Title: Film brings out tragedy of a community
Author: Pamela Raghunath
Publication: The Gulf News
Date: Jan 31, 2002
URL: http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/News.asp?ArticleID=39512

A film on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from their homes after militancy took over the Valley brings out the tragedy of a community that has been living as refugees in its country.

Called And the World Remained Silent, the 25-minute film by producer and director Ashok Pandit is a product of compiling video footage that he has been taking during the last ten years – right from the frenzied demonstrations led by Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) leader Shabir Shah in 1990 to the pathetic conditions of refugee camps in Jammu where the Kashmiri Pandits or Hindus now live.

The stark images of brutality committed on Hindus to drive them out of Kashmir evokes not just sympathy but reveals the kind of trauma and hardship that the community has undergone with little help from the Indian government or citizens.

"When this film was screened at the House of Commons in the UK recently, the reaction was one of surprise as the MPs told us that they were not aware of this exodus," Pandit told newspersons, who were shown the film yesterday in an informal atmosphere at the Café Royale, a restaurant that the former U.S. President Bill Clinton visited.

Pandit, who is also a zonal coordinator for Panun Kashmir that represents the Kashmiri Pandits, said: "The British MPs did not know that Kashmiri Pandits existed in the first place."

Talking about his film that took about three months to make, he said the film exposes the game plan of Pakistan and its Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) to oust 350,000 Pandits and create total anarchy in the Valley.

This week is being observed as the 'Exodus Week' because the Pandits started leaving their homes from January 19-29, 1990 after they were threatened by the local people. He plans to get 10,000 copies of this film to be screened to diverse sections of the society across the country and abroad.

"What one feels sad about is the total silence of the world towards one of the worst human tragedies of the world," he says.

He believes that this silence is what that led to the numerous terrorist attacks from the attack on America to the latest one on the American Embassy in Kolkata.

Noted film maker Mahesh Bhat, who was also present at the press meet, severely criticised the apathy of the nation towards the plight of the Pandits.

"Answers to our problems of terrorism cannot come from the white man who cannot solve his own problems," he said.

"Where is Osama bin Laden? The U.S. has created a drama by sending images of war to appease a paranoid America. They have woken up to terrorism 9/11 whilst India has been familiar with terrorism for long."

Speaking harshly against the Indian government, he said, "The answer to terrorism is to lock horns against it rather than crying on the shoulder of the white man."

Apart from making people aware of the plight of Kashmiris, he has also made a film on the North-East where terrorism rules and where "people are yearning for peace".