Last night, I watched “The Kashmir Files” with my wife. It is a long movie by American standards but is well-produced and accurately portrays the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus from the Kashmir valley in the early 1990s.
Initially, I was reluctant to watch the film as I felt it would upset me and disturb my emotional balance. However, after some consideration, I changed my mind. I decided to watch the movie and show my support for the Kashmiri Hindus, whose suffering and debasement have been largely ignored by the world, including Hindus from the rest of India and around the world.
The Kashmir Files contains a few graphic scenes that explicate the torture and execution of Kashmiri Hindus by Islamic terrorists and their sympathizers in the general population. In one gripping scene, terrorists break into a Kashmiri Hindu family’s home and execute the husband in front of his wife, elderly father, and young son. Then they force the wife to eat rice that is soaked in her husband’s blood. In another scene, Islamic terrorists enter a Kashmiri Hindu refugee camp disguised as members of the Indian military and get the Hindu men, women, and children to come out of their homes under a false pretense. Then they mercilessly execute them one by one, in a fashion that is similar to Nazi executions of Jews. In another scene, which is intended to illustrate the barbarity of the Islamic terrorists, the terrorists humiliate and torture a Kashmiri Hindu woman by undressing her in public and then kill her by sawing her body with a table saw that is used to cut lumber. All of these scenes are based on actual events.
The movie also calls out the media, academics, politicians, and others in positions of power for peddling false information about the situation in Kashmir and whitewashing or minimizing the ethnic cleansing of Hindus from the Kashmir valley. The movie’s protagonist makes a moving speech at the end of the film that underscores this aspect. The protagonist notes that Kashmiri Hindus inhabited Kashmir long before the Islamic invaders brought their brutal conquests to the region. He observes that Kashmir is named after an ancient Indian seer called Kashyapa and that it was an important center of knowledge development in ancient India. He also recounts the outstanding accomplishments of Kashmiri Hindus and notes how they once constituted 100 percent of the population of this beautiful land. Then, he begins his lamentation as he describes the brutal Islamic invasions and the rounds of ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Hindus over time that resulted in the series of exoduses. He concludes by noting how the media, academics, politicians, and others in positions of power have hidden all this information from the people and brainwashed them with false propaganda about the subjugation of Muslim majority Kashmir by Hindu India.
Watching the movie certainly gave me a much greater appreciation and understanding of the magnitude of the suffering that the Kashmiri Hindus have endured and, in some respects, continue to endure being refugees in their own country. I hope that many people see this excellent movie and gain a proper understanding of the tremendous misery faced by the Kashmiri Hindus. The release of this movie will also, hopefully, put an end to mainstream support for duplicitous events which are designed to obscure and hide the atrocities against Hindus by peddling false propaganda about a fictional Muslim genocide in India. One such event, called ‘Genocide in India,’ was held in the Bay Area in February 2020 and was supported and promoted by The Interfaith Council of Contra Costa County (“ICCCC”) and the Interfaith Council of Alameda County (“ICAC”). Lastly, I hope that Hindus that have some affection for their culture and homeland will watch this movie and empathize with their Kashmiri Hindu brethren.
