Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru's Advice to
Kashmiri Pandits
[Courtesy : Naad of Nov.-Dec.,
1995]
[Reproduced from the Vitasta, 1981 - Kashmir in 2000 A.D. and contributed by
Late Mr. J. N. Zutshi, Editor Nawa-i-Subah, Srinagar]
[We believe that the great tragedy that has overwhelmed us is a challenge,
"a tryst with destiny", for the displaced and dispossessed community
which was hounded out and compelled to leave their hearths and homes in Kashmir.
With our diligence, imaginative thinking and our ability to adapt to changing
environment, we have risen many a time practically from nothing. All that
we need is a free and open field to nourish and display our talent and ability.
This is what we should demand as a fundamental human right for all, especially
for the minorities and other ethnic groups in every nook and corner of India.
Our strength of mind and purpose with unity of action, will alone enable
us to display the leadership quality in all walks of life which we displayed in
the recent past. What we need is an Organisation, a vibrant, dynamic
Organisation and a lofty ideal to achieve. Keeping this in view, we
reproduce here, the illuminating words of Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the
architect of modern India, from his address to a meeting of Kashmiri Pandits,
more than half a century ago, in September, 1940 to be exact. The advice and the
message tendered by Panditji appears still relevant, in the present phase of our
contemporary history.
The address has appeared in the Vitasta (1981), a publication of Kashmiri
Sabha, Calcutta, and was made available to Naad by Shri M. L. Kaul,
General Secretary of AIKS. We are gratefid to both Vitasta and Shri Kaul.
- Editor]
During his visit to Kashmir in September, 1940,
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had an occasion to address a meeting of Kashmiri Pandits,
organised by Yuvak Sabha at Shital Nath, Srinagar. Although it is 1980
now, much of the advice tendered by Panditji appears still relevant today and
hence we carry it in our colunms.
"I warned them not to fall into the trap into which minorities so easily
fall. I spoke frankly and freely, for, having been born in a Kashmiri
Pandit family, I could take liberties with my own people. (emphasis mine -
editor)
While every individual and group deserved equal protection and help from the
State, the idea of special safe-guards for a minority group was full of peril
for that group. For such safe-guards led to dependence on extraneous help
and weakened the group's spirit of self-reliance; the special privileges
amounted, in effect, to little, but they created walls of prejudice which
injured the group, and barriers which prevented growth.
Above all, they led to a narrowness of outlook and to isolation from national
activities and the lifegiving currents which moved the masses. At any time
such safeguards and special protection were dangerous gifts to ask for or to
receive. In the dynamic world of today, with vast revolutionary
changes-taking place before our eyes, it was folly of the first order to imagine
that such safe-guards or privileges could hold and protect. Only strength
of mind and purpose and unity of action could give some protection.
Safe-guards and special protection might, perhaps, be needed by a group which
was very backward educationally and economically. They were in the nature
of crutches for the lame and the weak. Why should those who were keen of
mind and swift of foot require them? No one had ever accused the Kashmiri
Pandits of lack of intelligence or of ability to adapt themselves to a changing
environment. All that they should demand was free and open field for
talent and ability.
I pointed out to them what an outstanding part Kashmiris, both Hindu and
Muslim, had played in the whole of India, although they were small in numbers.
In public life, professions, services in States, in cultural activities, they
had done remarkably well without the least help or protection from anybody.
Many of the Muslim Kashmiris are prominent in many walks of life in India.
One famous name stands out above all others, that of the poet, Sir Mohammad
Iqbal who was a Sapru.
Kashmiri Pandits are more recognized in India as Kashmiris. They have
done astonishingly well, although in numbers they are probably under five
thousand outside Kashmir. I told my audience with becoming modesty, that
during the fifty-five years of the life of the Indian National Congress, for
seven years, Kashmiri Pandits had been presidents - a remarkable record for a
handful of people who had migrated from Kashmir to the plains below. (emphasis
mine - ed.)
So I spoke laying special stress on the need for every group, if it was to
count in the future, to throw its weight on the side of the masses, to join the
national movement and draw strength and sustenance from it. No group or
community which was continually shouting about itself, and demanding this and
that special privilege or protection, would make much difference to the future
that was being shaped. That future would be shaped without it."
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