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.
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!
