Nomadic shawl vendors from the Indian side of Kashmir told VOA Friday that extremist Hindu groups have been harassing, threatening and obstructing them from selling their goods in Himachal Pradesh, a northern Indian state. Hindu groups claim that the local shopkeepers lose business when nomadic vendors sell their wares nearby.
Sandeep Dhawal, police superintendent in the Bilaspur district, quoted in Friday’s edition of the Indian Express, a leading Indian newspaper, acknowledged that more than a dozen shawl vendors filed a complaint at the Ghumarwin police station.
Dhawal said a similar dispute arose last year between Kashmiri hawkers and local shopkeepers, who claimed financial losses because of the vendors.
“No physical assault has been reported,” he told the Indian Express. “We have requested the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Bilaspur to mediate and resolve the issue amicably. A meeting between both parties is expected within the next day or two.”
The Indian Express reported that senior officials attributed the harassment claims to “business rivalry” between the Kashmiri vendors and local shopkeepers affiliated with the Ghumarwin Beopar Mandal. A police investigation is under way.
The traders said they have been visiting the region for more than 30 years but are facing threats and pressure this year to leave the state, where they stay for a few months annually.
Kashmir vendors sell leather jackets, socks, bags and Kashmir-handmade Pashmina shawls. They also sell ladies suits. They move to different states of India to sell these items in the beginning of November and return after March. They carry their goods on their shoulders and sell them anywhere they find customers.
“For the past three days we have been forced by some Hindu extremist groups to stop selling our goods. They tell us to pack up our belongings and go back to Kashmir,” a trader currently residing in the Ghumarwin area of Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh, said to VOA on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
“These threats and intimidations used to happen occasionally, but this year when we go to the market to purchase food and other essentials, we are mistreated there as well,” he said. He noted it has become difficult for them to even “step out” of their rented accommodations.
The trader said he and his fellow vendors asked the Hindu groups whether they considered Kashmiris less Indian.
“We also told them, ‘If people from other parts of India can work in Kashmir, then why we can’t work here?’” the trader said. “Instead of apologizing, they threatened us with dire consequences if we don’t leave Himachal Pradesh. They also accused us of being anti-nationals and terror sympathizers.”
Thousands of Kashmiris travel every winter to various Indian states to sell handmade goods such as shawls, suits and leather jackets door-to-door or street-to-street. They say they sometimes face difficulties — verbal abuse, physical assault and boycott calls — because of their regional identity and the growing communal tensions in India.
The traders say such incidents were rare before 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party came to power.
“Before 2014, only an insane person would make such statements or resort to violence, but today it has become common,” Peerzada Mohammad Shafi Shah, a leather jacket vendor, told VOA from Salt Lake City, West Bengal.
“Muslims, particularly Kashmiris, are seen as enemies in almost every part of India. There are three to four states where communalism is so high that the majority of Kashmiris have stopped going there,” Shah said. “Had the government of Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K, taken action in the beginning, things could have been much better.”
The traders in Himachal Pradesh claimed people affiliated with Hindu extremist groups have threatened them and the owners of buildings where they stay, either individually or in groups.
“We are being warned that they are being polite now, and if we do not comply, they will return and their language will be different,” another Kashmiri shawl seller told VOA, on the condition of anonymity out of fear for his safety.
“No one else has issues with us except them. They give absurd reasons, like claiming that local shopkeepers in Himachal Pradesh suffer because of us, even though their line of work is entirely different from ours,” he said.
Maqsood Khan, one of the traders, said that following the police complaint, the deputy superintendent of the Ghumarwin police department visited them. He said the police officer spoke with representatives on both sides of the disagreement and instructed the accused persons not to harass the Kashmiri traders.
“The deputy superintendent of police told the opposing party that we, too, have the right to sell our products, just like the local shopkeepers in the area,” he said. “This has eased temporarily,” but the situation will be remedied “only after the representatives of both sides will express each other’s concerns in front of [the] deputy commissioner.” Meanwhile, Ifra Jan, the spokesperson of J&K’s ruling party, National Conference, told VOA by phone the lives and security of Kashmiri traders across India is crucial to her party.
“When we got to know about the harassment case, when these people were mishandled and abused and threatened, the Chief Minister of J&K Omar Abdullah immediately got in touch with chief minister of Himachal Pradesh,” Jan said. “The Himachal Pradesh government has now taken cognizance of the matter, and his office is ensuring a safe and secure environment for the Kashmiri traders and students living there.”
VOA contacted the Ghumarwin police department about the latest developments in the situation, although officers there said only higher officials can speak about the matter, and they were not available for comment.
Earlier in November, a female official from a Panchayat, a local self-government body in Indian villages, told Kashmiri shawl sellers not to trade in Himachal Pradesh. In a video, she told them to leave the village and chanted “hail Lord Ram” — one of the revered deities in Hinduism. She later apologized for those comments after being summoned to the Himachal Pradesh police station.
“We want to put an end to this unwanted controversy and live happily and peacefully alongside [our] Hindu brethren in the state,” Khan the trader said. “We urge governments of both regions to do the needful” and take steps to end the harassment, “to address the issue once and for all.”
