Memorial Presented to the Prime
Minister of Jammu and Kashmir
Kashyap Bandhu
[This article is taken from "Freedom Movement in Kashmir"]
The Honourable Prime Minister,
His Highness' Govemment,
Jammu and Kashmir, Jammu.
Sir,
May I venture to take the liberty of addressing
this communication to you on the present position of the Kashmiri Pandit
community in Kashmir. Recent events have had a most detrimental effect on
the economic and political and consequently the social security of the
community. In order to have a proper comprehension of the situation in
which the community unfortunately finds itself placed today, I deem it necessary
to outline briefly the historical background from which it has sprung and the
influences which have moulded its genius as also the circumstances which today
conspire to strangle that enius. If the community is to be rescued from
the doom, which, if the present circumstances remain unchecked and unremedied,
is inevitable, it is necessary to put into practice the suggestions made at the
conclusion of the representation. These suggestions do not comprise any
extravagant demand; they are only a claim on behalf of the community to be
allowed reasonable facilities to continue its existence in a manner consistent
with its past history and present achievements.
Kashmiri Brahmins have during the last two thousand years and more held a
very high position in the intellectual life of India and not of India only; for
Chinese historical records mention Kashmiri Brahmin missionaries propagating
Buddhism in China in the early centuries of the Christian era. Their
literature and their works of art, which still are some of the finest in the
world, bear testimony to their greatness. Though today in the State they
are considered an unwarlike race, in the medieval times, more than once they
swept out of their mountain fastnesses and extended their sway over vast regions
in India and Central Asia. Mahmood of Ghazni who spread devastation in
North India was unable to penetrate into Kashmir, and Kashmir still retained its
independence for two centuries after Mussalmans had established their empire
throughout the length and breadth of India. Muslim domination in Kashmir,
when it occurred, was not due to an invasion from outside but was the result of
infiltration and conversions from within. But all through the vicissitudes
of centuries, the Kashmiri Brahmin community who was the flower of the
population retained its individuality and notwithstanding untold hardships, kept
its flag flying. Throughout these centuries, whatever the circumstances
and whoever the rulers, the Kashmiri Pandit community had a potent voice in the
administration and determination of the destinies of their country. As
late as century ago it was on the initiative and with the active cooperation of
the Kashmiri Pandit community that Maharaja Ranjit Singh occupied Kashmir.
Since then, as ever before, this community has rendered loyal and devoted
service to the rulers of the land. On account of their special hereditary
pitude they have taken the maximum advantage of the educational facilities
afforded by Goverrunent to all communities alike, and this community, so far as
male literacy is concerned, is one of the most advanced in the world, as the
proportion of literacy among men is practically cent per cent. When
anskrit gave place to Persian we adopted the latter language as our own, so much
so that our culture is now as much Persian as Sanskritic. When Persian
gave place to English we took to the new language with the same avidity and
filled the new administrative departments as we had done the old, rendering,
more often than not, for a bare pittance, the same singlehearted service to
Government that our ancestors had done before. We preferred the long hours
and the meagre emoluments which are the lot of subordinate functionaries in
public offices to more lucrative employment because by doing so we followed the
bent of our minds, as for countless generations, penmanship has been our
hereditary craft and public service our hereditary occupation. There is
not a single department of the administration except the Army from which we have
been debarred (though there is no such bar in the British Indian Army who
contains several Kashmiri Pandits holding the King's Commission) which does not
owe its reputation, such as it possesses, for efficiency primarily to the
Kashmiri Pandit element in it. From the frozen heights of Ladakh to the
malaria-infested valleys of Muzzafferabad, whatever progress has been achieved
in whatever branch of the administration, be it road construction, detection of
crime, spread of education, provision of medical aid, the Kashmiri Pandit had
had a dominant share in its achievement though being usually in a subordinate
position, the only reward he has reaped for his incessant toil and hardship has
been an occasional smile and a chit from his officer.
But today in spite of all the services he has rendered and all the privations
he has endured, he finds himself faced with a situation which threatens him and
his children with political and economic extinction. Not only are the
Kashmir Pandits deprived of their occupation of which they enjoyed almost a
monopoly even under the worst of Pathan rulers, but very frequently they are
also being deprived of opportunities, which, in bare justice, those who are
actually in service are entitled to claim as a matter of inalienable right.
It is not denied that with the change of circumstances, communities and nations
have to readjust themselves, but we urge it emphatically that it is absolutely
unjust to force the pace of reorientation of the entire cultural and economic
outlook of a whole community, and still more unjust to destroy the vested
interests and the principal means of livelihood of a distinguished and talented
race with a stroke of the pen, and without giving it time to readjust itself
with the changin times. It cannot be denied, and it were, there are facts
to prove the futility of the denial, that whatever the name given to the
so-called re-organisation of State administration, call it the Efficiency
Commission or Committee the result is always the same; the axe falls on the head
of the Kashmiri Pandit. The whole philosophy of the remodelling of the
administration can be summed up in the sentence "Whoever is in the Kashmiri
Pandit must be out". Denied the privileges of the majority on account
of the smallness of our numbers, we are at the same time denied the protection
due to a minority and doubly due to a minority community with our history,
services and educational attainments. We recognise the necessity of the
reorientation of our outlook and we are aware of the difficulties which
Government have to face under the stress of existing circumstances, but at the
same we insist that Government have a definite obligation to discharge in
relation to us and it would be height of injustice if that obligation is ignored
and we are thrown over board. Instances are not waiting where other
Governments placed in a similar situation have acted in a fundamentally
different spirit and with a sympathy worthy of admiration. Take the case
of Anglo-Indian community in India, which is much smaller in number than ours
and incomparably smaller when the population of the whole of India is taken into
consideration. This community during the last 150 years has occupied a
very privileged Position in the British Indian Services. The security of
this position is now threatened by the urgent demand for Indianization.
Throughout the discussion on Indian Constitutional Reform, the representatives
of the Anglo-Indian community have urged that their present members in services
should remain intact at least for 30 years, during which period they will be
able to adjust themselves to changed circumstances and to adopt other
avocations. It is understood from the papers published a couple of weeks
ago, that the British Government have in fact given a pledge that in the new
constitutional changes safeguards would be devised for the economic security of
the Anglo-Indian community in India. Surely the claims of the Kashmiri
Pandit community in the Jammu and Kashmir State are not less than those of the
Anglo-Indian community in British India, and their case stands in the need of at
least equally sympathetic consideration. After all an answer must be
provide to the question : 'What are the Kashmiri Pandits to do?' They are
deprived of their hereditary occupation; Difficulties are placed in their being
recognised as an agricultural community which could enable them to buy land and
settle down to agriculture. No special facilities are given to them in
obtaining technical education and no encouragement provided in pursuing
commercial enterprise. Even if such facilities had been given, it would
have taken many years before proper adjustment could take place, for the entire
mental landscape of a community cannot be effected and re-arranged in a day.
How much longer will it take without any facilities being given?
By virtue of their religion and of the common interests as also by reason of
their deep and abiding sense of loyalty Kashmiri Pandits are identified with
Government by the opponents of Government. Kashmiri Pandits are proud of
this, but such an identification has serious drawbacks and under certain
conditions, for example every time a clash occurs between the rising tide of
education and communalism on the one side and Government on the other, the
Kashmiri Pandits are the first target for attacks, as in the eyes of Muslim
agitators, injury to a Kashmiri Pandit whether in the service of the Government
or not of whatever sex or age, is identical with injury to Goverrunent.
Government, being an intangible thing and not easily susceptible of being
overthrown, the first objective of any outburst of agitation in Kashmir is the
destruction of the Kashmiri Pandits' property and sometimes of life. We do
not mention this by way of accusation or complaint, but only as a statement of
fact in support of our contention that if we are attacked on one side we are
entitled to being defended and strengthened by the other on whose account we are
attacked. We should not be ground to powder between the upper mill stone
of the Government Retrenchment or Efficiency Commissions and the policy of
exclusion from public service and lower mill stone of communal attack on our
life and property by unbridled subversive agitation. Our natural
hereditary attitude, our religious obligations, our sense of duty, no less than
our self interest demand that while peacefully living with other communities we
should maintain steadfast loyalty towards our ruler and his Government.
But it has to be recognised that we, as a community must live and have a
distinct and honourable standing compatible with our history and our
attainments, and not as pariahs and strangers within the State existing on the
difference of other people. The time has come when as a community we have
come to a decision and chalk out a policy to prevent our extinction and what is
worse than extinction, our degradation which is progressing apace on account of
the terrible unemployment prevailing amongst us. It must be remembered
that unemployment in a community like ours is a gangrene of much worse type than
in other communities because all our young men are well-educated. If they
cannot turn their hands to useful things their potentiality for mischief is far
greater than in the case of young men of any other mischief community. I
do not wish to be considered hysterical on the subject but the tragedy enacted
before our eyes is so deep and so all prevailing that it is impossible to
measure the extent of devastation already committed. Our demands are not
extravagant. We want a guarantee for security in services in the same
manner as the British overnment are giving to Anglo-Indians and the domicile
Europeans in India, though our claims for such guarantees are far higher than
those of these communities as the Anglo-Indians and domiciled Europeans come
into existence only a century and a half ago at the earliest and we have been
living in this country for thousands of years and the monuments which dot the
countryside everywhere bear witness to our honourable existence.
Recognising that, in the altered conditions we will eventually, have to adopt
other avocations, we want that special facilities be given to us here and now,
so that the community may pass through the period of transition without the much
jolting of its framework. Some of our demands are:
(1) Recognition of the Kashmiri Pandit community as an agricultural community
without any disability in the sale and purchase of land in every part of the
State.
(2) Special facilities in technical education by grant of special
scholarships in the State and foreign technical institutions.
(3) Special facilities in the grant of Government Contracts especially in the
P.W.D. and Civil Supplies where our contractors are handicapped in the interest
of non-state subject,
(4) Financial aid from the Dharamarth Departmenl to start industries on the
security of immovable property without interest or at least a low rate of
interest. Such aid has been granted before to certain persons of other
communities.
(5) In order that our interest might be adequately represented in the
proposed Assembly, at least two Kashmiri Pandit Councillors should be nominated.
This is the mere necessity as in the new franchise proposal the number of
Kashmiri Hindus (Pandits) is 3 out of 75 in place of 4 out of 63 as proposed by
Mr. Galancy.
Maintenance of the strength of the Kashmiri Pandit representation in the
services for a period of 30 years at the figure at which it stood on 13th July
1931, on which date the present Campaign agitation was openly started. As
stated above the Kashmiri Pandits are the community which suffered the most on
account of the retrenchments that have since taken place, because for one reason
or the other the Departments where Kashmiri Pandits are either not employed or
are employed in small numbers, for instance the Military Department and
Minister-in-Waitings Department, have not been very much affected by
retrenchments. Curiously enough, even in these Departments, when
retrenchment has been made, Kashmiri Pandits have principally suffered.
This demand is exactly what the Anglo-Indians are asking in British India and as
it is understood are hoping to secure.
(7) There is no reason why Kashmiri Pandits should be debarred from entering
into State Army, when they are given King's Commission in the British Army.
(8) If the Efficiency Commission is to be kept at all it is essential that it
should contain a Kashmiri Pandit member and its procedure should be revised in
such a manner that the persons affected should be given an opportunity to
explain their cases before action is taken against them. This is a matter
of general public interest.
(9) (a) Special measures should be taken to protect our religious places.
What at present happens is that whenever the mood takes them, irresponsible
Muslim agitators come and place a few stones in the compound or in the vicinity
of our shrines and raise a Hullabaloo that the land is "Wakaf" and
they will erect a mosque. The Government when approached by us instead of
warding them off appoint an Arbitration Committee to settle the dispute, though
actually there is no dispute, as the land has been in the possession of Hindus
for centuries. The local authorities instead of nipping the trouble in the
bud take no action until the agitation takes root and the excitement amongst
people attains a high pitch.
(b) Restoration of Hindi to its former position in schools and colleges.
(10) The following measures are immediately necessary for safeguarding the
interest of Kashmiri Pandits actually in service at the present moment:
(a) Kashmiri Pandits should not be prevented from promotion when they are due
to them according to seniority and efficiency.
(b) They should be raised to higher positions as even according to Mr.
Galancy, the proportion of the Kashmiri Pandits in the Gazetted staff is not
adequate.
(c) The Headquarters of the Government should be moved as before from
Srinagar to Jammu and vice-versa. Its fixation at particular place is
administratively unsound, financially useless, and in fact no real saving is
made.
(d) Measures should be taken to check the propaganda in the Muslim press
against Hindu officers in general and Kashmiri Pandit officers, who are
specially marked for such attention, in particular.
(11) We have been asking for representation in the State council and we hope
that His Highness will graciously be pleased to grant our request.
(12) Grant of area for plantation to the Kashmirl Pandit and waste lands.
We are sanguine that these requests will receive sympathetic consideration,
as our memorial in 1931, The exact words of his gracious declaration are shall
always continue to take a deep personal interest in all that concerns the
welfare of the Kashniiri Pandit community which, though small'm numbers, is the
best educated community in the State and comprises the original inhabitants of
the country who have maintained their time-honoured traditions". We
take our stand on this.
I beg to remain,
Sir,
Your most obedient servant,
Kashyap Bandhu
March 1934.
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