“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana
We citizens of Bharat have a centuries long history of suffering and persecution. We may have not forgotten it all, but we see it repeating time and again in different ways and have carried with us the trauma it brings. I think because we suppressed the trauma, the pain, that’s what strayed us from demanding justice for the atrocities we faced, and we denied ourselves the opportunity to address it and begin trials at healing the intergenerational trauma. We also never stopped to question ourselves, are we empowering ourselves to prevent the history from repeating itself?
In 1990, what the Kashmir valley and the independent India witnessed was a holocaust, which has been ignored, suppressed, painted as an ‘en-masse exodus’, ‘the empowerment of poor over the hegemony of the Rich Kashmiri pandits’. And worst of all, it was called a choice…. After 32 years, finally we have a movie made by Vivek Agnihotri ji and Pallavi Joshi ji, with a stellar, brave cast that addresses the genocide of Kashmiri Hindus.
I’m an Indian, and a doctor. And much like most Indians, I am one of those people responsible for the lack of justice meted out to the Kashmiri Hindus. You see it isn’t enough to just know about it and talk about it with your social circle and post on social media about this Black day in Indian history. The genocide was an ignored, suppressed humanitarian crisis, the results of which we see with our own eyes:
•An entire community living as refugees in their own nation.
•Our crown state, less than a ghost of it’s formal glory.
Now how does this lead to a doctor recommending every citizen to watch a movie? Especially when we’re in the middle of witnessing another humanitarian crisis, and fresh out of a devastating pandemic. Wouldn’t watching the movie add to our anguish and hurt sentiments?
You see pain is an integral part of human existence and evolution. But this pain isn’t something we can just live with by ignoring and suppressing. We have to address it, accept it, and treat it.
In this day and age, with the ever increasing Mental health awareness, we can contribute to the start of the healing of an entire community by watching the devastating, painful truth. We brace ourselves to face it, we go through it, because only then do we equip ourselves to deal with the intergenerational trauma and ongoing cultural genocide the Kashmiri Hindus face even now.
By watching the Kashmir Files, we create a safe space where we no longer have to start with re-narration of the past. When we all know what really happened, the truth will set us free, equip us to deal with what happened mentally (though there is no point in denying the fact that the truth will aggravate some people). We also put an end to the insulting gaslighting of Kashmiri Hindus, in fact of all the Indians, who believe/are told that the exodus was a “choice” and not a genocide.
With the truth so blatantly out in the open for everyone to see, the suppression and victimization stops. With every Indian facing the truth of the reality and results of communal ethnic cleansing in independent India, perhaps finally we’d start considering the necessity for civilization nationalism and the importance of asserting our culture. And with it, we also get a source of inspiration- ‘the Kashmiri Hindus‘. You see, even after facing the most dehumanizing atrocities, they picked themselves up, and persisted… Kashmiri Hindus are the proof to the whole of humanity that ‘hurt people don’t have to hurt people’. They are proof that even when faced with the worst of times, humans are capable of being better humans, even inspirational humans.
Watching this movie also finally stops with the narrative of justification of the development of monsters who carried out this atrocity. The glorification of the pain of the perpetrators who committed the crimes against the Kashmiri Hindus stops.
And I maybe unrealistically hopeful here, but this movie could serve as the catalyst towards the start of finding a solution to the ever increasing (apparent) polarization we face. I personally believe that there isn’t an increase in polarization, just more people having the opportunity to finally express, which obviously doesn’t sit well with the mainstream narrative. This movie could pave the path for the addressing of the suppressed history and trauma of Bharat. The way we fulfill the Kashmiri Hindus right to justice could perhaps set a precedent globally!
