Guest Column | Guru Teg Bahadur’s sacrifice, legacy in Kashmir

Echoing into the depths of the Valley of Chinars are the mellow chimes emanating from the Shankaracharya temple that stands high above, as though silently observing the rise and fall of brotherhood and mankind, through curfewed nights and blacked out days. As though fallen from an artist’s brushstroke, neighbourhoods nestled in these pine forests of Kashmir were once home to a community that embroidered its culture on its pherans and clapped to folk songs together around the warmth of burning embers.

When a community is repeatedly denied justice, it is often described as ‘resilient’. The story of Kashmiri Pandits’ resilience is such that despite the history of pain owing to an exodus from their ancestral homes in the late 1980s and early ’90s triggered by insurgency and targeted violence, they continue to live like refugees in their own country.

J&K Bills mere tokenism

Today, a section of Kashmiri Pandits is not convinced by the claims being made by the central government that the latest Bills passed by the Lok Sabha concerning Jammu and Kashmir would empower their community. They believe that the reservation being promised to Pandits in the assembly through the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, and Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill, 2023, is mere tokenism.

The crux of the Bill is in the nomination of assembly representatives through the office of the lieutenant governor and the concern raised here is that nomination, as outlined in the Bill, shall risk conferring an artificial sense of empowerment while distancing the Pandits from their roots and severing crucial connections. It is being felt that genuine political representation should have ideally catalysed the broader and eventual return of Kashmiri Pandits, which is achievable only through elected representatives.

In a region from where its own have been expunged, the need to find new leaders with a greater experience of ground realities is a serious one. Kashmir today needs leaders who can champion the rights of those who have struggled for an identity and for a home. It is undemocratic and not in the interest of a wounded community for a state representative to yield discretionary power, rather than ensuring authentic representation and this is raising alarming prospects of quid pro quo arrangements overshadowing the genuine welfare and interests of the Kashmiri Pandit community and perpetuating a system where political favouritism and external influences overshadow aspirations and needs.

Safeguarding the faith

There was one Sikh Guru who laid down his life for Kashmiris. Guru Tegh Bahadur stood against religious persecution and championed the right to practice one’s faith freely. The Guru’s martyrdom aimed to protect the Kashmiri Pandits from religious persecution. The story goes that a delegation of nearly 500 Kashmiri Pandits, led Kripa Ram, had approached Guru Teg Bahadur at Anandpur Sahib to tell him about the forcible conversions taking place at the hands of a Mughal commander, Iftikhar Khan. The Guru’s views, etched in the verses of the Gurbani, state that such a tyrannical act can only be stopped if a noble soul is ready to sacrifice himself for the righteous cause of safeguarding the faith of a community. To this, his son said in wonderment about who could be bigger than the Guru as a protector of dharma. He armed the helpless delegation with the confidence to go tell Aurangzeb if he can convert the guru, all Kashmiri Pandits will follow suit, giving the Mughal leader a clear message that the Hindus of Kashmir can follow their faith for he was there to safeguard their interests. The Sikh Guru was arrested in Ropar and asked to convert to Islam, which he straightaway refused. Three of his devotees, Bhai Sati Das, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Dayala, were butchered in front of him. He continued his refusal to convert to Islam and hence was beheaded at Delhi’s Chandini Chowk, the supreme sacrifice to freely practice one’s religion or faith.

Amid the polarisation and the politicisation of that polarisation, we as a nation tend to forget and overlook the contributions of certain communities to the upkeep of plurality. In 1947, when Pakistan sponsored the Kabaili attack on Kashmir, Sikhs were the first vanguard of that attack and thousands lost their lives. They did not leave the Valley during the exodus of the ’90s notwithstanding that Sikhs are the only community that can be identified by their appearance. They stayed on to ensure plurality exists in a multi-ethnic Kashmir. Another incident that frightens my mind is that of the Chittisinghpura massacre of 2000 at the onset of US President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in which 34 innocent Sikh men were killed. While we are debating the representation of communities, along with Section 15A and 15B of the J&K Reorganisation Bill that gives provisions of reservation of two seats for Kashmiri migrants and one for migrants of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, the government should add one more section reserving two seats for Sikhs in the Jammu and Kashmir assembly.

Against religious intolerance

The lessons today’s legislative decisions and human rights advocacy groups can draw from Guru Teg Bahadur’s life are aplenty but what he symbolises is the need to complete the journey from injustice to justice, he walked that path without giving up hope, with the fearlessness to call out the vices in the system and to stand with those who had been victimised. Guru Tegh Bahadur preached and advocated for equality among all human beings, regardless of caste, creed, or religion. His teachings emphasised the inherent dignity of every individual, aligning with the principles of human rights. His life was his message, a powerful statement against religious intolerance and an assertion of the fundamental human right to religious practice.

Over the years, as the issue of the rights of Kashmiri Pandits has simmered only to be thrown to the backburner, I recall not only the valour of the Guru but the morality that he created for laws and lawmakers to draw on. Declaring his martyrdom anniversary as National Human Rights Day can inspire deeper scholarship and awareness on the principles he stood for.

The author is a Rajya Sabha member from Punjab. Views expressed are personal.

vikramsahney@mppunjab.com