While one actuated himself into thinking what happened in some Downtown locality of Srinagar, another town in the North suffered bereavement. Sopore was ridden with bullets, sparing not even a 9 year old boy (old!).  As the place of mourning moved away into North and Kashmir grieved over it, South turned bloody. In Islamabad, three teenagers were cut short. Thanks to ‘security’ forces we have now a company of teenagers that lay buried under loads of soil. They were yet to begin, when their stories came to an end. Shock over shock, suffering after suffering and grief behind grief – the endless flow of blood has turned Kashmir into a house of mourners, with the difference that the mourner and bereaved is one.

Out into the streets of Kashmir it’s a headlong decent in chaos. One after another is falling to the bullets, and there is none to clasp the hands that press the trigger. Instead Delhi is all out to defend the men that hold the territory for India. Ali M Sagar, Minister in the state government and a National Conference leader, made just a murmur about how his CM is a helpless creature before the trigger happy CRPF personnel. He made frantic appeals to Delhi for coming to Omar Abdullah’s rescue. What came from Delhi was a deafening slap. CRPF was only doing its duties. That is all. Nothing doing. And in their duties towards Lord India, what if a 9 year chap fell flat dead!
One simple question to the Union of India: had a CRPF company fired on an ‘unruly mob’ in some other part of the Union, would the Union Home Secretary speak the same. And worst than that would the Chief Minister of the State threaten his own people, and spare the killers clean.

This has once again thrown light on the kind of relation that India shares with Kashmir. It’s a territory to be held, at any cost possible. People of Kashmir are an uncomfortable presence. But to make it possible India has undertaken a deadly experiment. Angana Chatterji has hit the nail right on its head by calling it militarized governance. In this experiment of militarized governance, India is using its legal framework in an insidious way to the advantage of its armed forces. Another, and more evil, component of this militarized governance is the Hindu nationalism. What Prof Angna has spoken of is empirically graspable in Kashmir. It’s not just today, India has been doing it all along. From 1947 onwards, the Union has been consistent on this. Making changes to the legal framework and pumping in Hindu nationalist sentiment are the two main pillars over which the edifice of Indian control stands in Kashmir.

Let’s not forget that the ‘Martyrdom’ day of S P Mukherji was commemorated in Kashmir this year. He is the man who led Kashmir Satyagrah against the Delhi Agreement in which Sheikh Abdullah struck a deal with Nehru over the distinct status of J&K in the Union of India. Afterwards whenever Kashmir rose in rebellion, the card of Hindu nationalism was used. The recent example of this was 2008 Amarnath agitation. The way Hindu sentiment was unleashed against Kashmir was typical of a colonial power that makes use of every single thing, no matter how ugly that is, to secure its hold over a colony.

Once again the same is being played out in Kashmir. Armed forces are being defended even when dozens of teenagers have fallen to the bullets. And the Yatra offensive is being launched with full vehemence.  Though Kashmiri Muslims have been exemplary in their conduct towards yatris, even in such malignant times, but India is relentlessly playing this evil card. God knows what this will lead the region to.

Just a comparison. One difference between the states of India and Pakistan is often expressed in terms of how the two armies conduct themselves. While as Indian Army is the function of Indian State, Pakistan is a reverse case. The State of Pakistan is a function of Pak Army. Ahmed Rashid, the well known journalist author, who has written extensively on how Pakistan conducted herself in Afghanistan makes a poignant remark: Every country has an army, but in Pakistan army has a country.

Though India prides herself in having a civilian authority in place that runs a democratic system, but this India turns into an enemy of itself when it comes to Kashmir. There is not much difference between what happened to Pak Army and how it responded to the situation that unfolded in the wake of Afghan crisis and what is happening to Indian Army and how it’s responding to the situation that unfolded in Kashmir after 1989. In Pakistan, politics and religion went into strengthening an institution on the lines that was thought to salvage Pakistan from the impending crisis. Pak Army began to symbolize religious-nationalism of Pakistan. Consequently, it became an institution that was not to be questioned. The persons and actions of the army might invoke severe criticism, but as an institution per se politicians and political organizations had only praise to shower with abandon.  Same is happening in India.

The way Indian State is taking up Hindu nationalism as the ultimate project and invoking the passions of people around this theme, making use of religious symbols, and historical misrepresentations may look like the most effective strategy, and one-solution-to-all-problems, but ultimately it will morph every brick of this huge edifice into a mass of dynamite. India is piling the wood for its own pyre, exactly the same way as Pakistan dug her grave.
If India remains unchanged towards how it is making use of its army, and its Hindu nationalism in Kashmir, the gathering storm forebodes an immense destruction. The brew is too deadly to be enjoyed.

{The columnist is GK Magazine Editor. Feedback at mrvaid@greaterkashmir.com}

Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jun 2010 21:30:00 Mecca time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 30 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 1 Jul 2010 00:00:00 IST