Monday, August 12, 2013

Kashmiri Pandits--A Vintage Album--Exhibition



EXHIBITION---IIC GALLERY ANNEXE--
6TH TO 15TH AUGUST, 2013   


Team—Curator- Dr. Manju Kak;  Text- Siddharth Kak & Manju Kak;  Editor- Meenakshi Kumar;  Panel design- Mohd. Zishan;  Exhibition Assistant- Garima Minocha.
 Acknowledgements- Jamia Archives, Teen Murti Memorial Museum & library, Anchit Gupta, Priya Kapoor, BN Sharga, Henny Sender, Kusum Pant, T.Tochhawng, MK Razdan, Sarla Razdan, Punam Zutshi, Individuals
     
“Kashmiri Pandits of North India-A Vintage Album”
A contribution to the making of India
The contribution of the Kashmiri Pandit to Indian society and politics is significant compared to their small numerical strength.
The rise of Pt JL Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister,  to the national stage as a statesman and politician with an egalitarian world view is rooted in the cultural and intellectual milieu of the community he came from. This exhibition seeks to trace those roots through a history of two centuries of migration and acknowledges the work of fine scholars and researchers such as Henny Sender, Kusum Pant, B.N. Shargha, and Anchit Gupta amongst others who have re-traced the history of this community, piecing it together through sources such as the monumental two-volume Bahar-i-Gulshan-i-Kashmir, civil lists, newspapers, community journals, archival taluqdaari records and historical texts.
It  showcases the early migration from over 300 years through photographs taken from archives and individuals who are acknowledged.
This community of people who migrated to the Indian plains from the pristine Kashmir valley at varying points of time in history easily adapted and adopted the cultures they inhabited. This ability helped them to progress and prosper. The Kashmiri Pandits (KPs) have contributed to the secular ethos of Indian society and politics out of proportion to their small numbers. Historian Henny Sender says,  they acted like a 'bridge' connecting the Islamic to the Hindu communities, in the cultural mix of the 18th & 19th century Indo-Islamic world and later the British. It is often inferred, in modern times, their abdication of this role has been an unfortunate loss to the secular world. Following the bloody events of 1947, till the beginning of militancy in 1989, migration from Kashmir Valley has been of a different order. Their current displacement is one of the greatest human tragedies since Partition. Their  abdication of this role post—1947 is perceived to be a loss to India’s secular traditions particularly in the light of the ethnic cleansing witnessed in post 1989 Kashmir Valley. Not only that, at a time when ethnic and caste divisions are becoming deeply manifest in the Indian polity, few cohesive voices exist any longer to span them. In this context  a re-look at the history of  communities that  kept the social fabric  intact through their secular outlook, such as also Parsis, Kayasthas and Khatris of yore, becomes a worthwhile endeavour. 
Their migration spread over different periods in history, starting as early as the 14th century. Far away from their roots, this community of Kashmiri Brahmins or Pandits, developed a unique cultural milieu that took the best of their traditions and adeptly mixed it with the cultures they inhabited. This inherent quality to adapt was one of the key reasons behind their success and rise in new socio-political regimes.
When the KPs left the Valley, their knowledge of Persian, Sanskrit  and other classical languages, helped them find jobs. Employment came first in the Mughal courts in Delhi, and later, they contributed to the administration of the erstwhile Rajput and Muslim princely states of North India as diwans, ministers and advisors. Steeped in Indo-Persian tradition, KPs followed a mixed Hindu-Muslim social and literary culture, and thereby, developed close ties with the upper Muslim class as well as the Hindu Kayasthas. This social interaction gave them a secular outlook, thus making them a favourite with their rulers. In the early years of migration during the Mughal era, Kashmiri Pandits, or KPs, worked  as tutors and scribes in the courts and daftars. Later when the might of the Mughal empire ebbed they moved to neighbouring erstwhile Rajput and Muslim fiefdoms as divans, ministers and advisers.
One of the first to receive western education, they worked for the British through the district and high courts, the universities, and came to general governance through the Civil Services cadres of government employ.

In the later 19th and 20th centuries many educated and enlightened KPs were at the forefront of social reform. Their influence was not limited to politics alone; they made a significant contribution to Indian literature, development of Urdu, music, art and culture. Then, as the winds of Freedom began to blow, Mahatma Gandhi’s call for Non-Cooperation and Civil Disobedience found many KPs responding and became a significant part of the Movement. Pt Motilal Nehru and his son, Jawaharlal Nehru are two prominent examples, and of course Jawaharlal became India’s first Prime Minister but there are others like Sir Tej Bahadur Sapru and Dr Pt Hridaynath Kunzru who contributed to India’s Freedom Struggle. After Independence in 1947, when the Indian Republic was formed, they were once again a major force in setting up modern India.

But India’s Independence turned out to be a tragic chapter for Kashmir, which acceded to India through the Instrument of Accession executed by Maharaja Hari Singh on October 26, 1947. 

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