On Holocaust Day, KP Community stalwarts deliberate on a unified action plan for the preservation of socio-cultural aspects for the survival of the community

Jammu, January 19, 2023: Vomedh organized a large event today in Abhinav theatre Jammu to deliberate on the need to have concerted efforts from the community to preserve the socio-cultural aspects for the survival of the community. The event was organized to commemorate the Kashmiri Pandits holocaust day on 19 January. Kashmiri Pandits after exodus from valley in 1990 have been globally observing this day as holocaust day to commemorate the fateful night on 19th January which was the starting point of the mass exodus of Pandits from the valley.

Vomedh conceived the event differently this year by creating an idea exchange platform with galaxy of community leaders participating in the deliberations. Few of the community leaders and participants had travelled from outside of the J&K to attend the event which witnessed jam packed audience in Abhinav Theatre.

In his welcome address, Rakesh Roshan Bhat, the mentor of Vomedh talked about the importance of preservation of socio-cultural aspects of community for their continued survival. “Vomedh has been a front line and most active socio-cultural organization of Kashmiri Pandits post exile. It has been at the forefront of socio-cultural preservation efforts.

Vomedh believes that bases its contribution and work in this space in past 15 years, felt that on this Holocaust Day there is a need to take a look beyond just commemorating the fateful day. The already shrinking community is threatened by loss of traditions, language, culture and roots. We hope that this program will trigger a positive thought process and a chain reaction hopefully of ground actions by individuals and other organizations to work in this direction”, he added.

Ashok Saraf, the newly appointed first ever advisor of Vomedh in his statement mentioned that Vomedh will make its programs more inclusive. It will try to engage youth to take its mission forward.

The program kicked off with poetry in exile by renowned poets P N Shad, Dildar Mohan and Pitamber Razdan. Shad and Mohan moved the audiences with their emotional verses and powerful recitation. Razdan created nostalgia and built a vision of way forward through his interesting composition.

This was followed by Paper reading by renowned authors Brij Nath Pandit Betab and Dr. Pawan Suri.

Betab in his paper talked about overall need of preservation of culture and civilization of KPs. Dr Pawan Suri who is a very famous doctor, author and columnist talked about the inside and outside perspectives with regards to Survival of KPs.

Another important segment of the program was the panel discussion among eminent panellists representing many fields. All of them spoke about varied aspects of the issue in detail.

Anil Bhat, PTI Chief in his eye-opening discourse tried to explain a very unpopular yet pertinent question – if the population of Kashmiri Pandits is shrinking and if yes, should it be a cause of concern? And, what should the community’s response be towards this problem.

King C Bharati, senior Journalist, Social and Theatre activist added another dimension to this issue and talked about if late marriages and high divorce rates, are a reason for concern. He dwelt at length about the circumstances that lead to late marriages in the community adding after forced exodus Kashmiri Pandit community preferred imparting higher education to their wards to excel in life which pushed the normal marriage age limit to higher side. On divorce he said the blame has to be shared by the present generation that failed to impart the right values among their children leading to high expectations, excessive freedom and disregard for the spiritual bond of marriage adding the community must inculcate the value system and train their children on how to tackle domestic problems and keep patience to let the institution of marriage succeed.

Ajay Bharti former MLC tried to answer the question – if KPs are losing touch with the roots? If yes, what should they do about it.

Youth activist Ashwani Sadhu, Founder KP Blood Bank discussed what motivates youth to work for community causes and how to make it more organized and unified.

Ramesh Hangloo, the founder of Radio Sharda drew the attention of the audience towards language, customs and traditions. He deliberated on the various aspects and discussed if community collectively is doing enough to preserve them.

Dr Samita Bhat, renowned Gynaecologist talked about the impact of exodus on mental and physical health of community. Is it a factor to be considered for better survival of community.

Rohit Raina, who is part of the PM package employees in Kashmir discussed how will new generation build and retain connect with Kashmir.

The points that emerged from the discussion to be debated threadbare within the community include:

• Dwindling population is a cause of concern even though roots are very strong
• Preservation and propagation of Kashmiri language among the generation Z is most important
• Introduction of old scripts like Sharda Lipi must be introduced from primary level in schools
• Community might be physically fit but mentally it is stressed
• Teenagers must be involved in the traditional rituals and talked about the rich cultural heritage
• Middle aged people have suffered the most due to exodus
• Social issues confronting community must be studied scientifically and documented which is lacking at present
• Marital age is increasing due to higher goals in life but is a cause of concern
• Divorce rate mostly due to incompatibility and lack of parental guidance in advance as well as prevalence of nuclear families.
• Sanctity of marriage must be talked about since the teenage level as influence of western style marriage contracts have damaged the institution of marriage.

The panellists were unanimous that community must create institutions that look after the social issues through scientific data, surveys, research and suggest prevention to preserve, propagate and educate the future generation about the importance of cultural traditions to live a contented, peaceful and progressive life which is entirely different from the Western life style that our younger generation is addicted to.

Bindia Tickoo moderated the panel discussion well and also anchored the entire program ably.

A multiple award-winning short film, Exodus and Exile – The Need was screened in the latter half of the program. The film has been written by Rakesh Roshan Bhat and Directed by Rakesh and Rohit. This short film has been screened in over 12 international film festivals. It has also been screened in UK parliament. The message of the film is – save Kashmiri Pandits which was in line with the theme of the program.

Advocate Rahul Kilam and Bharti Kaul were the observers and presented the gist of the discussion before the audience.

The program was managed by Vomedh team led by Vice president Bharti Kaul and supported by Suman Bhat and Priya Khar.

Program concluded with vote of thanks from Rohit Bhat, President Vomedh. All the participants and audience appreciated the efforts of Vomedh and pledged to contribute in their own possible ways towards the preservation of socio-cultural dimensions of community.