| Submit your comments on this article |
| India-Pakistan |
| Pandit Population in Kashmir Valley Shrinks to 4000 |
| 2008-03-23 |
| A noted Kashmiri Pandit leader, Moti Koul of the Kashmir Sangharsh Samiti, today held the state government responsible for what he termed as the pathetic condition of the community, and declared that the situation was not conducive for the Pandits’ return to the valley. Addressing a press conference here, Koul said that no attention had been paid to the condition of Pandits living as migrants in different states for the past 18 years. He said that the Pandit population in the valley had been 20,000 ten years ago, but had now shrunk to a mere 4000. “Only 200 Pandits were recruited into the government service during the past 17 years. And there is no one to care for the half-burnt Pandit houses, broken down temples and untended lands,” he said. “The present situation is not conducive for the return of the Pandit community to the valley,” he said. “The community faces difficulties in livelihood, accommodation and economic matters. Their ancestors had constructed many temples which have been reduced to ruin. The government has paid no attention towards the Pandits’ half-burnt homes, run-down temples and abandoned lands for the past 18 years,” he said. “There is no one to listen to the travails of the Pandits,” he said. Koul said that the migration of the Pandits was a serious issue, and that the government had taken no steps for their rehabilitation. |
| Posted by:john frum |
| #7 Many experts speculate that the Aryans originated in Kashmir. The Aryan invasion theory has now been proven wrong and Aryans have been proven to be native to India. That is strongly disputed by many respected scholars but is a favorite position among Marxist scholars in India, from what I can tell. |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-03-23 20:02 |
| #6 Article 370 of the Indian constitution gives special status to Kashmir. No law passed by the Indian parliament is valid in Jammu and Kashmir unless it is also passed by the state legislature. This includes taxes. So they have representation (in the federal Indian parliament) but no taxation. No non-Kashmiri Indian may purchase land or settle in Jammu and Kashmir. Their Muslim demographic identity is thus assured. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-03-23 19:56 |
| #5 I gotta quit reading headlines so fast, or else get new glasses. At first glance, I thought it said panda population - and my first thought was I didn't even know there were pandas in Kashmir, and the story probably would blame America anyway. |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2008-03-23 19:51 |
| #4 The Indian army occupied abandoned Pandit properties. There is now a concerted campaign for the troops to be moved out. This will allow their Muslim neighbors, many complicit in the ethnic cleansing, to seize their houses and lands. The ethnic cleansing will be complete. The Kashmir valley will be totally Muslim. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-03-23 19:50 |
| #3 The original Hindu population of Kashmir. India's first Prime Minister Jawarlahal Nehru, (father of Indira Gandhi) was himself a Kashmiri Pandit. Hundreds of thousands have been driven out by the Islamists. They are one of the largest internally displaced populations in the world. Thousands live in refuge camps in other parts of India. The Kashmiri Pandit population in Jammu and Kashmir dropped from 15 percent in 1941 to 0.1 percent in 2006. |
| Posted by: john frum 2008-03-23 19:48 |
| #2 From Wikipedia, 3dc: Original Kashmiri Pandit (Hindi: कश्मीरी पण्डित) refers to a person who belongs to a sect of Hindu Pandits who originate from the Kashmir region. They have a recorded history in Kashmir for thousands of years and have also been mentioned in the Mahabharata. Kashmiri Pandits have Aryan features like most high caste Indians. Many experts speculate that the Aryans originated in Kashmir. The Aryan invasion theory has now been proven wrong and Aryans have been proven to be native to India. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-03-23 19:45 |
| #1 What religion or whatever are Pandits? Actually what part do they play in things? |
| Posted by: 3dc 2008-03-23 19:26 |