Kashyap Bandhu
R. K. Bharati, Jammu
Kashyap Bandhu is the most revolutionary
Kashmiri Pandit of the 20th century Kashmir. He was the first Kashmiri
Pandit (KP) who pulled his community out of the sloth and terror of centuries
heaped upon them by Muslim-Afghan barbaric rule for seven hundred years.
He was the first to introduce 'sari' among Kashmiri Pandit ladies in place of
the traditional "pheran", tarangeh (head gear) loongi, and poots,
which were proving too costly for the parents of the girls on their marriage.
He used the good offices of the Begum Sheikh Abdullah and roamed from village to
village with his austerity and "dhoti-prachar" campaign. The
popular refrain of those days was :
"Begum Jani hund taqreer boozi tau,
Israf travi tau tee gatshi jaan."
Listen to Begum John's advice and abandon pomp and show and live a simple
life)
Since Kashmiri Pandits are by nature progressive and they change with
changing times without any resistance so they accepted his advice and the ladies
began to wear sarees called "dhooti" in Kashmiri language.
The ladies would sing in marriage and other parties :
Chui mubrarakh dhoti mahareniya / khasi veegis te taal thau naniye / Chui
mubarakh dhoti mahareniye.
(Congratulations o, bride with a saree / Go to marriage place with bare head,
/ Congrats for your saree)
It may be recalled that in those days women (and even men) would not bare
their heads as it was taboo. Some took it as a welcome step to new age and
others as a satire on 'dhoti-prachar' ; for instance they would sing :
"Meethi paye bazres trav soneh pyalan / Kashyap Band Lalan kari israf"
(The seeds of 'fenugreek' have fallen in the market / You go and collect
them in cups / Kashyap Bandhu dear has done away with pomp and show).
Those who opposed Kashyap Bandhu called him "Kashi Bandookh" (The husk
gun).
Mr Kashyap Bandhu joined National Conference when it appeared in its secular
incarnation from the erstwhile Muslim Conference. Mr Kashyap Bandhu
remained close to Sheikh Abdullah who made him the Director for Rural
Development (Dehat Sudhar) in his first cabinet. But soon Mr Kashyap
Bandhu was disillusioned with National Conference and its commual agenda against
KPs. It was the NC that deprived KPs of their landed property under a
plausible name "Big Landed Establishment Abolition Act" which deceived
the central leadership. They thought that it was their socialism in action
which they had failed to implement in rest of India. This entire land
without compensation or alternative rehabilitation. This started the
exodus of KPs from the valley which was completed in 1990 and the valley was
almost cleansed of the ethnic minority of KPs.
"Khatimai Jagirdari" was aimed at ousting Kashmiri speaking Dogra
Rajputs living in Kashmir. This was to deprive them of the pension (in
kind) sanctioned for their dead ones who had been killed in wars with General
Zorawar Singh. This forced 10,000 (ten thousand) strong Rajputs to leave
Kashmir in 1948. There were only 1500 (fifteen hundred) starving souls of
this community left in Kashmir by 1976. There are still a few of such
families in Kashmir as there are some KPs there but they live like bonded
slaves. They cannot express themselves fully for fear of the gun and
retaliation.
Kashyap Bandhu's real name was Tarachand and "Bulbul" (nightingale)
was his pen name. He was a poet also. When he was disillusioned with
the Sheikh, he began to isolate himself from him and then came 1953 and all NC
workers including Kashyap Bandhu were side lined. Earlier he had shifted
his attention from social reform to politics but now he abandoned this also and
lived a lonely life in his native village 'Giroo' (Geur in Kashmiri) in Tral
area. The name of 'Giroo' was afterwards changed into "Noorpora"
by Bakhshi Ghulam Mohamad the then Prime Minister of J&K.
Kashyap Bandhu attended his orchards in his village, Noorpora.
In 1970 Mir Qasim and his Congress (1) hatched another conspiracy to oust and
impoverish the already impoverished community of KPs. Mr Qasim deprived
the KPs of all their land even below the so called 'ceiling area'. The
blind, the deaf, the dumb, the handicapped, the widows and the destitutes all
had to surrender their agrarian land to their Muslim tenants who were by then
very rich and most of them were on good posts in the administration also.
I started a campaign against this black law which was passed hastily in a
specially convened session of the state Assembly.
When my articles, press reports, press conferences and protest demonstrations
reached Mr Kashyap Bandhu he called me to his village. I and Pt.
Triloki Nath Pandita of Kulgam went to him. He was now an old man and
totally disillusioned. He had understood the underlying intentions of the
"Agrarian Reforms Act of 1972" of Mir Qasim.
Under this Act no VIP, Patwari, IAS officer, Tehsildar, MLA, MP, Minister or
Police officer lost his/her land. It were only the KPs (small land owners)
who were made a landless class without compensation or any alternative
rehabilitation. The resumption of one's own land was made so difficult
that it was next to impossible to claim it or self cultivate it.
I had met Mrs Indira Gandhi the then Prime Minister of India dozens of times
and she had understood the game plan but she found herself helpless before the
Kashmir Government.
Mr. Kashyap Bandhu had become cripple by then. He said he could not
move. His wife and children lived away from him. His sister-in-law
was attending on him. If I am not wrong she was a widow perhaps. He
could not move from his cot. He said he was a patient of diabetes.
We spent a night with him. He said how he had worked in Arya Samaj for
awakening of KPs in Kashmir. He was a writer also. He started "Desh"
in Urdu and spread his message through its columns. He was also connected
with rural development and had written much about it.
He advised us to be cautious as KPs did not accept any one as their leader.
When I told him that I had no ambitions and that I was not even the ordinary
member of the Zamindar Association or the "Rural Kashmiri Hindu
Association" (RKHA) under which I was carrying on my campaign, he felt a
bit reassured. However he advised me that even if I did not collect any
money or donations still the KPs would call me corrupt. "He has
bungled lakhs of rupees", he said would be talked about me. I was young
those days and bubbling with enthusiasm but his sane warning note rang warning
bells in my mind and I never went out with a receipt book and thank God no one
has accused me of bunglings.
It is said that Mr Kashyap Bandhu had written his memoirs which faithfully
exposed the communal policies of the Sheikh and his government but unfortunately
Mr Kashyap Bandhu could not move freely for his ailment and therefore he
entrusted this job to some of his trusted relatives. It is said that the
said relative was not aware of the publishing business so he consulted a famous
KP lawyer of Anantnag who took the manuscript and allegedly either destroyed it
or hid it for his affiliation with the Sheikh family and the NC.
Thus a valuable treasure was lost for ever. But this is not confirmed
and cannot be ascertained now.
Similarly another KP leader and a close associated of Kashyap Bandhu, Pt
Rishi Dev, who gave all his life to NC and in return got very small benefits (as
compared to his junior Muslim colleague) in the shape of professional training
and appointment of his children; is now a disillusioned man at 80. He too
has recorded his bitter experiences with the communal mentality of the NC
leadership, the Kashmir Congress etc, the state bureaucracy and the government
and also the ignorance (conscious or unconscious) of the Central government.
For paucity of funds he has not been able to publish it. I tried my best with a
few publishers but they demanded very high costs and therefore the book could
not be published and the truth remained hidden within the pages of the
manuscript.
Kashyap Bandhu was well versed with Sanskrit. He recited a Sanskrit
sloka to us and showed what subtle erotic depth it had: The meaning of the
couplet was: "What a strange fire there is in women / If it is away it
burns / And if it is close (in a hug) it soothes".
He had published his poems in Persian script in small booklet form as was the
fashion those days. In his early youth he had been a Patwari and had
worked in many villages. He had thus known life from close quarters and
sang it in his poems. He too had loved and been loved, though the
expression of love was not as open then as it is now.
His were the times when leaders and rulers had some morals and cherished
values besides lust for money. The leaders had not degenerated to the
level of present leaders and therefore Kashyap Bandhu was a very sad man at the
fag end of his life. He foresaw that KPs could not live in the valley.
He told us that we should try to get our children settled outside. However
he never dreamt of militancy and local support to them. He believed in
Kashmiryat which was eroded systematically by the ruling oligarchy and the
bureaucracy after 1947. He was sore that communal virus was injected into
the body politic of Kashmir. Acting on his advice I left Kashmir in 1978
leaving all my property behind. I have not even got myself registered as
"migrant" in Jammu as it needs big money to grease the palms of some
officials which I did not do because I too belong to an age when we thought we
should maintain some standards. Though I realise now that we have failed
and the unethical people have won the game.
On the advice of Kashyap Bandhu Pt. Triloki Nath Pandita and I visited
almost every village from Manazgam in Kulgam to Shadipora via Sonwar in Kashmir
impressing upon the KP brethren that the so called Agrarian Reforms and communal
policy in promotions and appointments was a conspiracy under secular garb to
force KPs out of the valley. Although KPs agreed in principle but none
visualised the real danger; so they were caught unawares in 1990 and many got
killed and almost all were deprived of their home and hearth.
Perhaps Kashyap Bandhu could guide this dispersed 'migrant" community at
present but there is none who can match this great soul and every KP has to fend
for himself and carve out his / her way according to his / her own lights.
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