J&K gazette, 28th October 1982 /6th kas,1904.729 were issued. Through these orders more than 684 villages received new Islamized names in place of historical one. Also Sankaracharya hill became Suleiman Teng, Anantnag became Islamabad, apart from others.

Even as Pakistan was designing operation Topac - blue print of Pakistani proxy war with India over J&K to be executed by the ISI, the notorious Pakistani agency, Dr.Farooq Abdullah who was practicing in Kent in England and a few others laid the foundation of J&K Liberation Front in Birmingham. It is this organization that received patronage from Pakistan as well as the ruling government of J&K. It was Dr.Farooq Abdullah who in 1986 took salutes of the JKLF formations in area like Shikargah in Tral area of Kashmir.

And it was in turn this organization of Kashmiri Muslims that got arms and weaponry like AK 47 and AK 56 to kill the Hindu minority.

Like the killing of a young nurse in her 20s, Sarla Bhatt who was gruesomely raped and then her eyes were gouged out. The gory tale did not end there- her chest was burnt by cigarette butts to make the JKLF insignia. Most of the militant organizations got overt and covert support from the Jamit-e-islami J&K which is not a part of the Jamait-e-Islami Hind.

Tikka Lal Taploo, Justice Bhat and many more prominent Hindus were butchered in broad daylight and barborous death dances were performed around them. Hair was torn and in many cases blood was drunk apart from cutting various body parts of the victim.

The 19th of January 1990 was no exception. Loud speakers atop masjids around all areas in Kashmir blared threats to the Hindus 'agar Kashmir me rehna hai, allah hu akbar kehna hai' and frenzied cries of 'nallay taqdeer allh-hu-akbar' rent the air. It was not just telephonic and written death threats. It was a public and open call to kill one and all of the Hindus.

Local newspapers carried advertisements saying 'asya ghazi Kashmir batnain san te batav roose' which means we want Kashmir with the Hindu and Pandit women folk minus their men. The killings of Prof.Ganju and his wife was engineered by none other than their neighbours who had pointed out to the militants, the empty tins that both were hiding in.

In the case of Doordarshan Director Lassa Kaul it was no different. The Kashmiri Pandits were killed in thousands all over Kashmir and the others were forced to leave the valley under the threat of militancy and terrorism of Islamic Jihad.

Today more than half a million people are displaced and living a life of suffering as refuges in their own country. More than 235 religious places belonging to the Hindus have been burnt down while others have been reduced to rubble and some of them even turned into mosques. Many Hindu homes wear a deserted, and neglected look, overrun with vegetation and substantial numbers have been occupied by the Muslims. Houses and property belonging to the Hindus have been looted.

And we the Kashmiri Pandits, the original inhabitants of the valley have been left to live in sub-human conditions all over the country. Our community suffers from serious health problems and physical and mental trauma, sickness due to increased psychological stress and strain apart from poverty and unhygienic conditions in which most have been forced to live. Our mortality rate has increased manifold and the birth rate has fallen steeply and we are being killed not only by Islamic terrorism but also by heat stroke and snake bites apart from depression and the trauma of losing our home and hearth. The community has faced genocide and ethnic persecution and therefore the call for homeland has become natural and necessary as we are moving towards extinction. Only and only a homeland can guarantee us the identity that we are seeking.

A homeland for these half a million people in Kashmir itself, is the only solution for the displaced Kashmiri Hindus. Homeland is where the home is, where the land is and it goes without saying that our homeland is the land of Kashmir. Therefore we demand that in accordance with the margdarshan resolution of homeland by Panun Kashmir the establishment of a homeland for the Kashmiri Hindus in the valley comprising the regions in the valley to the east and north of river Jhelum; and that the Constitution of India be made applicable in letter and spirit in this homeland in order to ensure right of life, liberty, faith and equality.

Our homeland should be placed under Union Territory status so that it can evolve its own economic and political infrastructure. At present the Indian government and its ministers including the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister are talking of ceasefire and peace overtures - can they explain as to what they are doing for us - the real victims, in terms of human cost, of the terrorism in J&K? They are talking to the likes of Yaseen Malik, the killer of innocent people and of the Indian security forces. They are talking to Syed Shah Geelani who is a hardcore Jamati and they are hopeful of talks within the 'insaniyat' framework! Can they tell us what 'insaniyat' is? Is this to turn a blind eye to our homelessness, our decreasing numbers, our continuing suffering? Is the government ignoring our tragedy because we are Hindus and have not taken to arms like the Muslims of our state?

I want to bring to the notice of this august gathering that subversive activities are being carried out by the state government. Earlier Farooq Abdullah supported the JKLF and now his government has passed the State Autonomy Committee (SAC) Report and the Regional Autonomy Committee Report. If the recommendations on page 184 of the SAC report are to be implemented, then the center will have no role or say in the affairs of the state apart from defence and communications. The state will have its own sardar-e-riyasat apart from its own flag.

The 9 member SAC has recommended the deletion of the word 'temporary' in the Indian Consitution with regard to the provision in Article 370 and that it should be replaced with the word 'special'. Another important recommendation of the committee is the application of Article 012 of the report, which would mean that the all-India civil service personnel would no longer serve the J&K state which will provide for its own civil service cadre. The nefarious plans of the state government do not end here. They went on to pass a state-regional autonomy committee report under the garb of good governance and rapid social development. The report recommends reconstitution of the state into eight regions for decentralization of political and economic powers along ethnic-religious lines.

Presently the state of J&K is divided into three regions - Jammu, Ladakh and Kashmir. According to these recommendations, Kashmir itself is to be divided into three regions – ONE -Kamraze, comprising Baramullah and Kupwara, TWO - Nundabad, comprising Badgam and Srinagar districts and THREE - Maraze, Comprising Anantnag and Pulwama. The committee also recommends carving out the Chenab valley comprising Doda and Mahore. Pir Panchal is to be created with Rajouri and Poonch and the Hindu region of Jammu comprising of Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur, will be the three regions of Jammu. Ladakh will be divided into Muslim majority Kargil and Buddhist majority Leh.

The report works totally against the interests of the Hindus of the state and Jammu is already surrounded by a Muslim umbrella which was created systematically with the full knowledge and support of the state government. This division of the J&K state is nothing less than the Dixon Plan, which partitioned India at the time of independence. It is a shame that Prime Minister Vajpayee when he visited the valley in 1998, had actually said in Tangmarg that there was no need to abrogate Art. 370 of the Constitution and that it can continue, in spite of the fact that the provision is only temporary in nature and thus 'abrogative'.

Not all Muslims of the state want autonomy. It is only the sunni Muslims of the valley and the state who are demanding secession from the Indian nation and who are talking of autonomy and 'greater autonomy'. Jammu does not want it, Ladakh does not want it and we, the Kashmiri Hindus do not want it. We will not allow this demand for autonomy to be fulfilled at any cost. This whole plan for greater autonomy is only a part of the larger plan to make a fertile ground for pan-Islamic fundamenatlism to take root in India and expand southwards.

Although the rest of India is at peace, the Hindus of Jammu and Kashmir and our security forces are the people bearing the whole brunt of Islamic terrorism. These are the primary targets of the army of Islam. They are being killed because they are Hindus or Sikhs or army men. The Muslims who are being killed (and everybody is at pains to tell the whole world that Muslims are also victims) are being killed not because they are Muslims but because they are impediments to the terrorists attaining their objectives. The jawan who is battling in the most difficult of terrains and circumstances is confined to a bunker of four feet by four feet. Burning fire-pots are thrown at them by the locals who also shelter the terrorists and offer them hideouts from which to operate.

The intellectual elite of this country, which sheds copious tears for the human rights of militants and terrorists, has always remained silent about the human rights violations of our security forces by these terrorists.

Who is to take up the cause of our army men who die day in day out and whose bodies were so irreverently abused and mutilated by the same army of Islam at the time of the Kargil war?

Who is to talk of the great sacrifices that they are making for all of us - in terms of separation from their families, in terms of physical and mental stress, in terms of the relentless state of alertness and sleeplessness, which they have to undergo because of the continuous threat of terrorist attacks on their camps and posts?

At best their funeral is attended by the service chief, a wreath in hand and a sombre national anthem. And if any of the so-called public servants, the politicians choose to attend the funeral or make a passing reference to their sacrifice, it will be ‘thank you soldier for dying for the country’.

And do any of these votaries of human rights have the slightest imagination to understand the travails of those who are guarding our frontiers at heights of 19000 feet and above?

Is there any awareness of the terrible physical and mental toll that this war taking on our security forces?

What it means to be separated from family and dear ones, fighting this insane religious war?

And it is religious, make no mistake about it. As long as Hindus and Sikhs continue to be targets of terrorist attacks and as long as these terrorists say that they are waging jehad against the infidels and their country, I will say with the strongest conviction that this is a religious war being waged against Hindus and their homeland.

In the end, no peace can ever come to Kashmir unless we Kashmiri Hindus are given our share, our representation our homeland. I will end with the words of the famous poetess Lalleswari, about the pain of losing her home and the deep yearning to go back to one's place, one's home and one's roots.

" I am making knots out of these small pieces of thread
May god help me to overcome my miseries
I am in the middle of the ocean rowing my boat
My heart pines for my home
And there is this deep yearning to go
Back to my place, my roots, and my home."

Jai Panun Kashmir, Jai Bharat.

Panel Discussion on "The tragedy of Kashmiri Hindus" - By - Smt. Nancy Kaul, Panun Kashmir

Radha Rajan

In the last three months I have read two heartrending books, one written by a native American, ‘A Little Matter of Genocide’ by Ward Churchill and on the same issue, the genocide and near total extermination of the native Americans by the white Christians of Europe, another book by David Stannard, ‘American Holocaust’. Both of them deal with the same terrible period in the history of the Americas.

When you perpetrate genocide against a people, it is not just the numbers of those people you kill directly, in deliberate, sustained, direct and murderous attacks, which may be said to be genocide, but keeping that people relentlessly over a period of ten years, fifteen years, as in the case of the Kashmiri Pandits and the Nazis and the Armenians, or lasting several centuries, as in the case of the native Americans and other indigenous peoples, in a situation of siege, in pathetic and sub-human living conditions, with poor health, with no access to anything that may be called a home, you are creating a situation where the family is fragmented and disrupted, where entire communities are scattered, separated, and disrupted, your birth rate begins to fall, mortality rates increase, and this systematic and slow extermination of peoples through enforced destructive living conditions, this is also genocide.

Only genocide. This is what the European Christians did to the native Americans when they colonized the Caribbean and the Americas, this is what the nazis did to the jews and this is what the Europeans did to the natives of Australia too, and this is what the Muslims of Kashmir have done to the Kashmiri Pandits. It is not by organized, systematic, direct killings alone that you perpetrate genocide but also what you reduce a community to, over long years, whereby their numbers continue to deplete until they are so few in number that they may be ignored.

And the intellectual elite of India is silent about this genocide! Nobody wants to acknowledge this aspect of the terrorism in J&K, nobody wants to even talk about it. Let us continue to ignore the continuing genocide of this community and let us remain indifferent to the deplorable conditions in which they are living in the several refugee camps in their own country, and in the next ten years they would have been reduced to such paltry numbers, that this country would not even have to try and rehabilitate them, perish the thought of giving them back their homeland.

Those who have left India, those Pandits are not going to come back to demand their homeland. And all that the government of India has to do is to continue to bury its head in the sand so that it does not have to see the Hindus of Kashmir living in the camps, and ten years from now, the problem would have disappeared, in natural course.

In view of the religious war in undertaken by the terrorists in J&K and their determination to kill and drive away the Hindus from the state, can you tell us what the Pandits think of the proposal to trifurcate the state?

Reply by Smt Nancy Kaul

If the government of India thinks this is feasible, then we have no problems with it; but, let me tell you, we, Kashmiri Hindus will not settle for anything else than a separate homeland for ourselves, in the valley itself. The valley is the homeland of the Hindus originally and for thousands of years. We want our homeland, as I specified in my talk, in the region East and North of the river Jhelum. So if there is any move for trifurcation, in order to protect the Hindus and Buddhists of the state, then we will call for quadrification, a homeland for the Pandits driven out of the valley, in the valley itself.

We are very clear and determined in our views and in our objective.

Any solution that the government of India may seek to end terrorism in J&K must include the provision of making it possible for us to go back to our homes.

If this is not going to be possible, then we Pandits demand our homeland, where there is only one Constitution, the Indian constitution, without Article 370, where we may be free to practice our religion and nationalism.

We want to be able to sing the national anthem in our schools, we want the rest of India to come and live with us, to visit us, and we want complete and total political integration with India, which is our motherland.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah has of late been saying that he will make every effort to persuade the Pandits to come back. Has he taken any initiative in this regard?

Has he held talks with Kashmiri Pandit groups to make this happen?

Reply by Smt Nancy Kaul

I am afraid I do not share the enthusiasm and opinion that two of the speakers here today have expressed for Farooq Abdullah. His offer to ‘take back’ the Pandits is nothing but theatricals. In fact, it was he who engineered the massacre of 32 Kashmiri Pandits in Wandahama – Hindus who had stayed on in the valley all through these years of Islamic terrorism.

Farooq Abdullah couldn’t care less if we returned or not; in fact, when the Pandits were terrorized into leaving the valley, what did he do to protect us, our homes? When we fled the valley, he offered our jobs to the Muslims of the valley promptly. He is two-faced, he speaks with a forked tongue and he has a double policy. He will say one thing in Kashmir, one thing in Banehal, and something else in Jammu. He will say one thing to the Home ministry and another thing in the PMO.

Twelve years have passed since we lost our homeland and are living in refugee camps. How many times has Farooq Abdullah visited the Pandits in the camps, has he comforted them, given them assurances to make it possible for them to come back to their homes, has he promised to give them back their jobs, their property? As I said, he couldn’t care less.

How can any of you say that he represents all the peoples of J&? How can we trust him to protect the non-Muslims?

We cannot go back to the valley and live in the old political and social dispensation again. We want a homeland for ourselves, and we want it only in the valley. The valley is our home, we are the original people of the valley. We have been driven out through demographic aggression.

I earnestly request representatives of the political parties present here to convey to the leaders of your parties and to the government in the center, that the Pandits will return to the valley only if they are given their separate homeland.

We are not cows and goats to be driven out when the Muslims want it, and again to be herded into lorries and taken back forcibly when Farooq Abdullah wants it.

Today, many of you have pinned a halo around Farooq Abdullah’s head because today Islamic terrorism is being masterminded by the Pakistani army of Islam and Farooq Abdullah may say he has nothing to do with this. But what about 1986? There were no foreign Islamic terrorism in Kashmir then. And nearly one thousand Kashmiri Pandits were threatened and terrorized into abandoning their homes in Anantnag and becoming refugees. Ask Jagmohan, he will vouch for it. He was the Governor then.

Each and every Muslim Chief Minister of J&K has discriminated against the Hindus of the state and all of them are equally guilty and culpable for allowing and encouraging this state of things to culminate in our becoming refugees in our own country. Had there been more time I would have cited many more instances to tell you all why Farooq Abdullah is not to be trusted.

Shri. B. S. Raghavan

Let us all express our appreciation and admiration to Mrs. Nancy Kaul for a very spirited, forceful and convincing account of the tragedy of the Kashmiri Pandits. Let us all wish for a speedy end to their grief and also express our heartfelt gratitude for having come all the way to Chennai and made the political position of the Kashmiri Hindus so clear and in so unambiguous and forthright a manner.

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