The Great Kashyap Bandhu

What great Kashmiri Pundit educationist and social reformer Kashyap Bandhu could foresee in 1929, not many of us had the vision to see that. The song that he wrote in 1929 was perhaps the outcome of social neglect and malice, Kashmiri pundits were facing in Kashmir since ages. He wrote and I quote,

“Travee Pheran lo lo

  Zooj, Pooch tye nariwar
 Yim chhi Shikasik Sardar
 Mala barhaiy gardaen
 Travee Pheran lo lo
 Pooch Pathkun Pakan
 Walna Yiwan Zangan,
 Chanda Sadkan doovan
 Travee Pheran lo lo !
 Tarang Chhuee akh khara
 Kalas Peth bodh barah
 Vank Panuk Soodh Kyah ?
 Zethem ziuth lotah
 Asan Janvaran
 Travi Pheran lo lo”

It means,

“ Give up Pheran, 0 dear
 Zooj, Pooch and narizvar
 These are agents of degradation
These have filled your neck with dirt
 Give up Pheran, 0 dear
 Pooch drags you backwards
 It envelops your legs
The hanging pocket (attached to your Pheran) is sweeping roads

 Give up Pheran, 0 dear
head wear tarang is as heavy as a ton
 It is a great weight on your head
 What is the use of long hair tail hanging through your back ?

 It is a very long tail appended
Which is attached to animals
 Give up Pheran, O dear !”

His main theme of the social reform movement was change of dress in our womenfolk who wore Pheran a long robe standing on both shoulders down to feet with no trousers or even underwear.  The head dress was white bandage Tarang with a number of turns round the head over Zooj, a sheet of white mulmul covering the head and extending to cover the neck overlapped by Pooch, a long white piece of white mulmul stretched down backwards over the Pheran.  Sheikh Abdullah's Muslim Conference Movement in 1929 which opened the eyes of Kashmiri Pandit Community to the dangers of physical onslaught of kashmiri pandit women and their overall dress being vulnerable to induce foul actions by the invaders, caused the immediate need of drastic change in the dress of our womenfolk.  So there was Kashyap Bandhu with his ready formula of a change of dress in our womenfolk from Pheran without underwear, which induced lethargy and procrastination, to Kurta and Shilwar or Dhotti with an underwear.  The latter prompted the wearer to be more active and prepared to face any physical onslaught or attempt of molestation.

Kashyap Bandhu pioneered this movement of change in dress and that too not without stiff resistance from conservative Pandits as a whole.  In this struggle of his for a change of dress, he was nicknamed as Kaesh Bandhooq which means a rifle filled with sawdust.

Kashmiri pundits because of their unique dressing style and cultural habits were always targeted by Muslim fundamentalists in Kashmir. Our Muslim neighbours or friends would very casually bulldoze us by calling us as “Daliye Batta”. That means a pulse eating kashmiri pundit who can never protect himself or herself. Or the term can simply be explained as “Coward”.  This constant deflation of our self esteem allowed them to easily throw us out of Kashmir. “ Daliye Batta” could neither save himself from the nefarious designs of Muslim fundamentalists nor offer any resistance to the mindless and brutal killings of its men and womenfolk. This “Daliye Batta” after being thrown out of Kashmir landed in Jammu. Here a new term was coined to puncture the already low self esteem of Kashmiri Pandits. It was a very innovative term and it went by the name of “LOLA”. It also meant coward.

The crux of the story is that a Kashmiri Pandit for an unknown reason has always been unacceptable whether in Kashmir or outside it. The reason I could imagine is that since majority of Kashmiri Pandits are well read and highly educated, it gives other people a reason to disconnect from us. The other important and underlying factor is that Kashmiri Pandits are not a vote bank for any political party in India. But mind it, a Bangladeshi living illegally in India is. Isn’t it ironical that first Prime minister of independent India, Jawahar Lal Nehru was also a Kashmiri Pundit? Isn’t it sad to know that we are refugees in our own country? Has there ever been a ruckus in parliament of India about the exodus of Kashmiri Pundits? Has there ever been a national debate on our fate in India? The answer is cruel and you guessed it right. It is “NO”.