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The NCCI with the help from CCA and in association with the India Peace Centre, organized a “Beyond Dialogue” a Programme aimed to take the Hindu Pundit Families who are in exile for more than 2 decades to the Kashmir Valley, where they were born and brought up. This was a proposal given by the participants of the ‘Interface between Pundits and Valley Leaders’ at Nagpur in 2006. The Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation has taken up the direction and organized a trip of 15 Pundits to valley between 02nd and 04th April 2010.

Fifteen members from five Pundit families who are in exile traveled from Jammu on the 02nd April 2010 to Srinagar. This travel was flagged off by the Chairperson and the Local Priest of the CNI St. Paul’s Church Rev. Sohan Lal. Mrs. Esther William, Secretary, Jammu YMCA felicitated the event along with 30 members from the local YMCA. The team reached Srinagar around 05.00 p.m. All Saints CNI Church Congregation organized a grand floral welcome dinner for the Pundits along with the Valley leaders. There were 40 leaders from All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC), Pundits, Secular Human Right and Peace Activists from different Fora, Advocates, Academicians, Educationalist and interested Public participated. Janab Syeed Saleem Geelani in his welcome speech said that, “Kashmir Valley is incomplete without Pundit brothers and sisters. So, please come and make the Valley complete”. Prof. Dr. Mohammad Ashraf Wani remembered his past about the rich life of Pundit-Muslim living together and felt that, those glorious past to be documented for the interest of the future generation. Mrs. Babbli Munshi said in her response that, “we will definitely come and make the valley complete”.

On the 03rd April, we made a trip to Nunner Village to see Mr. Satish Munshi’s house and the land where he was born, grew up and lived till he was 30 years. With tears he shared about the places where he played and studied. When the local Muslim friend heard that he has come they came as family and invited all for lunch. They were asking Mr. Munshi, “why did you go? Didn’t you want to suffer with us? We missed you and when will you come back for good?”. Mr. Munshi made a phone call to his father and made his friends to talk to his father. Many cried while talking and expressed that the village misses them a lot and invited them to come back. The team visited the villages such as Ksheer Bhavani, Mutton and Abba Kadal villages.

There was a sharing session on the 03rd evening in Srinagar. Sixty valley leaders representing several fraternities participated in the meeting to hear from the Pundits who took a risk and traveled to the valley. They were astonished by the sharing of the Pundits. The myths against valley such as no safety for the Pundits to live, Valley is always tensed, There is gunshot everywhere, militancy and so on were proved wrong and broken by this visit.

Reiterating the sworn stand of the APHC, Janab Mohemmad Yusuf Naquash stated that “We believe in co-existence and believe in letter and spirit that Kashmiri Valley Community is incomplete without Pundit brethren. We tender our apology to our Pundit brethren for all the agony they underwent in the last twenty years, and invite both the Muslims and Pundits to come together to build a cordial situation for the return of our Pundit neighbours”. He promised all solidarity to the Pundit fraternity during their visit to their native place and also places of worship. He further requested that, the NCCI as a neutral body and third faith to create such platforms for the pundits and those from the valley to meet, dialogue and discuss their future.

1.    There was a suggestion to initiate a Jammu & Kashmir United Forum for Peace and 15 leaders from all factions and groups proposed to serve as a core group to take up such peace initiatives in the future.

2.    Mr. Christopher Rajkumar, observed that all information about the Kashmir circulated in the National and International media are myths, and the valley is calm and normal. Also, he challenged the gathering that, it is our responsibility to inform the world that, Valley is in Peace. Secondly, he suggested that, there may be youth peace festivals and Sports. And thirdly he suggested documenting the pre-exilic history for the interest of the public and future generation of the valley.

3.    Suggestion from the Participants:

1.    In future there may be more Pundit families to be part of this exercise
2.    The visits to be made to the far away villages in Kashmir Valley
3.    Formal dialogue between the Political Leaders, Academicians and Religious leaders.
4.    Documentation on Past Glorious history by research programmes
5.    Interface between the two groups to understand each other and their pains and gains.
6.    Programmes to cultivate culture of peace among the young minds of both communities
7.    Peace exchange programmes among the valley communities

Christopher Rajkumar
Secretary, NCCI CJPC