Kashmiri Pandits: The Homeless People

According to Oxford Dictionary, a refugee is “a person who has been forced to leave his country because of war”. Ironically, the Kashmiri Pandits happen to be the only community, which has become a refugee in their own country! Kashmiri Pandits are the original inhabitants of Kashmir and have been thrown out of the valley by some fundamentalists of Kashmir origin, with the help of other foreign forces. Both the state and the central government have yet not been able to control the situation. Even after 21 years in exile, more than 50, 000 of these Kashmiri Hindu refugees are living in hellish conditions in inhabitable refugee camps all over the country. The Pandits became the targets and victims of one of the most successful, though little-known, campaigns of ethnic cleansing in the world. Pogroms of a far lesser magnitude in other parts of the world have attracted international attention, censure and action in support of the victim communities, but this is an insidious campaign that has passed virtually unnoticed. Among the complex reasons for this neglect is, perhaps, the nature of this community itself: where other campaigns of ethnic cleansing have invariably provoked at least some retaliatory violence, the deep tradition and culture of non-violence among the Kashmiri Pandits has made them accept their suffering in silence. The Pandits have rejected several rehabilitation proposals and jobs offered by successive state governments, if they return to the valley as they want the assured security and are just not willing to become cannon fodder for politicians.