'Raliv, Galiv ya Chaliv' (Convert, Die or Leave): Remembering the Tragic and Brutal Hindu Genocide Committed by Muslims in Kashmir

In India, January 19 is observed every year as ‘Holocaust Day’ to honor the memory of millions of Hindus who were massacred and forced to flee the Kashmir Valley in 1990 as a result of the violence and intimidation tactics unleashed by Pakistan-backed radical Islamic terrorists. Every year, Kashmiri Hindus who were displaced hold various events in India and worldwide to remember their exodus from the Valley. These events acknowledge the community’s resilience and noble spirit, which had been subjected to multiple waves of brutality by Muslim Jihadis.

Islamic terrorists backed by Pakistan, infiltrated the borders and executed a campaign of medieval barbarity and brutal mayhem on the unarmed, peace-loving Hindu natives of the Kashmir valley, who had been living there centuries before Islam ever existed or had set its foot on the Indian subcontinent. During the months of October and November 1989 and the early months of 1990, Islamic radical Jihadis carried out a large-scale killing of Hindus in Kashmir. They drove out all the native Hindus from the region. In the events of 1989 -1990, Muslim extremists ethnically cleansed more than 450,000 of the Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley. Based on some sources, this figure is as high as 500,000. The violence and destruction of property are widespread alongside the forced displacement.

Starting as early as 1984, political leaders in Kashmir, such as Ghulam Mohammad Shah, began inciting Muslims in mosques, claiming that Kashmir belonged to Muslims and the Hindus had no right to live there as they were “kafir” or infidels. Highly charged rhetoric by Muslim leaders that called for the establishment of an Islamic Caliphate in India led to a very polarized atmosphere that signaled impending violence. This led to violent riots targeting Kashmiri Hindus in south Kashmir and Sopore, where Pakistani-backed Muslim extremists killed Hindus. Subsequent anti-Hindu riots in Anantnag in 1986 resulted in the destruction of several Kashmiri Hindu homes and properties and the flight of many Hindu families out of the Valley.

On January 4, 1990, Aftab, a local Urdu newspaper, published a press release from Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a Muslim terrorist organization based in Pakistan, urging the immediate departure of all Hindus from the Valley. Al Safa, another local daily, reiterated this warning. Subsequently, masked Jihadis armed with Kalashnikovs openly conducted military-style marches. In no time, the Valley witnessed a steady influx of reports about targeted killings of Kashmiri Hindus, rapes of Hindu women and girls, accompanied by frequent bomb explosions and sporadic firing by militants, which became a daily routine. Explosive and inflammatory speeches were frequently broadcast from mosque public address systems. Black and green Islamic flags fluttered on every lamp post, building, and street junction.

This was the early nineties, and the internet was practically unheard of. The Muslims distributed letters, pamphlets, and brochures in Arabic and Urdu in Hindu neighborhoods that read, ‘We order you to leave Kashmir immediately; otherwise your children will be harmed- this land is only for Muslims and is the land of Allah. Hindus cannot stay here’. The threatening notes and letters ended with the same warnings, ‘If you do not obey, we will start with your wives and children. In the name of Allah, most merciful.”In an effort to instill fear into the hearts of the already terrified Hindus, the Muslims of the Valley adopted a routine of broadcasting vicious Jihadi sermons and Islamic songs punctuated by blood-curdling shouts and shrieks of “Allah Hu Akbar.”

Some of the slogans used by the Islamist mobs were, “Kashmir mein agar rehna hai, Allah-ho-Akbar kahna hoga” (which translates as “Anyone wanting to live in Kashmir will have to convert to Islam), “Yahan kya chalega, Nizam-e- Mustafa”(We want to be ruled under Shari’ah) and the very ominous ”Kashir banawon Pakistan, Bataw varaie, Batneiw saan” (which translates as “We will turn Kashmir into Pakistan along with Kashmiri Pandit women, but without their men), which clearly showed the Islamist intention and tradition of violating and claiming non-Muslim women as war booty, as they have been doing throughout centuries.

The Hindus were presented with three choices — Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place, or perish). Tens of thousands of Muslims poured into the streets of the Valley, shouting ‘Death to India’ and “Death to Kafirs” in Urdu and Arabic.

The Hindus watched helplessly to their utter shock and disbelief as their own Muslim neighbors, friends, and acquaintances suddenly turned indifferent, hostile, and cold towards them overnight. Local Indian Muslims who had grown up with Hindus since childhood attended their functions and festivals and were the ones who tipped off the incoming Pakistani Islamic terrorists about the location and whereabouts of their Hindu neighbors so that they could be traced and slaughtered. This clearly underlines the significance of the fact that for Muslims, nothing is beyond or above religious affiliations, not even humanity.

The Muslims that were considered family and friends by “naïve, liberal and secular” Hindus chose to betray them by collaborating with Pakistani terrorists and even indulged widely in the crimes like rape, arson, and looting. Just like Muslims across the world today are marking Jewish homes to be identified, Hindu homes were marked by Islamic fanatics during the height of the Kashmir genocide so that they become distinguishable and then could be ravaged easily.

Kashmiri Hindu groups have approximated that, starting from 1989, approximately 105 educational institutions suffered from arson or destruction. Additionally, numerous temples and religious sites were subjected to damage or demolition, while 14,430 businesses and shops were destroyed. Furthermore, over 20,000 Kashmiri Hindu residences were destroyed, looted, or occupied by radical Muslim Jihadis. Noted journalist Rahul Pandita asserted that along with Islamists, many ordinary civilian Kashmiri Muslims participated in the ethnic cleansing and rapes of their Hindu neighbors.

The ethnic cleansing underlined the complete and deliberate failure of the Muslim-dominated political and administrative apparatus in Kashmir to protect citizens. Hindus found themselves having to separate and leave behind their cherished family members and possessions in order to survive. They underwent unimaginable evils such as massacres, gang rapes, beheadings, decapitations, mutilations, and torture by Islamic jihadis. Women were raped by Islamic terrorists in their homes, and their family members were forced to watch. Bodies were dumped in the streets, and families were shot point blank in public squares to the cries of Allah Ho Akbar.

Cut to 2023, and once again, we are faced with the ugly reality of Islamic extremism that has made a comeback and threatens all peaceful civilizations across the whole world, not just in Europe and America but very much indeed in places like India, which has been a battleground for Islam since centuries.

Kashmir is a symbolic metaphor of a dark tragedy that can repeat and manifest itself anywhere across the world where the conditions are conducive for Islam to take a stronghold. In this day, where we find ourselves in a battle between civilization and Islamic savagery, people need to realize that the signs of the “Kashmir episode” are already appearing all across Europe and the Western world as religious demographics change at an alarming rate due to Islamic immigration. The tragic exodus and massacre of Kashmiri Hindus orchestrated by Islamic radicals is a dire warning of what would happen in Europe and America once the demographics tip completely and Muslims are allowed to outnumber the natives in any nation.

The Hindus faced 800 years of enormous persecution. They suffered untold atrocities at the hands of Islamic savages who plundered, pillaged, and destroyed their lands centuries ago. Those traumatic scars inflicted by Muslims are deeply etched into the collective memory and consciousness of the Hindus. As people who share the same values of freedom, democracy, creativity, liberty, and pursuit of happiness, the Hindus are powerful and formidable allies of the West in the global crusade against Islamic Jihad, which is a transnational epidemic, spreading in a fashion similar to a contagious virus!! 

We have a worldwide pandemic of Islamic religious extremism, which is manifesting right now across continents, and the civilized non-Muslim world needs collaboration on multiple fronts to address this single gravest threat of our times.

Just like ever-alert and vigilant warriors on watchtowers of medieval castles and fortresses who used to ring the alarm bells and light up fire beacons much in advance every time enemy troops approached, intellectual thinkers, observers, independent writers, and investigative journalists have been trying to warn the civilized world since decades, only to be dismissed and gas lighted by the Left as xenophobic Islamophobes.

What happened in Kashmir to the Hindus is a gruesome warning to the whole world. The civilized world can no longer afford to downplay what we are faced with. Let us take heed and remember the blood-chilling slogan “Raliv, Galiv ya Chaliv” (Convert, Die or Leave) that was yelled by Pakistani Muslim Jihadis to terrorize and massacre Kashmiri Hindus on the cold night of January 19, 1990, accompanied by frenzied chants of Allah Ho Akbar.

[Editor’s note: The choice of conversion, death, or acceptance of dhimmi status were the three options that Mohammad and his armies consistently offered to the people they sought to conquer. The Muslim demand on the people of Kashmir aligns with the same choices required by Islamic law, tradition, and history.]

Tomorrow, those exact genocidal slogans can echo all across Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, the United Kingdom, America, and Australia as well. 

The warning bells of Kashmir are already ringing loud and clear across the Western world. Are we listening?

For a deeper understanding and in-depth investigation of the Hindu genocide in Kashmir perpetrated by Muslim extremists, consider additional reading and research.

• https://www.ikashmir.net/history/genocide.html
• Ashiq, P. (2012, October 4). 208 Temples Damaged in Kashmir in Last Two Decades: Kashmir Govt. Hindustan Times.http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/208-temples-damaged-in-kashmir-in-last-two-decades–Kashmir-govt/article1-939793.aspx
• Gigoo, S., & Sharma, V. (2015). A Long Dream of Home: The persecution, exile and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. https://books.google.co.uk/booksid=InAwDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT310#v=onepage&q&f=false
• Gill, K. (2003). The Kashmiri Pandits: An Ethnic Cleansing the World Forgot. South Asia Terrorism Portal. http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/kpsgill/2003/chapter9.htm
• Gupta, K. (2005, January 19). 19/01/90: When Kashmiri Pandits Fled Islamic Terror. Rediff India Abroad. http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/jan/19kanch.htm
• Kashmir News Network. (n.d.). Political history of Kashmir: Islamic terrorism and genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. Kashmiri Pandit Network. http://ikashmir.net/history/genocide.html
• Ramachandran, S. (2020, February 26). Can Kashmir’s Pandits Ever Return Home? The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/can-kashmirs-pandits-ever-return-home/
• Sharma, V. (2014, January 19). 24 Years on Nothing has Changed for the Exiled Kashmiri Pandits.Rediff News. http://www.rediff.com/news/column/24-years-on-nothing-has-changed-for-the-exiled-kashmiri-pandits/20140119.htm
• Tikoo, T. K. (2012, November 22). Kashmiri Pandits Offered Three Choices by Radical Islamists. http://www.indiandefencereview.com/news/kashmiri-pandits-offered-three-choices-by-radical-islamists/