My first article ‘CONNECT WITH ROOTS – Diary of a Kashmiri Pandit teenager ‘ in this space grossed a handsome viewership drawing the realization that my pen had more power than I thought it capable off. So, here I am today again to pen down more about my other experiences related to happenings across the globe.
Living in America, there has always been the issue of systemic racism. Over in this corner of the world, it has been so accustomed to the minds of people that we have let it be engraved as a stereotype in American culture. African-Americans are targeted by the police here and have been targeted by certain groups of law enforcement and white supremacy, and yet nobody has done anything about it except defend it and let the oppressed become the guilty. Recently, a man by the name of George Floyd was murdered by a white police officer, who put his knee in his neck until George could no longer breathe.
This unfortunate death of this man started a revolution, and thousands of other people started to protest against the systemic racism that is present in today’s American society. Most people mistake these protests as just for George Floyd, but not as many are enlightened on why they are happening all of a sudden. George Floyd was the tip of the iceberg, many of his color before him were murdered and their pleas were never heard. Justice for George Floyd was trending on all social media platforms. Hashtags were spread around that supported the Black Lives Matter movement. Celebrities were using their platform to spread awareness for this movement. Every single person around the world knows of this movement happening in only the United States.
I was texting my friend the other day, and we were talking about how people still haven’t changed their mindsets of this community. It shouldn’t be something that has to be learned slowly, we should all have had the knowledge from day one that every person is equal, and nobody should have to be treated differently because of their caste, creed, religion, color, gender, sexuality, or by any other means.
All of the readers must be wondering, how does this relate to Kashmir? A man by the name of Ajay Pandita was recently martyred in his village of Anantnag, Kashmir. The recent event of his death has spread like wildfire through social media platforms like Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook. The whole point of the matter is that these two events are more similar than we may assume. Many Kashmiri Pandits were martyred before Ajay Pandita, and nobody changed their mindset about this situation. Instead, most people accepted this as a cultural norm while others were uneducated about these important matters. My question here today is, can Ajay Pandita be the man who finally makes a change for all of the Kashmiri Pandit community?
The other day, I was watching interviews about Ajay Pandita. I listened to an interview of his daughter, who spoke beautifully and moved me. I wondered, “How can such a man like him die, and we do nothing about it?” Why can’t we do something to help spread change like America is doing for the African-American community? My purpose for today is to let people get light on this situation. We must not be ignored. It has been seven generations and nobody has listened to us, but today we have the opportunity to be heard. I ask you to please share this article so that others may get light about this situation and give rightful justice to Ajay Pandita and to the others before him who sacrificed their life for their motherland. Instead of forwarding Good Morning videos on WhatsApp, forward information about what we can do to change this issue in Kashmir. Let’s create a revolution so that many others can follow and can help spread change.
The other day I saw that Kangana Ranaut was using her platform of followers to help give attention to this situation. I am simply a girl in California, who is sitting on her bed writing about this situation in a tiny corner of the world, and I ask that it cannot be just me who is trying to change. I ask that it is everybody who carries the values of humanity in their heart who helps the many people that have suffered. We need to make change and we need to do it now. I ask you, can you help? We cannot wait for congress to do something. 30 years ago we waited for their help and none came. We must do it ourselves and we must do it now before it is too late. Spread this information through friends, family, social media, and other ways. Share this article so that people know about what is happening to us. Gandhi once said “Be the change that you wish to see in the world” and we have the opportunity to be that change, so let’s do something about it. We are the Bhattas – the learned, and with the power of our voices, our knowledge, our pens, our peaceful pleas, there’s nothing we can’t do. We are the apostles of peace and brotherhood and violence is not our creed.
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