Hindu Symbols Under Threat In Kashmir Dear Readers, Kashmiri Hindus are the aborigines of Kashmir and have a well-recorded and documented history of over 5000 years of Sanskrit Hindu Civilisation. During all these centuries, Hindus of the Valley have nurtured Kashmir through their strenuous efforts which have contributed immensely to the larger Hindu ethos of…
Our Exodus leads to loss of our Religious Heritage. “Sheikh ne masjid banayi, mismar butkhana kiya: Pehle kuchh soorat to thee, ab khaas veerana kiya.” -Daya Shankar Nasim (The Sheikh made a mosque after demolishing a temple; earlier there was an image to concentrate upon, now there is a ruin to wander on.) Vandalising and…
Dear Readers, The last 30 years have been the most trying times for Kashmiri Hindus as post displacement the community spread across various geographical regions which were never thought of earlier. The community faced tremendous challenges, during the years of forced displacement, there were few thousand souls which, due to various reasons, stayed put in…
OUR NEGLECTED BRETHREN IN KASHMIR Whereas the Kashmiri Pandit diaspora outside Kashmir has attracted media attention, particularly during the past decade, those of our community members who chose to stay back and face whatever consequences followed, have not attracted the same degree of attention either from the media or from the government, ever since 1989-90,…
Paying Homage to our Martyrs Dear Readers, On 14th September we shall once again remember our martyrs who fell to the onslaught of terrorism perpetrated on the peace- loving community of Kashmiri Hindus by the forces inimical to India. This onslaught led to the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from their homeland in 1989-90, and since…
Remembering Our Martyrs It is 31 years since the broad daylight killing of Sh. Tika Lal Taploo by the radical Islamists of Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) in the vicinity of his house on 14 Sept 1989. Prior to this killing a few Kashmiri Pandits had fallen victims to the rising trend of armed militancy…
Celebrating seven centuries of Lalleshwari this year, attention has again been drawn, by the Kashmiri Pandit community, to pay attention to the ongoing narrative of Lal Ded that shifts the ancestral cultural and intellectual capital of Kashmiri Hindus away to credit her insights, literary genius, religious values and philosophy to Islamic sources such as Sufism.…
Lal Ded was deeply influenced by the Shaiva philosophy of Kashmir as reflected in Shaiva metaphysical content of her poetry but in her heart and deeds she remains a common man’s poet. If we keenly observe her life and poetry it can be said with confidence that she neither struggled to become a poet nor…
Dear Readers, Lalded or Lalleswari has dominated the linguistic, cultural and spiritual landscape of Kashmir since the last 700 years. Born in early 14th CE, she cultivated the moral and ethical tapestry in the minds and hearts of people. Her out pouring in the form of vaakhs, are part and parcel of Kashmiri day to…
On 26 Aug 2020, falls the Lalleshwari Jayanti. Lalleshwari, lovingly called Lalla Ded (1335-1376 CE) by Kashmiris, was born at Pandrethan, near Srinagar, in Kashmir, over 600 years ago. She was born in most critical and turbulent times, when the indigenous beliefs and the alien value systems were clashing ominously with the advent of Islam…
