From a photojournalist and an artists' point of view, the exodus in Kashmir had all the elements that good journalism offered, but being a victim himself and living like a refugee brought out the pain in his works.
For Vijay Kaul, the trauma of exodus will never ebb. He carries his pain in his umpteen photographs that he clicked during the exodus period and the oil canvas that he paints. His pictures present the story of helpless people who were overnight turned into refugees in their own country. He clicked tattered tents, dazed faces, sufferings and struggles even as he himself was trying to find space among the thousands in camp.
"I migrated to Jammu at the end of December 1989. I tried hard to find work in Jammu and then I moved to Delhi. I had just Rs 100 out of which I bought a train ticket for Rs 75. After three months of struggle, I got a job in a newspaper as a photographer and artist and my first assignment was in the Jammu refugee camps. "I visited the Mutthi Parkhoo camp and clicked photographs of those shabby tents which were torn. The Mutthi location was also very bad. The people were living in a miserable condition without water and electricity," Kaul said.
"As people had to flee, most had no extra clothes, no bedding, no utensils and no money. There were no stoves to cook upon and no washrooms to go. The people in Jammu helped a lot. The women in the camps learnt to cook on those earthen mounds and sticks, and when it rained there was mud all around. Just over one night, people who lived in big houses, had orchards and gardens, became beggars. It was pathetic. The wails of women, the agony of the elders who were finding it difficult to live in 45-degree temperature, the lack of medical attention… It was just one hell living in those camps... Many succumbed, many lost mental balance. But most remarkable was the determination of the parents to get their children educated because that was the only way to get out and move ahead in life."
"My pictures speak about the fleeing, the struggle in tents, the anger and the pain, the rise and the flight from the camps. I also clicked the Chapnari massacre in Doda district. Twenty-five Hindu villagers were killed on June 19, 1998," he said. Kaul fled the Valley a month before the mass exodus erupted on January 19, 1990.
"I was the only person who knew silk screen printing in Kashmir at that time. The groups which were supporting terrorism wanted me to print the JKLF logo and some photographs on T-shirts in mass scale. I knew that if I did their job, the government would not leave me, but if I didn't do it, they would kill my family. It was an area commander of the JKLF who came to me and asked me to do the job. I didn't refuse because he had an AK 47 with him. I asked him politely to give me some time to get the shirt ink from Delhi to which he agreed. The next day, I left with my family. There were so many other groups besides the JKLF which wanted the T-shirt printing. Some wanted huge portraits and hoardings of Maqbool Bhat. I had to leave," he said.
After many years, Kaul did a series of paintings on Kashmir which were displayed in the Habitat Centre in Delhi. His pictures and canvas speak of the suffering that has largely been ignored. IANS
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