Do Kashmiri Muslims Really Hate India? I am a Kashmiri Pandit ousted from heaven by radicalized “Kashmiri Muslims.” But my love for my home could not keep me away from it.
After I completed my Master’s Degree, I got a job in the Kashmir Valley, and my dream of relocating to Kashmir and living with fellow Non-Fanatic Kashmiri Muslims was about to be realized. My parents advised me against moving to the Kashmir Valley, but I didn’t listen and started my journey towards my dream.
Do Kashmiri Muslims Hate India?
I am a Kashmiri Pandit who has lived through many conflicts. I will not write about who is right or wrong, but I will try to show a humanistic approach to the conflict. Once, I was traveling from Jammu to Srinagar in a shared cab during the rainy season.
There were four passengers in the cab, including me. One of the passengers started abusing India and Hindus, and soon, the driver and the other two passengers (all Kashmiri Muslims) joined the party. They didn’t realize that I was a Kashmiri Pandit (as I had a beard and was wearing a “Ferran” – a traditional Kashmiri dress).
Soon, that passenger changed the topic to the 6th pay commission and started abusing India by blaming India for increasing the wages to increase inflation and killing all the Kashmiri peasants by increasing the poverty in Kashmir.
As the journey progressed, so did their conversation and anti-India comments, which I was agonizingly listening to.
Then, they started talking about constructing another Jammu-Srinagar Highway (Mughal Road) to ease the movement of the army and kill Kashmiri Muslims.
Sarcastically, I added that the construction had been going on for ages and is not even completed. Baffled by my comment, the driver suddenly changed his tone and replied that “Yes India does not want to complete the alternate road construction as they don’t want to develop the Kashmir valley and starve the Kashmiri Muslims during the snowfall”
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I was stunned by his two conflicting statements within a minute. Then I just realized that the driver just loved to hate India. The whole journey, he was abusing India and Hindus, and the other two were joining him again and again.
I was very upset with their remarks, but I controlled myself by realizing that these people have always been anti-national and anti-Hindus.
I started to become apprehensive about living in Kashmir with people who hated Hindus so much. My parents were always against my wish to work in Srinagar, and I thought they were right, as I could not trust these people.
That whole night, I couldn’t sleep because of sheer disbelief, hearing the anti-India and Hindu comments. After a sleepless night, I sipped 3-4 cups of Kashmiri-Kahwa and told myself that these people are always going to be the same, and I just cannot change their minds.
Why Do People Love to Hate India in Kashmir?
After living in Kashmir for 2 years, I came to know Kashmiri Muslims very closely. There was hate everywhere. A man from Srinagar hated a man from a rural area. A Sunni hated a Shia and vice-versa. Both Sunnis and Shias hated Ahmadi Muslims, whom they did not consider Muslims.
Pro-India Muslims in Kashmir hated Pro-Pakistan Muslims. And surprisingly a man with a beard hated one with a clean shave. I started hating my idea of returning to Kashmir, where there was hate everywhere. I requested a transfer, and within some time, I was transferred outside the Valley.
After my brief professional stint in the Kashmir Valley, I traveled to different parts of the country as part of my profession. And it was when I came in touch with ‘hate’ that was prevailing outside the J&K. Bengalis hated non-Bengalis; A Punjabi didn’t like a non-Punjabi; A Maidaani (person from plains) hated a Pahari (person from hills); One from higher caste hated a lower caste man; An unsuccessful person hated a successful one. There was just no end. Every human, in some way, loves to hate somebody. But it was the hate on a larger scale that I experienced in the Kashmir Valley.
And I realized that It is not because they are Muslims (from Kashmir) that they hate India and each other. It’s just human nature that they love to hate someone. Had they been Hindus or Sikhs, would they have done any better? My answer is No!
They would have been the same. I recalled my journey from Jammu to Srinagar, and I thought that if the taxi had been full of Hindus and the disguised one had been a Muslim, then the Hindus would have been the ones abusing the Muslims and Pakistan.
There is never-ending hate in this world; it just needs to be exploited by some miscreants to spread terror and separatism, and that is what is exactly happening in the Kashmir Valley.
- Penned By R. Pandita, A KP In Exile
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