Kashmir has been talking about the scary voices petrifying people in Pulwama. Some claim that it is ‘Rantas’, a mythical creature of Kashmiri folklore, a female hag or witch that dwells in deep woods and snowy mountains and is known for abducting men to get married to them . Some claim that it is not ‘Rantas’ but some new kind of creepy creature that has come to haunt people. Though the administration has clarified that it is a ‘mischief’ by some people but the excitement is not dying down. These incidents, however, have brought to fore the underlying fears of many. People are reminded about the prevalent ghost stories like that of ‘Khooni Nala’ near Banihal and the ‘Haunted Tree’ of Gurez. The season too is ideal for ghost stories and many households have the inmates huddled together with their kangris, talking about these, on dark and eerie nights.
Whether ghosts exist in Kashmir or not is a debatable issue. However, ‘Ghost Villages and Mohallas’ do exist in Kashmir ….. and some people claim to have seen ghosts there ….. ghosts of murdered people. These ghost villages / mohallas are all around us. They have dilapidated houses from which windows and doors have been ripped away for better use. They have skeletons of dwellings which were once the happy abode of contended families. These houses have rumpled patios where once womenfolk sat and chatted merrily…. dingy rooms that once beamed of life and love… dark kitchens which once smelled of exotic culinary delights…. hideous trees in the courtyard, branches of which once had swings with chuckling kids. Yes, these are the real ghost villages and mohallas of Kashmir….having erstwhile homes of lacs of Kashmiri Pandits, the bona fide citizens of Kashmir who were chased out and conveniently forgotten by their so called ‘hum-sayas’. Their horrifying stories are the real ghost stories which people do not talk about….stories that have now been refreshed in their minds by the recent scary voices.These voices in Pulwama, apparently coming from loudspeakers are a grim reminder of the blaring loudspeakers of hundreds of mosques in January 1990 warning Pandits of dire consequences if they did not leave. Presenting them with three choices — Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish). Tens of thousands of people had poured into the streets of the Valley, shouting “Kashir banawon Pakistan, Bataw varaie, Batneiw saan” (we will turn Kashmir into Pakistan along with Kashmiri Pandit women, but without their men folk)!!
How easy to forget…. how easy to deny ...how easy to claim “I was out of Kashmir at that time”. But the fact is that a very large part of the population was complicit in the planned ethnic cleansing…..many of them were Pandits themselves in past. Hundreds of Pandits were killed in separate incidents and there are chilling cases of brutal mass killings like Wandhama (Ganderbal) and Nadimarg (Pulwama). The aim behind these killings was clear…. scare the Pandits and ‘get rid of them’. Pandits who were staying here for centuries were forced to leave their homes and compelled to stay in refugee camps and made to undergo worst hardships. But now you ask elder people…. they all claim that they were friends to Pandits……if everyone was a friend, then who created the environment of fear and panic? Who played the pre-recorded cassettes from the mosques threatening Pandits to leave or die? Who shouted the intimidating slogans? Who remained quiet while the pandits were force to flee? Who never created a movement from their nature?
Coming to Nadimarg, Pulwama where 24 Pandits including children were massacred. Could the voices recently heard in Pulwama be of the ghosts of the innocent Pandits who were massacred? I do not know… but there are surely proverbial ‘ghosts of the past’ in the air, not seen, not heard…but floating like a kind of curse … haunting those who were complicit in the treachery. The oldies still say “Pandits took away all the happiness with them and left behind a curse”. ‘Rantas’ or no ‘Rantas’…. but certainly there are ‘ghosts of the past’ which cannot be forgotten…….should not be forgotten.