The Kashmir Files isn’t just a movie that is based on video interviews with first-generation Kashmiri Pandit victims of the macabre Kashmir Genocide
Many people have been taken aback by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s film, The Kashmir Files. The film depicts the expulsion of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990 in excruciating detail. The film has once again rekindled the conversation about what happened in Kashmir, with stunning graphics and horrific anecdotes from residents that can give one the chills.
The film has sparked debate on the Internet. “The Kashmir Files” isn’t just a movie that is based on video interviews with first-generation Kashmiri Pandit victims of the macabre Kashmir Genocide. It’s a harrowing chronicle about the anguish, suffering, struggle, and trauma of Kashmiri Hindus (based on the carnage of Kashmiri Hindus in 1990) that has taken the nation by storm, raising pertinent concerns about democracy, religion, politics, and humanity.
Moreover, in a recent post, director Vivek Agnihotri announced that the state of Rhode Island in the United States has formally recognised the Kashmir Genocide as a result of his film “The Kashmir Files”, whereas we continued to be in denial for three decades! Commercially, the box office success of “The Kashmir Files” continues. The Vivek Agnihotri-directed film has recorded a collection of 47.85 crore rupees worldwide in just four days of its release.
On January 18-19, 1990, the Kashmir Valley went dark in the middle of the night, with the electricity turned off everywhere save mosques, which aired divisive and incendiary slogans calling for the expulsion of Kashmiri Hindus. As night fell, the Valley began to resonate with the war-cries of Islamists, who had meticulously stage-managed the entire event, carefully selecting the timing and slogans to intimidate the Hindus. These mosque sermons urged ‘believers’ to give the Kafir one last push in order to usher in the true Islamic society. Islamic slogans from mosques filled the stark silence, and bloodthirsty masses called for the ethnic cleansing of the Kashmiri Hindus. With a barrage of insulting, communal, and menacing slogans interspersed with martial melodies, Muslims were incited and insinuated to take to the streets and break the bounds of ‘slavery’. Ralive, Tsalive, or Galive (Convert to Islam, Leave, or Die), the infamous maxim was put into action as Muslims were asked to “break the shackles” and establish Dar al-Islam (the house/abode of Islam) from the Dar al-Harb (the house or abode of war) that Kashmir was.
Ralive, Tsalive, or Galive (Convert to Islam, Leave, or Die), the infamous maxim was put into action as Muslims were asked to “break the shackles” and establish Dar al-Islam (the house/abode of Islam) from the Dar al-Harb (the house or abode of war) that Kashmir was.
Women, children, and the elderly, none were spared as the fanatic Islamic-supremacist-militia tore into homes. Women were raped in front of their families and cut into pieces alive, children shot at from point-blank range, and the old, too, succumbed to the beastly massacres. Innumerable calls were made to authorities in Jammu and Kashmir and the national capital, Delhi, only to hear a deafening silence as even the armed forces couldn’t intervene due to the lack of orders. Hundreds of Kashmiri Pandits were killed, and lakhs had to run away, leaving behind their dead family’s corpses, their homes, and their motherland, Kashmir.
It is no surprise that the tale of this Kashmiri Holocaust was brushed under the carpet and silenced for all these years, as it wasn’t the first or the last either. This was one of the seven large-scale genocides of Kashmiri Hindus. The first was between 1389 and 1413, the second was between 1506 and 1584, the third followed in 1585-1752, the fourth was in 1753, the fifth was between 1931 and 1965, followed by the sixth wave of genocide and exodus in 1986. This reflects the timeline of the six Kashmiri Hindu genocides and subsequent mass migrations since the arrival of Islam.
It is no surprise that the tale of this Kashmiri Holocaust was brushed under the same carpet and silenced for all these years, as it wasn’t the first or the last either. This was one of the seven large-scale genocides of Kashmiri Hindus.
For such a long period, Kashmir, known as paradise on earth and the crown jewel of Bharat Mata, has been a witness to the gory chronicles of persecution, subversion, and perpetration of the indigenous Kashmiri Hindus, with nobody to raise their voice against the injustice, let alone defend it. To date, Kashmiri Hindus and Hindus from any other part of India are murdered in the same fashion, with the violence encompassing even those Muslims who object to such atrocities.
For such a long period, Kashmir, known as paradise on earth and the crown jewel of Bharat Mata, has been a witness to the gory chronicles of persecution, subversion, and perpetration of the indigenous Kashmiri Hindus, with nobody to raise their voice against the injustice, let alone defend it
All of this is well blanketed by Nehruvian secularists who don different hats from time to time. Sometimes, they come to us in the form of 35-year-old students and sometimes as award-winning Hinduphobic journalists and historians. They sometimes become so-called “liberals” who wouldn’t want a small, honest attempt to display unfiltered history in the form of the movie, ‘The Kashmir Files,’ to be released and move the mountains to discard it altogether. The ‘left-liberal’ cabal perhaps doesn’t want to hear and let others hear the echoes of the screaming Kashmiri Hindu women who were gang-raped and hacked using industrial sawmills as their mutilated body parts were thrown inside their homes for their families to see.
The ‘left-liberal’ cabal perhaps doesn’t want to hear and let others hear the echoes of the screaming Kashmiri Hindu women who were gang-raped and hacked using industrial sawmills as their mutilated body parts were thrown inside their homes for their families to see.
The facade of educated, secular, tolerant, cultured, and peaceful Kashmiri Muslims was manufactured by the Lutyens and Bollywood over the years to suppress the truth of one of India’s oldest communities: Kashmiri Hindus. But it is past time for Indians to band together and see The Kashmir Files in theatres so that terrorists are no longer portrayed as “misguided youth” and “son of a headmaster.”
At the same time, let us take a moment for introspection and see how we can save the secular fabric of India from being torn apart by such disgraceful and heinous acts of barbarism. Perhaps the Nehruvian-secularists could prepare a rejoinder to some pertinent questions:
One, who or what is responsible for fueling the communal divide that led to the massacre of Kashmiri Hindus at the hands of their very Muslim friends and neighbours decades ago? Also, what made the then government and its administration shun the Kashmiri Hindus who were gullible enough to trust the dispensation for their safety even after witnessing six mass exoduses?
Two, many state governments created special quotas for the victims of the Kashmir exodus, which were in fact used by the Muslims hailing from Kashmir. Wasn’t this a blatant masking exercise that hysterically mocked the plight of Kashmiri Hindus?
Three, the four pillars of democracy failed to save the Kashmiri Hindus and stayed mute spectators to the ethnic cleansing, which continues to this day. Will this nation rectify its course and take active measures to promote a movie titled, ‘The India Files’?
Four, are we equal partners in hiding the truth of Kashmiri Hindus’ genocide by never raising our voice in order to save the non-existent communal harmony through all these years? If this is the case, then our silence and ignorance have only exacerbated their tragedy and agony by preventing us from coming out in their support and ensuring they are relocated to their ancestral homes with dignity and grace.
And most importantly, how do we intend to punish the perpetrators, including the ones trying to take down The Kashmir Files in the last few days, and serve justice to the Kashmiri Hindus?
Indeed, the dark reality of communally-inspired ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus was being whitewashed, but now that Vivek Agnihotri has made a courageous attempt, how or whether this nation will awaken its conscience will be the most difficult question to answer.
Yuvraj Pokharna is a Surat-based educator, columnist, and social activist. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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