The film The Kashmir Files has generated a lot of controversy for its depiction of the Pandit exodus from the Kashmir valley in 1990, with many contesting its version of the “truth”.
Pradeep Magazine’s book, Not Just Cricket: A Reporter’s Journey Through Modern India, presents a more nuanced version of the event seen through the eyes of Vivek Raina, who fled with his family to Jammu during the peak of militancy in the valley. Republished with permission from HarperCollins.
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In my many visits to Kashmir, I never found my identity as a Kashmiri Pandit any hindrance in interacting with the Muslims. However, if the discourse turned to the topic of the Pandit ‘exodus’ of 1990, they would become defensive. Some would even express regret at not having done enough to ensure that the Pandits could continue to live in the Valley. This had also been experienced by Vivek Raina, a fellow Kashmiri Pandit who had settled in Delhi. ‘There is not a single Kashmiri Muslim who is not guilt-ridden at what happened to our community during that traumatic period between 1988 and 1990,’ he states.
Vivek grew up in surroundings where he had more Muslim friends than Hindu. He lived in the mixed Chattabal neighbourhood of Srinagar, and his family had deep-rooted ties with Muslim families. In 1989, he was an eighth-grade student at Kashmir’s famous National School, situated in the same Karan Nagar locality where I had spent my
— source thewire.in | Pradeep Magazine | 17/Mar/2022