Raj Tarangni, the Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir, written by Kalhana in twelfth century AD is the earliest book of written history in the entire sub-continent whose dates and facts to a large extent have been verified and authenticated by its translator Sir Aurel Stein. Kashmir has a recorded history going back to about 5000 years. The major portion relates to the Hindu period. Saivism with its Trika School of Philosophy was the prevalent religious thought. The Kings and Queens of Kashmir belonged to the highest caste of Brahmins. It was very rarely that a non-Brahmin ever sat on the throne of Kashmir. The Kashmiri Brahmins considered themselves to be the superior most caste in the entire sub-continent. Saivite religion also exists in South India and is supposed to have been taken there from Kashmir. North Indian Hindu religion is predominantly of the Vedanta School of Hindu Philosophy. Saivism is based on Monoism where Siva is the ultimate power manifesting itself as Bramah (the Creator), Mahesh (the Sustainer), and Vishnu (the destroyer). It believes in “Pralaya”, the ultimate end of the world. Except for a brief period when Buddhism prevailed, the major portion of the 4,000 years of Kashmir’s history up to twelfth century AD relates to Hindu period. Kashmir’s Hindu Kings were of varied nature and outlook. Most of them patronised the setting up of Temples and Viharas. Some loved building of new cities and townships. Quite a few encouraged learning and established some very famous institutions of learning such as Sharda University. Avantivarman was responsible for setting up irrigation system and dredging of Jehlum (the ancient Vitasta). The town of Sopore in the valley still carries the name of his famous Minister Hakim Suya who was the moving spirit behind the reforming of the irrigation system. Laltaditya Muktapid of Karakot dynasty got the most famous sun temple of Martand constructed on a beautiful plateau above Matan. He is also supposed to have led a number of expeditions to conquer Tibet but as the legend has it, his entire army froze to death enroute and he had to return alone to Kashmir. Kanishka had the Third Buddhist Council conducted in Kashmir in the first century AD, which completely changed the Buddhist religious thought from the strict Hinayan School to more liberal Mahayana School. King Asoka laid the foundations of the 2,000-year-old city of Srinagri as the capital of his Kingdom and Pravarasena-II established the present city of Srinagar next to it under the name of Pravarapura but it ultimately retained the name of Srinagar or the “City of the Sun”. In spite of Laltaditya’s efforts to shift capital to Parihaspura, which ended in failure, the Srinagar has always retained the distinction of being the heart of Kashmir. The present generation of Kashmiri Hindus known as Kashmiri Pandits being the real descendents of the ancient Hindu Kings of Kashmir have every right to feel proud of this glorious period of Kashmir’s history. However, the time has dealt some very serious blows to them quite often but due to their extreme resilience as well as their toughness to face the ravages of time, they have survived all these worst episodes. In a way, Kashmiri Pandits are the real and true, unadulterated Kashmiris surviving from the ancient times. The first major blow faced by them was when Kashmir became a Muslim State in twelfth century AD. Islam had reached the valley through the preachers from Iran. The patron saint, Sayed Ali Hamadani, popularly known in Kashmir as Shah-I-Hamadan, with his dedicated teaching and spiritual prowess was responsible for the mass conversion of Kashmiris to Islam. Brahmins had made the life of other castes so miserable that Islam came as the biggest emancipator to them. The Kings of Kashmir who had ruled for thousands of years were overnight reduced to a minuscule minority. They were left as “Kings without a Kingdom”! They threw down their swords and picked up the “Pen” to continue to rule Kashmir with the power of their intellect. They excelled in learning and having been the Kings of Kashmir for a very long time, they were quite adept in the art of Statecraft. This helped them to become a very important part of the State Administrative Apparatus. They enjoyed the Royal patronage throughout the Sovereign Muslim period also known as the era of the “Sultans of Kashmir” as well as under the external rule over Kashmir from sixteenth century onwards. They have allegedly suffered two worst episodes, the first under the rule of Sikander, claimed to be the Idol Breaker and second under the Afghan rule. It is alleged that during the reign of Sikander, they suffered extreme persecution, which was mainly carried out by one of his ministers who was an ex-Brahmin and had converted to Islam. He is supposed to have been very vindictive and ruthless. During the Afghan rule, Kashmiri Pandits faced the history’s worst persecution. The Afghans with the introduction of the notorious “Smoke Tax” taxed even the smoke from their hearths! They were not allowed to cross the bridges walking upright but had to crawl across these. Many a times Afghan officials would cross the mountain streams on the backs of Pandits. It is said that because of this they were made to wear a robe (Phiran) with two side pockets to enable the Afghan Official to keep his feet in when riding a Pandit. During the Sikh and Dogra rule they fared better and were given some important state offices. Over the years they slowly grew to become an important feudal class like the ancient Damaras. A Kashmiri Pandit grocer, “Buhur”, and the moneylender, “Sudur”, became an important part of the rural as well as urban landscape. The moneylenders had virtually entire Kashmir peasantry under their hold. Most of the educated members of their class would invariably get absorbed in some sort of State service. With the leadership provided by some Muslim youth who had returned from India after obtaining higher education, there was a general awaking among the Muslims of Kashmir. This culminated in the historical uprising of July 1931. Though some members of the Kashmiri Pandit Elite felt threatened by this upheaval yet quite a few of them became sympathetic to this cause as it evoked the feelings about the possible return of the glory of ancient Kashmir. Pandit Ram Chand Kak, the Prime Minister of Dogra Maharaja Hari Singh was one of those. The Maharaja for these feelings very unceremoniously removed him from his post. The Brahmin Elite got the next blow from Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. With a simple stroke of his pen he took all their lands without any compensation and gave these to the tiller, the poor Kashmiri peasant who could never dream of such a miracle. These poor wretches got a second emancipation when their age old debts, which they owed to the Kashmiri Pandit moneylenders, were frozen without any compensation. The partition of the sub-continent and the rising aspirations of the Kashmiri Muslims made Kashmiri Pandits wary and they felt their future to be safer with India. A number of far sighted members of their community sided with Muslims in their struggle and were able to motivate the leadership of the movement to go for the Nationalist Goals rather than communalise the situation further, which had already become explosive due to the religious divide of the sub-continent. Kashmir valley was probably the only part of the entire sub-continent, which remained free of any communal strife. The reason for this was the age-old religious tolerance of Kashmiris who had suffered equally irrespective of their religion at the hands of external rulers from time to time. Mahatma Gandhi is supposed to have remarked that Kashmir is the only place where he saw a ray of light in the burning sub-continent. However, the conflict on Kashmir between the two newly created States of the sub-continent completely disoriented the Kashmir’s historical situation. Even though the Muslim majority in Kashmir wanted to join Pakistan, their leadership, which had developed a nationalistic outlook, sided with India. They were motivated for this by Jawaharlal Nehru, who was himself of Kashmiri origin. It is said that Nehru had obsessive love for Kashmir and would not let it go at any cost. Sheikh Abdullah who had been harbouring the dreams of an Independent Sovereign Kashmir felt betrayed by Nehru and revolted against India, which sacked and arrested him in 1953. At this crucial juncture in Kashmir’s history, Kashmiri Pandits committed the mistake of totally siding with India. They had motivated the Muslim leadership to move from the communal ideology to the nationalist ideology but when it came to taking cudgels with one of the claimants of the State of Kashmir, they betrayed the local leadership. Only a few continued to support the true and real nationalist struggle and they too were incarcerated by the Government of India for their role. These include stalwarts like Pandit Prem Nath Bazaz and J.N.Sathu. After the removal of Sheikh Abdullah, the Indian Government used all means for total integration of Kashmir with rest of India. Kashmiri Pandits were recruited in all agencies and services. They were the trusted people who could be relied on to ensure Kashmir’s full and complete integration. All the Central Services in Kashmir became totally dependent on Kashmiri Pandits. Their quantum of recruitment in all these organisations reached 90%. It was totally disproportionate to their total population in the valley and proved disastrous at a crucial juncture subsequently. Muslim leadership in Kashmir had rejected joining Pakistan against prevalent popular feeling and had opted for nationalistic goals. India’s betrayal put them in the lurch and they were truly between the devil and the deep sea. Kashmiri Muslims felt themselves to be suspect in the eyes of Indian Government while as Pakistanis mistrusted them after their attitude of 1947 when they had even rebuffed Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Over the years, Kashmiri Muslims kept on struggling for getting their basic rights while as Kashmiri Pandits were slowly absorbed in all the spheres of Indian life. They got inducted into Administrative and Foreign Services. They were taken in appreciable numbers in the Officer Corps of various Defence and Intelligence Services. With the passage of time, Kashmiri Pandits became most indispensable part of all intelligence and defence organisations in Kashmir. The Indian Government had to rely on them to counter moves of the Pakistani agencies, as the Muslims could not be fully trusted. They became the eyes and ears of RAW and IB and a number of other agencies in every village or rather every locality in Kashmir. This was the main cause for the final and disastrous blow they suffered in 1990. Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) probably wanted to deprive its opponent the facilities of an intelligence-gathering network. A systematic elimination of Kashmiri Pandits associated with various Indian intelligence agencies was carried out. This created a panic among the whole community. Jag Mohan, the then Governor of Jammu & Kashmir fell in the trap and due to his narrow, biased and prejudiced vision, handled the situation so ineptly that a massive and uncontrollable “Turbulence” was unleashed, which swept away Kashmiri Pandits en masse from the entire valley. He probably envisaged that the whole scale departure of the Kashmir’s Hindu community will give a communal and fundamentalist colour to a basically nationalist movement and also leave the field open to security forces for handling the situation without any reservations for collateral damage to the minorities. This unprecedented mass migration instigated from a number of quarters with their individual motives, completely shattered the Kashmiri Pandit community making them lose their ancient Kingdom and scattered them all over. The panic had been so great that even the pleas of their neighbours from generations failed to halt this exodus except in few cases. The Kashmiri Pandits from the towns were able to manage to take shelter with some of their relatives already working in different parts of India. The worst sufferers were the villagers. They had to leave behind everything. Their ancestral houses, lush green fields and the memories of good old days. Their life in refugee camps in Jammu was miserable. Many died due to heat to which they were not accustomed at all. Quite a few suffered snake and scorpion bites. The immediate fallout of this tragic event for the Government was the collapse of Central Services and Institutions in Kashmir. The Postal system was totally disrupted. Many Central Banks had to close down. Institutions run by Central Ministries closed down. The worst affected were the intelligence agencies. The security forces had no alternative but to start “Cordon and Search” operations everywhere just to locate some suspects. Earlier they would get the pinpoint intelligence but now they had the task of locating a needle in a haystack! This resulted in the alienation of the entire population. Again they had to depend upon Kashmiri Pandits. The Army set up special counter insurgency units and called these Rahtriya Rifles. All these units drafted selected Kashmiri Pandits for guidance. They were very vindictive and alienated the Muslim population still further.

Kashmiri Pandits outside Kashmir had to struggle hard to survive especially the ones from the rural areas and those living in poorer quarters of Srinagar. As usual the elite did not suffer so much and were better able to face up to this unprecedented situation. The inherent survival instinct of a Kashmiri did help them a lot. They could adapt to changed situation and local environment. The elder generation was totally lost and confused. The new generation probably does not know what Kashmir is all about? They were born and bred in a different society altogether. Kashmiris irrespective of religion, caste or creed have always faced a crisis of leadership. In Kashmir they are not able to reach a consensus about what they are looking for nor are they able to decide how they can get it? Every one has set up his own “shop”. Outside Kashmir the situation is no better. Numerous organisations and associations have been set up. Each one is claiming to represent the displaced community. The most important task for the community is to survive as a distinct racial group existing for thousands of years. From the earliest times they have been living in Kashmir as the elitist group directly descending from the ancient Kings of Kashmir. There was a time when they would not even consider marrying their daughters outside their clan. All the Brahmins of India would deem it a proud privilege to give their daughters in marriage to a Kashmiri Brahmin and vice versa. This is slowly disappearing and over a period of time they may get absorbed in the societies in which they are now living thereby losing their distinct identity. It is very unfortunate for all of us that the Pandits have sold 70% of their properties in Kashmir, opting for greener pastures of other States where they are offered better prospects. In Kashmir valley itself the departure of Kashmiri Pandits has created a vacuum. The society does not seem to be right. Every one misses the cultural exchange and the day-to-day interaction between the two communities, which was the most important part of our daily lives. On the famous festival of Shivratri, Muslims would eagerly wait for the walnuts, which had been kept soaking by their Pandit neighbours in earthen pots well in advance of the festival. Muslim Fisherwomen would bring fish in large quantity on the streets of Srinagar for sale as Pandits considered it an essential item of food during this festival. On the occasion of Eid, Pandits would visit their Muslim neighbours and sometimes share a feast with them in the evening. The folk tales of “Himal-Nagrai” and “Akka Nandun” were common to both the communities. Kashmiri Pandits have contributed a lot to different fields of activities. They were the part of the efforts of Tyndale Biscoe to introduce modern education in Kashmir. Masters like Samsar Chand Kaul, Nand Lal Bakaya, Chandra Pandit not only contributed in educating people but also introduced out bound activities, which gave leadership qualities to their pupils. Kashmiri Pandits also excelled in journalism, arts and other social activities. The names of R.K.Kak, J.N.Sathu, Pran Jalali, Sham Kaul, Somnath Sadhu, Pushkar Bhan, Bansi Parimoo, Autar Raina and so on are just a few stalwarts in their individual fields. There are dozens of others in various other sections of the society. It will be a tragic loss not only for the community itself but also for entire Kashmir if Kashmiri Pandits get ultimately absorbed in different societies. There is only one way to ensure that these descendents of the rich cultural heritage of Kashmir do not disappear and that is to bring them back to Kashmir. They cannot be brought back as prisoners to be kept in guarded “prison colonies”. They have to come back with honour and dignity to their own ancestral homes, which they left in very tragic circumstances. They will only come when they are fully satisfied about their safety and resettlement. They must all be missing the “Moj Kashir”. The Kashir of “Nud Reshi” and “Lal Ded”. All of them must have developed a strong “Lol” for it. There is no equivalent word in English for “Lol”. It is the love, which grows in separation from ones beloved. Some sort of a very strong longing. In Kashmir there is a saying that at one time only 11 households were left. This signifies times of some very major calamities when people migrated en masse leaving only 11 households. These days also in the event of a natural calamity, Kashmiris use this remark to signify that we have suffered worst calamities in the past and the present one will also pass over.

The history of Kashmiris closely resembles that of the Israelites. After the destruction of the Third Temple, they were dispersed all over the world. There were twelve tribes of Israelites. It is said that eleven tribes have been located in different parts of the world but there is a missing twelfth tribe. There are many theories that this tribe came to Kashmir through Afghanistan and settled here. The purest remnants of this tribe if it had truly come to Kashmir and settled there would be Kashmiri Pandits. According to Holger Kersten, “the Kashmiris are different in every respect from other peoples in India. Their way of life, their behaviour, their morals, their character, their language, customs and habits are all of a type that might be described as typically Israelite. Like present- day Israelis, the Kashmiris do not use fat for frying and baking; they only use oil. Most Kashmiris eat smoked fish called fari, which is eaten by Israelis in remembrance of the time before their Exodus from Egypt. Butchers’ knives in Kashmir are in half-moon shape typical of the Israelites, and even the rudders and paddles of the boat people (Hanjis) are of the similarly typical heart shape. The men wear distinctive skullcaps on their heads. The clothing of the old women of Kashmir (Pandtanis) is very similar to that of Jewish women, and like them they also wear headscarves and laces. Married Pandit women wear “Deiji Hor”, which is also worn by Jewish women. Like young Jewish girls, the girls of Kashmir dance in two facing columns with linked arms, moving together forwards and backwards to the rhythm. They call their songs rof. After bearing a child, woman of Kashmir observes forty days’ seclusion for purification; this, too, is a Jewish custom.” Kashmiris like the Jews have faced centuries of persecution and have been scattered all over the world. They are like prisoners in their own homeland while as Kashmiri Pandits are roaming everywhere without a home at all. In case of Jews it is sometimes said that they brought the retribution on themselves by their own actions. This may also be true in case of Kashmiris. Will this tragedy ever end? Will the “Lol” of Kashmiri Pandits bear fruit and will they be able to return to the “Moj Kashir”? Will we ever regain the peace and tranquillity of the Kashmir of “Nund Reshi” and “Lal Ded”? These are questions, which no one can answer with certainty. However, there is hope that we have survived 5,000 years of history and bounced back from the 11 households, which were the only ones left at one time. We never threw up our arms. If we have done it earlier, we can do it again. There is only one rider. We have to think and act as Kashmiris and nothing else!