KASHMIR and IDPs

A Muslim Missionary in Medieval Kashmir
(English translation of Tohfatu’l-Ahbab)
Translation and Annotation by Kashinath Pandit
Aditya Prkashan, 2/18, Ansari Raod, New Delhi
Hard bund , pp.294+lxx, price Rs.700.00 Published December 2009

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Revised final review of  March 2, 2010:

A translation of the Farsi work written by Mohammad Ali Kashmiri in 1642, A Muslim Missionary in Mediaeval Kashmir is about Shamsudin Araki and his mission in Kashmir. Araki came to Kashmir twice, and stayed in it for nearly twenty years. The writer knew him well because his father Maulana Khaleel Ahmed and his maternal uncle were his devotees; the details that he provides about Araki’s activities in Kashmir, especially the ones pertaining to his second visit, suggest that he must have been a witness to most of them. Continue Reading…

Kashmiri Pandits, Minority, Status, Rights and Rehabilitation – A Case Study by Dr. K.N. Pandit, January 30, 2010:

Part I – This has to be partly a theoretical and partly empirical study

Minority

A conclusive definition of “Minority” as a component group of a given society has remained elusive.  At the United Nations, the Commission for Human Rights (now called Council for Human Rights) has been grappling with precise definition. The reason is that situations develop in different parts of the world in which a particular group of population suddenly gets disempowered and dispossessed: or a group emerges seeking to establish its separate identity and individuality for one reason or the other.  In more frequent examples the affected people could be political victims. It becomes difficult to define their category. Besides, there are many other circumstances that throw up an isolated segment of population whose identification becomes a moot point.

Generally speaking, numerical strength is taken a factor for determining a group as majority or minority. But if large groups are accepted as minorities and clubbed together, they might over-strip the majority group. In a multi-ethnic, multi-religious and multi-linguistic country like India, the minorities when clubbed together are likely to claim large political power, social recognition and economic priority. Would they still be called minorities and deprived segments? What if they jointly form a large segment so as to overshadow the otherwise majority group? Continue Reading…