Tikalal Taploo is a well known and prominent first generation swayamsevak face of RSS in Kashmir. He was born in a notable Kashmiri Pandit family in the downtown of Srinagar-Kashmir on October 6, 1930. He had leadership qualities in his blood and was a student leader in his college and university days. He was well read and was an advocate by profession. He came into contact with the RSS in the 1940s in Kashmir valley when he was a college student. He developed close proximity with Kidar Nath Sahni, Balraj Madhok and Jagdish Abrol, the then core group of RSS in J&K. His 95th birth anniversary fell on October 6, 2025.
He was the first among the RSS swayamsevaks in Jammu and Kashmir who was killed by the terrorists of JKLF in Kashmir on September 13, 1989. His last rites were performed on September 14, 1989 in Srinagar. This date (September 14) is recognised as the “Kashmiri Pandit Balidan Divas” for the last 35 years by the displaced community of Kashmir and is commemorated as such every year globally. He was also the senior Vice President of J&K-BJP and the member of the BJP National Executive when he was targeted by the Islamic terrorists outside his residence while he was leaving for the court. His martyrdom upon the altar of his motherland and mission earned him an additional reverence among the nationalist constituency in the state and the whole nation.
Tikalal got his primary education in Srinagar and completed his Matriculation in 1945. He graduated from S.P.College Srinagar and thereafter moved to AMU for his MA and LLB. He played his part in the Praja Parishad movement in Jammu and Kashmir as well and his attention was attracted towards the political field. RSS deputed him to Jan Sangh founded by Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee around the same period; and Jan Sangh became the Bharatiya Janta party (BJP) consequent upon the division of the Janta Party in 1980. He participated in the first National Council convention of the party in 1980 in Mumbai.
He joined the J&K Bar of the High Court in 1957 in Srinagar as an advocate. He was married to Sarla Taploo in 1958 and had two children. He had a great humane aptitude and was loved by people across communities. His son Ashutosh Taploo, currently living in Delhi, calls his father a brave and straightforward personality. He recalls that on September 8, 1989, his father had come to Delhi along with his wife, Sarla Taploo from Srinagar. He had made up his mind to leave her at Delhi with her son due to the terrible situation prevailing in Srinagar and the threats that were conveyed to their family quite oftenly.
“I insisted upon him that he should continue to stay at Delhi for some time keeping in view the threat perception to his life in Kashmir due to the increasing terror incidents in the valley. Moreover, he was several times threatened by the Islamic fundamentalist and radical forces in the Kashmir valley. However, he chose to leave for Srinagar saying that his community and his nation beckon him to be at Srinagar to contribute to the cause of the nationhood in the valley. What happened thereafter is history”, said Ashutosh Taploo about his father. It was also his last meeting with his revered father in which Taploo said to his family, “You have to be mentally prepared for anything now”. He knew the risks involved and was conscious about them.
Tikalal emerged as a ray of great hope for the Hindu minority community in Kashmir valley during the February-1986 communal raid on the community when scores of temples were destroyed in the valley, especially in South Kashmir, and the community was attacked by the extremist and fundamentalist forces. He came out boldly and espoused the cause of the community on the political platform. He took affront with Qazi Nissar, the radical face of Islamic fundamentalism in Anantnag district, who was spearheading the communal and anti-national campaign and challenged him over his stance against the Hindu community in the valley of Kashmir. In a press conference at Jammu in the middle of the year 1989, he asked Nissar ‘to stop his rabid anti-Hindu and anti-national campaign in the Kashmir valley failing which his entire area of operation and influence would be converted into a desert by the security forces in the state’.
Following this, received a number of threats to him and his family from the extremist forces and the terror regime active in the valley. He didn’t budge even a single inch and continued with his mission to protect the minority Hindu community and espouse the nationalist cause in the Kashmir valley. He stood against the Islamic fundamentalist and terrorist plans in Kashmir and took the issues to the national stage. The then government of India headed by Rajiv Gandhi didn’t pay any substantial attention to the serious situation developing in the Kashmir valley and left things entirely to Farooq Abdullah, the then Chief Minister of the J&K state. Congress was a part of the coalition government in Jammu and Kashmir along with the National Conference under the leadership of Abdullah.
The Farooq Abdullah government took many steps to embolden the fundamentalist and terrorist forces in the Kashmir valley and freed many hardcore terrorists from the jail. Utpal Kaul, historian and a junior colleague of Tikalal says, “Tikalal opposed the government’s action tooth and nail and said that this would bring disaster to the entire J&K state eventually. He also brought this to the notice of the central leaders and the government of India. His forecast proved right and the entire valley fell into the grip of the terror regime by the year 1989. The state government headed by Farooq Abdullah seemed to be hands in glove with the fundamentalist elements and a hardcore worker of the National Conference named Mohd. Yousuf Halwai was killed by the terrorists in broad daylight in downtown Srinagar. Unfortunately, the government didn’t take his killing seriously and ignored his martyrdom, Halwai had organised illumination of his house on the occasion of 15th August, 1986”.
Utpal Kaul continues, “The government didn’t learn lessons and allowed the situation to drift. This led to the targeted killings by the terrorists; and the leaders and the prominent figures of the Kashmiri Pandit community became the primary targets in this connection. Tikalal was the first such target who was martyred in the early hours of the fateful day. When Farooq Abdullah came to visit his home immediately after his brutal killing, I confronted him there and Abdullah had no answer to my questions. His martyrdom was the beginning of a painful story that ultimately saw the entire Hindu community in Kashmir on roads following their forced mass exodus from Kashmir in January-1990 and thereafter”.
This author saw Tikalal Taploo for the first time in 1967 during the Hindu agitation rally at Sheetalnath-Srinagar. He played a crucial role in the agitation and was among the key figures along with Amarnath Vaishnavi, Shambhunath Kachroo and Amarnath Ganjoo. He had earned due recognition as a young leader in the agitation. People with various problems would come to him for solutions and he would help orphans, widows and the poor sections of the people across various sections of the society. He fought elections to the State assembly in January 1972 on Jan Sangh ticket and stood second in the hustings. During the Emergency, he led a three member group of swayamsevaks to offer Satyagraha in Lal Chowk, Srinagar against the tyrannical and dictatorial regime of Indira Gandhi that had converted the entire country into a virtual jail, taken away the fundamental rights, put opposition into jails and clamped severe censorship.
This was the first Satyagrahi group of RSS-Kashmir during the Emergency and a number of swayamsevaks including this author accompanied them when they raised slogans against the government publicly. All the three (Tikalal Taploo, Madanlal Khashu and Shiban Krishen Pandita) were detained by the police at the venue of the Satyagraha after some time and put into the Srinagar jail for 13 long months. After the emergency, when the elections to the state assembly were announced, Tikalal’s candidature for Habbakadal constituency was sabotaged by the Janata Party bosses and he fought the elections unsuccessfully as an independent candidate. This author was his polling agent in the Sheetalnath polling station.
In January 1979, Tikalal was part of the delegation of the Shree Bhat Ashram, Srinagar to the World Sanskrit Conference and the World Hindu Conference at Prayagraj in UP during the Kumbh congregation. The delegation comprised very important senior and young activists of RSS-Kashmir including this author who organised a month-long camp in the Kumbh festival. He played a great part in the organisation of the huge ‘Kishenganga Pradarshani’ in Ganpatyar-Srinagar on the occasion of Mahashivratri in 1982.
He was also instrumental in organising a very successful convention of the All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference in 1983 at Sheetalnath-Srinagar in the capacity of the Convener of the Organising Committee. He invited a veteran past leader of the community named Kashyap Bandhu in the convention as the chief guest. Tikalal was instructed by the BJP party high command to take part in the state assembly elections in 1987 as a candidate from the Habbakadal constituency in the most volatile developing conditions in the valley. He obeyed the party orders but didn’t succeed in his fight for votes.
Tikalal Taploo had developed relations with many pro and opposite social & political figures in Kashmir valley and would often visit various districts and tehsils to interact with prominent figures and the common people. As a leader he was a darling of the people which got evidence when he was martyred in 1989. Thousands of people gathered in Sheetalnath-Srinagar where leaders of the stature of L.K.Advani and Kidar Nath Sahni also turned up from Delhi. His body was kept at historic Sheetalnath for his last darshan. Thousands of people joined the last journey of their beloved, bold and influential leader when his body was taken for the last rites. People enroute raised the slogans ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ and ‘Jabtak suraj chand rahega-Tikalal tera naam rahega’……!
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