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In all the ‘halla’ over Kashmir Files, Pandits in Valley will be forgotten once again

While most of us will get over the blazing mood that has been set aflame, Kashmiri Pandits living scattered within the Valley will once again move into uncertain times.

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Time, history, and politics have always been cruel, turning a blind eye to the pain and horror faced by Kashmiri Pandits during the 1990 exodus. Their story was never truly heard. “Nobody asked about us”“Nobody heard us” — were the grudges held by every Kashmiri Pandit. Their voices of persecution were always drowned in the strong narrative from the other side — the Kashmiri Muslims — pushing their stories to obscurity.

The Kashmir Files (2022) seems to have changed this for them. Today, the community is overwhelmed; they are satisfied and perhaps even touched, as seen by the adulation showered upon by the movie’s director, Vivek Agnihotri. Some might have found peace, some brimming with hope that maybe now the world will stand with them and ensure punishment for their murderers. But the rest of India, the Hindu community particularly, is shocked and numb with disbelief that such heinous atrocities were committed against their own people in their own land.

The horror faced by the Kashmiri Pandits was real and never garnered the attention it deserved, but to say that their pain and plight was never told or documented is wrong. Students, professionals, intellectuals, writers, and journalists from within the community and outside have actively raised their voices and fought to awaken the conscience of this country towards the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits. Many learned personalities have written widely on the horror of the 1990s. One of the leading voices is Rahul Pandita, who, in his book Our Moon Has Blood Clots, descriptively explains and tells the truth about what happened and how. It is a searing memoir written from the heart, a politically poignant and emotional story of the trauma and tragedy that the Pandits of Kashmir suffered.

So why is the halla for The Kashmir Files so deafening? What makes it so ‘special’ that Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentions it in his speech and Paresh Rawal, the actor and Bharatiya Janata Party MP, screams in a tweet, “If you are an Indian, you must watch this film”?

Well, it is brutal. The suffering and persecution of Kashmiri Pandits are savagely and descriptively told in the film. The scenes of a woman eating the blood-soaked rice of her husband, the mass killing of men, women and children at point-blank range, a woman chopped in half on a saw in front of her kids — the ruthlessness and barbarism are uncensored. Outrightly and explicitly, it conveys that Muslims killed Kashmiri Pandits, forcing them into circumstances where leaving and escaping were the only options. That is why no one cares or bothers that it is not really a ‘movie’ with a plot, acting, or cinematography.

In some way, Jawaharlal Nehru University has also been included in the ‘files’ where Krishna Pandit, the protagonist, is a Kashmiri Pandit, unaware of the truth of the death of his parents, of the tragedy and the horror that swept the Valley and his family. Nor was he remotely aware of what Nadur Yakhni was. He is shown as he is because he moved to Delhi at a time when politics was ‘anti-Kashmiri Pandit/Hindu’ and JNU was ‘the hub of Leftists’. As such, it is this ‘viciousness and politics’ that created a lot of noise and the buzz around The Kashmir Files and good publicity too.


Also read: Booking theatres, subsidising shows — how Maharashtra BJP leaders are pushing ‘The Kashmir Files’


India loves ignorance

What made The Kashmir Files tax-free and a blockbuster hit can be explained with Amitabh Bachchan’s tweet, “We know now, what we never knew then.”

Basically, ‘ignorance’ is the issue here.

To be conveniently ignorant and unaware runs deeply in the veins of majority of Indians. Krishna Pandit is shown as ignorant himself. The problem is that uncomfortable facts are rarely registered, and the truth is never accepted entirely. Finding excuses, knowing yet stubbornly brushing it under the carpet, calling it noise, and not taking it as a warning are the usual defences. This is what happened with the Kashmiri Pandits as well. Their truth did not match the experience of the times; their horror was not termed as terrifying as those faced by others. This was probably why Rahul Pandita’s book did not become as popular as Basharat Peer’s Curfewed Night, for how can Pandits, the highest of the high in the caste hierarchy of India, face persecution and violence?

Ignorance, after all, is more comfortable than knowledge. Or, at least, to a point.

So, what next after The Kashmir Files? Where will this noise take us all? The answer lies in the movie itself, “Kashmir ki aag poore Hindustan mein phailegi (The Kashmir fire will spread all over India).”

Several videos of audiences in theatres delivering hate speeches after watching the film have emerged. Calls to “Marry Muslim women and finish their (Muslim) community” have been made without any consequences along with chants like ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’, and ‘Jai Shri Ram’.

This sentiment is not new for what is often dubbed as ‘New India’, but in the wake of The Kashmir Files, the feeling of hatred, resentment, and bigotry will be further entrenched. It will help fuel a narrative where freedom to express opinions will be trolled, knowledge will be ignored, and targeted hatred will become common.

And in all this, Kashmir will likely be forgotten once again. The Kashmiri Hindus who continue to live in the Valley, the ones who are keeping the community alive, will be ignored just like they had been in stories, movies, or news about Kashmiri Pandits.


Also read: The Kashmir Files holds no ‘grand truth’ to ‘open your third eye’. It exploits cinema’s flaws


Those who stay, fear

There are almost 800 to 1,000 Kashmiri Pandits and other Hindus who still live in the Valley. They survived the militancy, be it during the 2008 Amarnath agitation or in the aftermath of the killing of Burhan Wani in 2016. They even kept the hope alive and celebrated the scrapping of Article 370 and have been waiting for ‘acche din’. My husband’s family has always lived in Kashmir, they did not move out in the 1990s nor do they want to now. And like them, there are a few more, neighbours and friends who are determined to stay. They cannot help but say out aloud, for the first time in 30 years, particularly in ‘New Kashmir’ after Article 370, “Ab zyada darr lagta hai (Now we are more scared.)”.

I shudder to think what the summer of 2022 will bring, with The Kashmir Files movie around. The fear is back, which is why the Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti tweeted, “The Kashmir Files makes resident Kashmiri Pandits unsafe.” Already during the months gone, minorities in the Valley have been on the hit list. Makhan Lal Bindroo, a 70-year-old Kashmiri Pandit, was gunned down. Two teachers — Supinder Kour and Deepak Chand — were killed in broad daylight inside the school compound. But where was the hue and cry then? Why did Prime Minister Modi not mention these killings in his political speeches? Why has he or any of his ministers not made the rehabilitation of Kashmiri Pandits their election rhetoric?

The Kashmir Files has been made for a ‘New India’, a tool designed to make tactical and political gains. It will be used repeatedly in the Gujarat election and more because in ignorance lies the vote.

And while most of us will get over the blazing mood that has been set aflame, the Pandits will continue to grieve. For the Pandits who escaped the horror still cannot get themselves to go back home those living scattered in smaller sections within the Valley will once again move into uncertain times. They might even face the wrath, with guns blazing, with another trail of wail sweeping the Valley and this nation. And politics will continue to thrive in their pain.

Shruti Vyas is a journalist based in New Delhi. She writes on politics, international relations and current affairs. Views are personal.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)

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