Story Of An Untold Genocide
“This is gut-wrenching”
“How can someone do really justice to these people?”
This was precisely my reaction after watching “The Kashmir Files”.
I was literally shocked into silence for the next hour or two after watching the movie. A community that had gone voiceless and remained mute for a very long time, finally has a representation, and what a fantastic one at that!
Take a bow Vivek Agnihotri and team for bringing to light the untold atrocities perpetrated just three decades ago. No National or International media has ever done justice to the Kashmiri Pandits or even to the basic journalistic standards in this matter.
The mass exodus of Kashmir Pandits in 1990 was something I knew about, as a very rare and random mention in some newspapers. Even after being online more in the last 5–6 years, it had remained a distant blip. Of late, I have been reading about the atrocities perpetrated on Hindus over the last 1000 years. Still, the story of the Kashmiri Pandits had remained impersonal — till now. Not any more!
Watching The Kashmir Files felt like someone putting a knife through my guts & twisting it. It was like watching a very close friend’s family go through all those atrocities and I am witnessing it first hand. It truly is genocide and ethnic cleansing of a silent and hapless community who could not even cry their hearts out to their fellow countrymen. Every time the Kashmiris were attacked, Hindus migrated in droves from there but the 7th & most cruel of them is shockingly undocumented in this so-called information era.
I can read about the golden rule of Lalitaditya in just a handful of historical articles. Only a few scholastic books today talk about the Kashmiri Saivism and Tantric schools anymore. Most living proofs of the glory of Kashmir have been wiped away, with people being killed or chased away, temples destroyed and cities / towns with historic & mythological references to Bharat’s culture renamed to remove any past identity.
How many people even know the name Kashmir has its origins in the Vedic Rishi Kashyapa, that Varahamula is the place now known as Baramulla, Salasthala became Halathal, and that Haldar is associated with Balarama (Krishna’s brother)? How could we let a place so deeply integrated with the Indian civilizational identity to be disassociated with it and our brothers & sister from another region be killed, raped, maimed & subject to the most inhuman cruelties one can heap upon a fellow human being?
My heart goes out to all the brothers and sisters of Kashmir who had to suffer this genocide. You have all been brave through history and with the hope that someday justice will be delivered for all the suffering you have been through.
As for the movie itself, I do not care if you pride yourself as a left-wing or a right-wing associate. Do watch “The Kashmir Files” to understand and feel for the plight of your fellow humans who have suffered immensely. Be human first!
I do not want to give out any spoilers, but there are so many wow moments in this movie. Anupam Kher is simply brilliant as Pushkar Nath ji and Bollywood has really not done justice to Mithun Da’s talent by not giving him such a mature character earlier. Darshan has lived his role of a confused youth and Bhasha Sumbli has done an amazing job as Sharda Pandit. Every single person, including those playing the anti characters, has done true justice to their roles.
Throughout the history of mankind, many civilizations have repeated their past mistakes and almost all of the ancient ones have been wiped away. Bharat is the last one standing still after millennia. But the war on Bharat now is one of narratives and information. If we do not get to voice out the truth amidst all the political and colonialization drama that is happening around, it won’t be long before this last frontier also falls.
“You may choose to forgive. But never forget what happened to you!” — That is the message coming out loud and clear from the movie.
