Kashmiri Pandit

The Kashmiri Pandits (also known as Kashmiri Brahmins)[7] are a group of Kashmiri Hindus and a part of the larger Shaivite Saraswat Brahmin community. They belong to the Pancha (five) Gauda Brahmana groups.[8] from the Kashmir Valley,[9][10] a mountainous region in the Indian union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiri Pandits originally lived in the Kashmir Valley before Muslim influence entered the region after which large numbers converted to Islam. They are the only remaining Kashmiri Hindu community native to Kashmir.[11]

Kashmiri Pandit
Kashmiri Pandits, photograph from 1895 CE, British Library
Total population
300,000[1][2][3] to 600,000[4][5][6] (est. living in Kashmir Valley prior to 1990)
Regions with significant populations
India
Historically: Jammu and Kashmir Other communities found in: National Capital Region • Ladakh • Uttar Pradesh • Himachal Pradesh • Uttarkhand • Haryana • Rajasthan • Punjab
Languages
Kashmiri and Hindi
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Kashmiri Hindus, Kashmiris, Saraswat Brahmins

History
Photograph of the Martand Sun Temple, Hardy Cole's Archaeological Survey of India Report 'Illustrations of Ancient Buildings in Kashmir.' (1869)

Early history
See also: History of Kashmir

The Hindu caste system of the Kashmir region was influenced by the influx of Buddhism from the time of Asoka, around the third century BCE, and a consequence of this was that the traditional lines of varna were blurred, with the exception of that for the Brahmins.[12][13] Another notable feature of early Kashmiri society was the relative high regard in which women were held when compared to their position in other communities of the period.[14]

A historically contested region, Northern India was subject to attack from Turkic and Arab regimes from the eighth century onwards, but they generally ignored the mountain-circled Kashmir Valley in favour of easier pickings elsewhere. It was not until the fourteenth century that Muslim rule was finally established in the Valley and when this happened it did not occur primarily as a consequence of invasion so much as because of internal problems resulting from the weak rule and corruption endemic in the Hindu Lohara dynasty.[15][16] Mohibbul Hasan describes this collapse as

The Dãmaras (feudal chiefs) grew powerful, defied royal authority, and by their constant revolts plunged the country into confusion. Life and property were not safe, agriculture declined, and there were periods when trade came to a standstill. Socially and morally too the court and the country had sunk to the depths of degradations.[16]

The Brahmins had something to be particularly unhappy about during the reign of the last Lohara king, for Sūhadeva chose to include them in his system of onerous taxation, whereas previously they appear to have been exempted.[17]

Medieval history

Zulju, who was probably a Mongol from Turkistan,[18] wreaked devastation in 1320, when he commanded a force that conquered many regions of the Kashmir Valley. However, Zulju was probably not a Muslim.[18] The actions of Sultan Sikandar Butshikan (1389–1413), the seventh Muslim ruler in Kashmir were also significant to the area. The Sultan has been referred to as an iconoclast because of his destruction of many non-Muslim religious symbols and the manner in which he forced the population to convert or flee. Many followers of the traditional religions who did not convert to Islam instead migrated to other parts of India. The migrants included some Pandits, although it is possible that some of this community relocated for economic reasons as much as to escape the new rulers. Brahmins were at that time generally being offered grants of land in other areas by rulers seeking to utilise the traditionally high literacy and general education of the community, as well as the legitimacy conferred upon them by association. The outcome of this shift both in population and in religion was that the Kashmir Valley became a predominantly Muslim region.[19][20]

Butshikan's heir, the devout Muslim Zain-ul-Abidin (1423–74), was tolerant of Hindus to the extent of sanctioning a return to Hinduism of those who had been forcibly converted to the Muslim faith, as well as becoming involved in the restoration of temples. He respected the learning of these Pandits, to whom he gave land as well as encouraging those who had left to return. He operated a meritocracy and both Brahmins and Buddhists were among his closest advisors.[21]

Modern history
Three Hindu priests writing religious texts – 1890s, Jammu and Kashmir

Early modern

Modern

D.L. Sheth, the former director of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies in India (CSDS), lists Indian communities that constituted the middle class and were traditionally "urban and professional" (following professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.) immediately after Independence in 1947. This list included the Kashmiri Pandits, the Nagar Brahmins from Gujarat; the South Indian Brahmins; the Punjabi Khatris, and Kayasthas from northern India; Chitpawans and CKPs(Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus) from Maharashtra; the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis; the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. According to P.K.Verma, "Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all the members of these communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school.[22][23][24]

Recent events

Exodus from Kashmir (1985–1995)
Main article: Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus

The Kashmiri Pandits had been a favoured section of the population of the valley during Dogra rule (1846–1947). 20 per cent of them left the valley as a consequence of the 1950 land reforms,[25] and by 1981 the Pandit population amounted to 5 per cent of the total.[26]

An artpiece of three Kashmiri Pandit women

They began to leave in much greater numbers in the 1990s during the eruption of militancy, following persecution and threats by radical Islamists and militants. The events of 19 January 1990 were particularly vicious. On that day, mosques issued declarations that the Kashmiri Pandits were Kafirs and that the males had to leave Kashmir, convert to Islam or be killed. Those who chose to the first of these were told to leave their women behind. The Kashmiri Muslims were instructed to identify Pandit homes so they could be systematically targeted for conversion or killing.[27]

According to a number of authors, approximately 100,000 of the total Kashmiri Pandit population of 140,000 left the valley during the 1990s.[28] Other authors have suggested a higher figure for the exodus, ranging from the entire population of over 150,000,[29] to 190,000 of a total Pandit population of 200,000,[30] to a number as high as 800,000.[31] The nature of the planned exodus has remain controversial, with the involvement of then Governor Jagmohan in organizing a clandestine exodus been a subject of controversy.[32] Many of the refugee Kashmiri Pandits have been living in abject conditions in refugee camps of Jammu.[33] The government has reported on the terrorist threats to Pandits still living in the Kashmir region.[34][35]

Some Hindus across India tried to help the Pandits. Bal Thackeray from Maharashtra got seats reserved in engineering colleges for the children of these Pandits. He was one of the first persons to help them after which Punjab also followed suit.[36][37][38]

In 2009 the Oregon Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to recognise 14 September 2007, as Martyrs Day to acknowledge ethnic cleansing and campaigns of terror inflicted on non-Muslim minorities of Jammu and Kashmir by terrorists seeking to establish an Islamic state.[39]

In 2010, the Government of Jammu and Kashmir noted that 808 Pandit families, comprising 3,445 people, were still living in the Valley and that financial and other incentives put in place to encourage others to return there had been unsuccessful. According to a J&K government report, 219 members of the community had been killed in the region between 1989 and 2004 but none thereafter.[40] The local organisation of pandits in Kashmir, Kashmir Pandit Sangharsh Samiti after carrying out a survey in 2008 and 2009, said that 399 Kashmiri Pandits were killed by insurgents from 1990 to 2011 with 75% of them being killed during the first year of the Kashmiri insurgency.[41][42]

The exiled community had hoped to return after the situation improved. They have not done so because the situation in the Valley remains unstable and they fear a risk to their lives.[43]

As of October 2015, only 1 Kashmiri Pandit family returned to the Kashmir valley since 1990 according to the Jammu & Kashmir government despite the financial assistance being given for rehabilitation.[44] As of 2016, a total of 1,800 Kashmiri Pandit youths have returned to the valley since the announcing of Rs. 1,168-crore package in 2008 by the UPA government.[45]

PRC and the JKMIP Acts
See also: Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front

There are zones set up with offices for relief.[46] Many Orders, Circulars and recommendations have been issued for relief of Kashmiri Pandits.[47][48][49]

The Jammu And Kashmir Migrant Immovable Property (Preservation, Protection And Restraint On Distress Sales) Act, 1997, provides that "Any person who is an unauthorised occupant or recipient of any usufruct of any immovable property of the migrant shall pay to the migrant such compensation for the period of unauthorised occupation and in such a manner as may be determined by the District Magistrate."[50]

Socio-political organisations
See also: Panun Kashmir; Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019; and Revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir

Following the migration of the Kashmiri Pandit community, various socio-political organisations have sprung up to represent the cause of the displaced community. The most prominent among these are the All India Kashmiri Samaj or AIKS, All India Kashmiri Pandit conference, Panun Kashmir & Kashmiri Samiti. These organisations are involved in rehabilitation of the community in the valley through peace negotiations, mobilisation of human rights groups and job creation for the Pandits.[51] Panun Kashmir has made demands for a separate homeland for the community in the southern part of Kashmir.[52]

Population distribution
Kashmiri couple getting married in a traditional ceremony at Jammu

In 1947, the Pandits made up about 6 percent of the Kashmir Valley's population.[53] By 1950, their population declined to 5 per cent as many Pandits moved to other parts of India due to the uncompensated land redistribution policy, the unsettled nature of Kashmir's accession to India and the threat of economic and social decline.[25]

Following the 1989 insurgency, a great majority of Pandits felt threatened and left the Kashmir Valley to other parts of India. A large number settled in the Jammu Division of the State and the National Capital Region of India. Some emigrated to other countries entirely.[9][53] By 2011, only an estimated 2,700-3,400 Pandits remained in the Kashmir Valley.[10]

According to Indian government, more than 60,000 families are registered as Kashmiri migrants including some Sikh and Muslim families.[54] Most families were resettled in Jammu, NCR and other neighbouring states.[55]

Religious beliefs
Divine Colours of the Divine Spring
Ruins of Martand temple
Sharda Peeth

Kashmir has also been a land of Sun worship with shrines such as Martand Sun Temple established by Lalitaditya Muktapida. Sun worship is believed to have been brought into Kashmir by Kushan kings from Iran. Lalitaditya's predecessor, Ranaditya, is said to have built the first sun temple.[56] Wanvun singing is an integral part of Kashmiri Pandit religious ceremonies.

Pilgrimage sites
Mount Harmukh

Harmukh is traditionally revered by Kashmiri Pandits and in 2009 there was an attempt by them to revive pilgrimages to the site.[57] The Mata Kheerbhawani [58] temple shrine in Srinagar, considered one of the holiest Hindu shrines, saw the largest gathering of Kashmiri Pandits in the Kashmir valley in 2012.[59] The shrine is located in Tullamulla village, 24 km from Srinagar in Ganderbal district.[60]

Festivals

The Kashmiri Pandits festivals include Shivratri (or Herath in the Kashmiri language) which is one of the major festivals of Kashmiri Pandits. Navreh or the Kashmiri lunar new year is also an important Pandit festival.[61]

Culture
A Kashmiri pandit woman, photograph by Fred Bremner, circa ~1900

Dress

Kshemendra's detailed records from the eleventh century describe many items of which the precise nature is unknown. It is clear that tunics known as kanchuka were worn long-sleeved by men and in both long- and half-sleeved versions by women. Caps were worn, as well as a type of turban referred to as a shirahshata, while footwear consisted of leather shoes and boots, worn with socks. Some items were elaborate, such as the peacock shoes – known as mayuropanah – worn by followers of fashion, and steel-soled shoes adorned with floral designs, lubricated internally with beeswax.[62]

There are many references to the wearing of jewellery by both sexes, but a significant omission from them is any record of the dejihor worn on the ear by women today as a symbol of their being married. Kaw has speculated that this item of jewellery may not have existed at the time. The texts also refer to both sexes using cosmetics, and to the women adopting elaborate hairstyles. Men, too, might adopt stylish arrangements and wear flowers in their hair, if they had the financial means to do so.[63]

Music

Henzae is an ancient traditional form of singing practiced by Kashmiri Pandits at their festivals. It appears to have archaic features that suggest it is the oldest form of Kashmiri folk singing.[64]

List of Kashmiri Pandits
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See also

References
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  2. "PROTECTION ASPECTS OF UNHCR ACTIVITIES ON BEHALF OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS". Refugee Survey Quarterly. 14 (1–2): 176–191. 1995. doi:10.1093/rsq/14.1-2.176. ISSN 1020-4067.:The mass exodus began on 1 March 1990, when about 250,000 of the 300,000 Kashmiri Pandits fled the State
  3. Yong, Amos (2011). "Constructing China's Jerusalem: Christians, Power, and Place in Contemporary Wenzhou - By Nanlai Cao". Religious Studies Review. 37 (3): 236. doi:10.1111/j.1748-0922.2011.01544_1.x. ISSN 0319-485X.
  4. Casimir, Michael J.; Lancaster, William; Rao, Aparna (1 June 1997). "Editorial". Nomadic Peoples. 1 (1): 3–4. doi:10.3167/082279497782384668. ISSN 0822-7942.:From 1947 on, Kashmir's roughly 700,000 Hindus felt increasingly uneasy and discriminated against, and youth … from a variety of sources such as Islamist organizations, Islamic countries, Kashmiri Muslim fund raisers in the West, and migrant labor from Azad Kashmir in the …
  5. Sarkaria, Mallika Kaur (2009). "Powerful Pawns of the Kashmir Conflict: Kashmiri Pandit Migrants". Asian and Pacific Migration Journal. 18 (2): 197–230. doi:10.1177/011719680901800202. ISSN 0117-1968.:… of the Centre of Central Asian Studies, Kashmir University, and member of Panun Kashmir (a Pandit … the Valley in 1990, believes "it could be anything between 300,000 to 600,000 people
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  7. Duchinsky, Haley (26 September 2013). "Survival is now our Politics: Kashmiri Hindu community identity and the Politics of Homeland". www.academia.edu.
  8. Brower, Barbara; Johnston, Barbara Rose (2016). Disappearing Peoples?: Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Minorities in South and Central Asia. Routledge. ISBN 9781315430393. Kashmiri Hindus are all Saraswat brahmins, known by the exonym Pandit (the endonym being Batta), a term first reserved for emigrant Kashmiri brahmins in Mughal service.
  9. Lyon, Peter (2008). Conflict between India & Pakistan: An Encyclopedia. p. 99. ISBN 9781576077122.
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  14. Kaw, M. K. (2004). Kashmir and its people: studies in the evolution of Kashmiri society. APH Publishing. p. 91. ISBN 978-81-7648-537-1. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
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  22. Pavan K. Varma (2007). The Great Indian Middle class. Penguin Books. p. 28. ISBN 9780143103257. ...its main adherents came from those in government service, qualified professionals such as doctors,engineers and lawyers,business entrepreneurs,teachers in schools in the bigger cities and in the institutes of higher education, journalists[etc]...The upper castes dominated the Indian middle class. Prominent among its members were Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits and South Indian brahmins. Then there were the 'traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpawans and the Ckps (Chandrasenya Kayastha Prabhus)s of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India. Also included were the old elite groups that emerged during the colonial rule: the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite...But almost all its members spoke and wrote English and had had some education beyond school
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  24. "D.L. Sheth".
  25. Zutshi, Languages of Belonging 2004, p. 318 Quote: "Since a majority of the landlords were Hindu, the (land) reforms (of 1950) led to a mass exodus of Hindus from the state. ... The unsettled nature of Kashmir's accession to India, coupled with the threat of economic and social decline in the face of the land reforms, led to increasing insecurity among the Hindus in Jammu, and among Kashmiri Pandits, 20 per cent of whom had emigrated from the Valley by 1950."
  26. K Pandita, Rahul (2013). Our Moon has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits. Vintage Books / Random House. p. 255. ISBN 9788184000870.
  27. Tej Kumar Tikoo, Kashmiri Pandits offered three choices by Radical Islamists, India Defence Review, 19 January 2015.
  28. Bose 1997, p. 71, Rai 2004, p. 286,Metcalf & Metcalf 2006, p. 274
  29. Malik 2005, p. 318
  30. Madan 2008, p. 25
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  34. "23 years on, Kashmiri Pandits remain refugees in their own nation - Rediff.com India News". Rediff.com. 19 January 2012. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
  35. "India". Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, US Department of State. 6 March 2007. Retrieved 8 July 2011.
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  37. Ajit Chak (2000). Kashmir storm.
  38. Arvind Gigoo (2000). The Ugly Kashmiri: (Cameos in exile).
  39. Senate Joint Resolution 23, 75th OREGON LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY—2009 Regular Session Archived 15 May 2013 at the Wayback Machine
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  46. "Untitled Page". Retrieved 20 June 2016.
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  63. Kaw, pp. 95–97.
  64. "Henzae: A Folk Genre Viewed Afresh". www.koausa.org.

Bibliography
  • Shade, Chinar, Sun Worship and Kashmir}
  • Bose, Sumantra (1997), The challenge in Kashmir: democracy, self-determination, and a just peace, New Delhi: Sage Publications, in association with The Book Review Literary Trust, ISBN 978-0-8039-9350-1
  • Madan, T. N. (2008), "Kashmir, Kashmiris, Kashmiriyat: An Introductory Essay", in Rao, Aparna (ed.), The Valley of Kashmir: The Making and Unmaking of a Composite Culture?, Delhi: Manohar. Pp. xviii, 758, pp. 1–36, ISBN 978-81-7304-751-0
  • Malik, Iffat (2005), Kashmir: Ethnic Conflict, International Dispute, Karachi and Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pp. xxvi, 392, ISBN 0-19-579622-5
  • Metcalf, Barbara; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006), A Concise History of Modern India (Cambridge Concise Histories), Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. xxxiii, 372, ISBN 0-521-68225-8.
  • Rai, Mridu (2004), Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir, Princeton University Press/Permanent Black. Pp. xii, 335., ISBN 81-7824-202-8
  • Zutshi, Chitralekha (2004), Languages of Belonging: Islam, Regional Identity, and the Making of Kashmir, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, ISBN 978-1-85065-700-2

Further reading
  • Bose, Sumantra (2005). Kashmir: roots of conflict, paths to peace. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-01817-4.
  • Zutshi, Chitraleka (2008). "Shrines, Political Authority, and Religious Identities in Late-Nineteenth and Early-Twentieth-century Kashmir". In Rao, Aparna (ed.). The Valley of Kashmir: The Making and Unmaking of a Composite Culture?. Delhi: Manohar. pp. 235–258. ISBN 978-81-7304-751-0.
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