Kashmiri Pandits after the Sikh Retreat

Kashmiri Pandits after the Sikh Retreat

THE defeat of the Sikhs which was equally due to bad strategy and the wrath of nature, resulted in no distant future in a complete reversal of the previously prevailing administrative policy so far as the Pandits were concerned. It was given out that the Sikh invasion was the result of Pandit invitation. May be that some Pandits had looked on the Sikh invasion as a means to liberate themselves from the Afghan yoke; and this too is possible that a few of them may have actually though clandestinely helped it. But there is no direct proof forthcoming to prove their complicity in this affair, excepting a strong suspicion, based upon the fact that there were many Kashmiri Pandits, some of them very highly placed, at the Sikh Durbar with whom the Pandits of Kashmir were connected by ties of blood. The fact that the Sikhs till then were hardly distinguishable from the Hindus must have also contributed towards strengthening such a suspicion. Whether or not there was truth in this suspicion, it is a fact that there were people who kept on fanning its flame against the Pandits. The Muslim notables whose power and prestige when compared to the Pandits was almost negligible now came on the scene. The abortive invasion of Ranjit Singh gave them an easy handle. They dinned into Azim's ears that the Pandit notables were at the root of the Sikh invasion of Kashmir. In partisular, they singled out Pandit Haradas about whom the allegation was that he was the head of the clique which had extended an invitation to the Sikh Ruler. Azim Khan easily believed all this and turned his attention towards the Pandits. Pandit Haradas was the first victim of this orgy and was killed in 1813 A. D. There were others too who were similarly treated. Their Jagirs were confiscated and Jazia was imposed on the whole lot. Most of them were humiliated and ousted out of all places of power, and in the confusion that followed a Muslim notable by name Nur Shah Diwani was thrown into prominence, whose rise to power proved as shortlived as his mischievous activities abortive. But the treatment meted out to the Pandits, though harsh and cruel beyond measure, did not produce any good result so far as the breaking of Pandit power went. Pandit Sahaj Ram was there at the head of administration and there were many more whom Azim could not touch. But yet the suspicion about the Pandit's complicity in Ranjit Singh's invasion was being daily strengthened. The rival Muslim clique fully exploited this impression. How could the Subedar remain safe as long as the Pandit was there? They had to be destroyed root and branch if Kashmir had to continue as an Afghan Province. Such were the arguments with which they kept his suspicions alive. But even Azim Khan could not dare carry his designs against the Pandits too far; at least openly he dared not to do so. But Nur Shah offered to solve the problem in a manner which though clumsy in essence appeared to both of them ingenious enough at least for the time being. It was settled between them that Nur Shah would invite all the Pandit notables, including Mirza Pandit, the brother of Pandit Sahaj Ram to his house and having seated them in a Hamam suffocate them there to death by heating the Hamam to its capacity. Azim approved of this scheme, but said that the deed should be done in his absence from the city. This ill fated conspiracy was in progress for some time when on the fateful day a private servant of Azim Khan apprised Sahaj Ram of all that was transpiring behind the scene between the Subedar and Nur Shah. Sahaj Ram was further told by servant that Nur Shah had that very time come to inform the Subedar that the Pandit notables had assembled in his house. Nur Shah held a hurried private conversation with the Subedar, which mainly dealt with the maturity of all his nefarious plans and also the assemblage of the Pandits in his house. With the connivance of Azim's private servant Sahaj Ram overheard the whole conversation. The Subedar, as already stated, was not willing to the perpetration of the crime during his presence in the city. He therefore left that very moment for Shalimar garden. Sahaj Ram also left the place, instantaneously in a boat and stopped just on the Ghat near the house of Nur Shah. He scribed a solitary line on a chit which ran as: "Jazira ki makani tu bud abgirift," i.e. "the island on which stood your house is gone under flood waters." Hayat a sagacious boatman in service of Sahaj Ram was commissioned to carry the chit to Mirza Pandit in Nur Shah's house. Hayat went inside Nur Shah's house and kept standing near the door leading to the Hamam. From the unexpected arrival of Hayat, Mirza Pandit divined that there was something extraordinary going to happen. Hayat came forward under the pretence of trimming the wick of the lamp when he dropped the chit near Mirza Pandit. Mirza Pandit read the chit, but waited for a moment. Without rousing any suspicion, he got up and leaving his shawl behind inquired if a privy existed there. Under this pretence he came out and ran away followed by Hayat and joined his brother at the ghat, where he was informed of the eonspiracy. After some time it became known to Nur Shah that Mirza Pandit had played a ruse and had flown from the trap which was so cunningly laid for him. Confused, confounded and crest-fallen Nur Shah, sent his own men to fetch him back, but the party returned unsuccessful. Meanwhile the other guests also ran away in the melee that ensued. Next morning Sahaj Ram and his brother Mirza Pandit went to Shalimar to meet the Subedar. Subedar was all along preparing himself to receive the newsabout the death of Mirza Pandit and other Pandits when Sahaj Ram came in. The Diwan and his brother had a bit of plain speaking with the Subedar. They related the whole tale to him, how the conspiracy was hatched how they caught scent of it, how they thwarted it in the middle, and ended it in an ignominous failure. Thay also rebuked him for falling a prey to the machinations of intriguers which was simply hastening his own doom. Subedar felt very much embarrassed and readily agreed to abide by any terms which they suggested. Mirza Pandit laid a formal complaint against Nur Shah who after Sikh defeat was put in charge of revenue collection. The complaint was that Nur Shah had looted the country side. Mirza Pandit bound himself to pay four lacs of rupees if he was allowed to deal with Nur Shah directly. This was agreed to by Azim Khan, and Mirza Pandit was armed with a written authority for the arrest of Nur Shah and the search of of his house. A party of Shah Aqasis was put at Pandit's disposal. Laden with the requisite authority, Mirza Pandit returned and while he was crossing the Dal Lake, he came across Nur Shah. At once he got him arrested who was tied hand and foot with his own turban. On reaching Srinagar, his house was searched but no money was forthcoming when the carpenter who had constructed the ceilings informed that - the money was concealed inside the ceiling. At once the house was raised to the ground and money was recovered. Nur Shah fell never to rise and thus ended the abortive attempt at annihilating the whole lot of the Pandit notables.