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Social Awakening During the Thirties
& The Advent of the
"Martand"
Late Jankinath Kaul "Kamal",
Jammu
[Reproduced from the Vitasta Annual, 1985 - Martand Number]
The Martand was started in Srinagar, Kashmir in
the early thirties of the present century by Pandit Kashyap Bandhu. A
living apostle of social consciousness, he appeared on the scene of social and
political awakening in the Kashmiri Pandit community at the time when it had
gone slack and sluggish in respect of socio-religious activities. This was
perhaps because of the suppressed contentment in those days when the value of a
rupee was as much as a hundred rupees today. Bandhuji happened to take up
the lost threads of leadership of the community after the fateful injunctions of
Chamba Nath and Hargopal Kaul, the latter then rightly called 'the Lion of
Kashmir'.
If the boyhood memory does not betray me, I recall that there was the Sanatan
Dharma Sabha which took care of the socio-religious activities of the community.
Although, due to reasons unknown, its influence was diminishing slowly, it was
mainly confined to the educated class. Sunday meetings were held in the
hall available in the dharamshala of the Raghunath Mandir on the banks of the
Vitasta (the Jhelum) near Fateh Kadal. Evening paathshalas were run and
aided by the State Government. Bhagwad-Gita Mahimna-Stotra, Panchastavi,
Bhavani-Sahasranam, and Sandhya were taught. The Sanatan Dharma Sabha held
examinations both in theory and practical of Sandhya on the ghais of the Vitasta.
Not only do I possess the certificate of having passed this examination, but it
continues to be a part of my daily ablution and worship also.
Then followed acute unemployment in the State and as a result of prevailing
hardships, the 'Bread Movement' was started by a dedicated band of youngmen,
most of whom were detained in prison. This was the time when Pandit
Kashyap Bandhu emerged as a leader and attracted the attention of the masses.
He introduced the use of saree by the Kashmiri Pandit women as a symbol of
social change towards simple and austere living abandoning the extravagance
associated with 'zarbaaf' pheran, etc. In a large gathering of Kashmiri
Pandits, who had assembled at Sharika Chakreshwara, Hari Parbat, he administered
to them the oath to adopt and follow sincerely the social reforms advocated by
him. Thereafter weekly mass meetings on Sunday mornings were organized
there, and Sunday those days became known as Sharikawaar for the community.
Prabhat pheris were held to strengthen the religious and moral standing of the
people. During the time Bandhujee was held in Drison, people panted for
his honest guidance. When, late Shri Prem Nath Bazaz, his second-incommand,
visited him in the prison, Bandhuji emotionally enquired : 'Prema, dootya
kotu watse?, (O Prem, how is the use of saree going?) This was the
intensity with which all earnest people worked then. The Bread Movement
also resulted in the reinstatement of those serving in the Food Control
Department who had been retrenched enmasse. Pt. Kashyap Bandhu
became the acclaimed leader of the Kashmiri Pandit community.
With the political upheavals everywhere, the old Sanatan Dharam Sabha at
sometime ceased to function and in its place came the Sanatan Dharma Yuvak Sabha
and the Daily Martand (Urdu) was started as its official organ. Pt.
Kashyap Bandhu was the first editor of this daily. Later, it acquired a
press and continued to serve the community, as far as I can remember, for over
three decades. Meanwhile, the venue for various socio-cultural activities
and mass meetings of the community shifted to Shital Nath, Sathu in Srinagar,
This new place had till then been serving as the spiritual resort of many
ascetics. In the picturesque surroundings of trees, creepers, mounds and water
bodies and a temple of Bhairava, these people found lasting quietitude.
Originally, the Chhari Mubarak, leading the pilgrims to the holy Amamathji's
cave, also used to start from this place of sanctity and serenity. With
the change in times, the locality became crowded and the area was prepared to
serve as a ground for public meetings of the community. A dharamshala also
came up later and it now houses the Hindu High School.
Pandit Kashyap Bandhu was also instrumental in raising another building, the
Sharika Bhawan, which served as the headquarters of the Sanatan Dharam Yuvak
Sabha and the Martand.
Since a single sheet of a newspaper is a veritable miniature of the whole
world, the Martand gave the right start in cultivating among the youngmen the
spirit of integration. But somehow the time, fast heading toward a
democratic set-up in India, saw the cause of the Martand defeated.
Ultimately, it altogether stopped publication, the author believes, sometime in
the sixties. The watering down of social values in the Pandit community
and the overall political awakening around, there set in a process of fission at
every level of Pandit life - social, family and individual. With further
escalation of economic and political difficulties, younger members of the
community started leaving their land of birth to seek new pastures of
opportunity in education and professions elsewhere in the country and outside.
Pandits now became a very small minority community in Kashmir. Obviously,
in the process the Martand suffered immensely as everything else.
In its new birth, the Martand is seven years old and in a new garb: an
English weekly. But the standard that a lively paper should have to
attract thoughtful writers for effective propagation of ideal values of life
remains still to be attained. A few years ago, a meeting of writers and
well-wishers was called in at the Shital Nath premises to consider means and
ways of improving the standard of the Martand. The present author was one
of the invitees to this meeting. A number of thoughtful suggestions were
offered which have yet to be seen crystallized into a concrete plan of action.
Nevertheless, the author believes that the present exercise under the auspices
of the Vitasta will bear fruit.
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