Rahul Pandita: The Nowhere People
Harassed on their return to Kashmir valley and shunted out of Jammu city, Pandit refugees say it’s a repeat of the 1990 nightmare for them
In 1990, after militancy broke out in the Valley, about 300,000 Pandits had had to flee their homes to take refuge in Jammu and elsewhere. Hundreds of Pandits were butchered by Islamic extremists. Hundreds of others lost their lives in the first few years of exile due to sunstrokes and snake bites. Thousands of them languished in refugee camps—first in tents and then in ramshackle one-room brick structures. In 2008, no one quite understood why the Prime Minister had chosen Akhnoor of all places to announce the return of Pandits; Srinagar might have been an apt venue, or maybe one of the refugee settlements. Many said it was to create a wedge between 1990’s Pandit refugees and those who had fled what is now Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947 to take refuge in Akhnoor and other border areas. Clearly, his advisors had not advised the Prime Minister well.
In 1990, after militancy broke out in the Valley, about 300,000 Pandits had had to flee their homes to take refuge in Jammu and elsewhere. Hundreds of Pandits were butchered by Islamic extremists. Hundreds of others lost their lives in the first few years of exile due to sunstrokes and snake bites. Thousands of them languished in refugee camps—first in tents and then in ramshackle one-room brick structures. In 2008, no one quite understood why the Prime Minister had chosen Akhnoor of all places to announce the return of Pandits; Srinagar might have been an apt venue, or maybe one of the refugee settlements. Many said it was to create a wedge between 1990’s Pandit refugees and those who had fled what is now Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in 1947 to take refuge in Akhnoor and other border areas. Clearly, his advisors had not advised the Prime Minister well.
As part of the PM’s package, 6,000 jobs were also announced for the Valley’s Pandit youth. Most of these jobs went abegging for fear of being targeted by militant and radical elements in Kashmir. However, 1,446 applicants, many of them women who badly needed jobs, took up the offer. They were accommodated in five settlements across the Valley. Most of the jobs were for teaching staff in various government schools. Hoping for the best, these candidates shifted to the Valley. And then came the reality shock.
The Pandit settlement in South Kashmir is in Vessu, near Qazigund, on the Srinagar-Jammu highway. About 700 employees live here in cheap, one-bedroom, pre-fabricated structures. One such structure is shared by four employees. There is a tiny shared kitchen. There is no drinking water. Water comes erratically in tankers, and residents boil that water for drinking. Otherwise, they collect water from a burst water pipeline nearby. The tanker water is so filthy that a few water purifiers residents got have gone bust. The residents blocked the national highway recently in protest. Last December, after schools closed for the winter vacations, only a few non-teaching employees stayed back in the settlements. For the next three months, they had to melt snow (on kerosene stoves) for water. There was hardly any electricity.
But the lack of basic amenities at the camp is the least of their concerns. The real problem, they say, is the harassment they face from Muslim colleagues at their workplaces. “They treat us like pariahs,” says one female teacher. “My headmistress threw a notebook at me the other day and shouted: ‘You sixth-grade pass-outs have come now to lord over us!’ I wanted to tell her that I have a double Master’s and a BEd degree.” They won’t say it openly, but there is resentment in various sections of the majority community about the return package offered the Pandits...
