Kashmiris are alienated from India is now openly accepted across the Indian political and public spectrum. Too well known and frequently debated also is the role played by rigged elections and installation of “elected” State Governments. This, according to philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer’s characterization, would mean that truth has passed all the three stages: “First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident."  But it is true for only part of the whole truth. 

I can’t visualize how many other parts the whole truth has but for certain there is at least one more part that remains invisible to the general public outside the State and therefore hardly ever discussed or highlighted. It hasn’t even reached the first stage of Schopenhauer truth-ladder. That invisible part is what New Delhi did slowly and, most importantly, discreetly through gradual erosion of State’s autonomy, allowing extension of the Central Laws in causing this situation to develop. And it is what any political process, like the one recently announced, must not ignore.

In 1947 when whole of India was undergoing communal carnage, Gandhi Ji saw a “ray of light” only in Kashmir. He didn’t say Jammu and Kashmir because Hindus in Jammu too were inflicting pain on him by killing Muslims there. Why did it happen in Jammu but not in Kashmir? The simple reason is the cultural and religious ethos of Kashmiris. It is this very identity of Kashmiris’ that New Delhi has been slowly and discreetly undermining.

Even with this fundamental contrast, Sheikh Abdullah, then the most popular leader of Kashmir, favored India over Pakistan despite commonality of at least the religion, if not the culture, with the latter. Sheikh Abdullah’ passion for India was so deep that he used his followers as gendarmes against those who opposed accession. However, within six years of hugging Pandit Nehru, he was unceremoniously sacked and imprisoned through inside party coup. Obviously the game plan for this must have started much earlier.

Sheikh Abdullah’s removal, in legal parlance, would mark the first actus reus (rotten deed) of mens rea (guilty mind) toward the bigger, end-game – total amalgamation -- rooted in mistrust of the Kashmiri Muslim community, regardless of how willingly their leader had embraced India. So the conditions needed to be created where elected leader of the State (that by virtue of Muslim majority has to be a Muslim) would be forced to act as political agent of the Central Government; notwithstanding his “elected” dressing. A political agent, like Viceroys of the British Empire, is first and foremost an agent of New Delhi, who is primarily expected to ensure Central Government policies are forwarded regardless of how it affects interests of his electorate. Nothing suits such a program better than political uncertainty. It ensures better services from the political agent and a free field for further political manipulations.

Bakhshi Ghulam Muhammad marked the beginning of installation of the agents at political level. Next, the extension of Central Laws over the years saw installation of the Central Government agents in administration -- the elements of real power that frame Government policies and implement them in the field. Slowly and imperceptibly as the civil and police administration got enlarged it got swamped by Central Government officers sidelining/replacing locals Muslims. We now have a situation where Kashmiri Muslim has become a rarity in the higher echelons of civil and police administration notwithstanding the 2/3 of population being Muslim. It hasn’t stopped there. Tragically, of late even the higher academic institutions haven’t escaped its sweep. ‘A(gent)-value’ appears the over-riding consideration there too. A retired police officer is resurrected as the Vice-Chancellor of a university – a feat not achieved even by Burundi or Rwanda in their dark years of anarchy or by America in its occupied land of Afghanistan and Iraq!!  

It is where the woes for Kashmiris began and seed of revolt got nourished. Common masses see their political leaders only during rallies where either promises are made or achievements are recounted. For their daily life they have to deal with administration. And the rub begins there for the ordinary Kashmiris. Let us check with just three aspects: language, population and infrastructure.

It can not be a mere coincidence that the language that maintained its purity through several alien rules suddenly changed just during the last few decades. Don’t try to blame official language. Urdu was official language during Dogra regime too. But Batawore was still Batawore (not Batawara), Nichhom was Nichhom (not Nichhama), Razwair Kadal was Razwair Kadal (not Rajouri Kadal), Pa’ndchhuk was Pa’ndhhuk (not Panthachok). That remained true even when Persian was the official language. Pick up a travelogue by any past English traveler to Kashmir, you will notice local place names written in their original phonetics.

What better way to change one’s identity than through language? If you have to make a plea you must know the language of the person you make plea to. In due course of time its reach encompasses the very thought process of an individual/community and imperceptibly and effectively changes the whole personality. Language of right to receive (respectable citizen) mutates to beseeching for favors (beggar). The process didn’t need any coercion or edict. It happened by changing the profile of administrators, ensuring the affect percolates down to the lowest denominator through daily contact. (I am reminded of the call for return of the sons-of-the-soil that went out from public and political leadership of Uttrakhand on its creation as a separate state. There was a great wisdom in the call, indeed.)

Equally invisible consequence has been on our demographic numbers. In 1961 Muslims were 68% of the total population of the State. By 2001, they have reduced to 66.97 %.  Muslims are supposed to be “multiplying like mice” but it is Hindu numbers that are on persistent rise (28.4% in 1961 to 29.63% in 2001). Recall the figures given out for 1971 (66%), 1981 (63%) and 1991 (62%; this number was later withdrawn on the never-to- happen promise of mid-decade census). Wonder what are Muslims producing – Muslims or Hindus! Questions have been raised about these numbers but answers never come from those who produce and hold the data.

The visible and physical affect of this program is equally eloquently depicted by the Srinagar city. Its infrastructure continues to be as antiquated as its historical antiquity. In fact whatever it had is falling apart. If the Central Government has been pumping money into Kashmir where should its signature be most visible if not in the Capital city? Without an iota of doubt it has become the shabbiest among the capital cities of India – unless, of course, you are purblind to go with local realtors who sell you Hyderpora as a posh colony or a part of the nationalist band who live by discrimination song.

Take a drive on the National Highway. Right from this side of the Jawahar Tunnel to Uri you will notice the most potent -- and definitely one of the most primitive -- signs of the Central Government authority: the security forces camps/post after every few scores of yards. Alas! Not a single sign of any sprawling modernity – factories, research labs, hospital and the like. Move on to link roads, picture gets worse.

But yes, there is patch of land in Kashmir where one can still see a picture of Kashmir Valley’s pristine scenery well maintained. It is where our masters live – from Gupkar to Bren along the foot of Zabarwan range. Recall the hue and cry over CW ‘Games Village’ to ensure players live comfortably to let them play their games well and earn medals for their nations!

Wasn’t forty years of pre-militancy period enough for the Central Government to think about Kashmiris other than in terms of changing their identity and personality? Is it what Sheikh Abdullah and his zealous followers had naïvely bargained for?

“Jammu grabs more [plan] funds than Kashmir.” No breaking news except that this time it comes from, as the saying goes, horse’s mouth – the CM. One may ask: Who is expected to have final word on allocation of funds if not the CM who also holds charge of Planning Department? CM possibly forgot that it is a default product of New Delhi’s game policy.

What fits the end-game is what we get in abundance: Propaganda of subsidized ration and lessons on Kashmiriyat. Both with total disregard to the facts! Subsidized ration was for the whole State, not for Kashmiri Muslims only. And if Kashmiriyat was so enlightening, we didn’t see it being preached where it is most needed: Where Muslim Kashmiris’ suffering is celebrated; where secular dispensation can’t afford repeat posting a second Muslim as Divisional Commissioner in past 63 years. Or, where the highest level Muslim official is a gardener.

A recent development has been the unending media torrent of Shia-Sunni-Pahari-Gujjar; and the latest addition to this lexicon is “Kashmiri youth.” It may be a good counter-insurgency measure aimed at dividing the Muslim community but runs counter to Government’s own eulogizing propaganda about Kashmiryat. Kashmiriyat – the word that suddenly sprung during militancy – is a culture of the whole composite including Kashmiri Muslims of all hues and ages, Pandits and Sikhs.
But then, it is all part of the game plan, so it has to be what we see and get.

Is it viable?
The policy of mistrust in Kashmiri Muslim community has no doubt let the Government of India hold on the territory but not the majority of its populace. As a spin off, it has earned apparently unending animosity of the neighborhood and Muslims far afield. Government may attribute the continuing unrest to enemies on prowl, as any Government world over does in such a situation, but it would be worthwhile to assess and accept its own contributions -- if not for any redemption of the situation or the costs imposed, but at least to know how far it has helped intensify and spread the communal divide across India and to what good for the country. Also useful may be to know how it is going to play into the future. The current turmoil in Kashmir is led by a generation that is still in their teens. Their experiences at such a young age, in all likelihood, are going to keep them active for many decades to come. This will be the bitter fruit of mistrust that New Delhi will have to taste unless pragmatism decides for a course correction – a bridge too far to, unfortunately, even imagine under the current “super-power” national zeitgeist.

India’s success is not important just for its 1.1 billion people but for the whole humanity to prove and act as a moral countervailing force when world politics is increasingly getting amoral and “Might is right”-based. How it would respond to this call would be determined by how its political leadership moulds and leads its people. In this context pre- and post-WWII Germany repeatedly comes to mind. Despite the destruction caused by the war, Germans on both sides of the Berlin Wall were the most advanced economically and technologically among their respective western and eastern block neighbors. There is something special in their genes that let them rise like Sphinx from ashes of war and under post-war restrictions. A leadership drunk on false sense of race superiority and hatred for minorities saw them rise spectacularly in a short period but therein was their undoing and misery for the whole world. Let us hope Indian masses aren’t led that path and humanity as a whole benefits from its rise, though portents are not very encouraging (listen to Nobel laureate Amartya Sen’s talk at Johns Hopkins University, 21 Oct 2010).

The author is Professor at the University of Kashmir, Srinagar. Feedback at  bhatmi@hotmail.com>)

Lastupdate on : Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Wed, 27 Oct 2010 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Oct 2010 00:00:00 IST