A cure for Kashmir's inequities

By J.K. Dutt

Mohammad Ali Jinnah is credited with having introduced the infamous Two-Nation theory on the basis of which partition took place, with Jawaharlal Nehru humouring him on this theory because independent India's first Prime Minister had his own axe to grind. Jinnah's axiom was "Hindus and Muslims cannot co-habit". Many of us ridicule him over his belief - notwithstanding the fact that Jinnah used this as a powerful manifesto to obtain his Pakistan -by periodically, reflecting that India has much more Muslims than Pakistan.

But we have conveniently forgotten that it is India, not Pakistan, which has abundantly proved Jinnah's axiom, and no greater proof of this exists than  Kashmir. Nehru, in his weird concept of secularism, conjugated that since Muslim-majority Kashmir had "graciously" acceded to Hindu-majority India, we had to do everything possible to ensure the "integrity and well being" of Kashmir's Muslim population. The contribution of the other states of India towards our secular credentials had no value for Nehru.

Thus began the unwarranted pampering of Kashmir under Article 370 that many cynics compare with Aurangzeb's pattern of life-style: summer and winter capitals, own laws and rules, heavily subsidised living, unchallenged blowing up of funds that India religiously provides, and, most of all, instituting a psychological divide between "We" (Kashmiris) and "They" (Hindustanis, as the Kashmiris disparagingly call us). Nehru, himself a diehard Kashmiri, invariably identified more with his clan than with the rest of the country. His blanket stipulation was, India's mission in life was to keep sacrificing for Kashmir so that the latter could reap the benefits without contributing anything in return. Nehru was caught out in his duplicity by Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, with dire consequences for this son of Bengal.

Nehru also consolidated the country's Muslim votes through Kashmir very successfully. His deliberate creation of the Kashmir problem was a masterstroke of Machiavellian skullduggery. Muslims apart, Kashmir also has a minority Hindu community that by their own definition claims to be of a higher brand than the Hindus living in India. To differentiate between the two - the higher Kashmiri and the lower Hindu - the Kashmiri Hindu adopted the term "Pandit" to replace the word Hindu to their context. While serving in Kashmir, I made the grave of addressing a Pandit as a Hindu and was roundly criticised for it, being categorically told, "We are Pandits, you are Hindus and don't you dare equate the two."

The most ludicrous thing about it all is that a Hindu from Hindu-majority India is debarred from buying property and settling in Kashmir lest Kashmir's pristine purity gets soiled; and yet some 200,000 of these very Hindu majority people have been protecting Kashmir from the Pakistani threat for the past 55 years. The Indian security forces comprising both the regular Army as well as the paramilitary forces have been shedding blood for the Kashmiris even while being treated as second class citizens in that state!

Historically, the Indian Hindu has been subjugated by a succession of outsiders like the Mongols, the Mughals, and lastly the British. Worse, the Hindus resignedly accepted the treatment of being kept one-down by the Kashmiris. However, the worm eventually turned and the resultant fallout of this Great Divide began to appear in the shape of rising Hindutva.

A fillip has been progressively given to Hindu communalism as a defiance to being dominated by Muslims, the inference to Kashmiri Muslims acquiring lodestar proportions. This insidious movement has now permeated all parts of the country with nary a differentiation between Kashmiri and other Muslims. Encouraged by our ersatz secular politicians, a horrific backlash started to burst on the national scene in the form of pogroms in areas far removed from Kashmir. Gujarat is one such case.

Unable to even the scores in Kashmir proper with the resident Muslims plus the Pandits who have refused to adjust with Indian Hindus, this levelling is seen to be wrought elsewhere. Today it is Gujarat, tomorrow it may be some other state. Surely it is unimaginable that Nehru and his mentor MK Gandhi were unaware that such a destabilizing wave would engulf India if Kashmir's inhabitants were not brought at par with those in the rest of the country. Yet not only did these two founding fathers of our Independence abjure from removing inequities between the two segments of our motherland but encouraged the Great Divide solely for their political expediency. The nation is paying dearly for it now. More astounding is the attitude of the powers that be to terrorist acts being perpetrated  in Kashmir especially on the Hindus. The latest one at Rajiv Nagar was crowned with the inauguration of a golf course costing 90 crores on the banks of the Dal Lake, aptly captioned by the media, "Golf blooms where guns boom!" This must do Nero proud! In an earlier incident at Chhatisingpura where thirty six Sikhs were massacred in a single terrorist strike, our man of the moment variously described as Kashmir's NRI chief minister casually dropped by at this hapless village surrounded by his commandos, aired the usual hyperbole about how a bad Pakistan was doing incorrigible things to an innocent India, and rushed off to keep a social engagement with the then US President Bill Clinton who had just arrived in India on a formal visit. Hindutva has noted these omissions and has spared no pains to employ these as adverse propaganda for creating an anti-Muslim mindset among it cult's growing disciples. The by-line most visible is, "When Kashmir sneezes, India panics!" and this is quoted as a living example of the tail - aka Kashmir - wagging the dog - aka India.

A development oriented society, as India is trying to be today, is not going to tolerate this bizarre set up much longer. Our educated youth in particular have not taken kindly to such machinations. How should the matter be addressed in its totally? For starters, the Kashmir problem needs to be physically isolated. This can best be achieved by trifurcating the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir into three separate states of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh respectively much like as we have done with the formation of three new states ex-Bihar, MP and UP. This step will halt Srinagar's inequities in administration from adversely affecting the development as well as the security of Jammu and Ladakh. The trifurcation should be carried out well before the October elections. Second, Article 370 must be scrapped as this political weapon has caused immense damage to India's polity. Surprisingly, the current government in New Delhi had promised to rescind this destructive article once they came to power but have quietly fallen in line with Kashmir's vice like grip on the article in question. Third, the Kashmiris must be served with an unequivocal diktat to shed their pseudo supremacy stance (some unflattering scribes refer to it as Kashmir's version of Hitler's Aryan race upmarketism) and join the national mainstream as Indians first and Indians last. They must also be made accountable for every paisa that India shells out to them, golf courses withstanding of course. And lastly, if the Kashmiris still want autonomy, it should be given to them with an explicit term of reference - they can have their autonomy provided they fend for their own security and release the Indian Army from this thankless task.

*The author is a retired Lt. Col. of the Indian Army.

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