I am sure many of you have seen the movie The Kashmir Files. A lot of discussions are going on around this film everywhere. Be it on Twitter, Facebook or YouTube, people are sharing their (mostly) polarised opinions. Some say that after 30 years, someone has shown the guts to talk about the genocide that the Kashmiri Pandits faced.
On the contrary, we are also hearing that people are trying to run a political agenda through this film. Who is correct? Who isn’t? I don’t know, but on the basis of what I have read in multiple books, I am sharing some facts that, in my opinion, were not included in this movie deliberately.
A dialogue in this movie says, ‘Jhuthi khabar dikhana itna bada gunah nahi hai jitna sachi khabar chupana hai,‘ which means spreading false news is not as great a crime as hiding actual news. This movie does exactly the same. There is an attempt to show the real incident but more efforts have been put to hide many facts.
The film shows that the whole narrative was Kashmiri Pandits/Hindus vs Kashmiri Muslims. Since Muslims were in a majority, they were able to force out the Hindus. However, a solid fact that the film misses is that not only Kashmiri Hindus but a large number of Muslims were also killed in the incident.
The first political figure to be killed was Mohd Yusuf Halwai, the party worker of the National Conference, on August 21, 1989. Gulshan Vitali, the younger brother of the Inspector General of Police in Kashmir, was also killed during the time. When you think about why Muslims were being killed in this, let me tell you, these are just two names.
Kashmir, with over 77% Muslims then, remained untouched by the communal riots of 1947. How did it happen that despite all things ordinary, the situation turned out to be like this suddenly? We must understand what happened during this time that made the situation like 1990. The answer is that the situation in Kashmir started deteriorating after the elections of 1986. After the loss in the Assembly elections, the separatist leaders were able to brainwash the young minds that nothing could be achieved in India in a democratic way.
Anyone who believed that Kashmir is a part of India were selectively killed. A scene in the movie where they have shown the murder of honourable judge Neelkanth Ganjoo, but they didn’t show that in the same period, 80-year-old leader Maulana Masoodi Sahab was also murdered.
This movie will never tell you that many leaders of the National Conference, a political party that considered India as its core, were killed — Vali Ahmed Butt, Abdul Ganik Vira, Mohd Suban Butt, Peer Mohd Shafi, Sheikh Manzoor, Abdul Rashiq Dar Nazir Ahmed, Ghulam Qadir Meer, Abdul Maajid, and the list goes on and on. Even the ideologue of JKLF, Dr Abdul Ahed Guru, was also killed. This data is from the book The Radio Kashmir by Rajesh Bhat (a Kashmiri Pandit).
On November 2, 1993, when newsreaders were banned in Kashmir, one of the people reading the news despite the ban was Mohd Shafiq Butt, who was also killed. Joint Director Information Commission Syed Ghulam Nabi was tortured and murdered. These are the few Kashmiri Muslims whose names I know. Many people have never been a part of any news report or book.
But why were Kashmiri Muslims killed? I am sure you are thinking the same right now. The fierce separatist leaders were misleading the public that Pakistan is our well-wisher and that whoever was breaking this web of misinformation was on their target list. Be it a Muslim, Christian, Sikh or Hindu, anyone. Anyone who believed in an alliance of Kashmir and India was their enemy. And it wasn’t only Pandits or Hindus that wanted it. There were Muslims too who believed in this idea, so they were brutally killed.
But this film doesn’t talk about that. It shows that it was only the Hindus who were killed and tortured. Yes, there were targeted killings, no one can deny that. But showing only one side of the picture is morally incorrect. AS Dulat, chief of IB at that time, in his book Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years clearly mentions that both the Pandits and Muslims in the department were killed. If you read this book, you will clearly understand that the murders were not related to Hindu vs Muslim as this movie shows, but anyone who was in favour of India.
The fundamental aim of movies and literature is to increase inclusiveness in society. There have been many unfortunate incidents in our country. Gujarat riots, communal riots during partition, 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Delhi riots last year. Today, the question is, will we remain trapped in tit-for-tat situation? Will we keep talking about revenge? Will we spread the hatred?
I would like to end today’s talk with just one last thing. Article 370 has been talked about many times in this movie. How it will be of great benefit to Kashmiri Pandits if it is removed! So here is a video of Dr Agnishekhar, who himself is a Kashmiri Pandit and a leader of Panun Kashmir (a prominent organisation that works on the vision of Save Kashmiri Pandits to Save Kashmir to Save India) highlights what this government — which is described as the biggest beneficiary of Kashmiri Pandits in the movie — has done for them till date.