Seven decades ago, people of India gave themselves what is termed as the World’s longest written constitution with 448 Articles, divided into 22 parts and 12 schedules. Our constitution recognizes two types of Minorities – Religious and Linguistic. Yet, even such a verbose document failed to define what constitutes a minority in India. Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution talk about protection of interests of minorities, both religious and linguistic. But surprisingly, the term “minority” has not been defined under the Constitution, leading to confusion as to who all are entitled to reap the benefits meant for minorities. Under National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, Govt of India issued a notification on October 23, 1993, declaring Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Buddhists as religious minorities. Jains were added to the list in 2014.

As per the Census Report of 2011, the percentage of religious minorities is about 19.3% of the total population of the country and Hindus constitute 79.7%. The population of Muslims is 14.2%, Christians 2.3%, Sikhs 1.7%, Buddhists 0.7%, Jain 0.4% and Parsis 0.006% of the total population of India. The need for a proper definition of what should constitute a ‘minority’ in India assumes importance as in next couple of decades, India is likely to have a unique demography – it shall be home to the largest Hindu, Muslim, Jain, and Sikh populations in the world. A twist to the definition saga is that a religious denomination or community can be a Minority in an All-India context but can be a majority in a particular state. Cases in the point (2011 Census based) are Muslims in J&K constituting 68% yet qualifying as a minority in an All-India context; Sikhs constituting 58% of population in Punjab, Christians in Nagaland, Mizoram, and Meghalaya, constituting over 75% of total population.

Besides religious minorities, Article 30 of the Indian Constitution talks of ‘linguistic minorities’ and protects their right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. In Punjab, Hindi-speaking people constitute a minority. Likewise, people who speak any language other than Hindi are a minority in Delhi (no specific notification exists, though). Kannada and Tamil speakers are considered a minority in Maharashtra. Likewise, in Gujarat we have government schools teaching in Marathi medium. Eighth Schedule of Indian Constitution recognizes 22 languages as scheduled languages but there are over 1300 other languages and dialects that, though not recognized, are spoken in various parts of the country.

In light of events of last 3 decades, there is a demand within KP community that we should be granted Minority Status. We need to examine the grounds for such a demand. Kashmiri Pandits mostly follow the Hindu faith and hence, can safely qualify as a Religious Minority in Kashmir or even in J&K. However, culturally, KPs are distinct from other Hindus, in Kashmir or in Jammu. Other than having common religious deities, Kashmiri Pandits and other Hindus do not have much in common – language, rituals, religious methodologies vary. KPs follow rituals as per Lougakshi Grehsutra while the Dogras follow Kaushiki Grehsutras. I remember, in early 1960s, our Dogra neighbors would make fun of not only our language and accent but also of our cuisine, preference for eating non-veg food and even certain vegetables.

Historical religo-social background of Kashmiri Pandits:
While Pt Kalhan in Rajtangini traces the history of Kashmir since Mahabharat times, we need to look at the process of Islamization and demographic changes in the valley. Kashmir, as a kingdom, faced the first Arab attack in the 8th century but their forces were defeated by King Lalitaditya Muktpida. Follow up attacks continued under various rulers but Kashmir did not succumb. In the 11th century, Mahmud of Ghazni made at least 2 attempts to invade Kashmir (1014 CE and 1021 CE) but failed for various reasons. The advent of a Mongol invader, Zulju in 1320 CE set off a chain of events that led to the eventual crowning of a Buddhist rebel Rinchan as the King of Kashmir. Rinchan Shah approached the local Shaivite religious leaders, requesting them to accept him as a Hindu. The priests refused and Rinchan Shah converted to Islam under the influence of an Islamic preacher Bulbul Shah (Sayyid Sharfudin). Thus, Kashmir got its first Muslim king but by 1339, power was captured by Shah Mir, a Muslim nobleman who used deceit and subterfuge to usurp power. It was Shah Mir and his descendants, particularly Sikandar Butshikan (1389-1413 CE) who set the tone for total Islamization of the valley; Hindu and Buddhist temples were not only desecrated but razed to ground. Jazia was imposed for the first time on non-Muslims in the valley and Kashmiri Hindus were put to sword for not converting to Islam. From a near 100% Hindu population in the early 14th century, Kashmiri demographics swung to the opposite side – reducing the once majority to just 5% of the population. In hindsight, lack of flexibility of some priests in the 1320s proved to be the undoing of an entire populace!

KP’s Dilemma Today:

Kashmiri Pandits, as a community, are finding themselves in a peculiar situation today. The possibility of losing our cultural identity is very real, as we mingle with the greater Hindu society. We have seen 7 exoduses in the last seven hundred years yet we retain the pride in our ancestors. We retain our identity, most of our socio-cultural traditions, even after getting scattered all over India, even across the globe. We have been deprived of our homeland yet the spirit of the community has not been broken. KP Sabhas have existed in various cities across India for over 100 years – KP Sabha at Amritsar was started in 1908 and the one at Lahore was started even before that. Kashmiri Sabhas in one form or the other existed in Lucknow, Prayag Raj (Allahabad), Gwalior well before independence. Post independence, as KPs started moving towards plains and other cities, Sabhas came up in Jammu(1950s), Delhi (1951), Mumbai (1968) and almost every other important city. This reflects a deep-rooted love in our community for Kashmiriness, for cultural and social traditions of the community. The option of losing our identity in the vast ocean called Bharat has always existed but our people have shown a wonderful resilience, a crab like affinity for each other, in a way. The ‘back to our roots’ movement has its best examples in rising number of KPs visiting Kashmir valley, particularly for religious tourism. Most important shrines we had, including Hari Parbat and Tulmul, have been replicated in Jammu, Faridabad, Gurgaon etc.

Exodus has ensured that our next generation could move out of the dungeon called Kashmir into an ocean called India and avail full opportunities without biases. Special admission facilities initiated by Maharashtra and later taken up by various states started post 1992, ushering in an era where almost 2000-3000 kids could find admission in various professional courses every year! In Kashmir, the communally biased administration would throw crumbs at us; our kids were living like second rate citizens, without opportunities for technical education and jobs. Once opportunities opened up, our womenfolk ensured that their kids did not lose focus from education. There was no yearning for ‘badla’ in our boys, no ‘intifada’ moment for our kids. They studied under candle light but carved out their future thru sheer hard work. Last 3 decades have seen over 30,000(appx) KP boys and girls get technical education and jobs in industry across India, ushering in economic stability, even prosperity for themselves and families.

Our numbers in J&K have seriously dwindled following our 7th exodus in 1990. Officially, there are appx 45000 KP families registered as Migrants with J&K Govt. The overall number registered at various locations is said to be 62000 families. The most charitable estimates suggest our total numbers to be between 7-10L, including every single KP who carries a Kashmiri surname, irrespective of his/her location or year of migration. So, as of today, KPs can consider themselves as a miniscule religious minority in Kashmir (<2%) and, possibly in J&K. KPs, however, cannot claim the status of a ‘linguistic minority’ because, Kashmiri, as a language is also shared by the Kashmiri Muslim community.

At best, we can think of ourselves as a ‘religo-cultural minority’ because of our peculiar background and our ethnic cleansing by jihadists.

We can try to claim some sort of benefit from the political class on the grounds of being a cultural minority. For that we shall need the benevolence of powerful political elements because we do not constitute a vote bank. We shall need to identify who our well-wishers are. Recently, some of our ‘super secular’ KPs welcomed Mehbooba Mufti at Mata Ksheer Bhawani shrine and even prayed for her return as CM (as per social media), forgetting the role her father played in engineering Anantnag riots in 1986 and, later, her own anti-India rhetoric. Our community could never even dream of a day when Article 370 would be revoked by the Indian parliament – till the impossible happened in 2019! Are we KPs like the unbelieving Jews, who witnessed the miracle of Red Sea opening to make way for the Hebrews and yet, chose to worship a golden calf the moment Moses went up the Mount Sinai to receive God’s Ten Commandments?