SANGRAMPORA, INDIA – It is a shame that the term ‘ethnic cleansing’ has become commonplace of late. Even terrorists get in on the action.
It has often been said that differences among humans are only skin deep. I guess that one meaning of this is that if you were to remove the skin of any given person you would find that we are all the same – same organs, same bones, same genetic structure. We are humans after all, and this is what makes us different from other species.
All this is a little simplistic of course as despite our similarities there are very real differences among us: language, culture, lived experiences, religion, etc. And one big difference is how we see each other through our biases, be they based on any number of factors (the same as above: language, culture…).
Intolerance of difference often leads to acts of violence. At times these acts are simple expulsions – the 1916 Ottoman chasing out of the former empire’s Armenians is a good example. At others we can call what happens an act of terrorism.
On this day in 1997
Gunmen suspected of being Islamist terrorists burst into homes of Hindu villagers in northern India, took away seven men and killed them. The attackers then fled into the night, but not before causing panic among other families in Jammu and Kashmir.
There were some Kashmiri bureaucrats who took care of us after the massacre, but they were transferred. No politician, no bureaucrat has come here ever since, not even before elections.
Dulari Bhat, who lost her husband and son in the Sangrampora massacre
Many saw the killings as a form of ethnic cleansing which was thought to be to discourage the Hindus who had fled Kashmir from returning. In essence, the Islamist terrorists saw Hindus as an unworthy people: they do this a lot.
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