Every year Kashmiri Pandits take over a small corner of Delhi to express their anguish and silent rage over the genocide that turned them into refugees in their own land. Non-KPs use KPs as a stick to beat pseudo secular media and politicians with.
Very little happens beyond these annual slug fests. KPs and Hindus go back to curling up in a fetal position as they watch that smug smirk return to the faces of their tormentors.
But some (or a large part) of the blame for their conditions rests with KPs and Hindus themselves. This is not an attempt to blame the victim. In all these years of sharing the anguish of our Kashmiri brothers not once have I seen a concrete proposal presented beyond the usual "What is the government doing to get us back to Kashmir"?
What follows are a few practical suggestions that may help kick start a conversation and perhaps get KPs thinking on a different strategy.
1. Stop calling yourself Kashmiri Pandits and start calling yourself Hindus
Let's face it, if you restrict your identity to a region and a caste, the perpetually navel gazing non-Kashmiri Hindu is unlikely to feel a sense of compassion for your state in life. If on the other hand you present yourselves as the first Hindu victims of a demographic Islamic Jihad that is coming to every neighborhood across India, KPs are likely to attract a much wider more support.
2. Recapture Temples in Kashmir
Every war needs a beachhead. A Normandy. Hindus have been pushed into a war and this is Kashmir's Normandy.
Any drive to reestablish Hindu Temples by repairing and rejuvenating them is bound to attract a vicious attack from pseudo seculars and their Jihadi handlers. And that is precisely the response we should hope for.
This strategy corners enemies of India into a no-win situation. If they dont oppose it, KPs establish a toehold in their homeland. If they do, Hindus can raise a Ram Janmahomi (RJB) style crusade to galvanize Hindus from across India.
This campaign will need government support. But because it entails Hindus taking back what is theirs to begin with, there can be no legal, ethical or moral argument against it.
Both central and state govts will need to offer logistical support for this effort.
3. Recalibrate Return of KPs into a larger campaign
The Return of KPs should stop being merely about the return of KPs. It should be about Hindu asmita, about the survival of Hindus as a community, about basic, fundamental human rights.
As long as Kashmiri Pandits make this only about themselves, they will be stymied by an apathetic Hindu ummah.
4. Insinuate the Ethnic Cleansing of KPs into the national discourse on Secularism
Launch a nationwide campaign to educate every Hindu spokesperson to make this wretched chapter in Indian history as the focal point of any discussion on secularism.
They utter 'Dadri' every Hindu spokesperson should respond with 'but what about Kashmiri Hindus'.
'Godhra' - same response
'Kamlesh Tiwari' - same response
Ethnic Cleansing of KPs should become the war cry to corner and shame every sickular. The plight of our Kashmiri brothers should be ingrained into the psyche of every man, woman and child across India so that we dont forget and more importantly raise future generations to become aware of the fatal danger posed to India by unbridled Islam.
Hopefully this will soften the opposition to their return to Kashmir and allow us to gain a toehold in Kashmir.
These suggestions wont ensure the return of Hindus to Kashmir. But they are a starting point. They are a concrete strategy beyond the annual spectacle of complaining and wailing over a horrific crime against humanity and forgetting once the cameras are turned off.
Very little happens beyond these annual slug fests. KPs and Hindus go back to curling up in a fetal position as they watch that smug smirk return to the faces of their tormentors.
But some (or a large part) of the blame for their conditions rests with KPs and Hindus themselves. This is not an attempt to blame the victim. In all these years of sharing the anguish of our Kashmiri brothers not once have I seen a concrete proposal presented beyond the usual "What is the government doing to get us back to Kashmir"?
What follows are a few practical suggestions that may help kick start a conversation and perhaps get KPs thinking on a different strategy.
1. Stop calling yourself Kashmiri Pandits and start calling yourself Hindus
Let's face it, if you restrict your identity to a region and a caste, the perpetually navel gazing non-Kashmiri Hindu is unlikely to feel a sense of compassion for your state in life. If on the other hand you present yourselves as the first Hindu victims of a demographic Islamic Jihad that is coming to every neighborhood across India, KPs are likely to attract a much wider more support.
2. Recapture Temples in Kashmir
Every war needs a beachhead. A Normandy. Hindus have been pushed into a war and this is Kashmir's Normandy.
Any drive to reestablish Hindu Temples by repairing and rejuvenating them is bound to attract a vicious attack from pseudo seculars and their Jihadi handlers. And that is precisely the response we should hope for.
This strategy corners enemies of India into a no-win situation. If they dont oppose it, KPs establish a toehold in their homeland. If they do, Hindus can raise a Ram Janmahomi (RJB) style crusade to galvanize Hindus from across India.
This campaign will need government support. But because it entails Hindus taking back what is theirs to begin with, there can be no legal, ethical or moral argument against it.
Both central and state govts will need to offer logistical support for this effort.
3. Recalibrate Return of KPs into a larger campaign
The Return of KPs should stop being merely about the return of KPs. It should be about Hindu asmita, about the survival of Hindus as a community, about basic, fundamental human rights.
As long as Kashmiri Pandits make this only about themselves, they will be stymied by an apathetic Hindu ummah.
4. Insinuate the Ethnic Cleansing of KPs into the national discourse on Secularism
Launch a nationwide campaign to educate every Hindu spokesperson to make this wretched chapter in Indian history as the focal point of any discussion on secularism.
They utter 'Dadri' every Hindu spokesperson should respond with 'but what about Kashmiri Hindus'.
'Godhra' - same response
'Kamlesh Tiwari' - same response
Ethnic Cleansing of KPs should become the war cry to corner and shame every sickular. The plight of our Kashmiri brothers should be ingrained into the psyche of every man, woman and child across India so that we dont forget and more importantly raise future generations to become aware of the fatal danger posed to India by unbridled Islam.
Hopefully this will soften the opposition to their return to Kashmir and allow us to gain a toehold in Kashmir.
These suggestions wont ensure the return of Hindus to Kashmir. But they are a starting point. They are a concrete strategy beyond the annual spectacle of complaining and wailing over a horrific crime against humanity and forgetting once the cameras are turned off.
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