A regional minority perspective

Political Reorganisation of J&K State

By K.N. Pandita

Indian Constitution recognises region alone as the sub-national identity for sharing of political power. This concept has provided unbridled leverage to regional majority social groups in projecting themselves as the chief articulating agency for the as pirations of the people in that particular region. As such exclusivist precedence of this group acquires formal validity. Consequently, the interests and aspirations of regional minorities receive a raw deal. The situation becomes ludicrous when regional minority groups put together gain numerical superiority over the regional majority group.

The acceptance of region as the only sub-national identity generates and then subserves the politics of subnationalism. It tends to build exclusivist regional identity based on ethnicity, caste or religion only for narrow group interests. Thus social fragmentation not only retards the process of social and national cohesion but also imperils the positions of regional minority groups. The peculiar social behaviour of Jat Sikhs in Punjab, Jat Hindus in Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, Yadavs in Bihar and Eastern UP, Nepalese in Sikkim and the Sunni Muslims in Kashmir Valley are some of the instances of regional majority dominance giving rise to the question of unrepresented minonorites in the region.

In a multi-cultural society like ours, the absence of an intense debate on federalism, instantly linking autonomy with subnationalism, the case of regional minorities, particularly the non-territorial groups, is being relegated to the backyard. It is the regional majority groups which weigh heavily with the Indian State. Indian social scientists and intellectuals must perforce find out why the deepening of the process of federalism has not led to the corresponding strengthening of participatory democracy at the regional level. Regional minority groups have a valid reason to voice their strong opposition to the politics of autonomy and instead demand a strong central authority capable of maintaining the cohesion of the nation-state. They fell this politics does not only end up in blackmailing the centre in garnering more concessions for the elite of the regional majority but is also, and primarily, used to subject the regional minorities (ethnic, religious or linguistic etc.) to the blatant violation of political rights and social safeguards of regional minorities.

National political consensus, guided mainly by the distorted federal vision, has been vehemently protecting the interests of regional majority groups at the cost of further marginalisation of regional minorities. Autonomy to Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu regions in J&K State is justifiable but the legitimate aspirations of minority groups within the regions e.g. Kashmiri Pandits, Shias, Gujjars Muslims, Zanskaris and others are being underplayed, even subtly scuttled. Legitimate minority interests are made hostage to the parochial politics of regional majority groups under the misinterpreted principles of populist federalism.

Strong ethno-political movements forged by various regional minority groups in the regions of Ladakh, Kashmir and Jammu, seeking political re-organisation of the state by linking federal autonomy to the interests of regional minorities need to be understood in this context. The segementary character of the society and narrow social basis of major political parties of the state have forced the affected regional minorities to seek durable safeguards as part of this envisaged re-organisation.

Profile of J&K Minority Groups

In Jammu division, Gujjar Muslims, Kashmiri speaking Muslims and Jats constitute the major regional minorities. While Gujjars are thinly spread all over the Jammu division, Kashmiri speaking Muslims have major concentration in the district of Doda which was carved out of Jammu division after accession and primarily because of its Muslim predominance. Jats, with a population of about 2.5 lakh, are mostly refugees uprooted in 1947 and 1971 from parts of the erstwhile J&K State.

In Leh district, Buddhists with 88 percent of the district population form the overwhelming majority, while the Shiite Muslims and Argon Muslims form the regional minority groups. Argons are reported to be originally Kashmiri settlers, who settled in Ladakh some decades back. In the Kargil district, the main regional minority groups are Zanskari Buddhists, pagan Brokpas and Darad Sunni Muslims. Shiite Muslims comprise nearly 75 percent of Kargil population.

It is in Kashmir province that the problems of regional minorities have been acute Sunni Muslims of Kashmiri origin account for only 46 percent and the rest fall in the category of minority groups like Shias, Gujjars, Pandits, Paharis, non-ethnic Sunnis like Bhotrajas, Pathans, Tibetans, Darads and others.

Deprivations

Gujjars: The 1.6 million strong liberal minded Gujjar community is the third largest solid ethnic group in the state. It has several grievances against the Kashmir political leadership. For more than four decades, Kashmiris held nearly all the higher appointments in the police, revenue and judicial departments and in the political and administrative spheres in general. A recent survey shows that out of a total of 325 deputy inspector generals of police, superintendents and deputy superintendents, there are only five Gujjars. There is not a single Gujjar among the 14 deputy commissioners and several assistant commissioners in the state cadres. Gujjars have no representation in the State Public Selection Service Commission, and the State Subordinate Selection and Recruitment Board which are the official agencies to fill all the gazetted and non-gazetted positions in state service. Even the Centre has been indifferent to their aspirations. No Gujjar from J&K has ever been made a member of the Union Cabinet nor anyone has one been inducted into diplomatic services.

It is to be noted that the Gujjar representation in the state assembly, too, has been grossly incompatible with their numerical strength. The Gujjars of Jammu region, however, were slightly more fortunate than their Kashmiri chapter in regard to assembly seats.

Kashmiri Speaking Muslims

For obvious reasons, this group could control political power in the State of Jammu and Kashmir as it lay claims to its historical role for a struggle against the rule of the Maharajas. In the process it has become the ruling minority group with over-representation in state services. In Doda district, it has been returning no fewer than five legislators out of six assembly constitutneices despite the fact that its population in the district is not more than 30 per cent. The group has been regularly represented in state and union cabinet. Even some diplomatic appointments have also been held by the members from this very group. Recently two new assembly constituencies were created with barely 35,000 voters in Gool Gulabgarh and Bani areas in district Udhampur of Jammu region. The normal criteria for a delimitation of a constituency in Jammu region is 93,000 whereas in Kashmir region it is far less.

Jat Refugees: By virtue of their being the “outsiders’ in Jammu context, this group of 2,5 lakh people constitutes a regional minority. It comprises thousands of displaced persons from PoK and West Pakistan as a result of tribal attack on the State in 1947. This chunk of refugees from the original territories of the J&K State have suffered much owing to the callous and communally motivated policies of successive state governments. Even after half a century since the day of their displacement, these patriotic citizens have not been given full citizenship rights in the state. This debars them from participating in state elections and from enjoying proprietary rights on the land allotted to them. This is glaring example of depriving a people of their fundamental right to a place where they live and the territory on which they have made their habitation. It is quite natural that they should be demanding the rights that ensure their future prosperity as the citizens of India and state subjects of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It is amusing that while the framers of the State Constitution thought it proper to reserve 15 seats in the State Assembly for the people of PoK (considering PoK as legally belonging to the original State of Jammu and Kashmir with its summer capital in Srinagar and winter capital in Jammu) they did not find it necessary or obligatory to ensure the political rights of the people who belonged to the state but were forced out of their homes and to seek shelter in Jammu region.

Argon Muslims: The manipulation of this minority by the Valley leadership has acted as a catalyst for destablisation of peace and amity in Ladakh. Favours bestowed selectively on Argons is evident from the fact that Buddhists, forming 88 per cent of the district population have only 52 percent representation in the services in different state departments of the district. Many Argon officers have been patronised by the Valley leadership to acquire higher ranks in the state echelons.

Kargil Buddhists: The Buddhists of this region have not only marginal representation in state services but they are also discriminated socially and politically. Though forming 20 percent of the population in the district, they are denied even a Gompa or a cremation site even the district headquarters. Balti areas have been added to the new ethnic assembly constituency through very dubious machinations. The ulterior motive is to deprive ethnic Zanskaris from electing their popular candidate.

Darad Sunnis: Though an unprivileged minority, Valley political leadership has been quick to realise the strategic importance of Darad group of Sunni Muslims A special electoral constituency of state legislature for only 6,000 voters has been delimited for Gurez tehsil in Bandipore. This has been done to provide them political space.

Shias: One million strong Kashmiri Shia community inhabiting the Valley, have a strong diaspora in the Mandi block of Poonch district across the Pir Panchal. They have only marginal representation in higher and middle ranks of state services, and no representation in State Public Services Commission or other similar bodies. The 1994 selection list for admission to MBBS did not show single Shia candidate from the Valley. In the state secretariat, the strength of Shia employees is not more than a hundred, out of a total of 3000 employees. Population-wise, they should have been occupying more than 700 positions. According to available data, there are barely 67 Shia engineers in the entire technical staff of the state engineering departments. No Kashmiri Shia has ever been elected as Lok Sabha member or given a berth in the Union cabinet despite committed pro-Congress stance of its popular leadership since mid-sixties. Hardly any Shia has been appointed as ambassador or governor. After 1975, no Kashmiri Shia has even been nominated for Rajya Sabha. It need to be reminded that leader of Kashmiri Shias, Mian Iftikhar Hussain Ansari had submitted a memorandum to the then Prime Minister India in 1983 listing in minute detail all the deprivations Kashmiri Shias were subjected to.

Kashmiri Pandits: The case of internally displaced Kashmiri Pandits is altogether of a different category. They are the major sufferers of externally abetted Islamist insurgency raging in the Valley since 1989. Their complete destabilisation has made them a community sans territory sans home. The undoing of economic or administrative discrimination, with roots going down to the days of accession of the state, is no more a priority with them. It is the question of secured rehabilitation in the Valley on which their entire attention is riveted. The gimmicks like "constituencies in exile' or 'return with honour and dignity' etc. no more humour the victimised community of Pandits.

Though the Union Government showed utmost urgency in getting Presidential ordinance issued to enable the internally displaced Pandits to cast their vote through postal ballot, it chose criminal silence to get a similar ordinance issued for getting the forcible occupation of Pandit property vacated by illegal occupants. The resulting distress sale of their property may prove to be yet another move to thwart their return and bring religious cleansing exercise, begun in 1989, to its logical conclusion.

Even in the Jammu region, they have been at times subjected to politically sponsored ethnic hatred besides general neglect which is invariably the share of internally displaced persons in any part of the world. The state government's treatment of the displaced community was most atrocious, particularly of the bureaucracy, creating all conceivable hurdles in their way of having some respite in a situation of trauma. Themselves groaning under serious political deprivations, a section of Jammuites finds it expedient to project the fugitives as extension of Kashmiri ruling class because this section finds a support structure among the Valley Sunni bureaucracy, a formidable instrument in the suppression of minority interests in the state. Let it be said that Kashmiri bureaucracy and political heavyweights have played an important role in deepening the schism through their moles in the civil society of Jammu.

Since almost all political parties have failed Pandits and no one seems to have any serious concern for their return, the intelligentsia of Pandit community has taken a lead over the moribund traditional Pandit leadership and raised a powerful demand for a homeland in Kashmir Valley with Union Territory status but minus Article 370. Despite divergence of opinion on other tactical issues, the overwhelming mass of the exiled community is veering round to the view that only the new pocket of tolerance will be able to maintain the social and psychological cohesion of the traumatised community in the new Islamised socio-political structure.

Manipulation: In the overall scenario of regional minority deprivations in the state, deprivations of minorities in Jammu division and Leh district have been relatively milder for two reasons. First, the majorities in these regions belong to non-ruling class, hence better toleration of their respective regional minorities. Second, the Kashmiri Sunni political leadership has selectively cultivated, particularly after 1975, certain minorities e.g. Argon Muslims in Ladakh and Kashmiri-speaking Muslim diaspora in Jammu division, as part of 'Greater Kashmir Plan' and to scuttle political resurgence among Ladakhis and Jammuites. As an extension of the same process, the so-called 'Pahari identity' is being raked up to deny the Gujjar Muslims their due share.

If the claims of Maulvi Iftikhar Hussain Ansari and Mian Bashir, the popular ethno-religious minority leaders of the state for the leadership of the State PCC(I) were overlooked, it was because the Congress leadership in Delhi was so obsessed with status-quo, that it could not extricate itself from a mindset that considers J&K synonymous with the Sunni elite of the Valley.

Nearly all the minorities in Kashmir have been the victims of a fraudulent delimitation carried out by that evil genius who presided over the revenue department of the state throughout his tenure in the office. The master stroke came in 1979 when the Sheikh had realised that as a result of the war of 1971, his hopes of the Sheikhdom were dashed for all times to come. To Mirza Afzal Beg goes the credit of institutionalising communal discrimination in J&K Gujjar, Pandit and Shia dominated constituencies were realigned in such a way that out of 42 assembly constituencies in Kashmir, Kashmiri Sunnis are able to send their own candidate to 40 constituencies and influence the selection of the remaining two. Even recently Mian Iftikhar Hussain Ansari accused his party chief Mr. G.R. Kar of transferring Shia votes from his constituency. Even from non-ethnic Sunni dominated areas of Uri and Karnah (in Kashmir region) it is the Kashmiri Sunni settlers (Khojas) who manipulate their successful election.

In order to consolidate their grip further on the political structure, politically alert Sunnis of the Valley have been exercising effective control on all political organisations of the state such as Congress, National Conference, Janata Dal, CPI, CPI(M) and Jamaat-e-Islami. Through this total away over the legislature and government, Kashmiri Sunnis have been able to ‘swamp’ the State secretariat, the police, revenue, education, finance, industry and judicial departments; dominate professional and technical institutions and universities; control trade and commerce and over develop the Sunni-dominated areas".

Political attitudes: Yet despite this precedence and more than matching appeasement, separatism and militancy have remained exclusively Kashmir Sunni Muslim phenomenon. While Gujjars have been fiercely opposing every form of separatism, the Shias are not enamoured of 'aazadi' or even autonomy in view of apprehension of further erosions of their rights in a phenomenon where accountability is minimal. Their past experience of political behaviour of Kashmiri Sunni leadership and increasing politicisation of the sectarian strife in Pakistan, besides the changing role of Iran at the regional level has sensitised them to the dangers of a political dispensation in which Kashmiri Sunnis would hold unbridled power.

Even in the past, the traditional Gujjar and Shia leadership has remained either pro status-quoist or has opposed such political formations that have been seeking exclusive precedence of Kashmiri Sunnis. The considerable success achieved by the special task force of police today testifies to the strongly patriotic role of different regional minorities of the state.

Gujjar and Shia communities, embarrassed by the menace of on-going militancy in Kashmir Valley reject autonomy as a solution to the impasse. They, instead, advocate a political structure that takes into account their economic and political privations and guarantees justice and equity. It is to be noted that although the union government has conceded the Gujjars of J&K State the status of Scheduled Tribes, yet the Sunni domination of state administration creates innumerable hurdles for them in their pursuit of enjoying the benefits that should accrue to them.

Solution: Since the region is the only subnational identity recognised for sharing of political power, the solutions emanating from adverse quarters at home or abroad have recognised the need for guaranteeing regional autonomy to Jammu and Ladakh. But this arrangement does not satisfy the aspirations of minority groups, who remain obstructed from real participation in democratic power and the nation building process.

To ensure the participation of these mainstream minority groups, genuine democratisation of the states' political structure and strict secular governance are desirable. There is a need for conventional, constitutional and institutional guarantees for the regional minority groups to break the phenomenon of sectarian and communal majoritarianism. Even handed treatment of all ethno-religious communities leads to genuine democratization of the polity. Realignment of constituencies in all the regions of the state by application of uniform set of principles will put an end to political disabilities hitherto experienced by different minority groups. Creation of hill constituencies for the Gujjars and reservation of seats for the Gujjars and Jats will be a step forward in this direction.

In so far as the displaced Pandits are concerned the broad-basing of the Panun Kashmir demand has opened new vistas for return of Pandits as well as for resolution of Kashmir dispute.

Since Panun Kashmir is no longer perceived as a demand for an exclusive 'Hindu Homeland' it will provide an alternate political structure to all those Kashmiris, irrespective of religion and faith, who support secular integration with India and feels that Art 370 has served the interests of only a small acquisitive class. The creation of an alternate political structure in the Valley will strength the forces of integration, pluralism and democracy. Benefits of fuller integration with India through Panun Kashmir will exercise a healthy impact on the other 'Autonomous Kashmir'.

The option of providing two alternate political structure sin Kashmir, one without Article 370 and the other with Article 370 infact, will help forge a national consensus on Kashmir.

Also the very location of Panun Kashmir, besides providing  foolproof link to Ladakh region will release district of Doda from the baneful influences of sectarian and fundamentalist politics of Kashmir valley. It will help the region in evolving a distinct secular personality of its own, a healthy and futuristic personality.

Finally, creation of Panun Kashmir under the hegemony of mainstream secular nationalistic politics will pre-empt all those conspiracies which have or are likely to destabilize Kashmir valley in future. The resolute opposition by the separatists - disguised or committed - to this demand, is to be seen in this context.

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