Quotes from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits

Rahul Pandita ·  257 pages

Rating: (3.1K votes)


“During Aurangzeb’s rule, which lasted for forty-nine years from 1658 onwards, there were many phases during which Pandits were persecuted. One of his fourteen governors, Iftikhar Khan, who ruled for four years from 1671, was particularly brutal towards the community. It was during his rule that a group of Pandits approached the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, in Punjab and begged him to save their faith. He told them to return to Kashmir and tell the Mughal rulers that if they could convert him (Tegh Bahadur), all Kashmiri Pandits would accept Islam. This later led to the Guru’s martyrdom, but the Pandits were saved.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“I’m on bridge, bridge is on water, bridge-bridge cancel, I’m on water.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“Another problem is the apathy of the media and a majority of India’s intellectual class who refuse to even acknowledge the suffering of the Pandits.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“Another problem is the apathy of the media and a majority of India’s intellectual class who refuse to even acknowledge the suffering of the Pandits. No campaigns were ever run for us; no fellowships or grants given for research on our exodus. For the media, the Kashmir issue has remained largely black and white—here are a people who were victims of brutalization at the hands of the Indian state. But the media has failed to see, and has largely ignored the fact that the same people also victimized another”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“During the rule of another governor, Atta Muhammad Khan, Lawrence writes: Any Musalman who met a Pandit would jump on his back, and take a ride.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits



“Women had been herded like cattle into the backs of trucks. Father and I got out of the taxi to stretch our legs. In one of the trucks, a woman lifted the tarpaulin sheet covering the back and peered outside. There was nothing peculiar about her except the blankness in her eyes. They were like a void that sucked you in. Years later, I saw a picture of a Jewish prisoner in Auschwitz. When I saw his eyes, my mind was immediately transported to that day, and I was reminded of the look in that woman’s eyes.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“One of his fourteen governors, Iftikhar Khan, who ruled for four years from 1671, was particularly brutal towards the community. It was during his rule that a group of Pandits approached the ninth Sikh Guru, Tegh Bahadur, in Punjab and begged him to save their faith. He told them to return to Kashmir and tell the Mughal rulers that if they could convert him (Tegh Bahadur), all Kashmiri Pandits would accept Islam. This later led to the Guru’s martyrdom, but the Pandits were saved.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“For most of us, Kashmir means a calendar hanging in our parents’ bedroom, or a mutton dish cooked in the traditional way on Shivratri, or a cousin’s marriage that the elders insist must be solemnized in Jammu. A”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“it. But, sometimes, when I’m angry at the TV shows where our murderers speak about our return, I do. On its front page is a picture of Ravi’s mutilated face. The blood from his nose—the result of a blow from the butt of a Kalashnikov—has dried up. His forehead still looks beautiful and clear, and so does his moustache that I had wanted to imitate when I was young.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


“Sometimes it is best to leave things ambiguous, suspended, so that some hope remains.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits



“I remember the day when I realized I had no memory of her voice. That morning I had been reading the newspapers like I did everyday. I would read a report or two, and Ma would point out advertisements of houses for sale. There were many of them.”
― Rahul Pandita, quote from Our Moon Has Blood Clots: The Exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits


About the author

Rahul Pandita
Born place: Kashmir, India
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“Daughter, he said in a voice like old wood breaking, can you ever forgive me?
I could only answer his question with one of my own. Putting my hand over his mouth, I whispered, Which of us would not sell all we had to stay alive?”
― Emma Donoghue, quote from Kissing the Witch: Old Tales in New Skins


“It is better to be destroyed than to triumph in slaying the spirit. Such as it is, the spirit that we have achieved is fair; and it is indestructibly woven into the tissue of the cosmos. We die praising the universe in which at least such an achievement as ours can be. We die knowing that the promise of further glory outlives us in other galaxies. We die praising the Star Maker, the Star Destroyer.”
― Olaf Stapledon, quote from Star Maker


“Just because you don't know everything don't mean you know nothing.”
― Karen Cushman, quote from The Midwife's Apprentice


“Ramona could not understand why grown-ups always talked about how quickly children grew up. Ramona thought growing up was the slowest thing there was, slower even than waiting for Christmas to come.
She had been waiting years just to get to kindergarten, and the last half hour was the slowest part of all.”
― Beverly Cleary, quote from Ramona the Pest


“He allowed himself to imagine for the first time that the rest of his life might not be shaped by the misery of his past.”
― Julie Orringer, quote from The Invisible Bridge


Interesting books

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything
(12K)
The Element: How Fin...
by Ken Robinson
Good Calories, Bad Calories
(7.7K)
Hold My Hand
(2.3K)
Hold My Hand
by Durjoy Datta
Where Love Finds You
(1.2K)
Where Love Finds You
by Marilyn Grey
Fanny Hill, or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure
(9.4K)
Fanny Hill, or Memoi...
by John Cleland
The Last Werewolf
(13.7K)
The Last Werewolf
by Glen Duncan

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.