Koshur Battu

Kashmiri Hindus have a unique mind-set. We want others to fight our battles and will even find otherwise seemingly logical issues why others don’t pick up cudgels for us. I can say it with a degree of confidence-I being one of them-having grown in a KP (as Kashmiri Hindus are called) family with all the hall-marks of a typical Kashmiri batta.

We would discuss it at the drop of a hat why a particular party or an organization didn’t come to our help in our hour of need and how by not doing so they had exposed their sinister agenda. As if somebody owed something to us. We have the unique “VICTIM MENTALITY”. We never teach our children- “Go out and face the world on your own”. Perhaps it is a part of our DNA having seeped into our genome by centuries of KM domination and never asserting ourselves.

I can understand that in the aftermath of our forced exodus from the vale in 1989 you would expect your countrymen to stand by your side (at least a critical number). But if they didn’t what can you do? Crib and complain about it and spend your life like a loser. You have got people in this country shouting “Bharat tere tukde honge” from the pulpits of an educational institution as hallowed (at least till then it was) like JNU. May be the initials themselves didn’t bode well for the country but that is a different discussion for a different occasion.

Let us introspect for a while as to what we have done to correct the wrongs perpetrated on us. In my personal view we haven’t done anything though I will be more than glad to be proven wrong. We started with a very good war cry of HOME_LAND under PK but since then it has been reduced to a pipe dream-what with PK splinters in almost every other KP household. Does anybody even give a serious thought about PK? Some people say it was propped up by GOI as it helped them counter the separatist narrative. But are we reduced to only countering some-one’s narrative? Don’t we have brains sound enough to have our own pro-active strategy? Normally we would hold our noses very high but I feel we have failed (or not attempted at all) bitterly here. How do you expect to pass an examination when you don’t show up at all???

What do we do when Aurangzeb asks us to convert to Islam? Ask Guru Teg Bahadur for help (normally we won’t refrain from cracking jokes at Sikhs). It was ok if it was stopped at pleading for help only but we didn’t stop the revered soul when he offered his own head in return for Islamization. So selfish are we. And then future generation of KPs were never taught to be indebted to Sikhs which we should be.

We have traits highly despicable of civil human beings while thinking we are at the top of the ladder among the civilized crowd-

-we frown upon others’ successes. We are never happy if the other person scores a home run. In fact we have never been taught or programmed to be that way.

-we find faults with others whereas my way of doing things is always right. There can’t be two distinct ways of skinning a cat as per Batta way of thinking. It has to be my way or highway.

- If a common adversity/foe couldn’t unite us, then nothing can. Even animals sensing a potent imminent threat would display a remarkable level of camaraderie to thwart off that threat. This trait is particularly missing from KPs (as Kashmiri Hindus are called) though ironically the absence has given rise to a unique trait because of which we are surviving i.e. “INDIVIDUALISM”.

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There are others but I am not trying to list them here in order to shame anyone-least of all myself. In fact I am sorry if someone got offended (though he shouldn’t) but I would like to hear otherwise to prove myself wrong.

Yes there are many positive traits also but that is for someone else to brag about those as I am not good at that.