A Profound Sense Of Kashmiri Pandits Homecoming And Peace

TULLA MULLA (KASHMIR): Girdhari Lal Warikoo, a former postal department official displaced by violence is happy and excited to be back in the land of his birth after nearby three-and-a-half decades. “Moaj Kashir bani’ni konni (Nowhere else will you find a place like Mother Kashmir)”, the septuagenarian sitting under a majestic chinar tree, soaking in Kashmir’s cool and serene weather, said.

“I used to come here frequently including for the annual mela before we were driven out by violence in 1990. Like other Kashmiri Pandits this place holds profound spiritual significance for me,” Warikoo, originally a resident of Srinagar’s Kralayaar quarter but living in Gurgaon since the displacement, said. All these years, his longing to pray at Kheer Bhawani during the annual mela was held back by his wife and children’s concerns over the violence in Kashmir.

After years of being unable to visit, Warikoo finally prayed at Kheer Bhawani on Tuesday and felt a wave of relief. “Nothing here has changed. The essence of Moaj Kashir has remained untouched. The same weather, the same warmth of the people…I feel the enduring blessings of Mata Ragnya Devi,” he said.

The mela (fair) at Kheer Bhawani marks the annual pilgrimage to the sacred spring that stands at Tulla Mulla, a sleepy village surrounded by islets densely covered with poplars, willows and walnut trees, to seek the blessings of goddess Ragnya Devi. The spring is on an island and in the centre of it (spring) is a small marble temple.

The occasion is the eighth day of the full moon (Ashtami Shuklapak) when, legend has it, the goddess changes the colour of the waters of the spring-to turn rosy, various shades of green, diluted milky and light blue. The devotees wash their clothes and abstain from eating meat. They offer milk, candy sugar raisins, clarified butter and candles amidst chanting Vedic and tantric hymns.

Warikoo said that he wanted to forget the Valley’s turbulent history of past over three decades and return to his roots permanently. “I want to spend the rest of my life and die here only,” he said. His wish reflected a profound sense of homecoming and peace.

Paying obeisance at Kheer Bhawani was a powerful moment for another devout Ashok Jailkhani as well. “I have been coming here (for the mela) for past eight years except in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid pandemic,” Jailkhani, a government official who lives with his family in Jammu since 1990, said. He too wants to resettle in the Valley preferably in his old house at Hajan near Srinagar but carries a bittersweet weight when set against the broader fear among many community members of being targeted again. “Who doesn’t want to come back? Despite past hardships all of us continue to feel a deep connection to our homeland. But what is the guarantee there will be no targeted violence again?,” he asked.

While Warikoo’s resolve to “die here only” reflects a personal triumph over past trauma, Jailkhani’s apprehension is rooted in the violent incidents leading to the exodus of the 1990s and ongoing concerns.

However, several other Kashmiri Pandits, among thousands who converged here to participate in the mela and together with their co-religionists who chose not to leave the Valley in the 1990s worships Ragnya Devi, better known as Kheer Bhawani, as their protective patron deity Kuladevi, on Tuesday while speaking with correspondent expressed a deep desire to return to their homeland. This mirrors the broader sentiment of the community but most of them also spoke about the critical need for government and local support to ensure their safety and dignified rehabilitation in the Valley.

Most of the visitors had travelled all the way from Jammu, Delhi and other places in the country to pay obeisance at their most revered place of worship back home. Jammu and Kashmir government had provided free bus services for the Pandits living outside the Valley to facilitate their travel from Jammu to Tulla Mulla.

Hundreds of other pilgrims drove or flew in from Jammu, Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and other parts of the country on their own, the officials here said. However, many other members of Kashmir’s aboriginal Brahmin community disseminated by the decades-old insurgency who had planned join the mela could not come due to fears sparked by the recent Pahalgam terror attack, the community leaders said.

Politicians also made a beeline here to mingle with the devotees and go over their often-stated assertion ‘Kashmir is incomplete without Pandits’. J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha was among the first to pay obeisance at Kheer Bhawani and pray for peace and prosperity of J&K and its people and the well-being of one and all. He also interacted with the devotees and extended his heartiest greetings on the auspicious occasion.

While speaking to reporters, he termed the high turnout of the devotees at the mela a good sign and urged pilgrims to participate in large numbers also in the upcoming Amarnath yatra, set for July 3 to August 9, emphasizing that “foolproof arrangements” have been made to ensure safety and comfort.

“Devotees in large numbers visited Mata Kheer Bhawani temple today and it's a good sign. I think after the heinous terror attack on April 22, it is for the first time that people in such large numbers have assembled at one particular place in Kashmir. May Mata Kheer Bhawani keep showering her blessings on the people of J&K,” he said. He added, “I urge devotees across the country to come and seek blessings of Baba Amarnath. We have made fool proof security arrangements for the forthcoming pilgrimage”.

Former chief minister and ruling National Conference president Farooq Abdullah while interacting with the worshippers said that their presence in large numbers was “a befitting reply” to the perpetrators of the Pahalgam carnage. Reiterating it while speaking to reporters, he said, “This is a huge thing. This is Mata’s doing. She has called them here, to their homes.”

He hoped the displaced Kashmiri Pandits will overcome fear and consider returning to their hearth and homes. He said, “Fear among people is beginning to end. This is a befitting reply to those who want to end brotherhood in the hearts of the people”. While referring to the local Muslims receiving the visitors with open arms, he said, “The sentiment of brotherhood is alive and will remain alive. Kashmir is a place of rishi-munis and sufis, and the Kheer Bhawani Mela is part of this common faith.”

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former chief minister Mehbooba Mufti during her visit here told reporters that Kashmir is incomplete without its Pandit population. She said, “We’re incomplete without Kashmiri Pandits. The issues pertaining to J&K cannot be resolved through military solutions or with the guns of militants.”

BJP leader and party (national) general secretary Tarun Chugh said that the centuries-old festival is an embodiment of India’s civilisational heritage and would continue to be celebrated for generations to come, despite attempts by terrorists to create fear. “This mela has been held for centuries and it will be held for ages to come. No one can stop it. The temple is not just a religious place but a powerful symbol of India’s unity and resilience,” he said.