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| The Kashmiri who felt insulted by ‘Hattou’ in Lahore: The making of Kashyap Bandhu | | December 18: the death anniversary of Kashyap Bandhu Ji | 
By Avtar Nehru
The life and times of Pandit Kashyap Bandhu, a name synonymous with Kashmiri Pandit resilience and social reform, is also a reflection of a transformative era when Jammu & Kashmir was on the cusp of a major socio-political change in the first half of 20th century. The way the course of history in the erstwhile princely state was being cast for an unforeseen political future in sync with local aspirations and an ongoing influence from the upheaval and confluence of socio-political movements of the subcontinent and the globe, it was becoming apparent the state was heading towards social strife. It necessitated a social engineering of sorts that would hold the Kashmiri society together in this churning. Kashyap Bandhu, deserves due credit as one of the champions of this idea along with several other sons of the soil who navigated such a delicate narrative to a great degree of success in an otherwise highly polarized and volatile political environment during the significant four decades of state’s history starting 1920s. Remarkably, he remained wedded to this conviction of social harmony and sub-nationalism till his last breath.
The making of Kashyap Bandhu is a related but interesting development and serves a context for most of his career trajectory. His story is closely linked to the innate love of a native for his land and people. Having experienced firsthand ‘exile’ of years himself and lived the pain of homesickness, he literally never let go his home once he returned. He lived the last 40 years of his life in his village, Giru (Noorpora) though he could have settled in any place of his choice in Srinagar. More than pure emotions, it must have been a conscious decision on his part to live and demonstrate his belief.
Kashyap Bandhu, born as Tara Chand Bhat, lived an interesting life full of compartmental evolution. As a student of his times, his choice was influenced both by the prevalent familial aspiration of a government job among Pandits and revolutionary thoughts coming from Bolshevik and other political movements in educational institutions. As literature really offered a ‘fashionable’ outlet to such articulative expressions, he developed literary skills passionately and blossomed as a poet quite early using the title of ‘Bulbul’ but with a rebellion streak smelling student activism. Tara Chand ‘Bulbul’ as a poet smartly used his poetic art to fetch himself a job by impressing a British revenue officer but also soon lost it because of his empathic nature and opposition to exploitation.
Incidentally, this job loss served a real drama in his life, which thereafter changed course of life for good. It happened that the tehsildar of Kulgam, who was to visit a noble by the name of Diu Koul, had issued orders to villages falling on his route to illuminate the road after dusk for his convoy by burning grass bales mounted on poles along roadsides. Tara Chand convinced the village head in his jurisdiction not to follow this order. He was reported and investigated but before he could be arrested for inciting disobedience, he fled to Lahore.
Lahore city then a hub of economic, political, educational and cultural activities in north India also served as the nerve centre of various social and religious movements. All this put together made the city a melting pot of ideas and teeming with intellectual and political energy, Tara Chand found a foothold for his literary passion and got employed as a journalist with Arya Samaj’s mouthpiece Arya Gazette. Lahore had a significant population of Kashmiris comprising of students, tradesmen, immigrants and hundreds of laborers especially during winters. Kashmiri (Muslim) laborers were scoffed at by shouting ‘Hattou’ and their exploitation was commonplace.
Tara Chand felt humiliated and started a welfare board to look after them. His advocacy for their dignity and fair treatment brought him in contact with Kashmiris of Lahore and seeing his passion for his compatriots and the interest he showed in writing on Kashmir centric themes, the Arya Samaj top brass bestowed the title of Kashyap Bandhu meaning brother and companion of Rishi Kashyap’s land on him. Thereafter, his name and voice reverberated in the activist circles of both the Kashmir valley and rest of India.
Once his return was sought by a group of youth Pandit activists in the aftermath of 1931 unrest during which pandits became soft targets and felt leadership vacuum, an experienced Kashyap Bandhu proved a catalyst for bringing the frightened but unorganized together in the valley. Having helped pandits achieve some bargaining power, the next logical step was to convince the Muslim Conference leadership to agree for political space to Hindus in the state. The result of this discussion over months was birth of an inclusive National Conference under the leadership of Sheikh Mohd Abdullah with Kashyap Bandhu, Jialal Kilam, Prem Nath Bazaz, Shambhunath Peshin and Sardar Budh Singh among the founding members. Thereafter Bandhuji completely aligned himself with the progressive agenda of the party.
In the interim government headed by Sheikh Abdullah after state’s accession to India in 1947, Kashyap Bandhu first handled the crucial department of salt supply affected by India Pakistan standoff and then as an emergency relief officer helped victims and survivors of Pakistani tribal raid in border districts of Kupwara and Baramulla gain lost confidence and normal life by galvanizing both Yuvak Sabha activists and National Conference cadre. Till he was jailed along with Sheikh Abdullah, he worked as Director General Dehat Sudhar or rural development. Here again, he proved how devoted he was to the welfare of Kashmiris. As funds were scarce and limited, he initiated Halshri for building roads and other public works in villages. The land was dug and leveled by the village community and his department famously provided tea and Chochvor/kucha to these volunteers. He himself took only one rupee as salary. It was not only roads but practically every aspect of economic activity from poultry to animal husbandry and forestry that got modernization attention from him.
This outstanding record of rural development made the Ghulam Mohd Sadiq government in 1964 to appoint him as the Project Director for Flood Water Mitigation project of low-lying areas adjacent to river Jhelum in Sumbal block. For next three years, this project under him was successful in preventing flood water from Wular into the block by constructing a 27-kilometer of buttress embankemnt around the villages. A record 10 lakh willows were planted to hold soil together. At the end of it, the block, which otherwise was known as Saeniwor (low lying water dump) transformed into a fertile land with a high crop yield. The name was thus changed to Sonawari meaning golden garden.
After finishing the project Kashyap Bandhu led a retired life and enjoyed life a farmer in his village. A man of letters, whose chaste Urdu and command on English, Persian, Hindi and then lately on Sanskrit at aged 70 plus, as per family sources continued to remain in touch with several newspaper editor friends and journals as a post-office was set up in the village seeing the volume of his mail. It is believed his unpublished writings, which could have been no less than a literary and historic treasure were lost. Bandhu ji ‘will’ to be cremated in his village after death, still serves a message of rebuilding trust and fostering a sense of unity for the intercommunity's survival and future in Kashmir.
(The writer is a Journalist,documentary filmmaker and editor Curriculum-magazine.com)
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