Three surprises from a visit to Kashmir | Hacker News Reader

Three surprises from a visit to Kashmir

bbc.com

12 pointsuber1geek7 comments

Obligatory comment on the ethnic cleansing of the Hindus from the valley. Over 700k Hindus left the valley in 1990 as a result of the Islamic insurgency. These Hindus were original inhabitants of the valley, of the same stock as the Muslims. They were not outsiders. Even the most hardliner Kashmiri Separatist will not consider them outsiders. Yet they were forced to leave in violent circumstances.

Hence when the reporter writes that the political culture is tolerant, I am immediately reminded of not making sweeping generalizations based on one visit to the valley and interviewing the people there.

PS: I was one of the people who had to leave in 1990.

Governor of Jammu & Kashmir Jagmohan at that time engineered the exodus of Kashmiri Pandit community from the Kashmir valley in 1990. Kashmiri Pandits were unnecessarily forced to leave the Valley by Jagmohan. Hindus and Muslims lived together for Centuries in Kashmir. Governor Jagmohan used his entire state machinery to facilitate the migration of Pandits.

A classical Kashmiri justification is classifying our exodus as a state sponsored one. However dear sir we made the journey. We should know something about the circumstance. Not the lies that you have been fed. In any case, my first person account should carry more weight?

You then move to justifying the forceful migration of Pandits as "What goes around, comes around". You do realise that this will be true for you as well?

In any case, my arguments will have no effect on you. So live on in your uber geek world.

I would suggest anyone to read the book "Kashmir in Sunlight and Shade by CE Tyndale Biscoe". This book highlights the autocracies by Kashmiri Pandits on Kashmiri Muslims (who were poor, illiterate and the peasant class at that time) for centuries. Everything was like a radical dictator state.

Another book: Cashmere Misgovernment by Robert Thorp

What goes around, Comes around.

Cashmere Mis-Government:

Robert Thorp was the son of a British army-man. Army man Thorp had come to spend his vacations in Kashmir. At the first sight he only fell in love with an extremely Kashmiri beautiful girl and there-of married her. This marriage was sternly opposed in Kashmir and eventually the two moved to England. They had a son named Robert. From his early childhood, he had heard the tales of Kashmir, especially from his mother. He wished to see the land of her mother. On arriving to Kashmir, he was very upset by the Maharaja's mis-governance and the misery of the masses. He wrote a book, 'Cashmere Misgovernment'. The Maharaja came to know about it. Fearing the consequences that his tales of mis-governance may reach to the British authorities, in haste, he ordered his men to kill Rober Thorp. This book was published posthumously. Robert Thorp gives a micro level study about Kashmir and all the mis-governance, oppression, miseries and all the fails of the government. He details the taxation system, the shawl industry, beggar system and all the non-justified oppressions Kashmiris faced.

Reading this while visiting family in Srinagar :-)

Lots of brilliant young people who speak English but end up working dead end jobs because of the political situation's impact on the economy. And they want to live with their families, so they don't leave the area.

One of countless places all over the world where remote work over the internet would be life changing for millions, yet barely anyone does it: because the company to bring it to them doesn't exist yet

I am a self proclaimed Geek and a Kashmiri. I can relate to this.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com