Kashyap Bandhu
Justice J. N. Bhat (Retd.), Jammu
Scholars, intellectuals, journalists, bureaucrats
and other eminent people will write articles on the life of Sh. Kashyap
Bandhu. I do not want to waste the time of the reader to go through a long
article, the subject of which must find place in other writers write-ups though
I was closely associated with Bandhu Jee and his activities.
Sh. Bandhu Jee originally came from GEERU village of district Pulwama with a
name of Tara Chand and pen name BULBUL. He migrated to Lahore in his early
twenties associated himself with the Arya Samaj and its activities, got
education in its institutions and ultimately after becoming a pucca Arya Samajee
returned to his native State Kashmir with a mission in early thirties as Kashyap
Bandhu.
Sh. Prem Nath Bazaz and other some well wishers of the community started the
Sanatan Dharam Yuvak Sabha in 1931 but Mr. Bazaz was turned out and condemned
because having functioned as a representative of the Pandits in Galancy
Commission had not put forth any case on behalf of the Pandit community.
Bandhu Jee, young and dynamic with a vision took charge of the Sanatan Dharam
Yuvak Sabha and ran the organisation for a decade representing the view points
and grievances of the Kashmiri Pandit community with a forceful pen and new
ideas. The daily paper MARTAND was made a standard daily paper with
substantial information as the voice of Kashmiri Pandits. One Mr. Sayedain
and otherwise and eminent educationist adopted anti-Pandit administrative
policies, Bandhu Jee reserved a blank column every day in the MARTAND under the
caption Director Education Aur Hum with the verse:
"Khamoshi Guftagoo hai Bezubaan hai Zabaan Meri".
Every morning when MARTAND rises, the sun would provide the light to the world.
The MARTAND news paper would kindle the hearts of almost every Kashmiri Pandit.
There was a separate page or pages as need be under the caption CHALLANT where
Bandhu Jee would write humorous Satirical and meaningful write-ups according to
the prevailing conditions. In this way Bandhu Jee dominated the Kashmiri
Pandit scene, seeing its life and other matters connected therein for a decade
of years in thirties.
Bandhu Jee a dynamic young leader with abundant self-confidence
and firm determination (necessary characteristic in a leader) aroused the dozing
Kashmiri Pandit community of clerks and floated a new and original idea of the
change of Kashmiri Pandit ladies dress from a complicated expensive tedious
combination to a simple cotton saree and a blouse all within the range of Rs.
10/-. The drastic reform became most popular and continues to date with
the difference that a single cotton saree and blouse worth Rs. 10/- only have
been replaced by sarees worth thousands of rupees each. Bandhu Jee came to
rescue the poorer section of the Pandit community by reducing gold ornaments to
a tola or so and abolished expensive and extravagant expenditure on such
festivals as Dapan Batta, Durbatta and Ghar Achun etc. Prominent Pandits
of the day like Sh. Amar Nath Kak, Shiv Narayan Fotedar, Zanardan Teng
worked with him in these ventures.
Bandhu Jee took special steps for the amelioration of Kashmiri Pandit ladies.
He started female education, established Women Welfare Trust where Kashmiri
Pandit Women would get educated. In this venture he was assisted by Prof.
S. K. Toshkhani and Pt. Aftab Koul Nizamat. The measure had come to
stay and female education is as common as male education in the State. He
had the courage to introduce the -measure of widow re-marriage. Under his
forceful pressure the Maharaja also permitted widow re-marriage. Thus
Bandhu Jee dominated the whole social and political scene of Kashmiri Pandits
for a decade feeling that Pandits should come out from the narrow grove of
communal politics. As a gesture of goodwill and political expediency he
joined the National Conference started by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1938.
He worked shoulder to shoulder with National Conference leadership demanding
justice to the poor down-trodden Muslim Community and a movement against
Maharaja Hari Singh's autocratic rule.
When National Conference came to power in 1948 Bandhu Jee was appointed as
Rehabilitation Officer by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah where he effected reforms in
the rural life of Jammu and Kashmir. After some time he parted company
with Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah also and retired from politics and published a
weekly newspaper DESH for a number of years. Bandhu Jee was a forceful
personality and ace orator and an active worker. He toured the state and
delivered very instructive lectures. Once he cut his little finger with a
knife while addressing a huge gathering of Kashmiri Pandits at Hari Parbhat to
impress upon them the necessity of sacrifice for their existence and survival in
the State.
This in short is a resume of Bandhu Jee's life, his contribution to the
social and political life of the State. In his time there was only one
Organisation in Kashmir, Sanatan Dharam Yuvak Sabha with a number of stalwarts
who carried the crusade of their harassed community as against the splinter
groups of Kashmiri Pandits working under self-styled and self-centered upstart
leaders now; some of whom are accused of misleading the community and misusing
and misappropriating funds received for the survival of the community.
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