Enforced Exile: Plight of Kashmiris in Rahul Pandita's Our Moon Has Blood Clots
Enforced Exile: Plight of Kashmiris
in Rahul Pandita's Our Moon Has Blood
Clots
PERIYASAMY A
Research Scholar, Dept. Of English
Pondicherry University, Puducherry.
The title Enforced Exile is a common
term or words which denote someone is enforced to go into exile. The second
part of the title undoubtedly breaks the second part of the title topic on what
it speaks.
Rahul
Pandita like other writer debates about the issue of Kashmiris and particularly
of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits. He has narrated the potential issues like violence
and sudden loss of family members and such other things that happen which might
put them to everlasting grief.
Mohan
Shafi Qureshi, Chairman of India's National Commission for Minorities, has
rightly pointed to Human Rights Watch that "Whenever there is trouble, the
needle of suspicion points toward the minority." It is very much evident
that the minority victims are made to suffer at some time which can be equated
with the Kashmiri Pandits who are the living example of the present day
situation that is happening in Kashmir. The minority Kashmiri Pandits are
forced to change their religion to Muslim. Throughout the novel Pandita voices
the daily agony that Kashmir Pandits are facing.
It
is a quiet misfortune that well learned politicians from both India and
Pakistan and as well as the UN representatives could not solve the problem of
the State of Jammu and Kashmir, which is till date an issue for other
countries.
India
and Pakistan are considered to be one among the big powers in the SAARC
countries. Whenever the issue of Kashmir is raised, it results in the collapse
of the bilateral relationship between them. The cold war between the countries
creates a great repulse in the growth of the other smaller nations. The plight
of the State of Jammu and Kashmir is worse. People do not know when their long
known neighbor would turn to be their deadliest enemy. Pandita points out how
the neighborhood boys behaved after they chased the original owners of the
houses. It is also surprising fact that small boys forming a gang threaten the
people of another community.
Boys
along with their ring leader were discussing their choice of houses they have
selected. They were using obscene language and comments on the houses and the
female of the houses. Moreover, they were telling "At least go inside and
pass; like a dog you need to mark your territory."
Pandita
notes that it was very hard for the pandits to come out of their houses. They
feared and thought that "they cannot live here (Kashmir) anymore." They
at a time came to a conclusion that they can't keep on stay like how with a
whole family survived a day with candlelight as below:
Ma
went to the storeroom and fetched a few candles that she always kept handy.
In
candlelight, she made turmeric rice. There was neither will nor appetite for an
elaborate dinner. We ate silently and quite early. I was so stressed that my
stomach was in Knots… father told us we would have to leave early the next
morning. That night we could not sleep. We just lay beneath our quilts (Our Moon has Blood Clots, 92).
Hindu
Pandits in the Kashmir Valley was worried, and they have prepared both mentally
and physically to move to Jammu, which is dominated by the Hindus. They were
also happy that Indian army would come to their rescue which in the words of
Mr. Kaul said "Pandita Sa'eb, you don't worry. The army has come now, and
it will all be over in a couple of months (Our
Moon has Blood Clots, 93)."
At
some places, the mobs were beating up the families that were fleeing. They also
looted their belongings and left with nothing. They were even lynched during
their way to Jammu. Temples were ruined. Pandit families were escaping in the
truck after truck (Our Moon has Blood
Clots, 98) fleeing to Jammu. Pandit people in Kashmir lost their houses,
belongings, and a lot. But the question of theirs is "Where were we going
to live? Where would the money come from? Was everyone else safe- Our friends,
relatives?...But the thought that we might never return still did not cross our
minds (Our Moon has Blood Clots,
100)"
The
common man started taking pride in killing the pandits and newspaper brought
down the news of the death tolls. In the name Azadi, brutally killing was keep
on increasing. They abducted female and took turns to rape, and they throw them
and move on. There are many instances to narrate the horrible stories of how
Hindu Pandits were lynched barbarically by the Muslims in Kashmir. Few were
shot down, few were hanged and lot many stories, and they are not just one or
two but too many. What was created in Jammu after was nothing but Refugee camps
which were entirely in a distressed manner? The refugee camps created a life of
the living dead. There were no electricity and other basic amenities. People,
at last, came to the conclusion that wherever they live "No Land is their
Land."
Human
Rights Watch has reported that since from early 1990, 2000 cases have been
investigated, and there are many cases which do not have any credibility to
accuse the persons. The militants from Kashmir, who had their arms and
amusement training from Pakistan subsequently gave hideout attacks to the
military convey. Whenever there is a loss among the troops, they tried to get
harder. They never mind whom they are dealing with. Indian military security
forces also conducted a warrantless search, search for illegal weapons or other
evidence for militants stay which happened to be their routine duty. They also
dragged many people from their beds into the bitter cold (Kashmir: Towards
Insurgency, 60).
Military
officials also conducted fake-encounters which Human Rights Watch has reported
on the investigation. Cases of such kind are numerous, which according to me,
is the pain and grief of the loss of one among the military personnel. In the
investigation of the Human Rights Watch, there have been cases in which,
Military officials says that they were pelted with stones to instigate them to
open fire.
"I
have not seen any official being punished. And quietly frankly, I don't even
try to get them prosecuted. My priority is to get my clients released while
they are still alive." Says Mian Abdul Qayoom, president of the Jammu and
Kashmir High Court Bar Association, Srinagar.
Both
the militants and military officials give Human Rights Watch a tough
competition in bringing out the result. Both try to deny the facts that had
eyewitness to some extent (Everyone lives in Fear -Human Rights Watch,)
India
as a developing nation it attempts at every possible level to bring the
bilateral relationship between the other neighboring Countries. The issue with
the exile creates a robust environment in the State of Jammu and Kashmir. To
conclude the Human Rights Watch, at every level tries to sort out the problems
of the people of the Kashmir Valley. The mob protest and attack on the military
bunks is intolerable with the militants who now and then helps military
personals to undergo fake encounters or at sometimes clashes with the
militants, whom the people call as non- militants. It is no wonder that the
public violence and other issues in the breach of Calm serenity in Kashmir was
disturbed by the Pro-Independence Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front from 1988.
As it had enormous support from the people and the state, it at every point
tried its level best to storm the peace of the citizens. They are the ones give
Indian military a tough competition to bring the peace. In an interview with
Human Rights Watch one of the militants says:
I
was about fifteen. Still in School. I decided to go too….Why? Well, everyone
was going, and they would laugh if you did not. And also, everyone had a gun,
and it seemed important that I should have one too, just in case.
This
brings my concluding lines to given in the detail why Jammu and Kashmir had the
problem of violence to the core. In the name of freedom, Pakistan induces a
proxy war in the calm and quiet zone of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Work Cited:
Pandita, Rahul. Our Moon Has Blood Clots. India: Random
House, 2013.Print
Puri. Kashmir: Towards
Insurgency. P.60
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