Dr K L Chowdhury  

It is an opportune moment to share with this wide cross section of opinion the Kashmiri Pandit perceptions about a problem that bedevils the whole subcontinent to the extent of having brought it to the threshold of a nuclear conflagration. No doubt, the perceptions have changed drastically from the days of the Maharaja when Pandits co-authored the 'Naya Kashmir' document and were a part, if not in the vanguard, of the struggle for a democratic dispensation in Kashmir, to the present time when they are refugees in their own country.

To understand this metamorphosis it will be necessary to go into the genesis of the Kashmir problem, its evolution, nay degeneration, into the present complex form.

Kashmir problem, on the face of it, began with the tribal invasion in 1947. But its seeds were sown much earlier with the birth of Muslim Conference. The first violent uprising against the Maharaja was accompanied loot and plunder of the minority community. Then followed in tandem with the partition of the subcontinent, the prevarication of the Maharaja about accession, and his standstill agreement which Pakistan lost no time in flouting by sending the tribal hordes backed by regular army to annex J&K by force.

India committed the first blunder by appealing to the United Nations against the Pakistan invasion in 1947 and the acceptance** of cease-fire before wiping out the invaders from the whole territory was India's second blunder. The granting of special status to Indian part of Kashmir with a separate constitution and Nehru's promise of self-determination to her people added two more blunders in rapid succession and further complicated a simple issue.

Sheikh Mohd Abdullah did not make things easy as this undisputed leader of the Kashmiri masses was encouraged to give expression to his grandiose vision of independent sheikdom. His pronouncements and deeds planted the seeds of doubt in the finality of accession in the minds of Kashmiri masses. Accession to India became a question mark with the Sheikh's ambivalence and intransigence. The birth and growth of a secessionist culture was a natural corollary. And the successive State governments failed to halt the relentless march of these Pakistan-inspired separatists in the State.

India, and everything that represented her, was projected as the villain, the usurper, the rool of evil in Kashmir, at the same time as she was opening her coffers to Kashmiris for development, and showering largesse as food subsides, grants and aids. The rulers of the state cried wolf and raised the bogey of self-determination, Azadi, autonomy etc. from time to time to exact maximum concessions and grants from New Delhi. A parasitic culture thus came to supplement the secessionist and radical Islamic cultures.

All along, it was the Sunni Muslims of the valley that held the reins of power. All along, the chief Ministers, the ministers with major portfolios, a large chunk of beurocracy, and administrators of vital departments were picked from this select section of the population.

All along they indulged in double speak. With one breath they spoke of accession to India being final and irrevocable, with another of Kashmir as a disputed Slate and, therefore, in need of a separate status, a separate identity and autonomy of various shades and dispensations. This strategy of the rulers was to hold India to ransom, to keep her on tenterhooks while at the same time to keep themselves in the saddle of power, and to cover up their misdeeds and failures.

The faulty perceptions and policies and the vacillation and waywardness of New Delhi always gave the impression that India lacked the courage of conviction in holding on to Kashmir. This gave ample cause and opportunity to the separatist elements and their mentors in Pakistan to pursue their goal of forcible annexation of the Slate. India failed to contain the repercussions of unfettered communal propaganda unleashed by these forces in J&K.

No wonder the average Kashmiri is confused and perplexed with such a barrage of diverse political and religious contentions impacting his psyche for the last 5 decades. Add to it the brutalization of 14 years of terror and what you have is an alienated, traumatized people, angry with their past, confused about the present, fearful of the future. Their psyche is drastically metamorphosed resulting in loss of belief. They don't believe in India, which they have been taught to hate, not in Pakistan, which they fear, not in their politicians, whom they mistrust.

Another major problem with Jammu and Kashmir is that the problem itself is being projected as one of the Kashmiri Muslims, by the Muslims and for the Muslims. In real time this appears to be so because the valley at present is a de-facto Islamic enclave, with the cleansing of seven hundred thousand population of the minority Kashmiri Pandits from their ancestral habitation. Ever since the rampaging hordes unleashed the first wave of terror in 1947 against the Kashmiri Pandits the community has been living a life of fear and been victims of ideological, cultural and religious terrorism in various forms and manifestations from multiple levels of civil, bureaucratic and political functioning. Three and a half Lac of the community is estimated to have moved out in what is now accepted as the slow and invisible exodus over the last five decades due to a policy of exclusion and isolation, of denial and discrimination by the successive regimes in the State. Forty years down, the highly motivated youth of the valley who returned from training camps in Pakistan, again backed by mercenaries and intelligence agencies of that country, have been on a rampage that is going on unabated for the last 14 years. The rest is history -shameful and sad - as another three and half Lac Kashmiri Pandits posted with threats, abductions and executions have been forced to flee from the valley in 1990-91, in what is widely accepted as genocide and religious cleansing.

Now refugees in their own country, this 5000-year old ethno religious community stands dismembered and disenfranchised, deprived of their basic rights, living in exile in sub-human conditions, suffering from numerous physical and mental afflictions, dying prematurely and unnaturally and threatened with extinction.

Then there is the issue of alienation of Jammu and Ladakh regions, which have received a shabby, shameful, step-motherly treatment from the rulers during the last five decades and created serious regional issues. Both these regions have also been facing a demographic metamorphosis with Ladakh becoming the hub of religious conversions and Jammu a destination for colonization. .

What are the possible solutions to these complex problems? The buzzword is peace. But can we call it peace? If yes, it is an uneasy peace, a fragile peace. The Jehadi groups have sworn to carry on with their agenda. Infiltration across the borders goes on, albeit on a lower scale. The terrorists in the valley and Jammu province who, contemptuous of the offers by the State Govt. to woo them, have shown no let up in their depredations.

Secondly, we can ill afford to ignore the viles and guiles of our neighbor who seems to have been pushed into the present stance less out of conviction and more

in response to international pressure. She might also have woken to the adage that terror consumes its own masters in the end. Three unsuccessful attempts on the life of the Pak dictator during a short span could not but mellow and mollify the architect of Kargil. Yet, this apparent change of heart could only be a ploy to gain time and reprieve.

Therefore, India can no longer afford to project itself as a soft state if Kashmir has to be retrieved and retained as an inseparable part of the nation. She has to reorient her perceptions, rephrase her policies, reinvent strategies and rediscover the will and courage to survive as a nation. If Kashmir goes it will be the beginning of the end for India's sovereignty and integrity.

There has to be a simultaneous two-dimensional approach to the Kashmir problem, the external and the internal. The external dimension calls for a settlement for durable peace with Pakistan. This will need a very delicate handling in view of the past experience of insincerity and intransigence of Pakistan, be it from their elected prime ministers, be it their military dictators; be it in Tashkent, Shimla, Lahore or Agra. However, the first breakthrough in this direction has taken place with the thaw in Indo-Pak relations. The first round of the composite dialogue is over. This is going to be a long and tenuous journey with roadblocks and pitfalls but if good will prevails, if emotionalism gives way to realism and if the two parties sit together in the spirit of give and take, a solution should present itself.

The second or the internal dimension in Kashmir calls for three streams of action.

One. not merely of rolling back but rooting out of terrorism. Two, to embark on a reconstruction of the J&K - amoral, spiritual and socio-economic reconstruction to set the State on road to progress and prosperity. And three, to initiate a serious political process in the whole J&K which may warrant some bold initiatives, not the least of which is the reorganization of the state

To fight terrorism, a new paradigm has to be devised something akin to a clinical situation that a physician battling against cancer does. Terrorism is as lethal for the society, for the body politic, for a nation as cancer is for the patient. If we decide to fight this cancer, as I hope we should, then it has to be a total kill. The origin, the roots and the sources of sustenance have to be destroyed. For terrorists, as they have amply proved, understand no other language but their own.

Similarly all those political organizations that preach secession, that incite violence, that support terrorism have to be banned. Their leaders should be charged with sedition, their offices sealed, the source of their funds inquired into and all illegal channels snapped.

Side by side, the moles, sympathizers, and the activists of terrorist organizations in the bureaucracy, in police and in administrative departments, have to be identified and punitive action taken against them. The intelligence network has to be beefed up.

In the reconstruction of the State of J&K the battle against terrorism can not be won if we don't fight the ideology of terrorism and the psychology that wins terrorism its adherents, and advocates, and the incentives that swell its ranks.

Madrasas and places of worship, have turned into breeding grounds for militant Islam. They are still operating in the valley clandestinely in spite of the ban. Their operation has to be dismantled. A de-conditioning of masses and a de-radicalization of Islam can be got underway with a re-education in the essentials of all religions, which preach peace, equality, and harmony. They have to be enlightened and educated about some hard truths about Pakistan. By now ihey should realize that Pakistan does not have any love or sympathy for the Muslims of Kashmir but has her eyes on territory. They should know that Pak has denied its own Muslim nationals, the Mohajirs, the Sindhis and the Bauluchis even their basic human rights, and that the conditions obtaining in POK are worse than what they were fifty years ago. The choice between a suffocating, medieval, theocratic Pakistan and a generous, secular, democratic and forward-looking India has to be driven home. The choice between religious extremism and exclusivity as opposed to multi-cultural and multi-religious syntheses. The choice between intolerance to other faiths as opposed to the tolerant sufi-rishi heritage of Kashmir.

Of course, there is no short cut to good, effective, equitable and responsive governance, which includes developmental works and reconstruction of the destroyed socio-economic fabric of the State and eradication of rampant corruption.

Finally, the third stream of action is the political process, which should start on full throttle and involve the people of all regions, and of all streams of thought We have to acknowledge that Jammu and Kashmir comprises of three geographically, linguistically and ethnically distinct regions which suffer from imbalances, anomalies and discrepancies and is therefore a fit case for reorganization so that the hegemony of one region over the other, and of one religious group over the rest is put to end. Governance of smaller units becomes easier and elimination of terrorism equally so. Jammu and Ladakh are crying for their identity and the granting of autonomous council to Ladakh and Kargil is a first welcome step in this direction.

That would leave the valley of Kashmir. As I said earlier, the politics there has been dominated by the Sunni Muslims leaving a large population of the Gujjars and Bakarwals, the Shias, the Ahmedeys and the Sikhs in the sidelines while the Kashmiri Pandits are totally out of the reckoning. The return, repatriation and resettlement of Pandits assumes greater urgency in view of the dangers of letting Kashmir remain an Islamic enclave, as it is at present. The forces that have achieved the religious cleansing of this segment of the population have tasted blood. They will become more ravenous the longer Pandits are allowed to stay in exile.

Therefore, Kashmir being a test case, even if it takes the whole Indian might, the Kashmiri Pandits have to be resettled back in their homeland in the valley. Not under any sinister plan for a ghetto existence in makeshift colonies in different locations as worked out by the previous National Conference-led Govt. Nor the PDP-led coalition's outrageous plan of building a few blocks of buildings in Badgam and Mattan. That will be like sending the refugees from the proverbial frying pan into fire. The Govt. has not been able to ameliorate the lot of the few thousand residual Pandits in the valley. Therefore its intentions are suspect and its claim that Pandits are ready to return to this despicable arrangement are as hollow as they are insincere. It may succeed with coercion and allurement to send a few hundred of the most indigent and downtrodden across the Banihal tunnel but this can at best be a symbolic return, merely for getting more funds from the Central Govt. in the name of the refugees. The Pandits have rejected all these halfhearted and insincere moves, they have rejected any attempts at piece-meal return, they reject any carrot and stick policy of the Govt., they reject any return without the proper framework for a total rehabilitation - geographic, political, economic, socio-cultural and religious. This can not be achieved without taking the Pandits into confidence and without involving them in the process.

There can be no true peace in the valley unless and until the exiled Pandits are resettled honorably. And if peace has to be a goal it should not be a mirage but real, it should not be temporary but lasting, and it should not be at the cost of one or the other section of the population but equitable.   Let us cherish peace and work for it.

(This paper was presented in a Seminar 'Peace as a goal' organized by Youngs India in the University of Jammu in collaboration with KAO)  

 

 

DISCLAIMER:

The views expressed in the Article above are Author’s personal views and kashmiribhatta.in is not responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article.

Courtesy: Naad: October 2004 and Dr K L Chowdhury