Looking beyond Kashmir

I would start my opinion with two disclaimers. First I am an atheist and I hold Hinduism or any other religion in as much contempt as Islam, if not more. And secondly, I am a nationalist that does not mean that the love for my country stops at the border or that I am oblivious of the problems within the country.

I was doing research on the issue of Kashmir and the Muslim Identity in the rest of India, as the news about 67 Kashmiri students slapped with sedition charges for shouting pro-Pakistan slogans in Meerut. It was obnoxious seeing the prompt response from the Police. But it set me thinking that why more than six decades after the problem persists?

In my opinion, India should LET KASHMIR FREE.

One cannot make somebody feel Indian if he/she does not want.  In support of my conclusion I would start with a counterfactual argument – what would have been India without Kashmir? Our school books are full with annotations that Jammu and Kashmir is the ‘Crown of India’, they just forgot to tell us that one-third of this crown lies with Pakistan and the part in India has been bleeding. And I really apologise to the people of Kashmir for the atrocities committed by Men in Uniform against them. Deploying Army against your own people is the worst mistake any government can do. Armies around the world are trained to ‘kill enemy’, expecting them to do any different is foolhardy.

If Kashmir was freed in time, we would not have lost that much lives and efforts in the process of trying to make somebody Indian. India would have been a lesser target of terrorism, and Pakistan obsession with Kashmir to justify the idea of its very existence might have been abated to a great extent. Moreover, the question mark on the loyalty of the Muslims who chose India to be there home would not have been there (People who want to hold on to Kashmir come out with this argument that how many times India will be divided in the name of religion and question the loyalty of Muslims to India). Without the thorn of Kashmir in their relation, both the communities would have worked better in working on their trust deficit created after the partition.

But when I am asking for the freedom of Kashmir, I am strictly talking about the valley and have not included the Jammu and Ladakh regions. I know most of the Kashmiris might again call it injustice and see it akin to succumbing to “communal forces”. But a community seeking the right of self-determination for themselves cannot trample upon others’ rights by dubbing them communal. Remember we “Indians” (as most of the Kashmiris have addressed us), have also termed the “freedom movement in the Valley” with the same nomenclature. And if the Kashmiri Muslims could not feel safe in India and are living under constant threat to their culture, how would the Hindus and Buddhists survive in an Islamic state (whether Kashmir becomes independent following Islam as claimed by Syed Ali Shah Geelani or it joins Pakistan. My problem with Pakistan is only with a state being run in the name of religion and too the Army practically calling the shots.).

That said, I am not claiming that there are not communal elements in Indian society. But if somebody claims they are in majority I would definitely debunk the sweeping statement. I guess the number of people who would resist the transformation of India into a “Hindu Rashtra” exceeds far more than the people who are striving for it.

Now, let us come to the question of the Kashmiri students. I saw the video and I saw one Sikh student trying his best to ignore the outburst of the Kashmiri students shouting pro-Pakistan slogans. And my mind went racing that even Punjab has faced a really bad phase of militancy, which was handled by the Indian State with a heavy hand. So why it is that Kashmir feels alienated but Punjab does not? I guess this question should be answered by Kashmiris themselves. And another question, what will be my situation if I go around shouting “Hindustan Zindabad” and decrying Kashmiriyat slogans after an Indian victory in the Kashmir Valley? Just because Kashmiris do not feel themselves to be Indians that does not mean others also feel the same way. You cannot expect the common man in the rest of India to do a conflict analysis using theories as do the intellectuals. Just as the issue is very emotive for Kashmiris, so is it for the rest of the India.

Secondly, many people raised the question of freedom of expression. Till the time an alternative idea of government does not come in place we will have to do with the concept of nation state. And the existence of nation-state is based on certain symbols just like religion. Either you believe in it or you do not. But if I do not believe in a religion that does not mean I will go around dishonouring others’ faith.

During my interaction with the Kashmiris I have come across, I have seen a victim mentality, whereby the every Kashmiri is a victim (including the ones who enjoy the very fruits that come along with the stated Indian tenets of democracy and secularism) and India is the perpetrator. So even if their schools do not have toilet – despite the central Indian government pumping in the money – it is India who is at fault. I do not agree that people of Kashmir have no responsibility in the situation where the valley is today. When I was travelling through Jammu and Kashmir and I reached Ladakh, I was just amazed with the tenacity with which these people made the maximum of what they have got. They have the worst of the climate that one can think off, and the Central government packages dry down beyond Kashmir. I thought they are the ones who should have started the mass uprising against the government, but they are working hard to improve themselves and India. And if shouting pro-Pakistan slogans going to improve the imperfect society of India, by all means go ahead.

The Kashmiri wants to continue with their special status and do not want assimilation with India. Again my question is why and that sometime smack with a ‘superiority complex’. Islam in Kashmir did not come in a vacuum. Nor that I am advocating for a forcible change in the culture in Kashmir, but a free interaction between different cultures does affect all them. And another question, despite so much of communal tension and strife that India has faced, has any Muslim ever been forcibly been converted to Hinduism so what are Kashmiris afraid of?