)
One sentence uttered by Finance Minister P Chidambaram: “we will not permit a repeat of the 1990s when people began leaving Kashmir” has led to a mass revisiting of history, not just by Kashmiri Pandits who left their land in droves in the 1990s, but also by Indian liberals who continue to be shocked by how close to the skin, intolerance, rage and enmity lurks in both communities in Kashmir.
24 January 1990 was the most frightening night of their lives.
It was bitterly cold in Srinagar. Kashmiri Hindus in the valley were watching events unfold with increasing unease. Farooq Abdullah had resigned after his brother-in- law, GM Shah was propped up by Indira Gandhi,and then dismissed as well,with central rule imposed in Jammu and Kashmir. Jagmohan had been posted as Governor and the Muslims were absolutely terrified.
Journalist Aasha Khosa, who was in Kashmir at the time, reporting from Srinagar says: “It was bitterly cold. The militants had told Kashmiri Pandits to leave their land, mainly because they were not sure what Jagmohan was going to do.It was the night before Republic Day in 1990. Militant groups had ordered all Muslims to gather in mosques. The cry of ‘we want Pakistan’ reverberated all through the night. Other slogans I can remember were,“Kashmir Banega Pakistan” and “Jagmohan byol Khadayan goul” (may God annihilate Governor Jagmohan’s clan)
Kashmiri Pandit families were so frightened they had locked up women inside and hammered pieces of wood outside the door, as if there was no one home. This was because the slogan they could hear from the mosques was: “aasi gatchee Pakistan batav rautchtuy batneiv saan” (we want Pakistan without Kashmiri pandit men but along with Pandit women).”
What had led to such a massing of extremist opinion, when for generations, Hindus and Muslims had lived together?
Historian and academic Mridu Rai, lecturer in Indian Studies at Trinity College, Dublin who has written a PhD on Hindu Rulers, Muslim Subjects: Islam, Rights, and the History of Kashmir says the crisis in 1990s was a result of successive Dogra kings who inaugurated a Hindu sovereignty of Kashmir in collaboration with the British which simply left the Muslims out.
Therefore, the protest of Kashmiri Muslims represented not so much a defence of Islam but of the rights of a community defined explicitly as Muslim by an equally explicit Hindu ruling hierarchy.This explains both the development of a consciousness among Kashmiri Muslims of religiously based neglect and, conversely, the emergence a movement protesting a denial of rights that was unable to escape a religious sensibility.
As the years passed, Kashmiriyat – the consciousness of being Kashmiri – began to increasingly express itself as a land denied and thwarted. One catalyst was rigged elections; another was the ease with which it was possible to become the underground.
1990 EXODUS: HOW THE EVENTS UNFOLDED
The events that led to the 1990s began in 1983, one of Farooq Abdullah’s first set of assembly elections.It was permanent bête noire,Mufti Mohammad Sayeed – then President of the state unit of the Congress – who advised Indira Gandhi to oppose Abdullah, putting paid Farooq’s proposal to have an alliance with the party.
Indira Gandhi spent nine full days campaigning for the 1983 Assembly elections. In Jammu, the Congress won 23 out of 32 seats with NC getting 8.In the valley,it got just 2, with the NC winning 38 out of 42 seats. It was a verdict for Farooq Abdullah by any yardstick. But he had earlier crossed swords with Indira Gandhi over the Resettlement Bill: he wanted to facilitate the return of Kashmiri residents who had fled in 1947 by giving them rights of the property they had left behind, inevitably antagonizing the Hindus who had occupied it. Gandhi opposed this and charged him with communalizing the state.
Gandhi was convinced- with justification or not- that Abdullah was a greenhorn and a malefic effect on a sensitive border state. Despite a clear electoral victory, his government was dismissed and his brother-in-law, GM Shah, was brought in to replace him. Baffled, all Farooq Abdullah could do was watch. He threw in his lot with the Opposition. But it did not take long for Delhi to dismiss GM Shah as well and as Governor, Jagmohan was put in charge of running the state.
But the next chapter was to follow. The Muslim United Front was a political factor to reckon with and it was opposed to the accord. Militancy was rampant.The 1987 elections saw a poor turnout but were made to look as if they had been a democratic, participatory exercise. The people were sullen, but they were made to endorse a rigged election. This was the election that saw the founder of the United Jehad Council, Sultan Salahuddin immensely popular in Budgam, contest (his election agent was Yaseen Malik of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front), get arrested and face humiliation. This led people to conclude that democracy was a sham, azaadi (independence) was the only answer.
So a guided democracy and a culture of protest against it: both these traditions have strong roots in the valley.
In 1990s it was attempts to guide democracy that made Muslim radical groups train their rage on Kashmiri Hindus.Families soon began to leave.All of them recall those days with a sense of frustration and horror.
Although the situation in Kashmir now does not in any way resemble those days, it is hard to ignore history
