To the sympathisers of ‘Kashmiriyat’

The idea of “root causes” has had great sociological, political and journalistic attraction. It is argued that the Government of India has to hope in the conflict areas of the North East, Punjab (when it was in turmoil) and of course in Jammu and Kashmir for a non-military solution as the real causes of the insurrections were lack of employment, which was caused by the Administrations’ indifference to serious development issues. The notion that poverty causes ferment and terrorism has been discredited so often and for so long after thorough research. If lack of employment for the youth were the cause of radicalization, there would be revolutions everywhere and always! Unemployment and poverty in general is a common condition of mankind in many countries in the world. 

Why then the radicalization is neither ubiquitous nor rampant as the believers of the “root causes syndrome” would like. The presence of something more sinister has to be there to explain why there are upsurges, revolts and revolution-seeking in some places and not others. This forces reasonable people (who, of course, do not make a living out of such phenomena!) out of the realm of root causes to culture, history, leadership, sponsorship and other contingent causes. In the case of the North East, the study was done; so also in the case of Punjab. In both these sectors, though they are in hostile neighborhood, the radicalization and gun-culture are on the wane substantially following the analysis and action, including use of force!

In Kashmir the “root cause” was known to all, but for reasons of a perverse policy emanating from a wretched ideology, the wound was allowed to fester for almost seven decades! The fundamental fact known to the Government India is that those who engage in violence and terror in the Kashmir valley do not want peace. They want secession of the piece of land in the name of the religion of the majority population; and to facilitate the possibility thet drove away the minority! Their leaders are fanatic Mullahs and politicians across the border. Those who sympathize with their cause have a responsibility to suggest a solution, not any “compromise formula”!

The Governments of the land, both Central and the Sate of J&K are doing everything imaginable to restrain terrorism such as political, administrative, economic and military means. To expect after decades of passivity and half-measures, Modi Government can put to a permanent end to turmoil in Kashmir valley is absurd.

Remember, there are wo/men around in the same cause who take guns on planes, bomb restaurants, behead people with hatchets; with richer, more powerful, more organised, and more technologically advanced, countries being subjected to their “revolutionary” ways now. Terrorism is therefore considered by a sympathetic media as an appropriate technology for the welfare of the oppressed and the weak!

I say this to them: people don’t choose to move around cutting throats, enslaving women, immolating people in cages, crucifying them, and burying children alive because they are struggling to make ends meet or because their job applications aren’t getting them callbacks. They do it because they are fervent believers in a medieval warrior ideology that feeds their bloodlust and justifies it. They weil nevr tolerate "others". They want their 'Ummah"with only their people living along. Somebody else has said it. I am saying that once again!

Kashmir is known to have got it’s name from Kashyapa Muni. The ancient Greeks called it "Kasperia," and the Chinese pilgrim Hiun-Tsang who visited the place(7th century AD) called it "Kashimilo." Kalhana, the Kashmiri who wrote Rajatarangini in Sanskrit (River of Kings) during 1148 and 1149. Gives an account of the history of Kashmir. In the 3rd century BC, emperor Ashoka introduced Buddhism in the valley. Kashmir became a major hub of Hindu culture by the 9th century AD. It was the birthplace of Kashmiri 'Shaivism'. Kashmir is mentioned by Sanskrit grammarian Panini's (500 B.C.), Varahmihra (C.A.D. 500), in his Brahtsamhita, includes the Kashmiras in the north-eastern division of the other tribes who lived in this region. Hindu kings ruled the land until 1346, when Muslim invaders came on the scene. So the legitimacy of the India in Kashmir rests on the 3,000-year established connection of the people with Bharat Varsha and the Hindu culture. Unfortunately, it is in the context of all factions of radical Islam denying the concept of nationalism, and believes in reviving the Islamic nation as a single political entity governed by Islamic law that we have to look at the Kashmir issue. Kashmiriyat is an illiberal shibboleth liberals have suddenly fallen in love with. It is a bogus phenomenon, it is sacrilegious against Indian democracy; it is        a charade, a farce, a travesty, a pretence, a masquerade! The Indian State and the Indian people do not accept it!