Kashmiri Pandit farmers: A tragic tale of homeland love, land and belonging

20 October 2022

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Neighbours mourning Puran’s death at his village in Shopian, Kashmir

Srinagar, Oct 20: Puran Kishan Bhat, an ardent lover of his homeland and his land, nursed a simple dream – living in his Shopian village in Kashmir amidst the aroma of his orchard and a community life of love and amity. He was one of those innumerable Kashmiris who nursed a deep spiritual and emotional connection with their homeland, and, despite its ever-present turmoil, never wanted to leave the place.

But, in tragic circumstances, his dream was shattered on 15 October when he fell to assailants’ bullets while on his way to his apple orchard from his home.

Puran Bhat, a member of Kashmir’s minority Pandit community, brings to the spotlight the obscure stories of those orchardists from the Pandit community who were deeply wedded to the belief of a syncretic Kashmir and chose to stay put in their homeland and believed they lived a life of relative peace and contentment.

While a majority of Kashmiri Pandit farmers left Kashmir in early 1990s and put their lands under the trust and guard of their Muslim neighbors and friends, still, some farming families stayed back and continued farming on their lands. There is no exact number available how many actually stayed back and continued farming.

“Kashmiri Pandit farming families faced a tough choice in the 1990s when most of their community members had to leave the valley. That is because a farmer is, by default, emotionally deeply attached to his land. They nurse a legacy that is several centuries, even millennia, old and that legacy is hard to let go”, says S. Prakash, a well-known Pandit civil society activist.

Despite years of intense turmoil in South Kashmir, Puran Krishan’s family maintain, they never faced any threat or hostility while living in their village.

“This tragedy came too suddenly. Puran and his family were carrying on with their life normally in the village and enjoyed a great bonding with their Muslim neighbors. While they had temporarily shifted to their Jammu house in 2016, he was a regular visitor to his Shopian home and orchard. We never imagined he would face this fate“, Puran‘s brother said.

We loved our orchard. He had just come from Jammu to help pack and sell the apples we had just harvested when this tragedy struck us, he said.

Tragically, before Puran’s murder, on August 18, assailants, suspected to be militants, killed another Pandit farmer Sunil Kumar, and injured his brother Paitamber Kumar inside their orchard in Chotipora village of Shopian.

While that incident created a new wave of fear and anxiety among Pandits living in Kashmir, Puran and his family, his relatives say, had not given up the idea of living in Kashmir.

“He believed in the idea of a Kashmir where we have lived alongside our Muslim brothers and sisters for ages in peace and brotherhood”, his brother said, sighing and adding, “he would donate his earnings freely even as he was a man of limited means. When he would be told that rodents were eating some of the stored apples in his orchard, he would say he would not use any poison to get rid of them. He believed the orchard rodents had as much right over apples as we had, and they must take their share. He was actually a humanist, and everyone loved him in the village“.

Late on October 15 when Puran’s family members left for Jammu with his body for the final rites, they handed over their house keys to their next-door neighbor – Aisha (name changed) and asked her to take care of it until they, and if they ever, return.

Aisha hugged them and they cried like real family members do when tragedies like this one occur.

”We were like a family. We would share each other’s dishes, celebrate our festivals together. Puran was like a real brother to me. He was very kind and would help people as if he was a saint”, Aisha said, sobbing and wiping her tears. She is very worried for his two children.

The possible fallout

While today most of the Kashmiri Pandit farming families live in Jammu, Delhi or elsewhere, they do visit their farms in Kashmir occasionally to look after their land and the produce. In most cases, it is their Muslim land neighbors and friends who look after their lands and manage the farming cycle. Over the years, as the situation had started to improve, many Pandit farmers had actually started venturing into their farms and taking a more active role in the upkeep and marketing of their produce.

“The problem is that with such circumstances, those Kashmiri Pandits who have lands and do farming will find this latest tragedy a big psychological blow. Few will have the strength to brave this new uncertainty and fear”, Meenakshi, a government employee told Ziraat Times.

Kashmiri Pandit Sangarsh Samiti (KPSS), an organisation representing the Pandit community that continued to live in Kashmir, and has been spearheading the community’s interests in Kashmir, is less sanguine too.

”Recent few years have seen a larger number of Kashmiri Pandit communities actually taking the leap of faith and returning to their homeland. But 2021 and 2022 have been terrible. The targeted killings of the community members have even made those men and women leave who had taken up government jobs here. They are sitting on a long protest in Jammu for several weeks now, demanding their relocation and release of their withheld salaries”, says Janki Nath.

“How tragic is it that the community which was supposed to live in peace in Kashmir now is leaving again and suffering pain and agony? But the question is how long?”, Janki Nath asks.

Like always, Kashmir, cutting across partisan ideologies, has condemned these acts. Despite an environment of intense uncertainty and fear, prominent political, religious and civil society figures expressed their disgust with the killing and the overall state of affairs.

Taking to Twitter, National Conference chief Omar Abdullah wrote, “Another reprehensible attack. I unequivocally condemn this attack in which Pooran Krishan Bhat lost his life. I send my heartfelt condolences to his family. May Pooran ji’s soul rest in peace.”

Former member of J&K Assembly and CPI(M) leader M Y Tarigami also condemned the Puran’s murder: “Pained beyond words by the despicable attack which snuffed out the life of Puran Krishan Bhat. There does not seem any let-up in the killing of innocent people. The government must ensure foolproof security to the minorities.”

On last Saturday when Puran Bhat was targeted, Kashmir Zone Police took to Twitter and said, “Terrorists fired upon a civilian (minority) Puran Krishan Bhat while he was on way to the orchard in Chowdari Gund, Shopian. He was immediately shifted to the hospital for treatment where he succumbed. The area has been cordoned off. Search is in progress.”