Finding Kashmir in books: Looking back at the 1990 exodus through writings on and by Kashmiri Pandits

A tragedy is never too distant in the memory of those who suffered it, and it is renewed every time there is a depiction of it, creative or otherwise. So is the case with The Kashmir Files , a film by Vivek Agnihotri, that has the country talking in favourable as well as critical voices. However, a conversation about the killing and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is nonetheless happening. While Agnihotri’s film, starring the likes of Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumar, and Pallavi Joshi, has the country divided in opinion, there is a lot more available on the topic in books written and dog-eared over the last 32 years. Books written since the rise of insurgency in the Valley in the late ’80s, and the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits following targeted attacks on the community in 1990 offer researched insight into the fragile history of the region and its encounter with militancy. Let’s take a look at some of the books written by and on Kashmiri Pandits about the insurgency that displaced them from their homes: The Country Without a Post Office by Agha Shahid Ali The 1997 collection of poems by Indian-American poet Agha Shahid Ali is often considered one of the most critical literary works about the insurgency in the Valley. The poems on themes of exile, separation, longing and loss give voice to the dead and displaced, irrespective of their religion. Ali’s words ache for the return of the natives of the Valley, Kashmiri Pandits and Muslims alike, which he says is possible only when “the soldiers return the keys”. He writes in A Pastoral: “We shall meet again, in Srinagar, by the gates of the Villa of Peace, our hands blossoming into fists till the soldiers return the keys and disappear. Again we’ll enter our last world, the first that vanished.” In the poem titled “I see Kashmir from New Delhi at Midnight”, Ali pleads to men who are removing statues from temples, “Who will protect us if you leave?” “They don’t answer, they just disappear On the road to the plains, clutching the gods.” Several poems in the collection mention the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits as “men coming from those Abodes of Snow with gods asleep like children in their arms”. In Ali’s poems, the promise to return to the “country” that was once home is half-buried and even thriving under the notes of forced resignation with which the citizens of the Valley had departed in the’90s. The Country Without a Post Office is a timeless dirge to those who could not return and a reminder to those who still await a passage home. Our Moon Has Blood Clots by Rahul Pandita The memoir by the journalist-author offers a personal recollection of incidents. Nothing enviable in this context as Rahul Pandita jots down the pain of leaving his beloved home, recalling his own lived experiences, oral histories from the land and snatches of poetry by the Vallery’s very own Lal Ded. Our Moon Has Blood Clots is a deeply personal and unforgettable story of loss and no reconciliation of a people that were tortured, killed and forced out of their homes by militants in 1990 into a permanent exile in their own country. Unlike Agha Shahid Ali, Pandita has presented a picture of Pandit victims and Muslim perpetrators of the ensuing exodus. Writing a memoir is often fraught with the risk of presenting only one side of the story, as is the case with this one. Pandita recounts incidents of celebrations when Pakistan won cricket matches against India, cries of aazadi hanging heavy in the air, which he writes were “well-orchestrated to frighten the Pandits into exile”. A Long Dream of Home: The Persecution, Exodus and Exile of Kashmiri Pandits by Siddhartha Gigoo and Varad Sharma The anthology of memoirs first published in 2016 tells the stories of struggle and plight of four generations of Kashmiri Pandits: those who were born and brought up in Kashmir, and fled while they were in their forties and fifties; those who lingered on in their homes in Kashmir despite the threat to their lives; those who got displaced in their teens; and those who were born in migrant camps in exile. The narratives of these “internally displaced migrants” explore the history, cultural identity and existence of the Kashmiri Pandits. Gigoo and Sharma’s book tells stories of persecution, killings and kidnappings, struggle, survival and an undying yearning to return to their land. The Garden of Solitude by Siddhartha Gigoo Based on the true incidents surrounding the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, The Garden of Solitude can be looked upon as a semi-biographical fictional tale written by Siddhartha Gigoo in 2010. Sridar, a young Pandit boy, reluctantly leaves his home in Kashmir with his family and settles in Jammu, where an entire generation of Pandits spends the rest of their lives suffering from a sense of loneliness and alienation. The young boy soon begins to find solace in his writings and leaves Jammu to pursue it full-time. However, his love for his homeland brings him back to Kashmir; he is now writing a book on Pandit migration, not unlike Gigoo himself. Sridar, whose young years are moulded by a sense of mistrust, betrayal, violence and a cultural and religious divide, watches the relationship of the Muslims and Pandits. He is pained to see how the forced migration to Jammu has transformed the once prospering and happy community of Pandits into a pained and estranged populace. Troubled by his tumultuous past, he is now trying to find answers to the questions that define him. A Bit of Everything by Sandeep Raina After fleeing their own home in Varmull (Baramulla) in Kashmir, Rahul and his family find shelter in Delhi, a city where his landlord calls him Muslim-Brahman for eating meat. Sandeep Raina’s debut novel is an extension of the life he lived growing up in Kashmir and forced to flee when militancy made it impossible to stay there. When coerced to choose a side between the longing for a quiet and peaceful life and joining a Hindu extremist group, Rahul flees again. This time to England, where he hopes he will not have to make these choices. A series of bomb blasts in London again brings Kashmir at the centre of his existence and he realises he must attempt a journey home. A Bit of Everything is a devastating exploration of what it means to lose one’s home, and struggling to find one for the rest of the life. On Uncertain Ground: Displaced Kashmiri Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir by Ankur Datta The idea of writing this book, which author Sanjay Kak refers to as “a long-overdue corrective”, began with Ankur Datta visiting Purkhu, one of the several migrant camps in Jammu region to which the Pandits made their way in the 1990s, for his PhD thesis. Since the rise of insurgency in Kashmir and the exodus of Pandits, the minority Hindu population of the Valley has lived in between the Kashmiri nationalism, which wouldn’t let them return, and mainland India, which has never truly felt like home. This 2016 book attempts to explore their experiences by looking at their relationship with Kashmir and the place they have relocated to, where they have rebuilt their lives. Focusing on the lives of displaced Pandits in “camp colonies”, Datta presents to the reader their continued struggle to find the balance between living an ordinary life in exile, trying to find their place in the world and the longing for a more comfortable but lost one.