History: No Forgetting, No forgiving

History does not forget, or forgivethose who make it. Making of history does not mean always doing right. Itequally means doing wrong. Those who did wrong are never forgiven by those whosuffer by their wrong. Similarly, those who did right are never forgotten bythose who benefit from their right. Wrong or right may be a decision or actiontaken at a given moment of time in the past by those who had opportunity,authority, power or means to control, shape & direct the courseof events in a particular direction.

We have in history very cruel dictators,tyrants & fascists, who have made history by their cruel & barbaricrule that caused suffering to millions world-over. The history books arefraught with their savagery. But, as I say, they have made history, a badhistory indeed. Their names exist in the annals of history of mankind. Therewill be more additions to the list of those barbarian rulers in future as well.In our times history for posterity is made by many such savages under differentnames of governance. Many democracies are also doing it by inflictingmisery & pain on their own people.

   

We have in history leaders who too havecreated history by their wrong actions or decisions at a particular period oftime, mostly for their low understanding & erroneous assessment of theevents before them. It may be due to lack of knowledge of history, or personalgreed, or self-aggrandizement or bad advisers around, of theirs, as well.

We have in history people likerulers, leaders, scientists, technologists, engineers, architects, academics,thinkers, theologians, philanthropists, philosophers & many more whohave made history, a good history, by their right decisions & actions atright moments of time. Those right decisions & actions of theirs are beforeyou in many shapes of wonders of constructions of roads, buildings,hospitals, bridges, flyovers, airports, sea-ports, educational institutions,scientific & technological achievements, unbelievable inventions,beneficial discoveries of knowledge, & what not. They are all marvels of mankind forwhich they are respectfully remembered.

History, therefore, manifestly draws ademarcation between Good & Bad History-Makers. But, there are somecharacters in history who despite having done “good things” too are not recordedrespectfully in the history texts nor remembered goodly. For example, Iwill mention Yazid Bin Mawiya who was son of a companion of the Prophet (s aw). But we know the greatest tragedy of Karbala took place in 60 AH when he wasthe ruler of Islamic world. Though he was not personally present in thebattlefield, he was present at Damascus at the time of most painful tragedy inIslam, yet, the family of the Prophet were brutally dealt with by his soldiers,so naturally blame  goes to him till date. Even among Sunni Schools ofthought Muslims remember him by usual Islamic deference. despite the fact thathe had fought & won several battles of Islam especially an important one against Roman empire. Why? Because all his good deeds areovershadowed by the one Great Tragedy of Karbala that was responsiblefor splitting Islam into two sects of Shia & Sunni.

Secondly, we have Hajaj bin Yousuf(661-714) who was Governor of Iraq in Umayad Caliphate. He was the man who forfirst time inducted gold & silver coins with Allah-name inscribed on them& punished people for counterfeiting coins which established uniformcoinage in the Muslim Empire & stabilized its economic system. After twodecades of civil war among Muslims, he established peace & brotherhoodamong warring factions of Muslims. He awarded land to landless Muslims &new converts to Islam. He spent hugely on irrigating canals for agriculture.Before his time, the Holy Quran did not have vowel diacritics ( peesh, zabar,nuqta, etc ). He did this great job otherwise the Holy Quran wouldhave been beyond the reach of understanding of non-Arabs. But, despite allthese good things he performed, he is recorded in history of Islam asmost cruel barbarian whose hands were soaked with the blood of thousands of Tabaeen,Ulema e Deen including four Companions of the HolyProphet. No one among allMuslim schools of thought remembers & calls him with deference. He isinvariably thought to be a hateful ruler the Muslim world had known.

Now, we may look at one “importantpersonality” at our home called Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. People say he didLand Reforms, (the author has dealt with JK Land Reforms in three issues of GKdated 25-1-2019, 1-2-2019& 25-6-2019), awakened Muslims of JK forimportance of education & founded SKIMS & SKUAST, etc. It does notneed elaboration for men of understanding to fathom why in post-1975-Accordperiod, with liberal funding from Delhi, he, or his party NC, were allowed to”build” & use his honorific, SK, so generously in building & namingeverything in Kashmir after his name only. For example, SKIMS (built in 1977,named in 1982) & SKAUST (1982). There was Fakhri Kashmir, if not KhalideKashmir, too, who was his long political comrade in Kashmir-politics. After1977-election-victory, Sheikh Abdullah’s Youth Federation set up music &dance centres throughout the city of Srinagar where young Kashmiris wereperforming frolics, dancing & singing comic songs which were dailybroadcast on the Yuvani Service, a new music channel that was started by theRadio Kashmir Srinagar, those days. Was it all in combination, any statecraftor diversionary-tactic from what he had done after 22 years of “politicalwilderness” employed by him & his party-NC, something like Bakshi GM’sJishne Kashmir, 1958-1963? Let the readers judge!

Sheikh Abdullah’s “admirers” want him tobe remembered for his mentioned “good deeds.” [Land Reforms, EducationalAwakening & Constructing few hospitals, etc] First & foremost, I maysay, he could have done all this good of Land Reforms, Education, SKIMS,SKUAST, etc, without doing what he did in 1939, 1947, and 1975, but only if hehad read history correctly & taken correct decisions at most crucial timesof Kashmir history. When we look at him in totality, we find him in poor light.A confused man full of contradictions & conflicts, within & outside hispersona. He broke the unity of Muslims of J&K (85% population in 1947) forwhich celebrated author & Chairperson of UNHRC, for J&K, Joseph Korbel(Danger in Kashmir,1954) blames him, the lion of Kashmir, as architect ofpresent tragedy of J&K Muslims. The contemporary analytical historian,Christopher Snedden, (Understanding Kashmir & Kashmiris 2015 & Kashmir:The Unwritten History 2012) has same opinion about him. Remember, these arejust two authors & historians of great neutrality about Kashmir discoursementioned. There are others too. These two are world acclaimed authors onKashmir’s political history. Sheikh Abdullah was released on 29-09-1947 by theMaharaja at the behest of Pandit Nehru & Sardar Patel to help Nehru withrespect to Kashmir. This is established by the letter dated 26-09-1947 writtenby Nehru to Sardar Patel well-documented in Sardar Patel’s CorrespondenceVolume One.  Sheikh did it mostsurreptitiously. This is history. No one can deny these well recordedhistorical facts, among myriad of others.

Why he on 5th February 1948, spoke”selectively” at length against atrocities of Qabaeel/tribals only? Why heremained silent in UN SC on massacre of Jammu Muslims that had happened at thesame time when he was “appointed” as Emergency Administrator in theMaharaja Hari Singh’s rule on 29-09-1947? He continued to propagandize againsthis “political opponents” much to the joy of “enemies”. There is a long list of”bad jobs” of that man that he repeated & continued to repeat through hissuccessors-in-chair too , since they all belonged to his parent party, NC, thattotally negate “good jobs” done by him in his time. The magnitude ofdestruction & death caused to the people of JK by his “wrong actions” arethe result of initial monumental blunders of that man. After 1947, when he wasat the peak of his “power-career” & “Cult-Persona”, he crushed all”dissent” with strong-arm methods of administration & through his militiamen& in post-Accord period, through a new ragtag of Kashmiri society. He didnot allow any one speaking against him & his methods were indeed”totalitarian”.

His “good deeds” are, therefore,out-rightly rejected and outweighed by the huge consequential role heplayed in Kashmir politics that converted this paradise into hell. The verymention of his diabolical political career opens & refreshes not only deepwounds but lacerates Kashmiris’ body & soul because his historical blunders havehad historical consequences for people of J&K. The history neitherforgets nor forgives.

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