KPs want return if majority community assures them

Hearts quiver, eyes long to see the Dal By Yamini Kaul JAMMU, Feb 7: The Kashmiri Pandit migrants want to go back to their motherland, the land of Vitasta, but this time forever.

However, this time their decisions would be based on practicality rather than sheer emotional bondings.

More practical than emotional because after more than fourteen years of tough existence, it has become easier for them to interpret misfortune.

Just as Makhan Lal, who lived in village Akoora in Mattan, says that their return to Valley is something which should be thought over by the majority as well as minority community together.

The opinion might come across as quite striking in view of the earlier such views because till now, particularly after the exodus, the mutual relations between the minority and majority people appeared to be strained due to different reasons.

But the change is becoming obvious, albeit in a slow manner.

As Dr K.L.Chaudhary, a vocal advocate of Kashmiri Pandit rights and issues, says, "There is a gulf between people on both sides and this gulf is replete with complaints.

It is these complaints, which need to be addressed and unless this is done, Kashmir problem would be hard to resolve." Voicing similar concerns, Mohan Lal Raina, another migrant residing in the Purkhu camp, Phase II, says, "The Centre and State governments should first of all build confidence among its own people and then talk of Confidence Building Measures across the border." It is not as if the community does not want to return back, but they want a safe stay once they enter Valley and they believe, quite pragmatically, it is possible only if people from the majority community realise this.

The elders are longing to return while the younger generation is a bit skeptical about the rehabilitation.

Vishal, studying MCA at Ghaziabad (UP), says, "When the chief minister himself has to move around with a paraphernalia of securitymen, how can he expect us, the common masses, to live safely in Kashmir." Standing with some other boys of his age, Vishal, probably, presents the picture of a generation of Kashmiris, who seem to be confused about whether they should stay here or go back to their motherland.

One thing, however, is sure that Kashmiri Pandit, whether young or old, is not ready to give away his claim to the motherland.

As another young migrant boy, Rohit, in XIIth standard, replies, when asked what did he think of returning.

He said that though he was very young when he had to leave his village in Kashmir, he has always felt connected to the place.

He, quite innocently, reminisces, "I still remember my courtyard, where cows and hens used to move around.

There was a small stream flowing nearby, where my mother, grandmother and other women of the village used to get together to do household chores.

Then there was an old Chinar tree adjoining the boundary wall." It is these images, which seem to beckon the young boy to a land that he thinks is his own but his statement betrays that there is a thin layer of suspicion layering the thoughts.

It is in wake of this underlying skepticism that some members of the community are now positioning themselves in support of a separate homeland inside the Valley.

Apart from a number of organisations, including Panun Kashmir, a frontal group of a number of representative organisations of KP migrants, there are some migrant representatives too, who feel that a separate homeland would mitigate their miseries forever.

Janki Maal, a 90-years-old Kashmiri Pandit woman, living in Purkhu camp, is still nostalgic for most part of her time, about the three-storeyed house she had built in her village Ardash in Mattan.

She must have left her village, her house, her agricultural land and all her property back, but what she got along with her is the traditions and customs, which she used to follow back home.

Living in the torturous heat of the plains, Janki Maal has not left wearing her traditional Kashmiri Hindu dress comprising of a phiran, pose and headgear.

She informs, "We have a Kashmiri tailor here in the camp who stitches my phirans for me.

Ever since I came to Jammu with my son's family, I have been wearing the same clothes I used to in Kashmir.

It is something which the time or the circumstances have not been able to snatch from me." In fact, it appears that it is her dress, which is the elderly lady's only connection to her past.

But it is the future, which the general Kashmiri migrant is concerned about at this point of time.

A future, based in Valley, but devoid of any tribulations at present.

Whether it is the young migrants, who want to be in Kashmir but are not sure how they would connect, or the elders, who can't seem to cut their "umbilical chord" with the Valley, even after 14 years of exile.

The question of return brings a gleam to every eye, nevertheless young or old, at a migrant camp settlement, there are about fourteen such camps in the whole Jammu region.

But it does not matter whether a migrant is putting up at Muthi, Purkhu, Mishriwallah or Nagrota, every eye longs for the view across the Dal lake and every heart beats for a breath of the cool Valley air.

Border migrants: changing family norms, cultural legacy By Shuchismita JAMMU, Feb 7: Constant process of migration and displacement in the border villages of Jammu region have not just put the very institution of marriage at stake but have also throttled a unique cultural legacy which had so far been a distinctive character of countryside in this region.

Recently announced ceasefire might have brought a bit of relief for the affected lot but damage already done by the 'turbulent phase' would now be irreparable.

As the life of border migrants is already undergoing a metamorphosis, which is creating perilous physiological, psychological, sociological and societal impacts.

Decrease in fertility rate, 'infringed freedom and norms of privacy', rising family and community conflicts, educational backwardness, identity crisis, unemployment_..and the list goes on.

Some of their problems are analogous to those faced by Kashmiri migrants in the initial phases.

Yet what makes their case different is their 'disputed status', 'ever hovering clouds of uncertainty' besides some other minor factors.

Their migration has not been 'instigated' by the militancy as is the case of Kashmiri migrants who had mass exodus in late nineties but they are the permanent victims of 'armed conflict' between the two estranged neighbours.

And it is this fact which makes all the difference.

As Sapna Sangra, a research scholar working on 'Families in situation of armed conflict' explains, "Kashmiri migrants have attained the status of permanent migrants.

No doubt they have their own set of problems.

But they have been living as migrants for quite some time now.

Most of them are absorbed in jobs.

Some of them have their children born and brought up here only.

A new generation is flourishing here.

Pain of loss of roots is there but at least they have escaped the agony of undergoing constant process of migration just like border migrants." Talking with particular reference to Trewa and its adjoining villages of R S Pura sector, she mentions what is adding to their woes is the indifferent attitude of the ruling dispensation and discriminatory treatment being meted out to them at every step by both the state and central governments.

Prior to ceasefire, they had to migrate anytime, might be at the dead of night.

What makes their predicament really worse that they had no safer place to move.

So peculiar was their case that they could not migrate as whole.

This resulted in the 'split of families' because women and children had moved to far off places like R S Pura and Bishnah while men, in most of the cases, had to stay back in their native villages.

Paradoxically this family break-up also brought about some positive change.

In the absence of males, the fairer sex managed to sneak into so far an exclusive male domain.

Women could obtain at least a semblance of decision making power in the family affairs which so far had been denied to them.

But this could be achieved at the cost of 'peace' in their respective family lives.

It is ironical that the armed conflict has found its 'way' in the families and the community which had always been the strength in the traditional villages of Jammu.

There are other reasons too behind the conflict in families and community viz, no sources of livelihood as they have lost touch with their lands say it for mining or fencing, shattering economy of these families in absence of adequate compensation.

Citing an example of a retired army officer, Sapna maintains that the people living there are facing difficulty in getting suitable marriage alliances for their sons.

This is forcing them either to move permanently to Jammu or some safer areas or to engage themselves in endless wait.

This has brought yet another sociological change.

Marriage age is slowly getting advanced.

Discrimination on the part of government has made their life really hell.

Whereas militancy affected victims are getting Rs one lakh for the loss of limb, these border migrants get just peanuts as compared to that amount.

Compensation, which even otherwise never reaches them in time, is being distributed on the basis of ration cards which had not been updated for long.

One should not forget that economy is not just key to prosperity of a country but also to happiness of a family, Sapna avers in light of her observations.

Yet another toll of 'armed conflict' has been the distinctive folk culture of villages which finds its reflection in the traditional fairs, events like 'Chhinj', 'Ramlilas'.

Mostly they have become the thing of past.

And in case some events, which have survived this onslaught of constant migration phenomenon in wake of armed conflict, are organised, they are devoid of traditional fervour and festivity, the essence of this cultural legacy.

Solemnization of marriages too has undergone a sea change as here again the traditions, rites are being given a go bye thus taking the inhabitants further away from their roots.

Sapna also points out to yet another crisis which these border migrants are faced with and that is loss of identity.

Constant migration has deprived them of their identity even and what could be a bigger loss than this, she questions.