Two American filmmakers Senain Keshgi and Geeta Patel decided to go to Kashmir to film ordinary people talking about how the conflict has affected their lives. They expected to be intimidated, to be confronted by violent emotions, but they never expected that their friendship would undergo its greatest test.
Senain is Muslim and her family, like millions of others, lost everything at the Partition that divided the subcontinent in 1947. Also, since 9/11, she has become increasingly defensive about being Muslim. Geeta has her own baggage – her family are Gujerati Hindus. In 2002, Gujerat saw violent Hindu riots during which hundreds of Muslims were massacred and thousands more rendered homeless.
In America, their cultural backgrounds were just that – wallpaper. But in Kashmir, a land where cultural identity counts for everything, suddenly the two women found themselves becoming not just Senain and Geeta, but Muslim and Hindu.
Senain Keshgi said that since 9/11 she had been feeling increasingly marginalized and defensive, but going to Kashmir with Geeta changed that radically:
“For me I was starting to feel a sense of community whereas she was starting to feel excluded for the first time and its almost as if our paths crossed.”
Ironically, Kashmiris used to pride themselves on the way their majority Muslim and minority Hindu Pundit populations have always lived together in harmony. But a growing Muslim militancy combined with India’s increasing heavy handedness in Kashmiri politics and a vast military deployment there eventually culminated in violence in 1989 that saw an exodus of nearly 400,000 Hindus. They left behind their homes, often giving the keys to their beloved Muslim neighbours for safe keeping, and fled to refugee camps where they remain to this day.
In their film, Senain and Geeta came across many instances where the people who remained talked longingly of their lost friends and neighbours:
“Kashmir is a place of many contradictions – and we were among a society of people that very much wanted to be one but there was so much pain and memory within them that every day was a struggle to keep those friendships going, to keep positive.”
Their film Project Kashmir has led to the pair presenting it in workshops and discussions around the world. But more than that, both women feel that the experience has left them with a stronger sense of self and with a friendship that was tested to the extreme and that emerged the stronger for the experience.
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I have seen the film and read about the facts given in their websites that are tilted more towards Muslims and little towards the real history of Kashmir and what Hindus suffered and are suffering. How can Geeta and Senain come to a conclusion without visiting the refugee camps in Jammu and interviewing the people who endured it first hand? What is the fault of Kashmiri Pundits who are like lost sheep in their own land? Kashmiri Muslims resent security forces because of the anti-Indian, Pakistani supported elements within. There would be no need of forces if they live a normal life and disown the militants and the politicians with vested interests.The current govt. of Kashmir is all for peace and progress of the state and invites Hindus back but the insurgents within, and political opposition parties, derail the peace process. Pakistan does not want the people of Kashmir to live in peace. New Delhi is ready to recall the forces, but the people of Kashmir must side with peace and shun violence and be ready for a dialogue, and let the Kashmiri Hindus return to their homes. Are the Kashmiri Muslims ready? They should see what Pakistan is about-Talibanisation and what India is about-democracy. Whatever turmoil you see and read in India is due to the proxy war by Pakistan. You have disgruntled people and parties in every country but they don't side with the enemy country, but in India, that's the game being played to keep the region in turmoil. We had Pakistan sponsored militancy in Punjab for over a decade, but after losses on both sides, common people guessed what it was all about and goodsense prevailed and peace returned. The people of Kashmir should understand that they are being used as pawns by vested political parties. They should support Kashmiriyat: the close relation of Hindus and Muslims than militancy.
Thanks for the audio report. It is not about what I wrote though but about a Pakistani Muslim and a Gujarati Indian. However, I would like you to write about displaced Kashmiri Pundits, Dheera.
ROOTS IN Kashmir’ protests against the inconsideration and neglect of Amnesty International on the 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
‘Roots In Kashmir’ a worldwide initiative of the Kashmiri Pundit youth today protested against the international human rights group Amnesty International, on the occasion of 60th anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The group accused Amnesty of being biased in their Human Rights reports in the last two decades on the issue of Kashmir and its aboriginal people – Kashmiri Pundits.
“It has just failed to come to our rescue, Amnesty has failed to rise to the occasion wherein it could have played a greater role in raising the issues connected with the Kashmiri Pundits exodus.” said a group member.
To escape persecution, more than 5,00,000 Kashmiri Pundits had to leave their home and hearths back in the valley, of which more than 50,000 refugees are still languishing in uninhabitable refugee camps in Jammu and Delhi.
“A blind attitude towards the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Pundits community speaks volumes of the discrimination against the Kashmiris,” the group further said.
On the 60th Anniversary of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we protest against Amnesty International and other Human Rights groups for their biased reporting on the Kashmir issue and the plight of Kashmiri Pundits Community; and ask them to pressurise the Government of India; with following demands:
An enquiry commission to be set up to come out with a report on reasons and exodus of Kashmiri Pundits.
Immediate arrest and trial on terrorists Bitta Karate and Yasin Malik of JKLF (Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front)
Kashmiri Pundits be declared as IDP (Internally Displaced People) and thus be given benefits of being refugees in their own land.
Reconstruction and renovation of desecrated and destroyed shrines.
Better rehabilitation for more than 50,000 people who are languishing in camps.
The group further asks the Amnesty International to send its representatives to the Kashmiri Pundit camps in Jammu and conduct an on-ground survey and a report on the present situation. The Amnesty should also extend the same privileges to Kashmiri Pundits, as they do to other internally displaced people across the globe.
For further information contact:
Aditya Raj Kaul - 9873297834
ROOTS IN KASHMIR
Website: www.rootsinkashmir.org
Blog: www.kashmiris-in-exile.blogspot.com
E-mail: contact@rootsinkashmir.org
Jasmin, this story is certainly not about focussing on the atrocities committed by Muslims on the Pundit community - there were and continue to be atrocities committed by both sides in an increasingly unwinnable conflict.
This story in fact is about the friendships that are struggling to survive between the two communities based on centuries of mutual respect and affection that has been ruptured relatively recently by Partition and its after affects. The two filmmakers interviewed are friends, and they interviewed local Kashmiris who mourn the loss and sufferings of both sides.
Personally I have been to Kashmir and seen the fear engendered in the local population by Indian authorities and the bitterness caused by daily arrests and harrasment, so please Jasmin don't interpret this story as me taking any sides in this very tragic conflict where the innocent on both sides are as always, the worst affected
Thanks for the reply, Dheera. I will comment on the interview after I am able to listen to it( your audio isn't working).Dheera, you can be objective about this whole issue as an outsider, but I can't. I am a Kashmiri Hindu, and all my relatives and friends are living as refugees in Jammu and other states of India for the past twenty years. We lost all our land, property and jobs. Most of the elderly passed away in the camps and the youngsters have had to start from the scratch, in other parts of India. Fortunately though, they all fled in the nick of time, and all were physically safe though mentally traumatised. Do a feature on the internally displaced Hindus in Jammu, then you will know how this has affected them.
Thanks a lot Dheera and RNW for focussing on the atrocities committed by Kashmiri Muslims on Kashmiri Pundits. The Pundits were not only killed, and women raped but are also forced to be refugees in their own country. No political party in Kashmir or New Delhi or International media, has the guts to speak out against Muslims for this trauma on Hindus, though all readily highlight Gujarat riots.I wrote about this repeatedly on RNW, to Richard Goldstone, UN, but nobody is ready to accuse them for Pakistani sponsored terrorism in Kashmir. Yes, they do raise a hue and cry about the presence of security forces in the valley but not on the plight of internally displaced Hindus. Even Dheera once wrote an article on Muslim majority Kashmir, forgetting that how the majority came to happen:converting Hindus to Islam and forcing 400,000 Hindus to flee. Still, thanks a lot for highlighting this issue. Though, Dheera, the audio is not working, so I could not listen to the story of these two friends.
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