For years, the Kashmir region has been a source of unending conflict. War has been fought over the region since India and Pakistan were partitioned. In addition, militancy has slowly eroded any form of peace.
Further, the ongoing conflict between Kashmiris and the Indian army continues to agitate the entire region. As a result Kashmir has been a hotbed of difficulties. This is because of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits and an increase in the number of youths joining the militancy.
Here we will discuss about books on Kashmiri Pandits exodus. We have top 5 best books on
Table of Contents
Top 5 books on Kashmiri Pandits:
Our Moon has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits, Rahul Pandita
In 1990, Islamist militants forced Kashmiri Pandits, to flee their homes. This resulted in a violent ethnic cleansing. An estimated 3.5 million pandits were displaced. Also, hundreds were tortured and killed.
In Our Moon Has Blood Clots, Rahul Pandita recounts his family’s ordeals. He was fourteen years old when the exodus occurred. After twenty years in exile, he wrote the little-known story of Kashmiri Pandits. It is one of the most important books on Kashmiri Pandits.
The Garden Of Solitude, Siddartha Gigoo
The exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is one of the saddest episodes in Kashmir’s history. It was the result of increased militant activity in the valley. Sridhar, a Kashmiri Pandit boy, is introduced in Siddhartha Gigoo’s The Garden Of Solitude. It is one of the best books on the Kashmiri Pandits exodus.
Sridhar has settled in Jammu after being forced to flee his beautiful valley. But the call of his beautiful home keeps him awake at night. The book also depicts the feelings of people who have been torn away from their homes. It also shows how they cope with their new reality in a beautiful way.
My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir, Jagmohan
Jagmohan’s memoir, My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir, was first published in September 1991. It focuses on his months as governor of Jammu and Kashmir during the height of the insurgency in 1990. Its scope is broad, ranging from the history of ancient Kashmir to modern Kashmir, as well as how the state experienced a breakdown of government machinery at the end of the 1980s.
Notably, the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus was exacerbated during Jagmohan’s second term. The book is an attempt to address the misinformation that spread about him and about those years in general.
The book was reprinted four times in its first year. In 2017, the 12th edition was released. It includes a section on Narendra Modi’s initiatives in Kashmir during his tenure as Prime Minister.
A Kashmiri Century: Portrait of a Society in Flux, Khemlata Wakhlu
HarperCollins Publishers India
A Kashmiri Century is a stirring and unique collection of human-interest stories. It spans a century and sheds a compassionate light on the innocent and hardworking people who live in Kashmir’s beautiful valley. All of the stories are based on the author’s personal experiences and her intimate understanding of what it means to be a native Kashmiri speaker.
They span the years from the late 1800s to the present. None of the available political treatises have ever delved deeply into the valley’s sociological and human aspects. The author’s personal insights into Kashmiri society, its evolution in an enticing, remote valley, and how her people dealt with Kashmir’s bitter and turbulent history are liberally sprinkled throughout the book.
A Long Dream of Home: The persecution, exile and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, Siddhartha Gigoo and Varad Sharma
Twenty-five years ago, in the winter of 1990, approximately 400,000 Kashmiri Pandits were forced to flee their homeland to save their lives when militancy erupted there. They are still classified as “internally displaced migrants” in their own country.
While the majority of Kashmiri Pandits have established themselves in various parts of India, thousands remain in migrant camps in and around Jammu. For years, the stories of their struggles and plight went untold.
The memoirists in this anthology come from four generations. Those who were born and raised in Kashmir and fled in their forties and fifties; those who remained in their homes in Kashmir despite the threat to their lives; those who were displaced in their teens; and those born in migrant camps in exile.
These narratives delve into various aspects of Kashmiri Pandits’ history, cultural identity, and existence. These are untold stories about the persecution of Pandits in Kashmir during the outbreak of militancy in 1989, the killings and kidnappings, the loss of homeland, uprooting, camp-life, struggle, survival, alienation, and a strong desire to return to their homeland.
These are stories about people rediscovering their ancestors, culture, roots, and moorings.
Other important books on Kashmiri pandits you can read about are Nilamata Puran & Kalhana’s Rajatarangini: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmiri
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