Maha Shivratri, A Grim Reminder of Kashmir’s Pandit Exodus

For Kashmiri Muslims, Maha Shivratri brings back memories of their ties with their Pandit friends who went away.

Devotees participate in a procession on the eve of Maha Shivratri in Jammu. (Photo: AP)

The auspicious occasion of Maha Shivratri on Friday came as a grim reminder of what and how much Kashmir has lost in terms of its values, traditions and heritage during the last 27 years of violence.

From a population of around 2,00,000 till 1990 when the armed violence began, barely 3,000 Kashmiri Pandits today live in the Valley, at places protected by armed guards.

Although the authorities announced uninterrupted electric power supply to areas still inhabited by them on the occasion of Maha Shivratri, it is not difficult to imagine as to how much illumination and fanfare can be possible in homes whose residents live in fear.

A much larger number of Kashmiri Muslims have been killed during the last 27 years since violence started here as compared to Kashmiri Pandits. Yet, the Pandit community has lost home, hearth, roots, tradition and moorings, which unfortunately might never be regained.

Zahoor Ahmad Wani, Resident of North Kashmir

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A file photo of a devotee dressed as Shiva on Maha Shivratri. (Photo: IANS)

Other local Muslims are equally sad about the plight of their fellow citizens as Maha Shivratri rekindled warm memories.

"We would eagerly look forward to the Shivratri dinner waiting for us at the house of the Dhar family living next door. Fish and nadru (lotus stems), bate roganjosh, kalya, machegand and kabargah – these were the dishes specially prepared by the local Pandits on this day," said Ali Muhammad Dar, 72, a resident of central Badgam district. He added:

But it was not just the feast and the fun that forged our secular bond. The warmth and affection between the two communities was proverbial. Everybody is today talking about Kashmiriyat, but I’m afraid that all this exists only in political speeches and drawing room discussions now.

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Local television and radio stations aired specially prepared programmes on Shivratri. (Photo: Reuters)

Abandoned Homes of Kashmiri Pandits

The traditional puja was held on Maha Shivratri at the Shiv temple on Sankaracharya hill and at the Ganpatyar temple in Srinagar.

Local television and radio stations also aired specially prepared programmes on Shivratri.

But now, no local Muslim looks forward to greeting the Pandit neighbour next door on the occasion.

And hundreds of empty, half-fallen houses in old Srinagar are a grim reminder of the mutual loss suffered by the Muslims and Pandits of Kashmir.

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The argument that the Pandit community has prospered after migration as their children have acquired a world view and found jobs in the best companies in the country and abroad is not acceptable to those elderly Kashmiris for whom co-existence is better than material gains.

Kashmiri Muslims are now making it to the civil services, IITs and IIMs. For the children of the migrant Pandits too, the sky is the limit. All this only proves to an old man like me who misses his Pandit class mate and friend once living next door is that societies are finally destroyed by affluence.

Ghulam Nabi, 78, a retired school teacher in Ganderbal

Maha Shivratri, the holiest festival of Pandits, today has come only to remind Kashmiris of the apparently irreversible breaking of bonds in a society that once stood as a beacon for the rest of the sub-continent.

(This article has been published in an arrangement with IANS)