I BEG TO DIFFER

I must confess that when I started writing this piece I was very skeptical if should actually be writing this. I mean it is not very easy to write something that you are almost assured will rankle quiet a few feathers and may even brand you as a social outcast. However I do not really mind this since all that I am trying to do is what is better and more widely know as self evaluation albeit at a community level. I also confess of having the advantage of being what is depreciatingly called as an outsider Kashmiri i.e. some one who has not been born or ever lived in Kashmir (I have also had the distinction of being branded as pseudo kashur by some esteemed members of our community); advantage since it gives me the leeway to look at my subject in a pragmatic and practical manner and removed from some distance minus the emotional baggage that some of us have due their being born and in some cases brought up in Kashmir.

As a community we Kashmiris have the habit indulging in self praise or self pity; somehow giving the impression that we as a community are in some manner on a higher spiritual pedestal and therefore are embodiment of all that is saintly on this God’s green earth. It is here that I say Sir; I beg to differ.

At some point in time our community MAY have been this and much more; however what I see around myself today is at best a very poor reflection of our community’s cumulative ancestral wisdom. The existence of an average Kashmiri Pandit today revolves around the following
1. Going to what is irritatingly called DUTY and not work. My observation on this very mundane usage of the word is that our community members do not consider what they do in the office/shop etc as their work; something that they ought to do but as duty i.e. something that are to made to do.
2. Discuss politics thread bare in a manner that they would appear to unaware like my ilk as the modern embodiment of Kautilya. However have any of us ever thought of entering serious politics for serving the society? You don’t need to even answer this; we all know. What shocks me even more is that we expect to be taken seriously on the matter when we are so seriously irrelevant in the current political scenario of the nation.
3. Get their children to do any of the following:
a) Engineering (IT is the only option- anything else is blasphemy)
b) Medicine (Read MBBS since BDS is only Dand Dactar and a physiotherapist is merely a malishwol).
4. Any young Kashmiri child after completing his engineering (please don’t ask the grades; we always top the university- in fact don’t even ask the university) has to be working in what is vaguely referred as an MNC. The credentials of this MNC are such that more often than not the parents are left covering up by saying that it is a famous company however they are unable to recall the name.
5. The next stage is the inevitable – khandar. Well in case the prospective bride/groom has not fulfilled criteria No 3 and 4 they are not a very safe bet in the matrimonial market. Ladies (more often) themselves having managed to barely scraped through BA (Hindi) (this is only by way of an example and in no manner depreciative of the course) can be heard commenting that such and such is not a worthy match for their child since the prospective bride/ groom is not an engineer or a doctor.

Again I say, Sir I beg to differ. Are we an enlightened community that we swear from roof tops when there are such shameful hypocrisies rampant in our society?

While I am on this topic I cannot fail to mention the deplorable situation of our community when it comes to giving/ taking dowry for marriages. I would like to put it thus that giving of dowry is akin to selling your own daughter. But we don’t mind; do we? In fact we are proud of the fact that we sold of our daughter at a high price and do not miss even the slightest opportunity to tom tom the same. Likewise it is even more shameful for the grooms parents because they have happily sold off their son to the highest bidder in a vulgar auction devoid of human values and emotions. Yet they have the nerve of saying aisya rot na kihin ti… naush hindy malinyavan dyut tamish panin kushi seith… come one people we are more mature than this. But then we take no step to eradicate this vice; in fact the general refrain of the community when some one takes a stand of not taking dowry is that this is just for the public concumption. Ultimately the groom’s family would take the entire dowry in one form or the other. This is how deep and engrained in our DNA this filth become has, on this I say, Sir I beg to differ.

Another issue that has been pricking my inner self and prevents me from believing in the greatness of our community is very sensitive issue from some of my brethren. Although I do admit to an extent that the single largest travesty to have happened with the Kashmiri Pandits is the exodus from their homeland, I again beg to differ. I believe a person who cannot stand up for his own home, his own abode, is the most spineless of all creatures and therefore does not deserve any sympathy, in fast such persons deserve all the sufferings that they have to undergo. One does not have to look far to draw support for this argument. Punjab has probably seen worse blood shed and more pitched battle with terrorism than J&K. However the Sikhs never once abandoned their homeland and today live happily where their ancestors lived. The reason for the same is very simple; they loved their home enough and had the mental strength to stand up for it in the face of adversity. As against this what are our people doing? The answer though painful is true – they are living on dole. Most of them refuse to report to their works and are happy to receive handouts by the government. Any self respecting man sure of his ability would rather wither away in shame than to avail dole; however our enlightened people do not think a minute to rush to Kashmir House to get their ‘salaries’ without so much as having spent a minute earning it. This shameful act has percolated to such level that people who actually never had to leave the valley get migrant card to ensure that their children get admission in engineer colleges/ management institutes under migrant quota and we have the audacity to look down upon people from other reserved categories. And why is this – just because we are fair complexioned?

I have been often wonder why has none of the so called leaders of kashmiri pandits made it big in national political scene, in fact not even on state level (please don’t jump up to claim Pt Nehru as your own for he was not) and the answer stares me back in the face… we simply do not possess the necessary spine or gumption to stand up and be counted. We are like the climber plants that we studied in primary school science who perpetually need support to have them stand up.

The bitter truth of the matter is that we as a community are fragmented into such unexplained and irrelevant differentiations as karkun and gore. The state that we are in now requires that all of us, including you sir, stand together and be counted and work as a unit for the requirements of our community, forget the classifications therein for a minute.

Please pose this one simple question to yourselves – who in this nation of 100 million gives even a minute of serious thought to the problems of our community? The answer to this is also not far to see. NONE. The reason if one has had the courage to search is also not all that difficult. It is because we have not as yet formed a power block, a cohesive unit to fight for our demands; commanding enough leeway to make the leaders pamper to our demands since they are then assured of a substantial chunk of electoral benefits. The biggest example before us of people who have clawed political relevance for themselves are the gujjars in Rajasthan. I do not support the methods used by them however they are now a very relevant political force in Rajasthan and can call the shots. I fail to understand why we are not galvanized in such a seamless manner when our problems are admittedly greater than the gujjars. The reason is again that we are more driven by petty individualistic goals and fail to see the larger picture.

If the readers feel that what I have just written is incorrect, irrelevant and the standard response is yeh chhu kuss???? Yamis kya chh kabar…. I have just one response again – Sir I BEG TO DIFFER. NAMASKAR.