Srinagar did not sleep on January 19, 1990 night for various reasons. While it was a darkest night in the history of India, as Kashmiri Pandits had to leave their homes and hearths, Kashmiri Muslims too had to face a trauma of another kind!  Rumourmongers had taken control of most of the mosques and all of a sudden switched on mikes and loudspeakers cautioning people against using tapped water as reservoirs had been `poisoned’ by the administration.

  Such announcements under a sinister design had created such  a chaos that people came out on the roads and resorted to protests blaming `Indian agents’ for `poisoning’ water. Even as the authorities switched off the power supply  but the mosque managers put on the battery back-ups to keep the people “informed” about rumours. Despite repeated and frantic announcements over Radio Kashmir Srinagar, people believed mosque loudspeakers   and not the administration. Even clamping of curfew in some areas did not stop people coming out on streets! Such was the impact of the well-designed rumour, that People drained every single drop of water they had stored. The objective of the `poisoned water’ rumour was to goad the public to defy curfew restrictions en masse and to create a fear among minorities, forcing them to flee.

Romanticising Rumours

Rumour mongering is not something new to Kashmiris. They have been romanticising it since ages!   Even Kalhana in his Rajtarangani and many other western scholars had made a mention of typical `Kashmiri rumours’ and how people used to believe such stuff.   While some do it innocently, most of the time rumours have been used as a tool to meet the sinister designs of certain vested interests.  Remember “Khabar Zaina Kadal’’—the bridge that used to be a hub of fake news where from `Thok Gayih Ho’ (The spittle has gone from Zaina Kadal.)

It is not that rumourmongers exist in Kashmir only. In fact they are found everywhere across the globe. But in case of Kashmir, there is a documentary evidence of such rumours having been used as a political tool to induce fear in Kashmir, generate hysteria and confusion among individuals and organizations by overt and covert powers. This was exactly done on January 19, 1990 in order to meet the vested interests of all those who made many homeless and turned Kashmir into a hell.

  Historian, Khalid Bashir in his book, “Kashmir Looking Back in Time’’ says, “Kashmiris generally romanticise rumours and love exaggeration’’.  Bashir says “If Kashmirs  like a person they make him divine and if they dislike someone they make him look like a devil’s sibling.”

The author makes a mention of `Tarr’ or fabrication of news and rumour as a political tool. “Political leadership often used it in their propaganda. They used it as a tool to mount pressure or to push a certain narrative’’.

Jagmohan’s Turbulence

 In his book  `My Frozen Turbulence in Kashmir’,  former J&K Governor, Jagmohan  who too had become a victim of many such rumours, has written about how rumour-mongering in 1990 was used as a tool to defy and frustrate his government.  He makes a mention of January 26, 1990 rumour about `killings’ Kashmir Armed Police at the hands of para-military forces (See attached page 24)

 In another instance, he goes on to say “…in the second week of April 1990 when food packets were being distributed by the Army on behalf of the state government, during the curfew hours in Srinagar city, rumours were floated that these packets contained material, which when consumed, would cause frigidity amongst women and impotency among men, and that this was part of the overall conspiracy to reduce the population of the Muslims in the valley,”. The objective behind this rumour was to prevent the administration from coming close to the people.

 Jagmohan says administration had to counter such rumours by instructing police and members of the paramilitary forces to eat from the food packets and drink water from the municipal taps.

In the summer of 1993, Kashmir witnessed another season of Rumour mongering when `Balaie’ (ghosts) started “attacking” people!  These “ghosts” were akin to Naar-e-Tschour of 1977 and the rumour that Jan Sanghis were on the prowl and setting homes afire. Similarly, on January 17, 2016, people in Kashmir had to face another kind of worst rumour when thousands of parents carried  their kids  to hospitals as it was  made to believe that  the polio drops administered to them in the forenoon were `lethal’.

Khabar Zaina Kadal

Missionary Rev J Hinton Knowles, who spent a significant time of his life in Kashmir, too makes a mention of Kashmiris believing rumours than truth. “The Zaina Kadal or the fourth bridge of the city, used to be the place where false rumours were hatched, but now the newsmakers have moved to the first bridge, the Amira Kadal,” says Sir Walter Roper Lawrence, who was as a Settlement Officer in Kashmir in 1889. In his book `Valley of Kashmir’, Lawrence tells about Kashmiris’ love for rumour mongering.

He says, “though the wise knew that Khabr-i-Zaina Kadal was false, the majority were not wise, and much misery is caused to the villagers by the reports which emanate from the city.”

British missionary and educationist Tyndale Biscoe in his book, ` Kashmir in Sunshine and Shade’ also makes a mention of a rumour of the nineteenth century he had to confront. Biscoe was compelled to force his 130 students to swim in the waters of Jhelum as people had spread a message that there existed a “frightful creature’’ in the river, because of which they had stopped bathing in the river or doing any work along the riverbeds.

In a reference book “Kashmir: An Historical Introduction” by James P. Ferguson, Fellow of Royal Asiatic Society, Centaur Press, London: 1961 (P. 26), the author while quoting Pandit Kalhana  says “rumour  in Kashmir can be easily manufactured and spread, from the bathhouses on the river, the shops,  places of worship etc”. 

Kashmir-based author, Khalid Bashir makes a mention of a news item published by Kashmir Times in 1935, quoting Robert Macfield, a non –existent eminent geologist, warning that Shankaracharya Hill will erupt between July 15 and August 15. The news report had created panic and widespread migration of people to safer places, until another newspaper, The Civil and Military Gazette described the news as a cruel joke.

Rumour as a Weapon

Historically, rumours were used as weapons, by both people and the state. As Partap Singh succeeded his father Ranbir Singh, his younger brother Amar Singh was eyeing the Kashmir throne. To destabilize his brother, Amar Singh adversely briefed British about `anti-Muslim’ monarch and almost got him deposed.  Partap Singh had to write to the Viceroy in April 1889 saying it was his real brother who was circulating the worst rumours against him.

Rumourmongers resorted to false news in every regime to hit a target and it invariably had a purpose. Kashmiris were once fed with rumours that some leaves of Chinar trees embossed the name of Sheikh Mohd Abduallh!

In 1990, even as most of Kashmiris know in the heart of hearts that Jagmohan was not responsible for the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, yet they sided with the rumourmongers and are not ready to accept the truth that most of the Kashmiri Pandits had moved out of Kashmir even before Jagmohan was posted as Governor of Jammu and Kashmir.

Rumours and Kashmir have had a long tryst with each other with the former causing panic in Kashmir many a time, leaving people wondrous and questioning. Those who spread rumours tend to derive amusement while converting “Al Kul’ (gourd plant) into a `Tul Kul’’ (Mulberry tree).  

  “Khaber kya chuk Karun (Don’t know what they are planning to do?)  has been the pet sentence of every Kashmiri in all seasons and  regimes!