Refugees of Jammu & Kashmir - History and Way Forward (Part 1)

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), also known as The UN Refugee Agency observes 20th of June every year as ‘World Refugee Day’.  The mandate of the UNHCR is to ‘provide, on a non-political and humanitarian basis, international protection to refugees and to seek permanent solutions for them’.

The UNHCR proudly claims that it has won the Nobel Peace prize twice in 1954 and 1981. Such an organization which has a lofty mandate and has won several awards including the Nobel peace prize has somehow chose to ignore the plight of more than 2 million refugees of various denominations in Jammu & Kashmir who are living a life of penury in despicable conditions for the past several decades.  Neither has the organization raised the issue in its reports nor has it intervened with the concerned governments to address their plight and repatriate them.

 UNHCR State of the Global refugees 2012 report released this month does not even mention the refugees of J&K. The UNHCR Refugee Global trends 2011 report too has no mention of the Kashmiri Pandits or the West-Pakistan refugees or the survivors of the ethnic cleansing by marauding tribes in 1947. In a nutshell the ‘World Refugee Day’ observed by an international organization has no meaning for these refugees and internally displaced people in J&K. Consequently, an exercise to understand their plight, which has even been neglected by the Governments of India and J&K, and possible solution, too falls upon concerned citizens of this nation. Governments and organizations the world over observed the ‘World Refugee Day’ on 20th June. But did this tokenism lead to any concrete solution for refugees of Kashmir? Given this background, let us atleast try and understand the history, problems and possible solutions of these neglected refugees of J&K.

No one chooses to be a refugee!

The origin of the refugee problem in J&K has a heart wrenching history. 1947 was the turbulent times for the sub-continent when Islamic republic of Pakistan was carved out of India and large scale migrations based on religious identity took place. Many Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan migrated to India. A section of them from the western parts of Pakistan, mostly from Sialkot district, migrated to J&K. However after India became a republic in 1950, Article 370 was applied to J&K with several special provisions to grant conditional autonomy as an interim measure. The Constitution of J&K came into effect on 26 January 1957 but Article 6 of its Constitution provided citizenship only to those who were either State subjects or having lawfully acquired immovable property in the State prior to 1954. The Sikh and Hindu refugees who came from outside of then undivided Kashmir do not fall within this category. Hence, they are not considered as permanent residents of Jammu and Kashmir. Consequently, they neither can own property nor can get government jobs or get any other benefits that accrue to the citizens of the State. There are over 1.5 lakh west Pakistan refugees living in border districts of Jammu, Samba and Kathua district for past 62 years in squalid camps, and have been denied citizenship rights, right to vote in Assembly elections, right professional education, right to employment. Though they are lawfully citizens of India, they are still considered as ‘non-state subjects’ in J&K. All these problems thanks to the Article 370 of Indian constitution!

The Asian Centre for Human rights in its India Human rights report in 2010 details the abuse of article 370 and how it has affected any lasting solutions to the refugee problem in J&K. The report also cites the International human rights law that unequivocally prohibits citizenship based on “jus sanguine” i.e. based on the nationality of their parents instead of where they are born. Ironically India is a signatory to such laws, yet everyone in the government and even the interlocutors consider it “politically incorrect” to raise the issue of State Subjectship of these minority Sikhs and Hindus. Though the recently released Interlocutors report on J&K recommends granting of State-Subject status to these refugees, it is only prudent to do away with such laws and enable complete integration of J&K into the Indian union.

Continuance of Article 370 only aids such discriminatory laws to be in vogue and deny these refugees the facilities enjoyed by citizens elsewhere in the country.

One family torn apart by war is too many – UN

The narrative of another category of refugees from POJK (Pakistan Occupied J&K) is very similar. There are 1.2 million wounded souls of POJK, who were subjected to genocide by the tribes backed by Pakistan during Oct-Nov of 1947. These raids destroyed not only the life and property of lakhs of people but also the very fabric of human society and relationships. These refugees belong to Mirpur, Poonch and Muzaffarabad districts of J&K. All these refugees are Hindus and Sikhs and non- Kashmiris as such were not allowed to settle in the Valley even though Muzaffarabad district was part of Kashmir province before 1947. This atrocity on fellow human-beings is being carried out in the name of retaining ‘Kashmiriyat’! The estimated population of these refugees presently settled in Jammu province is about 10 lakh.  

While those who migrated from the then West Pakistan were given 'refugee' status and settled by the Indian government elsewhere in the country, those who migrated from PoJK (mainly from Muzafarabad and Mirpur areas) are yet to be settled and live even today without 'refugee' status. The government's position has been that, since they have migrated from PoJK, which is legally a part of India, they are technically not qualified to be categorized under the 'refugee' bracket. Hence, they cannot claim the benefits of refugees. For the same legal reasons, the Indian government has refused to pursue the compensation that is supposed to be given to those people in Mirpur, whose properties have been submerged due to the construction of the Mangla dam, funded by the World Bank. Today, there are more than 1,200,000 people from PoJK staying in and around Jammu with no political status, nor with any promise from the State and Union governments on where they stand in the Kashmir conflict. While these POJK refugees languish in unhealthy camps, the J&K government in 1982 enacted the Resettlement Act to permit any of the Pakistani citizens to stake their claim on the property that they or their ancestors have left behind in the unoccupied part of J&K State. The Supreme Court however stayed the implementation of the act in 2002. Such is the biased treatment meted out to the hapless refugees by the J&K government.

Where do I live?

If external factors lead to the displacement of West-Pak and POJK refugees, the plight of Chhamb refugees and other displaced persons during wars with Pak is largely self-inflicted. Nearly 5000 families were displaced in 1971 from Chhamb under Simla Agreement as under this agreement most of the area of Chhamb was given to Pakistan. Along with them a large number of people have migrated from villages on the border and Line of Control during wars in 1965 and 1971. Many of them were advised to vacate their lands by the army to enable it to lay mines on the border. According to a statement of the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, their number totalled 1.50 lakhs. Even if they go back, they cannot enter mined areas and an area of 16,000 acres of land occupied by the army.

As such there are about 2.5 lac refugees from Chhamb region itself. Most of these refugees were farmers. They were settled along the border line from Akhnoor to Kathua district. They were not provided full quota of land as per the prescribed scale of the State Revenue Authority to the land that they had left behind in Chhamb. The monetary compensations paid to them were meagre and not sufficient to build up shelter for their residence and make these people to earn both ends meal for their families. The Chhamb Displaced Persons Rehabilitating Authority constituted by the Govt. of India in 1974 was disbanded in 1990. These families of the displaced persons have been left in the lurch and have not provided any compensation so far. These were the same people who helped the Indian army during the 1947 raids by Pakistan Army and the Kabalies. Such is the treatment meted out these brave, patriotic souls who gave away their lands and homes so that India wins the wars against Pakistan!!!

Continued in Part 2 here...

Note: Photos have been sourced from the web. Hence all photos belong to their rightful owners.