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Tanuja Shankar

Tuesday, August 14, 2012


Refugees or Displaced Persons or Illegal Immigrants?


We have heard so much about the refugees entering India via Jammu & Kashmir since 1947...after the partition of Hindustan...a curse given to us by the honourable Nehrus, Gandhis, Jinnahs and many others! Partition took many lives and made the lives of many insufferable.Those who survived on the borders, and in the areas close bordering India & Pakistan had to choose..Hindustan or Pakistan?
We have heard of Refugees of the POK( Pakistan Occupied Kashmir)...heard of Pundits and Muslims...but there is a motley crowd of West Pakistani Hindu Refugees who entered Jammu to go towards Punjab in 1947..Sheikh Abdullah( then Prime Minister of Jammu & Kashmir) stopped them midway and asked them to stay in Jammu and make the borders their home.He promised them land and jobs...
They got land on lease never to be called their own...they never got any jobs from the government...and never rose above poverty line...because they are not citizens of J & K...they are still waiting to be called State Subjects on paper and verbally...
All this because they are not considered domiciles of J & K...as they are from West Pakistan-Sialkot and Article 370 of the Indian Constitution doesn't allow them to be called State Subjects.
Is this what is called justified?
Would they ever be called citizens of J & K?
Will they ever be a part of Hindustan?
Who is responsible for this human rights violation?
The film, "Azad Desh Ke Ghulam Log" explores the deplorable condition of these people and raises several questions to be answered only by the policy makers, government and the civil society.

~ Synopsis of the film AZAD DESH KE GHULAM LOG
~ Written & Directed by Tanuja Shankar

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